Bathing baby girl bits

[Annie2222]

Hello, maybe a silly question but after advice on how others would use soap / body wash on an 8 month old baby girl? First time mum (obviously haha). Seems a bit dirty to not wash their bits (bottom) with body wash, especially when they poop each day? I currently use child’s farm baby wash and use that to wash her back bottom to ensure it’s clean, and just splash fresh water on her front (after letting her splash around in the bath). Is this how others do it, or is directly applying products to their bottoms not great? Do other people just let them soak in bath and assume that does the washing? I obviously only used water and cotton wool when she was tiny but since being on solids and the poops are gross, feels like she needs proper washing! Thank you!

For myself as an adult, I use a bar of soap and a scrunchie to wash my entire body. For my pits and bits, I run the flannel under the shower head and use water only to clean those areas. So I do the exact same thing with my now toddlers.

At that age I used cotton pads for their faces (they both now have flannels), a sponge with soap for their body and a flannel that has water on it only, to wash their private areas. Hope that makes sense

As long as you’re going front to back most baby wash on a sponge, flannel or bath scrunchie should be fine.

So you're not meant to wash your vulva/vagina with soap as it can be harsh. As an adult, I did this and just got repeated vagina infections, because soap wipes out all your good bacteria down there, which can cause issues.

I now use a soap substitute for sensitive skin called Dermol 500, which is much gentler but still cleans you. You can buy it over the counter at the chemist.

But DD who's 18 months similarly has sensitive skin - her dermatologist told me to either use a gentle soap substitute like Dermol cream to wash her, or just water. Definitely no soap. I also use wet wipes to clean her after every nappy change.

If you don't have sensitive skin, I think you'd probably be able to tolerate soap, but babies skin is usually pretty sensitive, so I wouldn't. It can definitely cause vagina infections and other issues