How To Clean Your Baby's Ears, Nose, Eyes & Nails

Perfect little fingers, perfect little toes, eyes, ears and nose. It's important to keep them clean and healthy. Here we provide easy baby care tips on how to do just that.

Never put anything directly in your baby's ears, eyes or nose. Wipe any material from his eyes, mouth, nose or outer ear with a soft, moistened cotton round.

How to Clean Your Baby's Ears?

It is very important to clean your baby's ear. While bathing your baby, you can focus on cleaning your baby's outer ear first and the skin around it.
Focus on getting the outside clean. Even though the drugstore holds lots of ear cleaning tools and formulas for the inside, only your doctor can tell you if they're necessary.

A good choice to clean ears is a baby care product that is made specially for babies, such as cotton, JOHNSON'S^®  baby cotton buds. They are specifically designed to help prevent you from pushing the cotton tip too deeply into your baby's ears. Be very careful when cleaning your baby's ears — clean what you can see — never put anything deep into your baby's ear canal or nose.

Steps to clean baby's ears:

Here are some helpful tips you can follow to clean your baby's ears

1. Moisten a cotton ball or washcloth in warm water

2. Gently wipe out the wax outside your baby's ear canal

3. Wipe outside and behind your baby's ears using the moist cloth

4. Use cotton buds designed for babies to remove visible dirt, if necessary 

 CAUTION: When using on ear, do not probe into the ear canal; gently remove visible dirt and wax around outer surface of the ear. Improper use can cause injury. This product is not a toy. 
 

How to Clean Your Baby Eyes?

Here are some helpful tips you can follow to clean your baby's eyes:

1. Soak a round cotton round dampened with clean warm water

2. Hold your baby's head and gently clean the corners of your baby’s eye

3. Wipe gently from the inside corner of the eye outward 

4. Use a new cotton round for each eye

How to Clean Your Baby's Nose?

If your baby is congested, there are a few things you can do to provide gentle relief. Talk to your baby's doctor about using saline nasal drops or a rubber bulb syringe (to suction nostrils) to ease congestion.

You can use a moistened cotton round to gently clean any debris from around baby’s nose, being sure to wipe away from the nose. For irritation under or around the nose, you can use a skin protectant formulated for babies.

 SAFETY WARNING: Keep out of reach of children. Do not use without consulting a doctor if a child has asthma or allergies or if there is a family history of either. Serious breathing problems could occur. 

How to Cut Your Baby's Nails?

Cut your baby's nails regularly to prevent him from scratching himself and the spread of infection, as nails can harbor dirt and germs.

Here are some tips you can follow to cut your baby's nails:

1. Cut them right after a bath when they are softer 

2. Use blunt scissors or baby nail clippers with a magnifying glass attached so small nails are easier to see

3. Follow the natural line of the finger, depressing the finger pad away from the nail so you can avoid cutting the skin of the finger

4. Make sure you cut the nails during the day when there is plenty of light

If your baby is frightened while you cut the nails, try:

1. doing your own nails first—show him what fun it is

2. distracting him with a song such as "This Little Piggy"

 Your Touch Means So Much More^TM 

Cleaning your little one’s eyes, ears and nose, and caring for his nails, can do much more. Even these smaller rituals have the power to help you build your bond with your baby. Routine touch helps him develop self-confidence and the ability to relate to others, while also nurturing his happy, healthy development.