Newborn Care Essentials

The ear­ly days of car­ing for your new­born are filled with excite­ment, chal­lenges, and a lot of learn­ing. Under­stand­ing the basics can help ease the tran­si­tion as you care for your child. 

New­born Feeding

Cre­at­ing a con­sis­tent feed­ing rou­tine helps sup­port your baby’s growth, devel­op­ment, and sense of com­fort. Whether you choose to breast­feed, for­mu­la feed, or a com­bi­na­tion of both, the most impor­tant thing is that your baby is get­ting the nour­ish­ment they need to thrive.

Every baby is dif­fer­ent. How much and how often they feed will vary — and that’s okay. As your baby grows, their feed­ing needs will nat­u­ral­ly change. While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, the chart below offers gen­er­al guid­ance for feed­ing in the first year:

Babies who are breast­fed often feed more fre­quent­ly than those who are for­mu­la-fed. No mat­ter how you feed your baby, try not to let more than four hours pass between feed­ings, espe­cial­ly in the ear­ly weeks. Some­times that means gen­tly wak­ing your baby to feed.

Feed­ing can come with ques­tions and chal­lenges, and that’s com­plete­ly nor­mal. For help­ful breast­feed­ing tips on latch, posi­tion­ing, and milk sup­ply, vis­it our breast­feed­ing health topic. 

You can also con­nect with our team of board-cer­ti­fied Lac­ta­tion Con­sul­tants for per­son­al­ized guid­ance and sup­port along the way.

New­born Sleep

Cre­at­ing a safe sleep envi­ron­ment for your new­born is cru­cial in reduc­ing sleep-relat­ed risks like Sud­den Infant Death Syn­drome (SIDS). Safe sleep for babies means:

  • Plac­ing your baby on their back to sleep
  • Keep­ing the crib in your room (but not in your bed) for the first 6 months
  • Using a firm sur­face with a tight-fit­ting sheet
  • Keep­ing the crib free of soft bed­ding, pil­lows, or stuffed animals

For more infor­ma­tion on new­born sleep safe­ty, check out our Sleep Safe­ty Guide.

New­born Bathing and Hygiene

Your baby’s first bath is a sweet mile­stone, and it’s nat­ur­al to have ques­tions about when and how to begin. It’s gen­er­al­ly rec­om­mend­ed to wait until the umbil­i­cal cord stump has fall­en off — usu­al­ly with­in the first one to two weeks after birth — before giv­ing a full bath. Until then, gen­tle sponge baths are a great way to keep your baby clean and comfortable.

In those ear­ly weeks, babies only need to be bathed one to two times a week. More fre­quent bathing can dry out their sen­si­tive skin. It’s also best to hold off on lotions or oils at this stage, as these can some­times cause irri­ta­tion or rashes.

Keep­ing your baby clean also includes reg­u­lar nail care and prop­er dia­per hygiene:

  • Trim their fin­ger­nails reg­u­lar­ly to help pre­vent acci­den­tal scratches.
  • Change dia­pers often, mak­ing sure to gen­tly wipe away all urine and stool.
  • Let the dia­per area dry com­plete­ly before putting on a clean diaper.
  • If you notice red­ness, clean the skin gen­tly and apply a thick lay­er of dia­per cream before the next dia­per goes on.

These small steps help keep your baby’s skin healthy and pro­tect­ed — and give you peace of mind as you set­tle into your new routine.

Dia­per rash, cra­dle cap, and dry skin are all com­mon new­born con­di­tions. If you have ques­tions or con­cerns, you can always sched­ule an appoint­ment with your pedi­a­tri­cian to get rec­om­men­da­tions on sup­port­ing your baby’s gen­tle skin.