Protect baby skin in winter: the right care
Only rarely are the temperature differences between outside and inside greater than in winter. While warm clothing protects your baby’s body, the skin on his face is directly exposed to the elements. Dry, warm heating air also strains children’s skin. Find out here how you can properly care for your baby in winter and prevent dry skin.
Intensive care for the baby in winter
Winter demands a lot from our skin. Outside, the wind whistles in our faces in freezing temperatures, making them tense and rough. Back in the warmth, the dry heating air in often overheated rooms continues to remove an above-average amount of moisture from the skin. The consequence of this constant temperature change is dry and chapped skin, especially on the face, which usually cannot be protected from the stressful environmental influences by clothing. Intensive care is therefore urgently needed to counteract painful skin irritation. This is especially true for your baby, whose skin is a lot more sensitive than your own.
It is important to drink enough water, especially in winter. In this way, the body is also supplied with sufficient moisture from the inside. It can also help to increase the humidity with damp cloths or a bowl full of water on the heater. It is also advisable to avoid very hot baths in winter, as these dry out the skin.
Special requirements of baby skin
In adults, the skin provides an effective barrier against external influences such as climate, pollutants and pathogens. Due to the immature skin structure, children do not yet have this protective function optimally, which is why they are much more susceptible to many disruptive factors than you are.
This is primarily due to the fact that the sebaceous glands in babies and small children are not yet fully functional. As a result, the skin is not only very low in fat, but the so-called “protective acid mantle”, which plays an important role in defending against germs and other harmful substances, cannot develop either. This is a thin protective film made of sweat, water, horny cells and tallow fat, which, for example, prevents pathogens from penetrating the skin.
The low sebum production of your baby’s skin also means that the structure of the upper layers of the skin is still very unstable. During skin development, sebum serves as a kind of glue between the individual skin cells, which can thus condense into a solid structure. Without sebum as a connecting element, the skin is very permeable, both internally, since pathogens can penetrate the body more easily, and externally, since it cannot bind water well and so a lot of moisture is lost through the skin.
Your baby’s thin and immature skin is therefore very sensitive to cold, wind, heat and strong temperature fluctuations. Since your baby is often confronted with changing influences in winter, it is particularly important now to provide the skin with sufficient fat and moisture and to stabilize the skin’s barrier function through regular care.
Protect baby skin in winter
The baby’s skin dries out particularly easily in winter due to the high loss of moisture. The consequences of dry skin in babies are often red, itchy patches. The resulting itching is not only unpleasant, but can also lead to sores and skin injuries due to scratching or chafing and thus to infections or inflammation. When baby’s skin becomes particularly dry, it can crack, which is also a welcome invitation for germs and bacteria. You can find out which cream is best for baby’s body care in another article.
The areas of skin that are exposed to the weather without protection are particularly affected by dehydration. Since the baby is usually wrapped up thickly in winter, the skin on the face and lips are primarily affected. You should therefore protect these areas with a suitable face cream and rich fat creams.
- Lips: Your baby’s lips don’t have their own sebaceous glands, which is why the body can’t produce fat there to keep them supple and provide frost protection. Due to the increased salivation in babies, the lips are additionally dried out. You should therefore take care of this sensitive area intensively and regularly. Oily care sticks for the lips are particularly suitable for this. In this way, you can easily apply the nourishing substances to your child’s lips and then easily grease them again and again when you are out and about. When buying, however, make sure that it does not contain any artificial flavors, fragrances or colorings.
- Face:In order to effectively protect the delicate skin on your baby’s face from cold and wind, it is best to use high-fat creams. Such a cold blocker puts a kind of protective film on the skin and makes it resistant to external influences. It is better to avoid creams that are mainly water-based in winter. Not only do they ensure that the skin cools down more quickly due to the resulting evaporation cold on the skin’s surface, they can also freeze on the skin at temperatures of around 3°C and thus lead to serious skin damage. Best suited for the baby’s face So-called “wind and weather creams” are to be cared for in winter. Due to their high fat content, they not only reliably protect against frost and wind,
After a trip to the cold, it is important to remove the greasy cream from your face. This is because heat build-up could develop under the layer of fat in warm rooms, which can result in skin rashes or sores. So clean your child’s face with a soft cloth. It is also advisable to soothe irritated skin with a soothing cream after a winter excursion. Herbal ingredients such as chamomile or calendula in particular do a good job. But the active ingredient panthenol has also proven itself in this area.
In general, when buying a care cream for the baby, it is advisable to make sure that the product is made from predominantly natural additives. Creams based on vegetable oils are particularly suitable for the care of delicate baby skin. In contrast to synthetic fats, which remain on the skin, so to speak, and thus only protect it superficially, vegetable oils also penetrate into the deeper layers of the skin. They have a moisturizing effect and thus sustainably promote the strengthening of the skin structure and the formation of the natural skin barrier. Skin-related fats such as wool wax are also well suited for the sensitive skin of the baby, which also result in a lasting strengthening of the skin development and form a breathable protective layer.
Even in winter, it is often advisable to use a cream with a high sun protection factor when caring for the baby. Up to 80 percent of the sun’s rays are reflected by the snow, which is why the power of the sun in winter should not be underestimated. Therefore, on sunny days, choose a cream with a sun protection factor of at least 20.
Even in winter with the baby in the fresh air
Even if the cold air in winter poses a special challenge for the delicate baby skin, you should not miss out on excursions. Because even in winter your little one needs a lot of light and oxygen. The change between cold and warm air also strengthens the immune system and stimulates the circulation. But make sure to dress your baby warmly. You can find out which items of clothing you should not do without in winter in our article “Dressing the baby simply and correctly” .
Only in a few special cases should you not go outside with your baby:
- In the first three weeks of life.
- Children under the age of seven months should not be exposed to strong winds or temperatures below -8°C.
- In foggy weather, walks are not advisable. The mist can combine with air pollutants and damage your baby’s respiratory system.