What did you find helped with removing baby's first poo?

[Msbluesky32]

This is related to my hospital bag, so I've posted here - hope its ok.

I've read a lot about baby's first poo being very difficult to remove - what did you pack in your hospital bag to get it off? Did you put something on the skin first? Or did you find wipes did the job ok?
Someone mentioned putting some olive oil on the skin beforehand - but I'm wondering if that's a little strong.

Ds pooed on the way out and arrived in my arms covered in the stuff. Amount of Vaseline would have prevented that

Ok, silly novice questions, but how do you know when baby is going to poo to know when to slather the Vaseline on? And why do the MWs recommend cotton wool and water if it is so impractical?

Spaghetti, put the vaseline on as soon as you can after birth and before you put on baby's first nappy - it is a barrier cream i.e. it doesn't get absorbed, so it sits on the skin surface. MW recommend cotton wool and water because of all the options available these are the least likely to cause any irritation to the newborn's skin, which may be sensitive. Some/many newborns will be perfectly fine with wipes, but some are not and so just using water minimises the risk of causing irritation.

DS2 cunningly decided to poo on me to avoid me having to remove the poo from him - the baby oil and cotton wool (plus a shower thereafter) did the trick!

Getting DH to do it. That helped ME a lot

Organic olive oil or coconut oil excellent and not too harsh for baby skin, unlike 'gentle' baby wipes which aren't gentle at all! They usually contain formaldehyde. The reason cotton wool is suggested is because newborn skin is much thinner than ours so avoiding chemicals is good. Try wiping your face with a pampers sensitive wipe and deciding, I find they sting.

I have flannels for first poo which is apparently really good at shifting it, but bit useless if your not using washable nappies too. Although the pound shop sell little packs of thin baby flannels, that would work really well-better than cotton and so cheap you could throw away with the nappy? Or just cut up an old hand towel if you have one, and throw each used piece away?

I found cotton wool a nightmare with the meconium with DS although I persevered and once that had passed it was fine for dealing with the 'normal' poo, used for about three months I was so terrified of irritating his skin! I can see that wipes would work sooooo much better but am still worried about delicate skin so have bought water wipes in preparation for dc2, should make life a bit easier! You can buy them in boxes online but have never seen them in the shops.

Babywipes.

Cotton wool and water was rubbish and meant ironically that his skin did get irritated because it took several wipes with cotton. [and still didn't work]

Thanks Mightbemad and everyone else! Lots of learning points!