My Nani could not tell you what vernix caseosa was. She had never heard the word microbiome and would have laughed at “kangaroo mother care.” But she massaged every grandchild with warm oil before the morning bath, kept new mothers in bed for forty days and fed them more ghee than any dietitian would approve.
Some of what she did, neonatologists now call best practice. Some of it, paediatricians actively warn against. If you have a new baby and a grandmother in the house, you are probably getting advice on both.
This guide checks common traditional Indian newborn care practices against WHO, Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) and published research: six things grandmothers get right, two they get half right and the ones to refuse politely.
1. Daily Oil Massage for Newborns: Right, but Change the Oil
My dadi massaged me every morning until I was past one. The research backs her up. In a Bangladesh trial, preterm babies massaged daily with sunflower seed oil had 41% fewer hospital infections than babies who were not and 26% lower mortality. A larger trial in rural Uttar Pradesh followed more than 26,000 newborns. Sunflower oil massage did not lower deaths across all babies, but in babies weighing 1.5 kg or less, mortality fell by 52%. Smaller Indian trials found that preterm babies massaged with coconut oil gained weight faster than those given mineral oil or no oil.
Which oil is best for baby massage in India?
The oil matters more than grandma thought. Mustard oil, the default in much of north India, damaged the skin barrier in studies by the same Uttar Pradesh research group. Sunflower seed oil and coconut oil have the best evidence. Choose cold-pressed, unscented oil and use gentle strokes rather than vigorous rubbing or scrubbing pastes.
2. Colostrum Is the Baby’s First Food
In many Indian families, the thick yellow first milk was squeezed out and thrown away. Some believed it had gone stale in the breast; others thought it was too heavy to digest. Babies got honey, sugar water, ghutti or cow’s milk instead.
Paediatricians call colostrum the baby’s first vaccine. It is rich in antibodies, lactoferrin and vitamin A and it coats the gut lining in the first days of life. A study of nearly 11,000 babies in Ghana estimated that 22% of newborn deaths could be prevented if every baby started breastfeeding within the first hour.
India has improved but still has some way to go. National Family Health Survey data show that prelacteal feeding fell from 57% in 2005-06 to 15% in 2019-21. Breastfeeding within the first hour rose from 25% to only 42%.
Many grandmothers already knew this. Mine said the first milk mattered most. If yours wants to give honey, jaggery water or janam ghutti before the first feed, say no. Read more in our post on colostrum, the liquid gold and the golden hour after birth.
3. The 40-Day Jaapa and Skin-to-Skin Contact
In 1978, Dr Edgar Rey at the Instituto Materno Infantil in Bogota ran short of incubators. He started keeping preterm babies on their mothers’ chests, skin to skin, day and night. The method became Kangaroo Mother Care. A 2016 meta-analysis of 124 studies linked it to 36% lower mortality in low-birth-weight babies. India’s Ministry of Health issued its own operational guidelines for it in 2014.
The traditional jaapa or sawa mahina, the 40-day confinement after birth, follows a similar idea. The mother rests and the baby stays on or beside her. Visitors and chores stay outside.
The jaapa does not replace supervised hospital KMC for a premature or low-birth-weight baby, but the instinct is sound. WHO recommends skin-to-skin contact in the first hour after every birth, including caesarean births.
4. Rooming-In: Keep Mother and Baby Together
Indian postpartum tradition keeps mother and baby in the same room for weeks, the baby in a jhula or on the bed beside her. WHO and UNICEF now recommend rooming-in, 24 hours a day, as standard hospital practice. Babies kept close to their mothers breastfeed more often and more successfully and mothers learn their baby’s hunger cues faster.
The tradition has parts worth dropping. Some families restrict fluids, fruits and vegetables for the new mother, or keep her in a dark room for a month. A breastfeeding mother needs plenty of water and a varied diet. Our postpartum recovery guide covers what she does need.
5. Limiting Visitors in the First Weeks
The kala teeka exists to ward off nazar, the evil eye. The protective instinct behind it is reasonable even if the dot does nothing. A newborn’s immune system is immature and every extra visitor who holds the baby brings their own germs.
Turning away visitors with coughs and insisting on handwashing reduces infection risk. Keep that habit. The kajal belongs on the “skip” list below.
6. Waiting Before the First Bath
Most Indian communities hold off the baby’s first full bath for days, often until a naming or purification ceremony. Grandmothers will tell you not to pour water on the baby yet.
Modern guidance agrees, for different reasons. WHO recommends delaying a healthy baby’s first bath for at least 24 hours after birth, which lowers the risk of the baby getting cold. Until the umbilical cord stump falls off, usually within one to three weeks, paediatricians advise sponge baths rather than dunking the baby in a tub. Keep the stump clean and dry.
How often should you bathe a newborn?
A daily hot-water bath with hard scrubbing dries newborn skin and strips the protective vernix. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests about three baths a week in the first year, quick and lukewarm, with plain water or a mild baby cleanser.
7. Swaddling: Half Right, if You Fix the Hips
Many north Indian grandmothers swaddle tight, legs pulled straight and wrapped together, believing it makes the legs grow straight. It does not help. Holding a newborn’s legs straight and together is a known risk factor for developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH), where the hip joint does not form properly. Populations that traditionally bind babies’ legs straight have had higher rates of hip dislocation.
