What did you wash your newborn with? Part deux...

[geekInPigtails]

Following the amazing consensus on what products to use on a newborn (namely water, water and more water!) I have a follow up question. I'm 3 months pregnant with my first at the mo, and have almost no experience with babies at all, so this question has been bugging me a bit...

The baby book I have, and lots of people on here, talk about washing newborns with (water and) cotton wool, and the book is very adamant about using a new piece of cotton wool for every part of the babies body. That seems to me like an enormous waste of cotton wool, and not particularly eco-friendly! I'm also not a big fan of cotton wool myself, at least not the big tear-off wads that leave strands of cotton all over you. So has anyone found any alternatives that work instead of cotton wool, e.g. cloths that you can re-use? Or is there a good reason for using cotton wool that I haven't spotted?

Thanks for your help!

a pile of soft white flannels

I wouldn't use cotton wool, especially for bottoms (unless they have severe nappy rash). It's not very effective at wiping away muck and is very wasteful. We mostly just used a bit of baby bath and our hands, but use a flannel for ds' face which tends to be the muckiest part of his little bod. Initially, we just used water as he had very dry skin so we didn't want to dry it out further.

I just used to use my hands to swish the water arounbd. Piece of cotton wool with water for the face either before or afterwards. Don't worry about it too much, you'll be too tired to be worrying about all thid when the time comes and your community midwives will be available to ask all these questions to in the 10 days after giving birth

flannels
(ikea 80p for 10 or whatever they are but I inherited a huge pile of miscellaneous ones when my mum turned out the linen cupboard)
wash with the nappies if you are doing reusables
or fleece makes quite good wipes

I think the cotton wool thing in the books is to stop you using babywipes all over.

sponge or flannels.

Sponge and then cotton pads for eyes ( different ones ) as dd was a bit gunky eyed!
Also used almond oil for dry skin. FAB stuff.

Thanks everyone - some helpful ideas, and at least I know I'm not crazy to think all that cotton wool would be a waste

In the bath - my hands and a bit of a swish with the water. For the face a bit of soft flannel. Unless he had a cold I used the same flannel for all of his face.

Muslin clothes. Cut them into quarters and hem them up.

That's what I used to wash them both.

Dd1 got cradle cap. I put olive oil on it and left it a bit and it came right off with water.

Cloths, sorry!

you don't need seperate bits for every part either- just start at the face and work your way down to the nappy area.