Soft as a baby's bottom...?

[Mingles]

My dd is 10 weeks old and seems to be suffering from terribly dry skin. She is already being soley breast fed which should be a good guard against allergies. We bath her every other night with 'oilatum' and then slather her in 'diprobase'... none of it seems to work! DOes anyone have any handy hints on procucts that may work..? Her poor little body feels like sandpaper at the moment

Have you tried not putting anything at all in her bath? My dd had quite bad eczema until we heeded the advice of a very wise Mumsnetter (mears)and cut out all bath products completely. I would only bath her if she really needs it (i.e covered in sick or poo!)and then only use water. In addition I would ban the use of baby wipes, gentle or otherwise, and just wipe her face and bum with a cloth or cotton wool ball and warm water. If the oilatum and diprobase aren't working, you probably won't lose much by cutting them out for a few days (I think it took about two weeks for dd's skin to improve).

HTH

DD has only started having 'regular' baths when she was 5 or 6 months old, up until then she had a bath once a week or week and half - basically whenever we remembered!!! Up until then we just wiped her face and bum using Johnsons baby wipes (their the only ones that don't make her sore). When she does have a bath we use Johnsons baby bath and, if she needs it, use Mothercare own brand Zinc and Castor oil cream which has worked wonders on loads of things (esp when she started getting dry skin on the top of her head).

Don't know if that's any use?

Mingles

My DS1 suffered baly from dry skin so we stopped bathing him every night and also had a water softener put in. The soft water had made a huge difference

what soap powder are u using? are u using fabric conditioner? i use only ariel non bio and no fabric conditioner dd1 has bad eczema and dd2 just gets dry skin. get a tub of aqueous cream (bout £2 for a huge tub), smother baby in that, then apply a thin layer of vaseline or emulsifying ointment, emulysifying ointment is cheaper, again a few quid for a huge tub. do this every night. i'd put her in an old-ish cotton sleepsuit as it will get greasy, wash clothes at 60 degrees to get the creams out of them. hopefully this will soften her skin up a wee bit.

misdee has made a good point...

try using a non-bio washing powder/ liquid with no perfume or colouring added. We use Surcare, both liquid and fabric conditioner, but I think there are others. Beware of products listed as for "sensitive" skin they often just change the perfume to make you think that you're getting something different.

MrsS- how much do water softeners cost, and how do they work? We have very hard water, and I've been vaguely thinking about getting one!

Had to disappear to feed, but thanks for all the advice! We did feel a bit pressured to be giving her regular baths, but I really didn't feel she needed them as our wise midwife said "don't clean what's clean". I think it was a vicious circle; the drier and more irritated her skin got, the more products we used, which I believe has made it worse.. I will try bathing in plain water as you suggested Tissy and the 'no wipes' idea too.
I had also been recommended the aqueous cream, but might wait a while before I introduce more new products. Thanks for all your advice, it really has helped!

Aqueous cream was good for our dd. For a totally bf baby, it can sometimes help if the mum takes evening primrose oil supplements.