Moms of girls...Added Q in OP!

[Jacksmommy2b]

Edited to add...

How about baths? Do you have to wash in all the little folds or is just sitting in the water adequate? I can imagine using baby soap on on her tush and not wanting any soap to get all up in there, but is it necessary to wash inside the labial folds? Do you use a baby wash cloth? How about soap?

And what about labial adhesions? Are they common? How in the world do you keep that from happening?

I don't want to over clean but I certainly don't want to under clean! There seems to be so much more maintenance with little girls!

I should probably hang my head in shame, being a third timer and asking such a stupid question, but here you go...

When changing your infant daughter, how exactly do you handle the wiping part?

If it is just urine, do you have to use a wipe? For a BM do you always have to clean out the crevices, or is it just an as needed thing? Does poop tend to migrate all over the place or is it just occasional? Is it just easier to stick her whole rump in the sink and wash everything off so you make sure you get everything? Do you have to let her air out after changes and baths so she doesn't get yeast infections?

I am just sort of cringing at the thought at girly diaper changes!

[buddyleebaby]

I remember freaking out at the thought of changing boy diapers. :ROTFLMAO:

I wipe for pee just in case there is some sitting on their skin.
Poop does not always get into every fold, but it does sometimes. Even then, it really doesn't take any longer to clean up a messy girl poop than it does a messy boy poop.

I do not regularly wash them off in the sink. My tactic was to clean them up and get a new diaper on ASAP before there was an attack of flying newborn poop.

I kind of fan all my babies off for a few seconds after wiping, girl or boy.

[ellies mom]

Basically, you just do the same thing you do for yourself. A quick wipe for urine and for BM, wipe until there is no more BM on the wipe. If there is poop, wipe it up, if there isn't move on.

Most of the time it isn't all that bad but occasionally you get blowouts that go everywhere.

[Philly Mom]

If it is just urine, I tend not to use a wipe, I just try to give her a second to air dry. My brother and SIL always use a wipe. For BM, I wipe front to back and do every crevice, and then double check the crevices. I do not stick her whole romp into the sink unless it gets really bad, but that has happened only a couple of times. I think the sink would make things harder most of the time. DD is 10 months. After baths, I use a towel and make sure she is dry. The only time I have done the air drying was when she had bad diaper rash after a stomach bug, but that was not girl specific. Congrats on a girl! You will love it. Lots of pretty clothes :) (and I am not a clothes person for myself).

[crl]

I always wipe. I try to visually inspect for poop to make sure I got it all--easy with a newborn, not so easy with a wiggly toddler. I have never used running water, just however many wipes I needed. I always slap a new diaper on right away because I don't want to get peed or pooped on. Fortunately dd hasn't had much in the way of diaper rash.

Catherine

[MommyAllison]

I remember freaking out at the thought of changing boy diapers. :ROTFLMAO:

I wipe for pee just in case there is some sitting on their skin.
Poop does not always get into every fold, but it does sometimes. Even then, it really doesn't take any longer to clean up a messy girl poop than it does a messy boy poop.

I do not regularly wash them off in the sink. My tactic was to clean them up and get a new diaper on ASAP before there was an attack of flying newborn poop.

I kind of fan all my babies off for a few seconds after wiping, girl or boy.

:yeahthat: I might be the only one, but I found it harder to wipe boys than girls!

[wellyes]

Having started with a girl, I find boys harder too!

[khalloc]

I also started with a girl and then had a boy. Boys are way harder to change diapers! It was hard to wipe down the balls to get the poop off if it was stuck on. What a PITA! I didnt want to wipe to hard and hurt him! Plus boys pee in the air when you take off their diapers. At least the girl pee wasnt quite so airborne.

[katydid1971]

This is for every girl (small or big) always remember wipe front to back. Its very important to keep the poop away from the vagina because you don't want UTIs.

[lizzywednesday]

This is for every girl (small or big) always remember wipe front to back. ...

:yeahthat:

I had to remind MIL once about that because she was wiping DD back-to-front.

