Newborn's bottom is literally red raw :-(

[Chocolateporridge]

My ds is nearly two weeks old and his little bottom is red, red raw in two strips either side of his anus. I have no idea what's caused this, my dd never had this but she was breastfed whereas we've been in and out of hospital with ds for feeding difficulties so he's mixed fed and we've occasionally used baby wipes.

My health visitor gave us some clotrimazole cream which has had no effect, metanium has made it marginally less red but it's persisting despite our best efforts at gentle cleansing and creaming.

Does anyone have any idea what this is, and what should I do. I had a c section and really don't feel up to getting to the GP on Monday by myself, but dh is off tomorrow (Sunday), should I try to get an out of hours appointment with NHS direct?

It's not really bothering him, other than when we wipe it, but it looks horrendous and isn't improving

I found a layer of metanium with sudocrem on the top worked better than using them individually

vaseline
years ago... it did the trick

I did the same a very thin layer of metanium followed by a layer of sudocreme then a layer of Vaseline worked wonders on my dd's red raw bum.

I'd say metanium also. I was quite liberal with it. But thrush may set in, I can't recall if the other cream you mention is anti-fungal. Iirc, if the rash is red and scaly it is thrush. It's been almost 3 years since I've had a newborn, but hopefully someone wiser will come along soon...

Congrats on your baby, sorry about his napy rash...

I would suggest bepanthen.

As much nappy off time as possible. Could you switch the heating up for a couple of hours and let him sleep just wearing a top, naked bottom half? He could sleep on a towel in his cot.

It will go down, please don't worry.

Honestly I don't think this warrants a OOH trip, it is more of a GP/nurse/HV things unless it is infected.

Congratulations on the birth of your new baby.

My health visitor told me to use egg white for nappy rash, but on another thread many moons ago, I was told that the advice I was given was dangerous if your family has a history of allergies. Egg white did wonders for dd's nappy rash as a newborn.

Some babies are very prone to nappy rash. If you don't want to use cotton wool then its worth making some washable baby wipes out of fleece material. It sounds silly, but I assume you are carefully drying your baby's bottom with a towel. It is hard in December, but its well worth making sure your baby gets plenty of bare bottom time.

Do you make sure that all the cream is absorbed into the skin before putting the nappy on. If you put the cream on thickly then it will clog the surface of the nappy and make it harder for the nappy to absorb the urine.

Get your DH to get some Drapolene from Boots.

It's nappy rash, it needs to be washed, dried and barrier cream applied per wet nappy change in my experience with DS2.

Not sure if this is same cream you've already had but I had this with DD, we tried everything - every cream you could think of, even a muslin soaked in camomile tea but in the end I rang the GP who said it could be a fungal infection which is why we couldn't get it under control and prescribed a hydrocortisone cream called Timodine - it cleared it up within 1 or 2 applications.

Yes to all of the above and try as much nappy free time as possible, I used to put DS on a towel on his changing mat and let his bits breathe!

Stop using wipes they contain citric acid and it sounds like nappy rash

When this happened to us we were advised to bathe him in water with bicarbonate of soda to neutralise the acid

Hope this helps

Go to the gp. Baby might benefit from daktarin or timodine. Timodine is miracle stuff. In the mean time nappy off time and then thin layer of metanium + thick layer of sudocreme when he must wear a nappy. Congrats on your new baby. Hope he's better soon.

My DGS was allergic to baby wipes , DD used water wipes instead

Just to say the oily bad nappy rash ds got was cos I listened to my mum and over used the creams. Modern nappies meant that caused rather than prevented problem. Agree with nappy off and letting it breath if you can

This happened to my ds if i used any pampers et al babywipes - huggies pure were the only one his skin could tolerate- turns out he has sensitive skin- still at 7 needs to use special hand soap- normal soap turns his hands red raw . Seem to remeber pampers nappies left him red too - recurent sore bottom triggered a switch to cloth which helped lots.

Poor wee soul. It's it always to do with feeding method btw.

I have twins who were ebf and one was prone to nappy rash and the other wasn't at all. Dido cream did nothing for us but bepanthan was wonderful.

Pampers baby dry nappies (these are the super absorbant ones meant for overnight), pampers sensitive wet wipes, epaderm (Vaseline like) and drapolene (pink antiseptic cream) is my winning combination.

Both dds prone to red raw rash, crying when weeing as it stings and crying when wiped. Poor lambs, its so hard to see.

If that doesn't improve things within a day or two consider lactose intolerance (this is what caused worst rash for dd1) or teething (dd2) as factors.

What nappies are you using?

DD had this and I worked out it was Pampers. Some horrible chemical caused it. Soon cleared up when I switched.

^^ sudocream obviously - what on earth is dido cream iPhone?

Oh, also let bum out when possible, 5 mins resting bare bummed on a towel after each nappy change is good.

Oh yes just to say that we finally worked out Huggies wipes were a no-no and also any nappies apart from Pampers so that's really helped keep it from returning.

Use bicarb of soda in the water to wash his bum. It's magic. Then metanium. Ds had very acidic poos and got terrible nappy rash. Bicarb was my friend.

I agree with advice re creams but also I'd recommend looking to the root of the problem.

A similar thing happened to my DD and we traced it back to the high acid diet that I was eating whilst breastfeeding (Oranges, tangerines etc etc).

Might be worth considering your diet whilst BFing.

Well we've been using all sorts of nappies, but alot of those have been pampers.

When we did use baby wipes they were Huggies Pure as they're the only ones I can touch due to sensitive skin, but we've mainly been using washable baby wipes, and now only cotton wool and warm water.

I think clotrimazole is antifungal, but maybe I've been putting the metanium on too thickly. I'll try the metanium with sudocrem on top and some vaseline for good measure then, and tomorrow I'll let him have bare bum time.

Thanks for all the advice, I was feeling like such a terrible mum, with this on top of the weight loss plus he's caught a cold from my dd

Calendula cream can be great, especially if al the nasty chemicals in the various wipes are irritating poor skin