Chapped lips can cause your baby too much discomfort and may affect her feeding habits. They can also lead to chronic infections.
To avoid all these effects befalling your beautiful baby, you need to know what causes the chapping of a newborn’s lips so that you can prevent it from occurring again.
You also need to know the most effective way to treat chapped lips if your baby is suffering from the condition.
Reasons Why The Lips of Your Newborn Are Chapped
Frequent licking or sucking of lips. If your baby has a habit of licking her lips, she is prone to having chapped lips.
Could be blamed on underlying health conditions whose symptoms are chapped lips
Dry weather conditions may cause your newborn’s lips to lose moisture, for instance, dry winter, exposure to intense wind and long periods of summer
Also, if your baby is used to breathing from her mouth, then this is likely to cause chapped lips
Dehydration !
Here are some signs of a dehydrated newborn
Cold feet and hands
Deep breathing at a very fast pace
Not enough wet diapers, less than six
Wrinkles and dry skin appearance
On the newborn’s head, you could notice a soft and sunken spot
A dry cry, no tears are produced
Hydrated lips and tongue
Sunken eyes
Treating Chapped Lips in Newborns
There are very many ways to treat your newborn’s chapped lips.
As a parent, you can follow the simple steps listed below to be able to treat your newborn’s chapped lips. By doing this, you will have reduced or saved your newborn from the pain associated with chapped lips.
Tip 1
Keep your newborn’s lips hydrated
Dry baby’s lips make the lips to be chapped. To keep them hydrated, you can apply organic or natural balm on your newborn’s lips.
Nipple cream would also work in such an instance. Coconut oil has lauric acid, a component of breast milk, which will certainly work wonders in healing chapped lips of your newborn.
Tip 2
The easiest and most natural way to heal newborn’s chapped lips is by applying breast milk on the chapped lips.
Just use your finger to apply breastmilk all over the lips of your baby. The purpose of this milk is to moisturize the newborn’s lips. This prevents them from getting chapped or getting infections.
Inadequate breastfeeding could also cause chapped lips in a newborn. The right number of feeds a newborn should get per day is at least eight or twelve at most. Each of the feeds should take either two or three hours.
Tip 3
With a clean cotton cloth, apply some petroleum jelly or olive oil onto your baby’s lips which are chapped before you lay her to sleep. This works by preventing the lips from drying up.
Even if your baby drools while asleep, the petroleum jelly or olive oil will protect the lips. This act can cause adverse effects if the petroleum jelly is ingested, despite the fact that it is non-toxic.
Tip 5
Protect your newborn from the harsh effects of the cold, the sun and the wind. You can do so by applying some natural lip balm on her lips or covering her face using a light and breathable shawl.
Before you lay your baby to sleep at night, ensure that the temperature conditions in the room where she sleeps are humid.
You can do so by running a humidifier. This will ensure that your newborn’s skin and lips are hydrated.
How You Should Prevent Your Newborn from Having Chapped Lips
Prevention is always better than cure. Focus on these strategies to keep your baby from ever experiencing the discomfort of chapped lips.
Ensure that the temperature in your house is moist ( 30-50% ). To enhance humidity in your house, you can use a humidifier
On the outside, cover your baby to protect her from harsh weather conditions such as too much sun or intense wind. Turning the baby against the wind prevents her from getting hit in the face by the dry wind
Covering your baby’s face with a shawl or a light cloth which does not hinder their ability to breathe would also prevent chapped lips in your newborn
Chronic Chapped lips in Newborns
An indicator of chronic chapped lips in a newborn is when they do not improve even after trying to heal them for several weeks. This could be a sign that your baby is suffering from severe health conditions.
The main causes of chronic chapping of lips are too much consumption of some vitamins such as vitamin A, lack of an adequate amount of certain vitamins and Kawasaki disease.
Kawasaki disease is a rare condition which causes blood vessels to get inflamed. Here are its symptoms:
- Long lasting fever, probably a week or more
- Rashes
- Bloodshot eyes
- The lymph nodes may be affected, such that they swell in the neck region
- Sloughing off of the tongue’s red coat which makes it to be red in color
- Red feet and palms as well as swelling of the feet and hands
Conclusion
I know how irritating chapped lips can be. I would not want to see a newborn suffering from the pain and discomfort caused by chapped lips. Remember, prevention is better than cure.
You can always keep your baby’s lips hydrated to prevent them from getting chapped. In case your baby has chapped lips, treat her fast enough to prevent the condition from getting chronic.
Chronic chapped lips in your newborn need to be treated by a pediatrician with immediate effect.