Swaddling itself is fine. It calms the startle reflex and many babies sleep longer swaddled. The fix is “hip-healthy” swaddling: wrap the arms and chest snugly and leave the cloth loose below the waist so the legs can bend up and out in a frog position. Stop swaddling once your baby starts trying to roll, usually around two months. Hands in, hips loose. Most grandmothers adjust once they see it.
8. Ajwain for Gas and Colic: Half Right, With Limits
Carom seeds, ajwain, sit in every Indian kitchen and in almost every grandmother’s colic kit. The usual advice is either for the breastfeeding mother to drink ajwain water, or to roast the seeds, tie them in muslin and press the warm potli on the baby’s tummy.
Ajwain oil is mostly thymol, which relaxes gut muscle in lab studies. No trials show it treats colic in babies and no evidence shows useful amounts reach the baby through breast milk. Ajwain water in normal kitchen amounts is safe for the mother to drink and a warm compress can soothe a fussy baby.
Two limits apply. Never give ajwain water directly to a baby under six months. And test the potli on the inside of your wrist first, because babies burn easily and cannot pull away.
What Grandma Got Wrong: Practices to Skip
Hing on the navel or in the mouth
Asafoetida dissolved in water and dabbed around the navel is a favourite gas remedy. There is no good evidence it works. There is evidence of harm: asafoetida can cause methemoglobinemia, a dangerous drop in the blood’s ability to carry oxygen and doctors have reported life-threatening cases in infants given it by mouth. Never give hing orally and ask your paediatrician before putting it on the skin. A gentle clockwise tummy massage and cycling the baby’s legs do the same job without the risk.
Kajal or surma in or around the eyes
The IAP advises against applying anything to a baby’s eyes. Many kajal and surma products, including “herbal” and homemade ones, contain lead and no level of lead is safe for a child. Kajal in the eye also raises the risk of infection. If the family insists on a teeka, a lead-free product behind the ear is a compromise, but skipping it is safer.
Honey, janam ghutti and gripe water
Honey can carry botulism spores and is unsafe before the first birthday. Janam ghutti and many gripe waters have no proven benefit, unstandardised doses and in some products, alcohol or sugar. Babies under six months need only breast milk or formula, including in hot weather. They do not need water.
Other practices to refuse
- Ash, cow dung or oil on the cord stump. Ash and dung can cause neonatal tetanus. Keep the stump dry and clean.
- Squeezing the baby’s breasts. Swelling and a little milky discharge from a newborn’s nipples (“witch’s milk”) come from the mother’s hormones and settle on their own. Squeezing can cause infection and abscess.
- Branding or burning the skin for jaundice or pneumonia. It still happens in parts of rural India. It treats nothing and causes burns.
- Blowing into the baby’s nose, ears or mouth. It spreads infection.
A relative may still suggest one of these, so it helps to know why you are saying no. For more, see our post on common breastfeeding myths.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is mustard oil good for baby massage? Research from Uttar Pradesh found mustard oil weakened newborn skin. Sunflower seed oil or coconut oil is a better choice.
When can I give my newborn the first bath? Wait at least 24 hours after birth. Give sponge baths until the umbilical cord stump falls off, then switch to short tub baths about three times a week.
Is it safe to apply kajal to a newborn? No. Kajal can contain lead and can cause eye infections. Skip it, or use only a lead-free dot well away from the eyes.
Can I give gripe water or janam ghutti to my newborn? Avoid them in the first six months. They have no proven benefit and some contain alcohol or sugar.
Listen to Her, Then Check
My nani’s best tool was not an oil or a seed. She could look at a baby and tell a hungry cry from a pained one and tell when a new mother needed company and when she needed to be left alone. No journal has written that down.
So listen to your grandmother. Ask what she did, keep what holds up and take her along to the paediatrician. A lot of her advice will survive the visit. For everything else you will need in the first weeks, see our newborn essentials checklist.
Sources
- Darmstadt et al. (2005), The Lancet: Topical applications of sunflower-seed oil to preterm infants in Bangladesh
- Kumar et al. (2021), PLOS Medicine: Effect of sunflower seed oil emollient therapy on newborn infant survival in Uttar Pradesh, India
- Stanford Medicine Scope: Changing infant care to improve newborns’ health in India
- Sankaranarayanan et al. (2005), Indian Pediatrics: Oil massage in neonates: coconut versus mineral oil
- Edmond et al. (2006), Pediatrics: Delayed breastfeeding initiation increases risk of neonatal mortality
- Boundy et al. (2016), Pediatrics: Kangaroo mother care and neonatal outcomes: a meta-analysis
- Cochrane Review (2016): Kangaroo mother care to reduce morbidity and mortality in low birthweight infants
- International Hip Dysplasia Institute: Hip-healthy swaddling
- Drugs.com: Asafoetida and case report: Methemoglobinemia after asafoetida ingestion in an infant
- Healthline: Kajal for babies: is it safe?
- BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth (2009): Neonatal care in rural Karnataka: healthy and harmful practices