Reusable nappies & eczema

[buttonmoon78]

DS is 5m, has been in reusables since September. I love them and have no plans to change permanently to disposables (I use them at night though as DS is often a heavy wetter and being wet seems to wake him up).

He has Cow's Milk Protein Intolerance and seems to be allergic to/intolerant of fruit so weaning (which we are doing early due to reflux) is a fraught business often ending up in sever eczema outbreaks.

The eczema always shows on his bottom and the cloth wetness seems to make it worse. Every time I stop and change to disposables it gets better and then back to cloth makes it worse.

Is there anything I can do to help? I don't want to stop using washables.

Do you use fleece liners, or lined nappies? I find they dont feel so wet. I have no experience with eczema though :(

Have you tried sunflower or olive oil as a barrier cream? I find they don't cause repelling and work just as well as sudocreme etc, just don't ruin the nappies. Or using wooly covers for breathability? Just some ideas...

PS

I use onelife nappies so just a paper liner. I could easily try a fleece liner - I've just inherited some old bobbly fleece blankets I was going to ditch. The covers are those with poppers at the sides on the front so act like bellows or some such nonsense

Do you still use liners on top of the fleece or not bother?

I'd try fleece liners too. I found paper liners seemed to leave awful damp tissue against the skin and gave DD1 nappy rash.

Do you actually need a liner at all at the moment if the poos aren't solid? You could also try totally without. I don't bother with liners until the poo has 'substance' and needs to be tipped away.

Poos are very much solid - he's on gaviscon

But there'd be nothing to stop me dispensing with the liner though. After all - I can tip from the nappy just as easily.

If they are, ahem, easily tippable, I'd try a fleece liner first. Think how fleeces come out of the washing machine feeling nearly dry - they do the same in a nappy. Much nicer against skin than a paper liner, and potentially nicer than terry or whatever. Good luck.

They almost crack the toilet pan

Right then. Fleece liners it is. Thanks guys!

at crack the pan. We had the opposite problem - not pleasant trying to flush clean a fleece liner (the things we parents do to prevent nappy rash...)

OP, when you say the eczema shows on his bottom, what does it look like?

My 23 m.o. has eczema and has had bad nappy rash for the last couple of months. It gets worse when we switch back to cloth (and we use fleece liners). I wondered whether it wasn't nappy rash but eczema. DS's is large

The GP was unhelpful and unfortunately it was looking really good the day I went to see her about it.

His eczema presents as a red rash rather than dry scaliness for the most part. So in his nappy he gets swathes of red spots and general angriness around it. I've been using his milder steroid as being covered increases the potency anyway and it clears it nicely.

We're going away for a few days both before and after Christmas so won't try cloth again now until January, but I'm going to try fleece. I just wish I could get it to calm down but it keeps flaring up when I give him some food which doesn't agree with him.

Thanks, that was useful to know. What you describe sounds like the outbreak he had a couple of months ago but this is slightly different - red raised angry patches rather than angry spreading spots.

Stupidly I spoke to one of the dermatologist nurses on the phone about DS's face today and I forgot to ask her about his nappy area.