Taking care of your baby’s genital area can be daunting, especially if you are a first-time parent. The general rule is to wash your baby’s bottom often, ideally at every diaper change. Mild soap is necessary only if your baby pooped, in other cases lukewarm water or baby wipes will do the job [1]. Other specifics depend on whether you have a boy or a girl.
Girl
Always wash from front to back. Clean the folds gently and pat dry the entire area with a soft cloth. Moist or wet skin can get irritated or even infected under a diaper, possibly leading to vulvovaginitis, an inflammation of the labia and vaginal area in which the skin becomes red and itchy, often with discharge from the genital tract.
Overwashing the vulva with soap is not at all necessary, many soaps can disrupt the balance of the microflora, which can also result in vulvovaginitis. If you must use soap, make sure it is specially designed for a baby’s sensitive skin and avoid getting it into the mucous membranes [2].
Boy
The recommendation is to wash the baby’s penis and scrotum gently. If the baby is not circumcised, the tip of the penis will still have the foreskin. Avoid getting any soap under the foreskin and do not try to pull it up. Eventually, the skin will start to separate on its own, and only then should you expose and wash the glans. Your pediatrician or surgeon will tell you when to start doing this, follow their instructions closely.
If the baby has been circumcised and the skin has healed, no additional care is needed. Sometimes there is a strip of foreskin around the tip of the penis, the area underneath it should be washed and care taken to avoid inflammation [3]. Follow your pediatrician's instructions carefully.
