Hi, I am Mary Lou Teitz from Lamaze International and I am showing how to sponge bathe your baby. Right now, I am going to show you how to wash your baby s hair. If your baby is experiencing a scalp condition called cradle cap, you may want to massage some baby oil into your baby s head, before you do the shampooing, just take some regular baby oil or any other cold pressed baby oil or kitchen oil and just massage it well into the baby s head. That will help to soften those scales.
You can also take a soft baby hair brush and use that to loosen those scales prior to the shampoo. Now, we re ready to do the shampoo. So, it s important to know how to pick this baby up carefully and hold the baby over the water. Slide one hand underneath your baby s head and neck area, another hand underneath the baby s bottom and lower back and tuck the baby under your arm. This is called the football hold and it s a very secure way to hold your baby.
Bring the baby over to the water, take your baby wash cloth dip it into the water and moisten the baby s scalp. Then add a few drops of baby wash to your wash cloth and workup a bit of a lather. Don't be afraid of the soft part on the top of the baby s head. It s perfectly safe to shampoo there as well because there is a tough membrane there, protecting your baby s brain.
You can also use your hands to workup a nice lather on the baby s scalp. When it s time to rinse the baby s head, you want to take your wash cloth and just dip it repeatedly, in the water and rinse that shampoo out of the baby s hair. As your baby gets a little bit older, you might try using a little soft plastic cup and that would be quick way to rinse the shampoo off. Now, we want to bring the baby back over the bath towel and pat the baby s hair dry. Use the towel to gently pat the baby s hair drying, you'll probably, also need to redry those ears, because they often get wet during the shampooing process. So, that s how we shampoo your baby s hair. Now, we are ready to move on and bathe baby s upper body.
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