For the OP, I actually stopped using wipes for pee-only dipes because my DD is VERY prone to diaper rashes and especially yeast rashes. The wipes we use are just too wet and yeast loves warm, wet places so I decided to stop.

Instead, I went to the cloth diaper world and now use a spray solution by Kissaluvs (http://www.amazon.com/Kissaluvs-Diaper-Lotion-Potion-Spray/dp/B002UD6C16/ref=sr_1_2?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1339519710&sr=1-2) or Homestead Baby (http://greenmountaindiapers.com/other.htm#companion) ... I spritz her vulva and bum & then either dab it dry or leave it be and she's had fewer rashes since.

For poop, I check every little crack & crevice because (a) she is prone to rashes and (b) the girls in my family are prone to UTIs so I prefer not to take any chances. I wipe front-to-back with 2-3 wipes and then spritz with the "butt spray" and wipe that off with a prefold, cheap washcloth or corner of an old towel.

If it's really bad, I do end up plopping her in the tub or hosing her off in the shower - I don't see the sense in using a zillion wipes for the really bad poops!

[Giantbear]

I use a wipe for urine just to get it off the skin

For a BM, it depends on what type, if it is pellets, wipe till it is gone, crevices usually don't need, but a quick wipe to confirm clean. If it is a mushy or blow out, keep wiping each crevice until it comes back clean. Front to back and make sure she doesn't grab the diaper.

[lizzywednesday]

For bathtime, I used a washcloth when she was itty bitty if it were right after a messy diaper. Then the washcloth became a chore because I'd have to rinse it and a squirmy baby, so I switched to my hands.

Currently, I just use my hands because it's easier that way. I work the soap into a lather and then rub. Front-to-back always. Similar to what I do for myself, but quicker because she's slippery. We use Burt's Bees Baby Bee Baby Wash in the unscented/fragrance-free formulation (I think it still smells like oatmeal) and have since she was a newborn with no issues.

I don't worry about adhesions or anything else - the biggest issues we've had so far have been a diaper allergy and rashes.

[maestramommy]

If it's a pee dipe, I still use a wipe because otherwise the bum can get irritated. Poop, what I do is slightly spread the folds with one hand, and wipe front to back in a single swipe. I do this until the folds are clean. It's really not that hard with a bit of practice. Like anything else:p

In the early stages I don't clean the parts that much during bath. I mean I do it every diaper change, so I think just splash or spray with a little water is fine.

What are labial adhesions?

[twowhat?]

I quit wiping for pee because the friction was exacerbating diaper rash. I'd just let it air dry a couple min or pat dry with a cloth wipe (pat, not rub)before the next diaper went on. Sometimes if I was feeling especially motivated, I'd rinse with a bulb syringe filled with warm water and pat dry.

For poop, I'd wipe front to back until the wipe came out clean. I'd use one finger to quickly sweep between the folds from front to back, using a clean section of wipe at each sweep (and multiple wipes if needed) until I saw no more on the wipe.

When diaper rashes got bad, I started washing/rinsing instead of wiping (again, the friction from all that wiping exacerbated rashes in my girls). I'd pat off what I could with a wipe, then use a foam pump with baby shampoo to wash, then a bulb syringe filled with warm water to rinse. Then pat dry. This worked with cloth diapers because the dirty cloth dipe underneath would catch all the water. Otherwise you could put a towel or folded cloth diaper underneath.

When rashes got REALLY bad, and this happened a few times, my ped told me to rinse in a sink of warm water and to never wipe for pee. So whenever that happened, I'd fill a sink full of warm water for every poop, then I'd use the foam pump and my fingers for a little soap, dab it on to gently loosen the poop, then sit baby's butt in the sink for a minute.

Yeah, poop was a big deal around here, LOL. The other thing that helps a lot is to change immediately after a poop - ESPECIALLY if you're using disposable diapers because those are so good at absorbing moisture that they suck all the moisture out of the poop and leave the dry bits all stuck to the skin.

