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Why I Stopped Using a Hair Dryer to Dry my Son after his Bath

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Ann Wanjiku, a Kenyan-born mum who has now settled in Germany and is raising her family there, has taken us through snippets of her motherhood journey; from her pregnancy and her birthing experience in a German hospital, to naming her son (comparing the Kenyan and German naming differences), to how she found out that breastfeeding didn’t come as easy as she thought it would!

Today, Ann relieves the moments when, as a new mum, she had to bath her son, who is now 11 months old. Read on…

Also read: “My Birthing Experience in a German Hospital,” by Ann Wanjiku.

“During one of the home visits after being discharged from hospital with my newborn, I was taught how to bathe the baby by the midwife. She advised us not to bathe him every day so as not to ruin his skin. The midwife also recommended using olive oil for his bath as opposed to using baby soaps.

The baby's bath tub that Ann used. The green ripples are anti-skid. They aid in avoiding the baby to slide. For older babies it helps to have them sit still without slidding.
The baby’s bath tub that Ann used. The green ripples are anti-skid. They aid in avoiding the baby to slide. For older babies it helps to have them sit still without slidding.

The midwife instructed me to fill warm water into the baby bath tub/ basin, then add two tablespoons of olive oil. Since it was a newborn, I was supposed to use a towel to support the baby so that if he stretched out his arms, he could touch the towel and get a sense of being enclosed, which for him was a sense of security. I followed these instructions and found out that after bathing him, I didn’t need to moisturize the baby’s skin with baby lotions :).

Read: Naming a Baby in Germany and in Kenya: the Differences -by Ann Wanjiku.

The towel method for bathing a newborn. You cover the bathtub/ basin with a towel then you add water and olive oil.
The basin with olive oil added to the water.

Drying Baby with a Hair Dryer

Afterwards, the midwife taught me how to dry the baby with a hair dryer. I was supposed to do so from a safe distance on low heat. The baby has to be lying down on a high place like a changing station. The instructions were that I put my hand before the dryer when drying his lower body to avoid the risk of electrocution if he were to pee during drying. Reason being the warmth and the noise from the dryer often calms the baby.

However, I didn’t like this method and discontinued it after only two attempts. The reason I stopped was because I wasn’t feeling confident enough to continue drying him this way, because it requires one to be very meticulous while doing do since since the slightest error could be fatal. I just opted to use a towel and gently pat baby’s body dry and then dress him up.

And that sums up my baby-bathing and drying experience :)”

Read: “Breastfeeding Didn’t’ Come as Easy as I Thought!” by Ann Wanjiku.

The olive oil that Ann uses to bath her baby.
The olive oil that Ann uses to bath her baby.
The towel method for bathing a newborn. You cover the bathtub/ basin with a towel then you add water and olive oil.
The towel method for bathing a newborn. You cover the bathtub/ basin with a towel then you add water and olive oil.

Would you like to be a guest writer? Do you have a motherhood experience that you would like to share with fellow readers? Email me on maryanne@mummytales.com and I’ll give you more details.

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Thanks Ann for sharing your story!

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Maryanne W. Waweru is a Kenyan mum raising her two sons in Nairobi. A journalist, Maryanne is passionate about telling stories and hopes that through her writing, her readers learn something new, feel encouraged, inspired, and appreciative of what they have in their lives. Maryanne's writing focuses on motherhood, women and lifestyle. "Telling stories is the only thing I know how to do," she says.

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