Bleach in bath!?!

[LittleMilla]

Ds2 has incredibly dry skin and docs prescribed some stuff for it over the weekend (went in initially for a chest infection).

He's only 4.5 months and I'm now having kittens having just bathed him. Cleaner comes today and whilst I was bathing him I noticed his skin seemed to be getting redder and redder. Thought it was just heat until I started to top up water for ds2 (2.5) and thought I could smell bleach.

I hadn't really thought too much of her liberal use of bleach to clean up given we're potting training ds2 and house smells like an old people's home. But will obviously have a word next week.

Please reassure me I haven't done irreparable damage. Both boys now in bed ok but I'm really worried about ds2 even tho his skin calmed down after I put cream on.

I'm quite sure you'd have seen an immediate reaction if there was enough bleach there to actually burn the skin. If he was fine by the time he went to bed it was probably just the original skin complaint and nothing to do with the bleach. If he was feeling bad he'd let you know.

Have a look at this link if it helps to reassure you, diluted bleach in the bath is actually used to help some forms of eczema

www.nationaleczema.org/living-with-eczema/ask-the-doctor/bleach-baths-babies

Yeah, a dermatologist we saw when DD was about 5 months old recommended putting bleach in her bath every other night to help her eczema. His theory was that eczema was often made worse by bacteria getting into the cracked skin, and so a very dilute bleach solution would help with that. (He was a total quack in other ways, mind you.)

Don't forget Milton is bleach by another, less evocative, name and it shouldn't be rinsed off bottles, dummies etc.

A small amount of bleach diluted in water won't hurt him. Understand totally why you were concerned though.

Stuff to put in the bath water? It was probably that you could smell.

That said, I always used to rinse the bath quickly before I bathed mine - and I always rinse it now before I get in if it's been recently cleaned.

I love how the poor cleaner gets the blame for doing her job ;-) and you're going to have a word lest she has the temerity to do it again!

Mine (with eczema) always used to go red in the bath anyway, tbh. It's no biggie.

Thanks for reassurance. Wondering if it's the oilatum stuff as I'm sure I can still smell it.

Will leave my lovely cleaner alone I think. Doesn't speak much English and I was already trying to work out how I could explain it to her with sign language! Didn't want her to think she'd hurt the baby either as she adores my boys and would be v upset.

My DD 2.8 has had eczema for a year or so, oilatum doesn't smell like bleach. She goes v v red in warm bath, and it came on very suddenly last November actually (so almost exactly a year now i come to think of it!). As others have said, a tiny bit of bleach is actually believed beneficial, but there's often other stuff in bath cleaner. I had to explain to my cleaner last week why i do not want the industrial cleaning stuff she seems to want to use. My mum's cleaner is the same, mum's always telling her to cut down on the bleach. I understand they want to do a good job, but remember you are paying them to do things the way you want.

By the way, I'd recommend you avoid bubble bath and soap!