Tell Fairy Non Bio your experience of keeping clean with a baby - £300 voucher to be won NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

As part of our partnership with Fairy Non Bio, we’ve produced the Mumsnet Babies Podcast. There are ten episodes in the series, and so far we’ve released five. Episode five is about keeping clean, and you can listen to it here. Fairy Non Bio would like you to listen to the podcast whenever you can and then discuss your thoughts and experiences of keeping clean with a new baby.

Cleanliness is something that can be easy to worry about with a tiny new baby: from keeping them safe from external germs, to dealing with their own. Have you found that you’ve become too attached to antibacterial hand gel, or worried about all the things they could catch? And, with some dirt being important for developing an immune system, what did you decide was clean enough for your baby?

Of course, baby’s also produce a lot of germs - perhaps you have tips for dealing with baby poo where it shouldn’t be? Or any advice for a cleaner feeding time? And, in terms of your baby’s personal hygiene, do you find that they need to be bathed every evening? Or do you bathe them less often to ease skin conditions like eczema?

Perhaps things have changed as your LO has gotten older? Do you worry more about keeping your house clean once they’re crawling? What level of home cleanliness do you consider acceptable? Do you have advice on making your home look cleaner than it maybe is for visitors?

Whatever your experience with keeping clean and a new baby, share this below to be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

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I think some exposure to dirt and germs is healthy so when my toddler was scrabbling around in the mud I just let them explore and have fun. If anything we are too sterile these days which is creating more problems with allergies.

My good old Northern mum always says "They'll eat a peck of muck before they die"! We aren't super obsessed with cleanliness, apart from obviously good hand washing and being more on the ball when we have illnesses around.
My 6 year old doesn't bathe every day, but my 11 month old has a bath every day as part of her routine. We just use water to stop her getting dry skin from products.
We also use non-bio on all our clothes as it is better for our skin.

Having a little baby changing station set up with everything I needed to hand made a world of difference - there's nothing like rummaging around for the items you need once you've got poopy hands! It doesn't have to be a proper changing table - just a corner where you can leave a change mat set up ready with some wipes, nappy sacks etc.

Having towels to hand has also been essential for the runny-poo-leaking-out-the-nappy-and-all-over-the-house stage - as I was able to quickly run a bath and clean them up whilst having everything I needed right there.

Regarding house cleaning, I think I have just learnt to be less house proud - there just doesn't seem to be the possibility of stopping grubby hand prints appearing everywhere - so I think we'll just redecorate once the kids have left home in the meantime I remind myself not to stress with this little poem that my son brought home from pre-school one day with his handprints on that leaves me blubbing big ugly tears every time I read it:
There used to be so many
Of my finger prints to see
On furniture and walls and things
From sticky, grubby me.

But if you stop and think awhile
You'll see I'm growing fast
these little moments disappear
You can't bring back the past.

So here is a small reminder
to keep, not throw away
Of tiny hands and how they looked
to make you smile someday.

I used to bath mine every other day and a top n tail wash in between, I think thorough hand washing is the most important cleaning advice, and as for whether you house is clean and tidy I saw a sign with this quote on once " My House is clean enough to be healthy and messy enough to be happy" Nuff said!!!

Just use soap and water and baby wipes. It actually is hard to remember life prior to having children, but pretty sure clean the same. When they were all babies or toddlers they loved a bath most nights.

Just general cleanliness and hygiene with common sense mixed in. Sterilize feeding bottles and clean surfaces with Milton fluid and have a good supply of ant bac baby wipes at the ready.

I've always tried not to use disposable wipes too much, preferring to have a massive stack of microfibre cleaning cloths for surfaces, and cheap flannels for hands/faces. No antibac spray/gel/wash unless there was illness in the house

I use dettol/aldi's anti bac cleaning wipes for after feeding time and the changing mat.....as well as cleaning the house with them. Always have them in my cleaning box.
I always carry a little bottle of alcohol gel in my changing bag. And lastly I love bathing my babies, they love the water so its a bath daily in our house!

My twins were born prematurely and were in special care for the first few weeks. When we first brought them home, it felt terrifying that they had come from such a sterile place into our home. I sterilised everything and washed and cleaned things constantly, until they were about a year old.

With our third child, I was much more relaxed in every sense, including about the cleaning, although I still cleaned and sterilised everything until he was a year old.

I didn't worry too much. I think babies pick up on their Mum being stressed and this would have more impact on their wellbeing than a bit of dirt.

Obviously, I still used to make sure bottles, dummies etc were sterilised and clothes and toys were clean, but I didn't worry once they were crawling and there was a bit of dirt on the floor.

Picnics in the garden as soon as the weather is good keeps crumbs out of the house.

But beyond that, tiny babies don't get filthy really, so there's no need to be constantly bathing them unless you and they enjoy it.

Not seen it mentioned on the thread yet but a tip I've been grateful for on several occasions is to put a mattress protector on the bed, followed by a set and then another mattress protector and sheet. Much easier in the middle of the night to just remove 1 set.

I have had many babies (foster carer) and as such have to follow very strict (arguably too strict) guidelines. With my own children I have always been careful to avoid some products, particularly the over scented ones and am a firm believer in water as a primary cleaner - as opposed to wipes; particularly in the early days.

Milton Tablets have always been my best friend and I truly believe that sometimes the old fashioned methods are the best.

I think not being too strict is the key. Wash them if they get dirty along the way, otherwise leave it for bath time

I found Milton spray really good - great for work surfaces, floors, mopping up spillages (of any origin!) & changing mat. For on the go - the handy packs of baby wipes are great as are the smaller bottles of anti-bacterial hand gel.
I would say this though.. for all the efforts I put in to keeping the environment as hygienic as possible - as soon as LO was crawling - he would make a beeline for the most miniscule spot of dirt (which I would inevitably have always missed!) & push it around the floor delightedly!

After 3rd baby you tend to not worry so much about everything being 100% clean and germ free. Germs are good for their immune system. Now it just use baby wipe to clean quickly as oppose to anti bac wipes

DD had terrible reflux when she was little so I bought lots of blankets to cover the floor with. That way the daily vomiting and any other leakages were easily dealt with by just chucking the blanket in the wash and putting down a fresh one. Saved a huge amount of cleaning time and stress.

I do things in 20 minute stretches. I set a timer, and put some music on, and do as much as possible in that time. After the time is up, I rest for a while and then get up and do it again.

Baby wipes are a godsend

babywipes are you life long friend! They can be used for most clean ups. You can clean baby, the vomit off of your shoulder, the chocolate off of the carpet, the finger prints off of the windows and they are great at cleaning the dashboard of the car.

It is hard, but I am a bit OCD when it comes to foods that stain their clothes so I make sure that they are pretty well covered up and make sure I wash their hands and face immediately after they have finished.

We also have a less is more approach. The thing we're fastidious about is washing hands before and after eating and after bathroom visits or gardening.

We only do baths about twice a week as it reduces eczema problems but that's fine for little ones.

Never got too paranoid. Kitchen towels, sometimes wet wipes, but really let the germs do their worst. Never bathed too much, but when we did, always made it lots of fun.

I steered away from dousing everything my babies came into contact with with antibac. I feel that in order to build a good immunity they should come into contact with normal everyday bacteria as they always will.
Baby wipes came in really handy to quickly wipe up spills and smears from just about anything even the walls
I tried to avoid daily baths unless they really needed it, three times a week was usually the norm. Otherwise their skin would become dry and itchy. Topping and tailing every other day sufficed most of the time.

I you antibiotic wipes to keep surfaces clean :)