The bathroom hair dryer has many uses for the new baby

March 2007

Hair dryers are readily accessible, found in almost every home, are inexpensive and their uses stretch far beyond just drying hair.

One use of hair dryers that you may not be aware of is care of the umbilical stump. At the two-week routine health care visit for newborns, it is not uncommon for the base of the umbilical stump to continue to be moist, which prevents the umbilical cord remnant from falling off by the expected 10 to 12 days after birth. The main reason for this is because there is a cuff of skin around the base, which protects the base of the umbilical stump from drying out in room-temperature air. One of the easiest methods to dry the still-moist stump is to hold a hair dryer a few feet from the umbilical area and gently blow warm air over the stump for a few minutes.

Another use for the hair dryer is its calming and soothing effect on the infant. Many babies have fussy periods during the first few months of life.

In addition to swaddling, music, noise from vacuum cleaners, clothes or gently bouncing baby up and down while held in the parent’s arms, the noise and gentle breeze from a hair dryer set on a low, warm temperature held several feet from the baby’s unclothed body can quickly calm fussiness or uncontrollable screaming.

If the hair dryer is effective at soothing the irritable, crying baby, it should be continued for five to 10 minutes with extreme care not to burn the baby’s tender skin. Burns from hair dryers, either accidental or deliberate, have been reported in the pediatric literature. At high heat settings, ome hair dryers rapidly generate temperatures in excess of 110° C. Even two minutes after the dryer is turned off, the protective grills have been reported to maintain sufficient heat to cause full thickness burns.

Drying the baby immediately following bathing can also involve a hair dryer. A hair dryer set on a warm temperature and at low fan speed helps to dry the baby’s skin and hair after bathing.

Skin irritation

The hair dryer can also help manage irritated or cracked nipples caused by breast-feeding problems. Nipple irritation resulting from breast-feeding problems is painful and may lead to the mother’s decision to stop breast-feeding altogether. Nipples can be warmed for short periods after each breast-feeding, which can help prevent the mother’s sore and cracked nipples. Frequent use of a hair dryer on a warm setting immediately before and/or after breast-feeding can speed up the healing process and relieve the considerable discomfort of nipple irritation.

Mild-to-moderate cases of diaper rash, including those caused by Candida, can often be managed without medicated diaper creams. The bathroom hair dryer is particularly effective when there is a weeping rash. Diaper rashes, even those caused by Candida yeast super-infection, seems to clear up much faster when the unclothed diaper area is treated by the hair dryer several times a day. Again, a few minutes of the hair dryer set on a low, warm temperature and held several feet from baby’s diaper area will quickly resolve the problem. Additionally, the moist erythema in the area of the folds of baby’s neck can easily be managed with the use of a hair dryer in a similar manner.

The most common bacteria-causing otitis externa in humans are Pseudomonas species, which requires a moist environment to survive. Hair dryers help evaporate the moisture in the inflamed ear canal. Gently blowing warm air in the direction of the external auditory meatus can help alleviate the pain of otalgia at any time, but particularly during the night. Veterinarians often recommend the use of a hair dryer in the management of canine acute otitis externa in order to desiccate the organisms inflaming the skin of the ear canal of the pet. Children can benefit from the same recommendation.

Head lice

A recent article published in Pediatrics described a novel use of a custom-made hair dryer vs. five other types of hair dryers, including the common bathroom hair dryer: killing head lice and their eggs. Although the common hand-held blow dryer caused only 55% louse mortality after 30 minutes of use, a modified commercial hand dryer called the “LouseBuster with hand piece” killed 80% of living head lice and 98% of viable nits. The researchers said that the LouseBuster modified hair dryer is far superior to the regular hair dryer. Prior to the use of either hair dryer, the child’s hair was thoroughly combed with a LiceMeister (National Pediculosis Association, Needham, MA).

The experimental design of the investigation of the effectiveness of a hair dryer in the management of head lice required 30 minutes of meticulous use of the hair dryer going section by section, three minutes each, for 10 sections on one half of the scalp. The opposite half of the scalp was not treated with hot air from the hair dryer. Although this method does not involve the use of pediculicide shampoos, a full-scalp treatment would require more than one hour of labor.

For more information:

• Richard H. Schwartz, MD, is from the Department of Pediatrics at Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children, Falls Church, Va.
• Prescott PR. Hair dryer burns in children. Pediatrics. 1990;86:692-97.
• Sander R. Otitis externa: a practical guide to treatment and prevention. Am Fam Physician. 2001; 63:927-936, 941-942.
• Goates BM, Atkin JS, Wilding KG, et al. An effective nonchemical treatment for head lice: A lot of hot air. Pediatrics. 2006;118:1962-1970.