Newborn with dry skin

[Babyblues14]

Baby is 6 days old, she has dry skin everywhere except for her face, it looks awful and is constantly peeling. It doesn't seem to be irritating her but I feel awful when I see it, like I'm not taking care of her. Midwife has advised to use grapeseed oil but it doesn't seem to be getting any better.
How many times should I be applying it? I currently do it twice a day. Or is there anything better that we should be using?
Thanks x

What you should do is not Bath her and stop applying anything. Only use water to wipe her down if needed.
There are various old wives tales about olive oil and things like that but their was a study done and actually washing and/or applying stuff actually damaged the lipid content of the skin and makes the dryness worse.
My daughter had very bad dry skin, all folds cracked and bled...next baby was the same so she didn't actually have a bath now till she was about 6 weeks old, her skin did not end up bleeding or cracking and by 6 weeks had settled and we started to bath her, but even then only every week or so for the first few months.

Oh and if you're breastfeeding, it's always worth trying some breast milk on cotton wool on the dry areas, might or might not work but can't do any harm.

I used rapeseed oil on both of mine, can find it in most supermarkets with the other oils x

My DD had very dry skin, peeling all over her body, but not face, just like you OP. My midwife advised just to leave it be and wash only with water and within 2/3 weeks it all cleared up and she hasn't suffered with dry skin since

I agree with everyone else. Just leave it and it will clear up!

DS2 was the same. I must’ve read the advice on here years ago and didn’t bath him at all for about a fortnight, and then only occasionally till it flaked off and healed up. (I can’t remember how long it took, I can hardly remember that time at all now. He’s only 18mo!)

Was everyone else’s due to being very overdue?

Ds had this and we were told to use Olive oil. He is three now and sufferes still from really dry skin all over. He was also bathed all the time.

With dd two yrs later we were told olive oil damages the skin and to use water based cream like E45 we also bathed her very infrequently.
Her skin is perfect!

So I agree don't bath them unless covered in poo and use E45 on the worst bits.

We used coconut oil on ours every day. She was 13 days overdue. But it should clear up naturally anyway. I think babies only need to be washed once or twice a week so that should stop drying the skin out. Congrats!

We used Aqueous cream. Worked perfect.

would recommend Aveeno baby, or coconut oil (cheaper - they have in Aldi for £2.99 at the moment)

DS had terrible eczema from birth and these are the only things that have worked for us, and both natural.

and minimal bathing as PP said.

Good luck!

My little one was the same as she was overdue and I didn't have much amniotic fluid left. I smothered her in Weleda Calendula oil, it's amazing stuff. I live in Germany and everybody swears by Weleda products over here - really gentle and effective. You can buy it from Boots though:

www.boots.com/weleda-calendula-baby-oil-fragrance-free-natural-organic-baby-oil-10155767