Tips for SEVERE nappy rash

[bonzo77]

DS3 has the worst nappy rash I've ever seen. He's a month old and has had it for 3 weeks, getting worse. I did all the normal stuff: nappy off, no baby wipes, sudocream, metanium. Then went to OOH who gave timodine. Then on tuesday this week to GP who took swabs, and gave daktarin, fuscibet (both 2x a day) and conotrane (barrier cream). At his middle of the night feed early this morning I changed him and it had spread into the creases between thigh and balls (previously just around bum crack). This is since yesterday when I started wiping with oil and cotton wool instead of water and cotton wool. SO I will stop that!! I'm also going back to Boots nappies as we had used those initially and it has got worse since we swapped to Pampers. Any other Ideas? I'm going back to the GP today, hopefully to get swabs results too.

Ok what worked for us (same age) was using raw egg white after every change. I think you clean using cool or warm boiled salt water, and cotton wool, then DRY thoroughly or leave to air dry, and then apply some raw egg white which literally granulates the skin (or allows it to I should say, underneath).

You can still keep nappies on after the egg white is applied.

This started to clear my son's up within a day, but it wasn't so much thrush as raw skin.

It does sound like it may be thrush in your case though so obvs the daktarin will help, and you must use that. I hope it improves soon.

I second the egg white, it sounds weird but it creates a barrier and allows the skin to heal.

Thank you. Going to do egg white right now. I'm not convinced it's fungal: have been using the daktarin for over a week now. He's super raw but all blisters have gone and no white spots. Someone has mentioned he could be allergic to 1 or more of the creams so I'm going to patch test him elsewhere on his body.

Ds was sensitive to Sudocream and quite a few other creams. Whatever you apply as a barrier cream needs to be very thin as a thick layer actually causes more problems. Also we found baby wipes (Pampers in particular) caused problems so we stuck to cotton wool and warm water.

Get the chemist and buy some "Sprilon" spray (we did get it on prescription) it's designed to protect bed sores from faecal matter and urine. Incredibly thin and breathable plus you don't have to put it on so it's pain free to apply.

It could be a reaction to the chemicals in disposable nappies. Try and leave him without a nappy on at all?

Poor little chap. DD was sensitive to all those you've tried; her bottom was raw.
I used a thick layer of Zinc and Castor Oil cream at every nappy change, very gently cleaned her with only warm water or olive oil and it worked beautifully.

Update: on Friday the GP prescribed antibiotics. Which ds would not swallow whole doses of, and made him suspicious of feeding. And gave him diarrhoea which was just perfect in the circumstances.

Saturday he was bleeding even worse, so I ended up taking him to a&e. I felt the combination of bleeding arse and refusing feeds merited it. They agreed. The new plan is

1. nappy off unless I need to take him out or I'm asleep.
2. Clotrimazole and hydrocortisone 2x a day.
3. Barrier spray before wearing a nappy (sobraderm).
4. Salt water baths
5. Fleece liner in his disposable nappies to keep him drier. I made these myself from a bit of fleece from a fabric shop.

I saw a registrar who brought in her consultant, who checked with the tissue viability nurse, so I feel like I did the right thing. They warned me to expect improvement to take some time but to come back if it got much worse.

So he's spent most of the day wrapped in bath towels, kicking them off and then pooing and the weeing everywhere.

Aww poor little babe, hopefully some improvement will happen quickly

Thank you random. He's definitely better today. The pink area has spread, but the bleeding has stopped and the really red area has shrunk. The thing with the fleece is a revelation, it's keeping his skin so much drier.

Poor little sausage, and poor mum too!
Can you loosely safety pin the towels- I guess he's so tiny that's easier said than done.....

I hope it improves really quickly.

The poor little thing . A relative's dd had something like this and they realised they could not use any disposable nappies. A very old fashioned linen cloth nappy with fleece liner worked in the end.
Hope your ds feels much better soon

Thank you. I suppose I should be grateful he's a static newborn not a marauding crawler, for the nappy off time! I'm rolling him like a sausage roll in bath towels, otherwise naked with a heater on in the room. His bum definitely seems less sore, and I'm not really wiping him at all, just using the nappy liner to remove the worst of the poo, and letting the rest end up in the towel. Really do not want to go down the reusable route if I can avoid it. I'm an obsessive researcher / tweaker / problem solver, and fairly obsessed with laundry and cleaning. It became a focus for my pnd last time and I'd like to avoid it!!