The following is a summary of “Timing of Post-bath Skin Moisturizer Application to Newborn Infants: A Randomized Controlled Study,” published in the January 2023 issue of Critical Care by Gözen, et al.
For a study, researchers sought to find out if the time of post-bath moisturizer administration had an impact on the body temperature (BT) and skin moisture (SM) of newborn babies.
Between March 2017 and May 2018, they followed 80 neonates in a university hospital as part of a randomized controlled study. Newborns were washed and dried in the experimental and control groups. However, in the experimental group, the moisturizer was administered 10 minutes after the baby’s bath, as opposed to the control group’s immediate application of moisturizer to the baby’s body. Investigators assessed all babies’ BT and SM before and just after the bath and at 10, 20, 40, and 60 minutes later.
According to the babies’ descriptive features, the control and experimental groups were comparable (P >.05). Infants’ SM levels rose in both groups in the first 10 minutes following the bath compared to the prebath values (P<.05). However, 60 minutes after the bath, the experimental group’s whole-body SM value was considerably greater than that of the control group (P =.027). Infants in both groups saw a statistically significant drop in body temperature after bathing (P =.004).
Newborns’ SM and BT improved when moisturizer was applied 10 minutes after a bath. To better understand the effects of postbath moisturizer application timing on babies’ SM and BT, another study with a wider age range and a more varied sample were required.
