red, dry and sore hands from hand washing

[moosky]

A couple of weeks into potty training DS who's 2yrs 10 months.
Instilling good hygeine after every toilet visit and his poor little hands (not the palms) are becoming red, dry and sore, most probably from the liquid soap.

I've been applying aveeno cream to them but doesn't seem to be making much difference as the rewashing is just aggrivating the problem.

He's quite sensitive anyway and I'm careful about washing powders (can only use Fairy non bio) and don't put any products into the bath water.
Generally, if I steer clear of such products, his skin is absolutely fine.

Anyone got any advice / ideas for alternative, more gentle soap? I don't like using bars in the house, so would like to continue using a liquid soap.

Thanks.

I don't know about soap but i use E45 on DD1's dry hands. Works well for her. i think it is the soap at school which aggravates and dries out her skin.

We have the same problem.

Faith in Nature liquid handsoap was good, but is not cheap (apx £3.25 each). Baylis & Harding isn't too bad (found in Tesco, apx £2), but not brilliant.

Is it possible to use the smallest quantity of soap you can get away with, but enough to ensure his hands are clean?

Part of DD's problem is that she leaves the soap on for too long before rinsing. I have to watch over her! However, I am regularly moisturising her hands otherwise the skin gets so dry it splits (not just soap, the cold weather is drying them out too).

There is a hand cream called "Norwegian Formula" which is very very good for chapped hands - I know a couple of surgeons who use it because of all the scrubbing in they do.

Alterntatively there's some stuff called Epaderm which I used on my DD's eczema. It can be used as a soap substitute too so might be a good all-rounder for your chap.

are you using anti bacterial soap?

Hi all

Thx for your advice.
The soap varies. Downstairs loo is antibacterial. Our bathroom is but kids bathroom isn't.
Gonna try and get hold of Faith in NAture - thanks KarenHL and have some Norweigan formula in the house somewhere!
Didn't know you could use Epaderm as a soap SlightlyTubbyHali?

Yup, I used to wash the whole of my DD with it in the bath and it lathers up a bit.

Made her terribly slippery though!