[buddyleebaby]

For baths, I just sat them in warm, baby soapy water. I used a washcloth to wipe off fat rolls on the leg, under their necks, etc and rinsed clean with some more warm water. It really is very much the same thing as bathing a boy, I promise.

Neither of my girls ever had a labial adhesion.

[janine]

2 girls so no boy experience but to me it has to be easier!
I clean folds,etc. if it's a poop, but mine has big blow out ones pretty often! Sometimes a warm wash cloth helps get through the blow outs, but that's for boys and girls.

Pee is just a quick wipe down with wipe. Baths more soaking and outer washi

[MamaMolly]

IME the ped gently checked for labial adhesions but there weren't any. It was just a gentle moving apart of the outer labia. I don't think you have to do anything special to prevent it.

Wipe from front to back. With poop sometimes it will get 'up in there' so don't freak out. I knew we were watching WAY too much Opra when DH was changing Lula's diaper one day and started yelling 'mama! Come quick! Lula's got poo-poo in her va-jay-jay!' and I responded 'don't worry! Dr. Oz said the va-jay-jay is a self cleaning oven.' Try to wipe up what you can without pushing anything inside. On very rare occasions I've used the sink faucet to wash a bum.

In the bath I use what ever I use to clean the baby or nothing at all. I figure that sitting in all that water must be good for something! Honestly I found the folds of Dolly's fat little neck to be a LOT harder to keep sweet and clean. It was like she harbored funk there.

[rin]

It's actually very important to not use soap/products of any sort around sensitive girly bits, at least no more than absolutely necessary! Little girls can get UTIs/yeast infections pretty easily if they get soap up in their parts. We don't really "wash" her parts, per se, we just splash some water up in there. She takes a bath every evening, but we probably only use soap once every two weeks, including for her genitals.

Our routine is pretty similar to many PPs; we don't really use wipes for pee (unless the diaper crystals have gotten on her tush, then we wipe those off), and we use as few wipes as possible for poop, just cleaning it off with a wipe and our fingers. Some poops don't get anywhere near the folds (it's pretty clear from the outside), so for those we don't wipe the internal labial folds. If it does get inside, you can just wipe it out; front-to-back is the rule for cleaning overall, but if there's poop inside the labial folds you want to go back-to-front to keep it from getting inside the vagina (which of course is at the back of the whole labial complex.) We just use a wipe over a finger, as PPs have said, rewiping with a clean bit until no more poop shows.

Rarely, for really really bad poops, we'll clean her in the sink/tub, but there've been probably around a dozen in her whole life where we've felt that was necessary. (Sadly, one of the times it would've been necessary happened while we were in the middle of a 4-hour drive, in the middle of nowhere, on the side of the road. That was terrible!) We use Pampers Sensitive wipes, and have never had a problem; she's only really gotten diaper rash at daycare and once when my parents were watching her, but we make sure to change her diaper within minutes of her pooping, so I think that if she sits in poop for even 15+ minutes that might spell diaper rash.

[BabyBearsMom]

I just sort of gently spread and swish water around the area. It's just like cleaning yourself. DD1 had an adhesion and it went away in its own. No big deal.

I wipe for pee and poop. I do a visual inspection for poop in the folds. Just remember to wipe front to back.

It isn't any higher maintenance than taking care of yourself.

[star04]

When I first had DD1, I had no previous diaper-changing experience. I only wiped the poop I could see without moving the labia (thought it might hurt her or something). Now, I'm not sure if this was the cause, but she later ended up with a labial adhesion. The doctor said I could use medication, but we decided to let it go away on its own. But ever since then, I pull the labia apart and make sure everything is good and clean. Don't be afraid! Also, DD2 seemed to be more "fold-y"/plump than DD1 during the first 6 months or so, so she took a little more effort to clean. However, she rarely peed/pooped during a diaper change, unlike DD1. :nodno:

[Indianamom2]

Having started with a girl, I find boys harder too!

:yeahthat: