Dry lips in a newborn: The best way to fix it

Dry lips in babies are a rare condition. However, if your child encounters this problem, you need to find a way to overcome it as quickly as possible because it will make the baby uncomfortable and negatively affect the baby's eating and sleeping.

In severe cases, an infant's dry lips can cause chapped lips, and an infection of the lips is worse. This problem directly threatens the health, even the life of the child.

However, most cases of dry lips in babies can be corrected at home in just a few days. Join aFamilyToday Health to learn the best practices!

Why do babies experience dry lips in babies?

There are many causes of dry lips in babies. This may be due to a habit of licking or sucking too much. Another common cause is inadequate feeding, dehydration due to illness, fever or dry weather.

Cold winters, hot summers or too much exposure to the wind can cause baby's lips to lose moisture. In addition, when the baby has a stuffy nose, breathing through the mouth will also suffer from dry lips in many degrees.

How do I know if my baby is dehydrated?

 According to the pediatricians, signs of dehydration in a newborn include:

- Dry tongue, dry lips

The diaper is full of urine for a long time

- The bulging is unusually large

- Eyes are sunken

- Dry and wrinkled skin

- Rapidly breath

- Cool hands and feet

If your baby experiences any of the above mentioned symptoms, bring him to the hospital as quickly as possible for a doctor's examination according to medical expertise.

What happens to chronic infant dryness?

If your baby has dry lips for a long time or recurs many times, it could be a sign of another health problem.

That could be a shortage or excess of one or few specific vitamins, especially vitamin A .

Another serious health problem to look out for is Kawasaki disease . This rare, childhood disease, is directly related to vasculitis and cardiovascular syndromes. Chronic dry lips are just one of the signs of this disease. Children always have a high fever and look thin. Other symptoms of Kawasaki disease include:

Systemic rash, more especially in the groin area

- Red eyes

- Red, swollen, dry, chapped lips

- Swollen lymph nodes blood in the neck

Strawberry tongue (bright red spots appear)

- Swelling of hands and feet

If you suspect that your child has Kawasaki disease, take him or her to the hospital immediately. Most symptoms are temporary and most pediatric patients are able to make a full recovery. But the heart and blood vessels can be affected long-term. Therefore, you need to follow your doctor's treatment regimen, not arbitrarily reduce fever or treat symptoms at home.

How to treat dry lips in a newborn baby

The best and easiest thing to do with your newborn baby's dry lips is to apply some breast milk to his baby's lips. In addition to its rich nutritional content, breast milk also has emollient and antibacterial properties. When you apply breastmilk to your baby with your finger or cotton swab, the discomfort is lessened.

In some cases, babies have dry lips due to not getting enough milk each day. Pediatricians say most babies need 8-12 feedings per day, meaning that every 2-3 hours, babies need to be fed once.

You can also use an infant natural lip balm , applied directly to your baby's lips or on the nipple to let your baby's lips come into direct contact with the lip balm while breastfeeding. If you don't want to use lip balm, you can use coconut oil instead.

How can dry lips be prevented in babies?

Prevention is the best way to prevent your baby from getting dry or chapped lips. The first and foremost thing is to get your baby to get enough milk every day.

Make sure room or indoor temperatures remain at ideal levels. A humidifier in winter or dry weather will help you do this.

To avoid dry lips in babies due to outside weather, every time you go outside, especially when it's windy or sunny, cover your baby's face with a soft cloth mask or a breathable shawl.

When you have applied all the treatment or prevention of dry lips to your child at home and the situation still does not improve, you need to take your child to the hospital for advice and diagnosis by a doctor. .