What should I be eating to help DD's raw bum?

[littlepie]

DD2 is 2.5 weeks. She has the most awful bum. Started last week when she had really runny poo that almost burnt her skin.

Mw sent us to dr who gave us canesten. No better by Mon so progressed to hydrocortisone and then a topical antibiotic.

I'm going back tomorrow and have stopped using the creams as they appear to be making it worse. The skin is raw and weeping.

I'm also trying some reuseable nappies but was wondering if there was anything I could eat to make her poo less acidic or more solid?

eat things that have alkaline properties to balance it out
List of food acidity

Are you giving her plenty of bare bottom time? That's probably going to be the most help. Not sure about whether you can influence the acidity of her poo much with your diet, but then I'm no expert.

I was given an amazing home-made oil by a friend which contained Roman Chamomile and lavender... although my daughter's bum hasn't be raw as such, so I don't know whether something like that would be good to apply in your daughter's case?

Puds-thanks just had a quick look, will be ruling out pop & artificial sweeteners for starters

Ghastley-yes, I've had nappy off for last 2 days as much as possible, putting her on a muslin on my lap. Lots of wet trousers!

2nd the bare bum time. Just clean her with warm water and a soft flannel or cloth wipe.

If it's not too freezing try and get some sun on her bare bum.

Change her whenever she wees or poos, this will be a lot but is worth it.

Get some reusable nappies, or eco-disposables whuch will have less nasty chemicals.

Something like BumGenius works exactly thye same as a disposable so isn't difficult to use.

Bare bum time is good. If it is red raw it may be thrush, so make sure it is not that. I found eating garlic sorted out any of DSs problems - smelly poos, nappy rash, colds etc etc almost overnight.

DS gets awful bum-rot with teething, so i sympathise. I've never noticed it get worse with particular food I eat though...

Cleaning with plain water is good, or stick a camomile teabag in hot water & cool as a wipe solution. If it is "just" nappy rash (as opposed to thrush or allergy/intolerance) I found the only thing that really worked for us is Metanium. Sudocrem & kamillosan didn't cut it I'm afraid. Metanium stains though, so if you try it be careful of towels & clothes!

Agree with plain water and "air time", and also a couple of drops of lavender oil in the bathwater.

You could also try egg white on the nappy rash. We have always used it for sore bums with seething etc and it clears it up v well. Something to do with the albumen in it I believe?

Teething obv :o

I would recommend using corn startch!!! It will help ease her pain,....and you don't have to rub it on her soft bum... sprinkle lots!

With DS2 I found, through lots of trial and error, that the only thing that worked on his sore bum was talc.

I've subsequently tried the same technique on DD and DS3 and it made no difference and they needed sudocreme.

So basically what I'm saying is try talc, it may help, it may not but I know how upsetting it is when you want to help them to heal and nothing seems to work.

And your DD is so weeny too, so I feel a Congratulations is in order too and I hope you find something that helps soon.

Are you breastfeeding? I heard that the milk heals sore bums really well? I dabbed milk on my DD's red bum and it went down straight away- your lo's sounds awful though, poor pet.

If you're using baby wipes I'd swap to plain water and cotton wool or reusable wipes as the chemicals in the wipes could be making it worse. Also don't put anything in her bath water, at this young age plain water is the mildest and best cleanser as any baby washes are just going to make it worse. My DD has nappy rash at the moment, it looks awful but isn't upsetting her. I'm going to try breast milk on it today, thanks for the tip

I don't think what you eat will make much difference, TBH.

Poor baby...unlikely that anything in your diet would do anything. Anything you eat goes through your digestive system first, obv, and while fat type of breastmilk changes (a bit) with diet, and some things (cows milk protein; some flavourings; some meds) can get through, I can't think that anything you eat would have sufficient effect to make poo less acidic.

Nappy rash is usually the result of urine and poo coming into contact with each other on the baby's flesh (which is why super-rapid nappy changing is recommended with this problem), but it can also be thrush - hence the canestan from the doc. Might need a dermatologist referral if no better.

Also a handful of salt in the bath. It doesn't sting cos it's diluted but it has antiseptic and healing properties. Change nappy A LOT as it's the wee and poo that burns. We have an aqeous cream here in Spain called Eryplast which is an E45 cream and I've always found it brilliant.

DS has gone through periods of very bad nappy rash. We use cloth nappies too.
We do a combination of the following
Nappy free time (when dS was small I used to lift my shirt up so he could snuggle up to my belly and just wrap a towel round him)
Fleece Liners in the nappy. Any micro fleece will do Just wash a few times before to make sure nice and clean. This works by wicking wee away quickly.
Change more frequently
Silk liners these are meant to help but have to be hand washed so we stopped using them before they had a chance to work.
Water and a face cloth for wiping
Giving bum a good dry after cleaning
Candula Cream is nice and gentle if other things aren't working also.

Keep her bum bare and dry. I wouldn't be bathing her because it's unlikely she is dirty. Getting the sore place wet will not help it heal up.

I don't think changes to your diet will do much.

I don't have any advice about the rash itself but you might like to get some pampers change mats for nappy off time ..... No more wet trousers for you.

A dab of Lansinoh helped return my boys bum to peachyness!

Anything with high level of bicarbonate in it (look out for mineral water or dilute some bicarbonate with water, can find out quantities if you are interested to give it a go). Works wonders.

i second saltyair 's suggestion.
when dd was sore (after leaving her in a pooey nappy too long - they don't explin this stuff you know), we put lansinoh on.

you put it on after thoroughly washing (water lots of it), let it dry then put on the lansinoh and the nappy.

what nappies are you using? some disposables can keep the moisture too much and make the soreness worse.

My DS has just suffered the worst nappy rash to date and what worked was, fresh air and more fresh air. Yes my carpet got covered in wee but it was worth it. When I did have to put a nappy back on I smothered his bum with the thickest layer of sudocreme.

Within a couple of days it lost its redness and all was well, including my back from scrubbing urine up off the carpets :)

Thanks for all your suggestions-some really good ideas to try!

The good news is her bum is getting better (slowly). In all honesty I think the cream from the dr actually made it worse and as soon as we stopped using it, it's started to heal.

We're still on water & cotton wool and lots of nappy off time (thank goodness for easy wipe slate floors!) and lashings of sudocreme. Will give the Lansinoh a try too.

salt in the bath really works, honest.