Allergy to neoprene (in happy nappys)

[Chesterado]

Has anyone had any experience of dealing with this? Three weeks into 18mo dds swimming lessons we've identified it as the cause of the horrid dermatitis rash she got afterwards and she is fine after swimming happy nappy less yesterday! Just wondering if there is anything else we need to keep her away from as our gp has never come across this before, neither had water babies!

Us!! I’ve just realised my little 16 m old boy has an awful red rash from his happy nappy after swimmimg. I contacted splash about and they simply emailed back and said some people are allergic and to see a doctor. I can imagine my doctor had never heard of it and won’t test to confirm.
Is your daughter allergic to other things with neoprene in?

It may not be neoprene, it is produced using various chemicals so could be a chemical allergy (I am allergic to PTBPF which is found in neoprene, and had a tremendous reaction when I wore a wet suit years ago!). Worth going to get checked out.

Thanks so much Mouikey. I did think think the swim nappy had much more of a chemical smell than the swim jacket actually and reported this the company but they were not very helpful and said that it was “strange”
How did you get it checked out? Did you go for private tests of simply to your GP? Thank you

Sorry for the delay. I grew into it when I was 12/13, I wore a wetsuit one weekend (as I had on many a weekend before as I windsurfed) and came up all over my body in a horrific rash. On top of that no matter what pair of shoes I wore my feet did the same, splitting all over my heels. SO from what I have been told, neoprene has various layers and they are glued together (my allergy), but people can be allergic to rubber or dyes.

After all the steroids from the GP (never worked), I eventually got a referral (private back then) for an allergy test (patch test on my back). I came up to my two allergies within 20 minutes and they had to stay there a week.

More recently I have a pre-anaphylaxis reaction to deep heat spray... in this instance I was referred by my GP (on NHS to the allergy clinic with someone who specialised in chemical allergies - based in Southampton). Again another patch test but no answer as to what it was. Just avoid the spray now (but avoiding the other chemicals is pretty tough).

Hope this helps - take pics esp if the rash goes down so you can show the GP. Mine is always very red with small blisters (bumpy) and hot.