Surely he's not allergic to the bath water?!

[LaTristesse]

DS is 2 and has quite sensitive skin ( as a baby we used Oilatum in the bath and one of those moisturizers on his skin afterwards - not eczema, just blotchy and prone to rashes etc). Now he's a bit bigger, and grubbier, I figured he needed something stronger to was with, but as soon as I put him in the bath he gets itchy. Main areas are the small of his back and bottom, shoulders and chest. They get itchy and he scratches and they get red. No obvious rash, just raised and bumpy. It goes down after we get out of the bath. This is without any soap, bubbles etc - nothing. Surely he's not allergic to the bath water?!
GP was useless btw, just said as it wasn't eczema there was nothing he could do, just keep on with the moisturisers...

I would go back to the gp. it does sound like eczema, it sometimes come up at unusual places.
I would reduce the bath to once or twice a week, just a quick flannel wash in between. I heard a lot of good things about oats in the bathwater but haven't tried it. we bath the dc in just water and use weleda cream wash just for hair and bum. then weleda calendula lotion after bath when the skin is still wet. weleda skin food on really rough areas.

DD has red skin after batch and once even had a nasty case of urticaria (big raised welts). I remember getting red itchy rash as a child after bath. IIRC it's possible to get hives etc after warm bath as the heat 'activates' them.

My kids are a bit like this and keeping the bath water really cool helps a lot.

Thanks folks, it does seem worse the warmer the water. And I've just bought some Weleda so will give that a go. If I go back to the GP I'm going to ask to see someone else, mine is a total arse!

Could he be allergic to a cleaning product residue on the bath?

Maybe try cleaning the bath with an ecloth?

There is a rare skin condition called aquagenic urticaria, allergy to water. Unlikely though I expect, although I do know someone who has it. Doesn't cause a massive problem for him, I think he tries to have quick showers and avoid sweating too much or he gets itchy.

DD is allergic to oilatum. Makes her skin all red and itchy. We use epaderm in her bath.

Is the water too hot? Does the redness go down when he gets out of the bath?

Interesting Coke... Maybe I'll ask the GP for some Epaderm. DH has been bathing with him so I wouldn't mind betting he's been making it warmer than I would do. And yes the redness does die down once he's out but he's still itchy. Today he's been itching all afternoon and yet he's not had a bath yet.

Also, have you changed washing powder or shampoo recently? We found that DD is allergic to something in L'Oreal shampoo/conditioner. She was fine while it was being washed but then waking up in the night, scratching and red. Took us a while to figure out what was going on. Tresemme seems fine for her though.

Epaderm is available OTC but it's expensive so best to get a prescription for it. You can get massive tubs of it. You can use it like soap but it doesn't matter if it doesn't all wash off. The only problem we've found is that it makes the bath very slippery for anyone else to use.

You could have just described my DS' eczema rash. We get on well with oilatum, simple shampoo and doublebase, but Johnson's Baby Shampoo leaves his arms raw (took me ages to work that out). I think it is worth a bit of trial and error to see what works for you.

what are YOU using in the bath? any residue of any shampoo or soap can irritate very sensitve skin.

I used simple products on my DDs skin to wash her hair, and the ezcema stuff for body, aquaous cream for soap etc.

J and J products are like battery acid on our families skin.

Aveeno bath products are very good. Ds2 had severe eczema and this was one of the few things that agreed with him.

Just a thought - oilatum is supposed to mean that soaps aren't necessary, have you tried going back to that?

If he used to get on well with it, is it worth a go again now?

Oilatum also do a shower gel which we get on with quite well.

Sorry if I misunderstood and oilatum doesn't work for you.

We hate the oilatum cream, though....

Just wanted to reinterate the thing about water temperature - My own skin will itch if the water is too hot. Cool bath/shower definitely helps if you have sensitive skin.