Olive oil for dry skin - what do I do?

[SleeplessKnight]

Dc1 is 11 days old and has very dry flaky skin. Midwife advised no baths until 1month old. Lots of posts on here suggesting olive oil but how do I do it?! How much should I use? How long to let it sink in? Do I wipe it off? Have visions of DH coming home to a greasy child and stressed out wife if I get it wrong!

[ellesabe]

Just slap it on! The skin will absorb it pretty quickly if it's dry.

[NeedlesCuties]

It'll make him smell like olive oil though, but it's fine to apply it either with your hand, or put some on a tissue and apply to wherever needs it.

Sometimes I use Vaseline on my DD's scalp, or olive oil.

[MsPickle]

I'm doing this on my week old. I warm it in my hands and then gently massage her with it. I'm breastfeeding and she had some skin that was so dry it was cracking so I basted her in breast milk one night which dealt with all those. I hand expressed some and did that with cotton wool. The olive oil smell passé quickly. I did it on ds1 as well, now he's older I swear by aloe Vera gel to deal with dry patches.

[cupcakesinthesnow]

I found olive oil too oily and used pure unrefined Shea butter, which you can get online. I won't say where I buy mine as might be seen as advertising, but its an African sounding name beginning with A, if you Google. They also sell other organic pure lotions and potions for adults and babies. It comes as wrapped blocks. You warm it either in your hands or melt slightly in microwave. I swear by it and still use in on my children when they get dry patches in the winter etc. My eldest son had extremely dry skin as a baby, which stressed me out immensely, but now he has beautiful soft skin :)

I also slather my feet in it after showing and it sorted my rough heels out!

[DeltaUniformDeltaEcho]

I just used to shut us together in a warm room, lay a towel down and massage it in bit by bit. Then had some skin to skin whilst feeding and letting it all sink in.

Within a few days he was all soft a silky with no dry skin in sight!

[Nel1975]

I was advised to use grape oil for my LO's dry skin from birth. Just used a tiny amount morning and night. It worked quickly to clear the dry skin. She is now 4 months and her skin is perfect. Only has a bath twice a week and only use water - no soaps or bubble bath.

[Lollydaydream]

Take care, it can aggravate ezcema.
I found cocoa butter better; but with all these things test on a small area first.

[BikeRunSki]

I found sunflower oil better! HV advised, something to do with the length of the fatty acid chains.

[needsadviceplease]

Yes, I thought sunflower oil was meant to be better somehow because olive oil has some kind of acid in it, or something. I use coconut oil on DS and it smells gorgeous and leaves him beautifully soft, but it wouldn't be my first choice on a v dry newborn.

[Orenishii]

I used coconut oil on my baby from day one - it was our nappy cream, used it to clean meconium off, cradle cap cream, massage cream etc - we used it for everything. Apparently mixed race babies have more sensitive skin/ more prone to dry skin etc and coconut oil was just amazing. Completely unrefined and cold pressed, bought online as there are much better deals and more pure than from holland and Barrett or Boots or whatever.

Olive oil would have been our second choice so just warm between your hands and slather it on!

[Tolly81]

Don't use olive oil as it isn't well absorbed at all don't know why HVs etc so obsessed with it. Rapeseed oil, sunflower or coconut all much better absorbed. Do some baby massage strokes with it after bath (just gentle kneading really on limbs and can do soft clockwise circles on tummy too). Very relaxing before bedtime.