9 Week Olds Hair Always Stinks

Until my son was 6 months old and had a little more hair, we just used ivory bar soap on his head. He had thick cradle cap, too, which we would give a hearty massage/head scratch to while he was in the bath. No smelly problems.

My son's dr said that you don't necessarily have to use anything to get them clean, just water when they are that young. (Of course, we used Aveeno, anyway!)
But I'm thinking w/ the issue you have, maybe hold him in one arm over the sink (kind of like the football hold w/ breastfeeding) & just wash his hair nightly w/ plain water. That way, it should take care of the "stink" without overloading his little body w/ the chemicals in the soap.
Good luck!

At nine weeks, he is at the prime stage for cradle cap, which is dead skin on the scalp. Could just need a little help loosening it up, we used a baby brush and a little apricot oil to lightly scrub our son's scalp. And, J&J has pthalates in it, so we use Burt's Baby Bees baby wash (sold at Target) and love the smell and level of clean. Our pediatrician agreed that a bath every three days was the maximum, especially in winter.

Good Luck!
D

Have you tried Dove soap? It's really, really gentle and not perfumed so they just smell "baby clean". It was the only thing recommended by the pediatrician in the hospital. It has to be the bar of soap - and not bottle bodywash. It is good to clean the scalp, too (and great for any dried skin or crade cap etc). Hope that helps.

I think you need to bathe your baby daily. Both of my children were bathed daily as infants and we never had any problems with their skin. With all of the dirty diapers they had, wet diapers and getting sweaty being bundled at that age, I can't imagine not bathing a baby daily.

My daughter was the same way. No matter what we tried her hair always smelled like a wet dog. She was also getting cradle cap, so I started using a little bit of baby oil on her scalp after baths. It makes her hair silky, helps to easily remove knots, smells great and took away her cradle cap. It worked for her and know she is almost 2 and I am still using it.

I bathe my kids every day and I put lotion on them after their bath when they are babies. If you are concerned about dry skin Aveeno makes some great baby products.

I would mention this to your pediatrician. I only washed my daughter's hair every 3 days, and she had a lot of hair, and it never stunk. She's almost 11 mo now, and we're not using j&j b/c people gave us other stuff that we're using, but we didn't have any problems with it. If the hair actually stinks (as opposed to just not smelling as good) it could be a sign of a medical problem.

try using aveno products.

also what are you eating????? if you are breast feeding him if not change the formula

I washed my newborn's hair a couple of times each day to calm him so he could nurse and sleep. Every baby is different but he loved it. I didn't undress him but just held him like a football, with my hand supporting his head, leaning over the sink and used my other hand to put warm water over his hair. He had a lot of hair. I used some baby shampoo from Whole Foods because I am allergic to the fragrances and preservatives in the J&J products. Then I rubbed the hair softly with a washcloth. He was a big baby but it really helped.

Good luck.

K.

What if you just washed his hair everyday, not a full bath.

I believe there used to be a chemical in J&J products that they caught a lot of slack for. We only bathe our son every couple days, the smell doesn't stay but I wouldn't say he stinks...then again, he doesn't have a lot of hair.

hi B.,
nothing really smells better than just clean baby, so you might want to do away with scented products. they're fun, but not good for the skin.
khairete
S.

I gave both of my boys a short warm bath every night as part of their bedtime routine - I never heard that about the skin and they are 8 and 5.