Diaper cream, cribs, bottles, and all your baby questions answered
Prepared for print by Faigy Peritzman
The main concern is the melachah of sechitah, squeezing. If the baby wipe can be used without violating sechitah, then it may be used on Shabbos. A baby wipe that is moist and is gently dabbed [but not squeezed] on the baby’s skin would be a permissible use of a baby wipe on Shabbos, since only the surface wetness is being used. But if the only way a baby wipe can be used is by pressing and squeezing it against the baby’s skin, it should not be used on Shabbos.
In practice, if a baby is only a bit soiled, he can be cleaned by gently dabbing a wipe on his skin. If a baby is more heavily soiled, one normally has to apply pressure to the wipe in order to clean him. Because of the high likelihood of sechitah, many poskim forbid its usage on Shabbos and Yom Tov. [Note that according to all views, one may spray or splash water where the baby is soiled, and then wipe the area using a tissue or a dry baby wipe.]
The preferable method is to squeeze the cream from the tube (or remove it from the jar with your finger and dab it) directly onto the affected area, and then close (wrap) the diaper in the normal manner (allowing the cream to self-smear all around the affected area). If that is not practical, and the baby is or might be in pain or distress, it is permitted to spread the cream around the affected area, provided that all of it is absorbed into the skin and nothing remains on the surface. If that does not work for you and there is a chance that the rash will develop into an infection, smear the cream as best as you can, while employing a shinui.
A Pack ’n Play is meant to be opened and closed as part of its normal usage. It is therefore permitted to open and close it on Shabbos and Yom Tov.
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