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

Fullers earth cream worked wonders when DS's bottom was bleeding and sudocreme wasn't working. And I say that as a huge fan of sudocreme.

Agree with pp avoid huggies pure! I won't even use them to wipe 4yr ild dd1 hands/mouth since our experience with them!

I got this with pampers... horrible nappies.

Oh the poor thing.

My dd had this at the same age. And you know what cleared it up....24 hours without a nappy on.

Seriously the air did it the world of good. I used to hold her on a towel, if she poo'ed or wee'd I would replace the towel. In her crib overnight she slept on a pile of hand towels and I would chuck them in a dirty pile one at a time after every wee. It was a hard slog but it worked and cleared it up.

Try as long as possible with no nappy. (I also let her nap on her tummy with her bum in the air and think that helped though that'd against SIDS guidelines, I was always watching her though)

Though she was a summer baby so I worried less about keeping her warm.

Both of mine had this at stages, my DD was worse. What worked for her was a thin layer of Timodine (which one of PP recommended - I got it on prescription and it has hydrocortisone plus antibacterial and antifungal I think) followed by a good layer of Metanium.

Bicarb sounds a good idea, I think acidic poo is definitely a factor.

Good luck!

Have they found a cause for the weight loss ??

Babies with e.g. milk allergy can have severe nappy rash as well as feeding issues.

Definitely bin the pampers for a few weeks.

You sound like a fab mum

Totally agree about the 24 hours no nappy. I did it...new babies don't pee enough to worry much about the mess. Same as Dave I used a lot of towels for the baby to lie on. Dried out really quickly.

Just use warm water to clean him and some olive or grapeseed oil for poos.
Breastmilk soaked on a cotton pad is good to clear up nappy rash too.

I used to get this along the leak-guard strips on Huggies. It was like the skin had come off. Not sure if it was just urine, or the urine and poo mix.

I used to wash and dab dry with muslin, use Sudocrem - dab in on, then try and join the dabs together. And different nappies.

The last time it happened was with a 7-year old in Huggies night time pull ups, when the pampers vanished from the market. I had to buy a new pot of sudocrem. and get incontinence bed pads.

My exclusively breastfed son had shocking nappy rash, so don't beat yourself up about mixed feeding. He was a January baby, and I think winter babies do tend to spend a lot more time wrapped up - certainly airing helped, but it was difficult to do. We found lots of sudocrem helped, and we also wiped him with either just water and cotton wool or washable wipes (just cut up an old towel, an old flanelette sheet, or bits of fleece). We also used to use cooled chamomile tea instead of water to wipe him, but I can't remember if we were doing that at two weeks. We cloth nappied, but I think were in disposables for the first few weeks.

If you can put the heating on/up and give him nappy free time that should help. Frequent nappy changes and lots of barrier cream. No idea what the situation is with midwife/HV vistits - my son is nearly 9 - but we had a home visit from the HV at about two weeks. You've had surgery - ring the midwife/GP/HV for advice and see if they will come out to you.

Hi my ds gets a sore bottom when we use disposable wipes. We generally use a solution of water, tea tree, lavender, and a small squirt of baby wash lotion in a bottle with reusable cloth wipes. We use cloth nappies so it is easy. He has had little nappy rash when we use this. However on holiday he gets nappy rash and if we have had disposable wipes for any reason he gets very sore. When we resume with home made solution it disappears.

Why not try the solution with cotton wool? The essential oils are available from holland and Barrett if you want to buy quickly.

Whenever my dc had nappy rash that wouldn't shift with all the usual creams it nearly always turned out to be thrush. Gp not always great at diagnosing it though.

Clotrimazole is an anti-fungal cream though and op says she has already tried it and it didn't help

We used washable nappies and DS still got horrendous nappy rash. We only used water for clean ups. Tried so many creams, but the one that worked miracles was plain old Bepanthen. So I think what works is dependent on individual skin, so just give all the excellent advice given above a go and see what suits your child.

My bleeding bum DS was EBF and I've always used wipes. It's not your fault.

If you can get it try some Medihoney and keep his bottom exposed as much as possible x

I used cloth nappies with DD. When she was so little I used fleece liners and muslin squares on top. This might be a solution, as you will not have all the chemicals you get in the disposable ones.

www.thenappylady.co.uk/nappy-liners.html The do fleece nappy liners as well as cloth nappies.

How is he today OP?

I had the same problem with BF baby so I think that's a red herring.

He was premature and had a skinny wrinkly little butt, which I think was the reason.

I also only used cooled water and cotton wool rather than wipes, and changed from pampers to Naty, which helped a lot.

As soon as he had healed up I tentatively switched back to pampers and have been using them for a year now with no problem. I also use the water wipes.

I think metanium is the best cream I've used but I believe the key is to use sparingly but regularly.

Sorry for slow reply!

His wee bum is no better after a day of metanium with a layer of sudocrem on top.

I rang the midwife who said try using the clotrimazole on its own for a day, which I have and no improvement.

The Health Visitor is getting me a prescription for Timodene tomorrow I think, so hopefully that will work.

In the meantime I've been just using water and cotton wool to wipe his bum, dabbing it dry with cotton squares from my cheeky wipes kit and trying to let air get to it.

Thanks for all the tips, will let you know how it goes.