When can you bathe baby with water?

Question

Do you HAVE to wait until the umbilical cord falls off to bathe your baby? What's wrong with doing it from the beginning? If you do do you have to take special care?

Answer

We bathed our baby from the start. We were told no submerging but otherwise it's ok if the cord gets a bit wet. It fell off on day 7.

Answer

You can give sponge bath but otherwise, yes, you have to keep it dry until it falls off.

Answer

My husband had two showers with our son before his cord stump came off. We most just sprayed him down with the warm water and I carefully dried his cord after. Midwife said this was fine.
His stump fell off after 9 days and his little belly is perfect. We've never given him a proper bath-bath with soap or submerging him though.

Answer

We were told not to submerge the bellybutton in water but that it was fine for it to get wet as long as we dried it well afterwards. Babies get a bath in the hospital too

Answer

Our hospital gave our baby a tub bath to show how to bathe the baby. They said getting the cord wet is fine just gently dry it with qtips. We had no issues and it fell off on day 11 or 12. She only had two more baths at home anyway.

When can you bathe baby with water?

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