1 month old persistent fungal nappy rash

[NakedMum33and3rd]

Hi

My DS 1 month old has now had a fungal nappy rash for coming up to 3 weeks. We were initially prescribed datakort (spelling). He had a horrible reaction to this and it made it worse. Then we had Canesten which did nothing. We now have timodene which initially seemed to be working after two days but now his bum is bad again.

I am giving maximum nappy off time as I can and and cleaning with cotton wool and water only. I've changed to Naty nappies.
This evening it has started bleeding. I'm at my wits end. Someone please help me as the gp said that next option or hospital.

Sudocreme. Slather it on. Constant changing. It'll get better in. Few days. And be careful with cotton wool as it can get stuck to the sores. Try and use water wipes or a cloth

Breastmilk if you can is really good for getting it under control. I let water wipes dry out and then soaked them in my bm and laid them over the area for a few mins, took them off and let air dry. I did this 4/5 times a day.

Also Vaseline, a really thick layer, it helps the wee to run off and gives the skin a chance to heal underneath.

Keep on with nappy free time, as much as you possibly can. If no improvement I would think hospital isn’t a bad idea to check he hasn’t got any allergies etc which is causing it.

This happened to me. Also at my wits end. Was a result of strong antibiotics for me after I retained my placenta. Sudocreme will not work.

In the end what worked was a four part solution.

Are you breast feeding? If so:
Treat thrush in you (oral tablet (fine while breast feeding) with topical nipple cream

Treat thrush on him with topical cream

BUT as it's bleeding also needs hydrocortisone (you can be prescribed canisten-h cream

Metanium cream, which is a much better barrier than sudacreme to keep poo and wee off it.

My boy's tiny hum was bare flesh. It was awful. This sorted it.

Good luck!!

Should've said hydrocortisone heals wound

ALSO: if you don't treat you, you both just keeps passing it back and forth. Likely to be in your nipple too, passing to his gut and hurting his bum.

Sign of thrushy nipples  is it fedora like needles

Thanks. I think I've bought every nappy cream under the sun!
I don't think we have oral thrush on the go here. No pain when feeding and his mouth looks clear. I will definitely try the breast milk on his bum.

Could allergies cause this?

I do exactly as Kdubs says. You need a hydrocortisone cream plus an anti fungal cream. Frequent nappy changes. Sudocrem is ineffective in our case.

We have had hydrocortisone twice now. First time in the Daktacort and not in the Timodine. I'm gonna go back to the gp tomorrow.

Also my dd is a severely disabled 17 year old, not a breast fed baby! Not sure exactly what sets it off for her but I'm sure certain foods do cause sore skin in that area, so allergies could be a factor I think.

My DS has this and was allergic to the disposable nappies. Worth a thought?

@NakedMum33and3rd my son had no signs of oral thrush, it was all in his gut. It wasn't until I got treated that we got on top of it. I suppose my thinking (and advice from GP friend) was that treating thrush in me wouldn't hurt anything and might help.

Just o be clear when I say oral treatment I mean a tablet swallowed orally to treat thrush in mother (not a treatment for oral thrush). Hope that makes sense!

@Kdubs1981 haha oh yes! I get it now.

I will definitely try that too. Poor baby. It looks so sore.

I had a similar thread in despair at DS's horrendous nappy rash about 7 months ago. I ended up getting a mix of creams from the Dr which was the same mix recommended by a poster who worked with children in hospital with continence problems.

It's an equal in weight mix of yellow metanium, orabase and vaseline. It sounds like it shouldn't work but the difference was noticeable overnight and it had healed completely in a couple of days which seemed impossibly quick. We'd tried metanium before and it hadn't worked by itself, it just slid off the raw bits.
There's something about the mix that makes it cover the bleeding patches and helps them heal I think.

Another poster I'd recommend it to got the same results with metanium mixed with vaseline just but for some reason DS seems to need the Orabase too, though he's never had as horrific a rash as the one he had when he was a month or so.

Flavia did you just layer it on or actually make a mixture up in a separate pot?

Do you dry him after wiping? I had to dry DS after wiping after every change. I watched everyone else around me open dirty nappy, wipe bum, replace with fresh nappy without drying and they never had any problems but I couldn't do this. I'd lie him on muslin laid over the mat (helped his bum air dry faster) and pat him dry with another. Looked weird, got comments, but it worked. That and yellow metanium was all we needed to keep it under control in the end. Good luck.

Babywipes I did the same for DS, I don’t need to with DD. but he always needed to be dried before a fresh nappy was applied. He was very susceptible to a sore bum, we had to ask nursery to dry after wiping too. DD is the wipe ‘n go type of baby, at 18 months she’s never had nappy rash.

Hope you get sorted OP, fwiw the yellow metanium spread very thinly was the only thing that worked for DS.

Pear I never met anyone else who had to do it! Hurray for bum driers. I'm not even sure how I worked out that was the problem but changed everything. Definitely worth a try, OP. I remember going to the Doctor with him when he was tiny to get help for the nappy rash and the Doctor said "well you need to stop using those for a start" pointing to the baby wipes I got out of my bag. I felt like the worst mother in the world. Turns out he just needed a dry bum. He still gets sore now if he hasn't wiped properly.

but IT changed everything

I have been drying his bum. I've done it with muslins, cotton wool and even got the hair dryer on it the other day!

Get some Sprilon Spray designed for bed sores best thing ever. However has it been swabbed and tested - check out perianal strep A photos often not diagnosed when it should be obvious from symptoms

Agree strongly about drying. My 3rd son had issues (his older brothers never did) with nappy rash/fungal infection under his arms and in his neck folds too. The key for us was very thorough, gentle drying. My gp told me to use a hairdryer (obviously with my own hand in front of it all the time to be sure it didn't get too hot or cold) to maximise drying without rubbing sensitive skin. Then applying the prescribed cream.

Random I just googled that and it does look similar. Will definitely push the gp on this. We haven't had any swabs done. I will ask for that tomorrow too.

Oops, cross post! See you already know the hairdryer trick....

I'm a GBS carrier. Could he have got this from me during birth? Is it linked?

Sorry @NakedMum33and3rd, had an early night. I mixed it all up in another pot.