• Tweet

It has been discovered that a brand of baby wipes is just as safe and hydrating as using water alone on a child’s skin.

The study, conducted by the University of Manchester, was published in BioMed Central’s open-access journal BMC Pediatrics.  It compared Johnson’s Baby Extra Sensitive Wipes against cotton wool and water.  It was then used on 280 newborns that were split up into two groups over a three-year period.

The findings showed that Johnson’s wipes were as effective as water, safe as water, and hydrated newborn skin just as effectively.

Tina Lavender, Professor of Midwifery at the University’s School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work and study lead, said: “Baby wipes can be much more convenient for parents, especially when on the go, but current NICE guidelines recommend using cotton wool and water.

Professor Lavender added: “Parents can now be confident that using this specific baby wipe, proven in the largest randomised clinical trial conducted in newborn cleansing, is equivalent to water alone. Our trial provides us with the strongest evidence available so far that we shouldn’t base our practice on tradition alone and that NICE needs to look at its current guidelines.

“For the first time, we now have a robust, adequately-powered study that can be used in practice, the results of which should be adopted by our national guidelines. These results should provide healthcare professionals with much needed evidence-based information, giving them the option to support the skin-care cleansing regime best suited to individual parents and their newborn babies.”

Source: Science Codex, University of Manchester