TEHRAN – A Shahid Beheshti Medical University professor says newborns must not be bathed until six hours after birth because there is a kind of fat tissue on newborns’ skin called vernix caseosa which keeps baby’s temperature.

Mohammad Husain Soltanzadeh says if the fat is removed during 6 hours after birth, it will lower baby’s temperature.
Unfortunately most hospitals do not follow this instruction and bathe newborns right after birth causing the fat tissue removal and a drop in body temperature, Soltanzadeh tells Fars news agency.
He says feebleness, drowsiness, pallor, facial blueness, red discoloration of hands and feet, and decreased respiration are indications of temperature drop.
In some cases this decrease is so severe that causes a shock, therefore since vernix caseosa plays a very important role in keeping newborn’s temperature, hospitals and maternities should consider the instruction.
Experts say vernix caseosa is a white, creamy, naturally occurring bio film covering the skin of the fetus during the last trimester of pregnancy