Baby with terrible diarrhoea - what to do to soothe his bum?

[thecatwiththesilveryfur]

DS has been ill for about five days now, and at the moment is having about 10 diarrhoea nappies a day. His poor bum is red raw and clearly really painful. It's always sensitive so we use a lot of metanium, which normally clears it up, but this time even metanium isn't having much of an impact.

Any suggestions?

When my older DD had this the GP prescribed a steroid cream. Metanium works best as a very thin layer. As much naked time as possible too. I cuddled DD on me with a towel wrapped around her lower half. It meant lots of washing but it was better for her bum.

Second Metanium (yellow tube).

I live overseas and when my babies were small, I used to bulk buy when I took trips home.

I've given a tube to every other mum I know and they all swear by it!!

Clean with water and a flannel not baby wipes, air dry, thin layer or metanium.

Of not or

Wipe it clean with a cotton wool dipped in baby oil. Don’t let water touch it

Try showering his bum clean with cool water after a bout of diarrhea rather than wiping it and absolutely slather it in vaseline or barrier cream to reduce irritation. Poor little mite, its horrible for them, they don't understand why their bum is sore and they feel grim.

I second cleaning with oil, and as much time nappy free as you can manage.

Bear in mind that barrier cream stops the nappy's stay dry lining working. Use it sparingly.

Egg whites? www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/drop-clinic-984/baby-child-health-989/914951-egg-white-bad-nappy-rash-advise-pls.html

Weleda calendula nappy cream. It works miracles. Genuinely, it's a miracle cream. You can get it off Amazon. . DS never got on with any of the metaniun ones, and they stain.

Brilliant advice- thank you! Those of you who've suggested baby oil, is it suitable for babies with eczema? I never use products (except for metanium!) on his skin because it's so sensitive, which I suppose is why he's so prone to nappy rash ...

Mine had eczema and terribly sensitive skin (he's still got sensitive skin but he's 3) Weleda calendula was the only thing that sorted nappy rash. I've used olive oil and coconut oil on him but it never made much if a dent in nappy rash.

You can use a food oil he's not sensitive to. Baby oil has fragrance in.

Weleda calendula cream is fantastic

Fuller's earth powder. You can get it in chemists or health food shops.
It's made from green clay and will dry up and heal sore bottoms, nappy rash etc.
My DD3 has extremely sensitive skin and this is the only thing that ever helped her!

Get his skin dry and keep it dry as long as you can. I used to pat dry with a soft muslin and then allow as much nappy free time as I dared. Makes a HUGE difference.

If you can get 'Orabase' there I highly recommend it. I'm in Ireland and I'm pretty sure if we can get it here you can get it there.

It's sold over the counter. It's a thick paste in a tube. To make putting it on easier mix with vaseline. Mix equal amounts or add a little extra of the orabase and cover the whole area.

My dd, she's 11 and wears nappies so is prone to extremely bad red raw rashes and especially having diarrhoea. Bathing her even hurts her when she's bad.

The first time I used this the next morning her bottom was practically healed. The only down side to it, it that it does tend to gather into little balls of jelly. It doesn't hurt them, just more of a shock when you open the nappy at first.

How old is your DS? Is it a tummy bug?

Shahlalala, he's almost 10 months old. We've seen four doctors this week (!), who have variously diagnosed tonsillitis, an ear infection, 'nothing wrong' and, today, gastroenteritis, which I'm assuming means a tummy bug!

Thank you all very much for the brilliant recommendations, shall be amazoning them all tonight!

I used to use a couple of drops of tea tree and lavender essential oils mixed with 4 tbsp olive (or any) oil, dabbed on with cotton wool throughout the day. It worked miracles. Infact there's not much that can't be fixed by lavender and tea tree.

It’s been a long time since I did it but I think I just used a random baby oil I picked up in Tesco. It worked miracles. It was recommended to me by the head of the nursery that my child went to. But I agree with the other posters who say you could just use a food oil. Anything that just coats it and stops water getting at it

The Superdrug own brand nipple balm works really nicely for us, it's lanolin based but it's got other things in as well, so it goes on much more easily than lansinoh. We also use the weleda calendula cream, I tend to alternate depending on how he is. The nipple balm definitely creates a nice barrier, and I figure if it's safe to ingest, it must be fairly gentle

Cavalon spray, it's a barrier spray. And I mix sudocrem with the metanium so it is easier is wash off with cleans.

We had the same when our DD was teething. Her bottom was red raw, despite using the yellow metanium, water and cotton wool only, airing her bottom regularly.

What worked for us was a light coating of 1% Canesten nappy cream and a thin coating of bepenthen as a barrier. It cleared it up in days and she stopped screaming the place down during nappy changes almost instantly.

Bslmonds pure potions skin salvation moisturising ointment in Holland and Barrett. Might be worth looking at the whole range if he's prone to eczema.