vaseline and obsessed MIL!!

[xenabelly]

ok, bit of a rant here but also looking for anyone to agree with me (or not!)

I love my MIL to bits but she is obsessed with Vaseline!! She thinks I should be smearing it on both my children (aged 3 and 11wks) on their faces and bums.

When my 3yr old was a baby she had very bad chapped skin on her neck from dribbling saliva and milk. My mother in law used to smother her neck in vaseline until my health visitor and doctor told me that vaseline was not recommended and gave me some prescription aqueous cream or told to to use sudacrem etc. Doctor said vaseline was fine in old days but now they know that it doesn't let skin breath and there are special creams available nowadays that are designed for babies skin. Have told all this to my MIL at the time and several times since.

Her reply is 'well i brought all my kids up on it and my other grandson and i just don't understand what you've got against it'...to which i answer 'cos the doctor has told me to not use it' (which i think is a fair enough answer).

Anyway, today my 3yr old has had runs all day and her bum is so raw and chapped, she's been screaming and crying all day and it's been dead upsetting (have had all the family round). I was saying 'i just don't know what to do to help her' and my MIL kept saying 'I've told you Vaseline' over and over again - it nearly drove me mad!! I had to walk out of the room at one point before I threw a bloody pot at her.

Just for the record, i soaked 3yr old in warm bath and smothered her in sudocrem and now she's finally in bed asleep and am hoping she'll be a bit better tomorrow.

What do you all think? Am i just being stubborn? What is your opinion on vaseline?

Thanks

Vaseline is great. Very gentle. Why not try it? Certainly not worth a ruck over.

My mother is similarly obsessed with the stuff

I just try to smile and ignore

Aloha the doctor has told her not to use it!

Just tell her that you were told not to use it. repeatedly and if that fails tell your dh to tell his mother to stop going on about blardy Vaseline.

sudocrem is much more effective

I used vaseline for a while but now have changed to sudocrem, it works better and is antiseptic- didn't know about the skin breathing bit though, also vaseline is just smearing petrochemicals on your babies bum, Weirdly my MIL was found putting scented lip balm on my dd's bottom once, odd.

hmmmm - on the one hand vaseline can be fab - health pros have always recommended it to me for sore lips etc, on the other hand sudocrem/metanium would be the best ones for a sore bum.

I think you can get something called petroleum free jelly, a kind of less mad vaseline? You could maybe buy some and put it in a vaseline pot

no just keep your cool, keep saying "thanks but we've been advised not to use it"

Depends. I have always found Vaseline to be great with chapped skin on necks from dribbling saliva and milk and any chapped skin in folds of skin on babies. I have never heard of the not letting skin breathe. Doesn't mean it isn't true, obviously, but it has helped my children when they've suffered with these complaints. Perhaps if you had a difficult skin condition (extreme eczema maybe) it might make a difference, I don't know. However, if I thought there was a chance that it might improve things for my baby then I would at least give it a go. You can't blame your mil for suggesting things she knows has helped her babies.
For bad nappy rash I would use Metanium, otherwise any of the other creams (Vaseline included) are just as good as each other and it's down to individual preference.

what is wrong with vaseline or white soft paraffin, no preservatives or emulsifiers so less allergy wouldn't use anything else.

cured a case of bleeding nappy rash overnight with it.

best thing since sliced bread

Your child - your choices; not hers.

Also - GREAT thread title! I was expecting raciness!

I used Vaseline all the time with all my kids - always used to put it on rash-free bums for a start, because it makes it sooo much easier to wipe sticky poo off later

Also it is a barrier, so if they are a bit sore it protects their skin.

The only thing it really doesn't do much for is severe nappy rash but then nothing does really (except fresh air, if poss, and time).

We have had a pot of Vaseline on the go in this house for 25 years, man and boy (not the same one) - doctors and HVs used to tell us to use it - it will probably come into fashion again in time for your DIL to use it and for you to tell her not to

There are far better things than vaseline. Teetree and mamuka cream cleared up a case of bleeding nappy rash in 24 hours for example and it's all natural. Kamillosan is also fab for things you might use vaseline for. If you don't want to use it and have been told not to use it then don't use it and keep telling your MIL that your doc has told you not to use it.

Bleeding nappy rash can be because of thrush in which case sudocreme feeds the thrush and makes it proliferate and vaseline is just what you need (speaking from bitter experience ; thought I was being such a good mum slathering on the sudocreme and all the time making it much worse...). However, in the main, it's whatever suits you.

i have a petroleum allergy so daren't use Vaseline on ds. my hv prescribed Epaderm which is bloody fab stuff! i do know how frustrating it is when your MIL witters on and on about something though. my MIL told me to give ds cool boiled water every 20 mins for 4 days, with disastrous results!!

stick to your guns. she's had her babies...she needs to back off and let you do your own thing!

My MIL was the same with Vaseline and nappies, and to my great shame I didn't have the nerve to tell her to butt out so I lied. I told her that I'd tried it but it didn't work and brought ds out in a horrible rash so I wouldn't use it again. She was so horrified about this rash that she never mentioned it again.

On the other hand, dd used to lick her lips a lot and they were horribly chapped and sore, and both the GP and the pharmacist told me that the best thing for it was Vaseline ... and it was the only thing that worked. We still use it on her lips now, as nothing else is anywhere near as good. So there is definitely some truth in what your MIL is saying.

But it's your child, so your opinion is the only one that counts.

DS2 is the same, rb - he gets horrendously chapped lips and also, if he has a cold, he wipes his nose very hard at 2 minute intervals which leaves him completely red-raw just under his nose - he personally gets through about one big jar a year

IME it's good for sore/chapped skin pretty much anywhere - it protects and moistens.

Yep - dd is another huge-jar-a-year kid, JanH! She has a permanent ring of red, sore, dry skin around her mouth all winter. She hates having the Vaseline put on but it's the only thing that works.

Am sure when MIL was pg that it was still acceptable to smoke and for women to routinely fake orgasm. Doesn't make it right though!

need to be cautious with tea tree oil as there have been reports of female hormone like effects when used in boys (breast swelling)