Can you be allergic to water ??

[nutcracker]

Gave the kids a bath last night and whilst in the bath Ds (2) went bright red from head to foot, especially his face.

This has happened before but never to such an extent and this time it seemed more like a rash as it was slightly raised in places.

It doesn't always happen though, the water was no warmer than usual either. I do have it quite /warm hot, cos thewy complain otherwise but he was like a beetroot, the other 2 were fine.

[jampots]

Nutty Ive wondered this before but didnt dare post in case I sounded mad -

When my rash started about 2.5 years ago it was made noticably worse by taking a bath to soothe it. Given that our bodies consist largely of water I doubt its true but maybe something in the Brum water doesnt agree with us.

Were they incredibly itchy too?

[nutcracker]

Erm no don't think he was itchy, just beetroot red, was weird.

[jampots]

mine was incredibly itchy hence I took to the cool bath to soothe it but felt worse afterwards. Ended up taking anti-histamine and liberally applying aqueous cream

[debs26]

dont know if its really an allergy but ds1 had v bad eczema and water often made it flare up. eczema is often mistaken for a rash and is slightly raised and bumpy so is possibly this. you can get stuff from the doctor to put in the bath but i didnt find this really helped. get a good cream like oilatum for moisturising after the bath, and i suppose if it happens every time try to cut down on baths? is funny stuff eczema, sometimes its not there at all, sometimes it flares up for any of a thousand reasons - excited, upset, hot weather etc....

[Aimsmum]

Message withdrawn

[nutcracker]

I'm almost positive it wasn't the shampoo or shower gel cos we have used it before loads of times.

I mean he had a bath tuesday night too and was fine.

Tis very weird, will keep an eye on it.

[chipmonkey]

nutcracker, you can only be allergic to things that you HAVE used before, i.e you have to have used the shampoo/showergel in order to develop a sensitivity to it. But it may not be an allergy. My ds2 gets very warm in situations where ds1 feels normal. If the heating is on at night and I go into their room, ds2 is always sweating and has thrown the covers off while ds1 sleeps blissfully!

[SamN]

The water in different areas definitely has different impurities. And I had a similar skin reaction when I had a shower at a friend's house in Dundee. My skin went terribly dry and itchy. That was after I'd been living in Cambridge for a while.

But I grew up in Birmingham, and do you know, I've just remembered that as a child my skin used to go all red and bumpy every time I had a bath! And I often had baths with my sister but her skin never reacted. I don't remember my skin being itchy, just bumpy.

Birmingham water is softer than other waters but does contain fluoride - so my dad's girlfriend can't drink it. My bf son's poo is a better colour when we're in Birmingham compared to at home in Surrey (sorry if tmi).

There's a website somewhere where you can look up some stuff about the different water boards. Don't have time to search for it at the moment, though.