Bathing your baby with hot water is dangerous, says Expert

A Community Health Technician, Mrs. Hellen Bulu, has advised Nigerian mothers against bathing their newborn babies with hot water and stretching their hands in an attempt to massage them.

Bulu of Family Health Clinic, Abuja, gave the advice in a lecture to mothers at an immunisation programme on Thursday in Abuja.She said that it was typical of African women to bath their newborn with hot water and also stretch their hands without knowing the implication.

Bulu said that God who put the baby in their womb had already done the needful, adding that bathing newborn with hot water can cause a high temperature. She advised that mothers should desist from stretching the hands of their newborns and also from bathing them with hot water.

According to her, the white people do not engage in such act yet their babies survived.The health technician noted that such attitude was only common to Africans.

Bulu also advised mothers to breastfeed newborns rather than apply hot water when thebaby’s body experienced high temperature. According to her, the more you breastfeed the baby, the more the temperature comes down.“If the baby’s body swells up do not apply hot water or rob, just keep looking at the baby’s body, it will come down after a while,’’ said the expert.

She, however, said that if the high temperature persists the best thing to do was to visit the hospital, adding that it canbe a sign of fever.