Need advice on bad nappy rash

[Elisabeth3468]

I'm at my wits end with my daughter's nappy rash, I feel so sorry for her. She's only 4 weeks old and started getting nappy rash at 2 weeks old. It's got bad and the skin is broken and bleeding.
I'm trying everything and my whole day is revolved around the nappy free time just to get air to it.
The issue is she does not stop pooing, so I have to constantly wipe the poo away. She must poo every 30 mins- 1 hour. She's settled in herself and feeds well. I'm breast feeding and I've cut out dairy as of yesterday to see if it helps.
I've tried every cream going and only clean with cotton wool and water and pat dry. Lots of nappy free time but pampers nappies when she needs to go in nappy.
I've been to GP twice now. Tried a cream called Timodine which didn't make any difference and now they've swabbed it and given me another cream to try.
I just don't know what more I can do.
I'm also bathing her daily and patting skin dry.
My poor 3 year old is desperate to get out the house but I've not been able to as need to keep an eye on babies rash.
Has anyone been through this or have any suggestions? Please

I’ve not experienced nappy rash for my son that badly, he just had some mild eczema and pretty bad cradle cap for which I used Balmonds. But it sounds as though you’ve exhausted every avenue so far. Could it be the nappies themselves? It also sounds like you’re doing a lot of wiping and bathing which will inevitably irritate the skin. Could you go without bathing? Water can definitely irritate newborn skin.

Poor baby! According to my mum I was the same. She had a friend who was a nurse that told her about this cream (this was the early 90s so name may have changed) but it was prescription only. Have you seen a GP or midwife about it?

Constant pooing is weird. Allergies definitely a possibility - hope cutting out dairy helps. I'd try soya simultaneously as the protein is structured similarly. Soya lecithins tend to be okay in small doses but soya protein is similar to milk protein.

I really recommend Vaseline to let it heal underneath.

Yes I did wonder about the constant poos but they all look normal! I have got a bit of an over supply so wondering if that's why? Maybe she's taking too much milk I just don't know.
She doesn't display as having allergies as such. My son had cmpa and very unsettled , reflux , screaming all the time. She's very content and feeds every 3 hours. My son never had nappy rash once so it's all new to me

I could go without bathing but her bath is literally a few minutes to soak excess cream away. It recommended to bathe daily on nhs website . I was bathing her every few days before this instead.

Dry her bottom with a hair dryer on cold setting. Only thing that worked for my kids. Added bonus is that the white noise puts them to sleep …

Need to find out the cause - is it chemical fungal or bacterial.

Fungal - it's in creases and cracks. Timodene should work (it's antifungal + steroid) or there are other antifungals that can be prescribed. Might be thrush (white in the mouth that doesn't rub off, and more likely if you have been on antibiotics) they can give a pill for you and some gel for babies mouth.

Chemical - it's wherever comes in contact with the poo/wee. It's all about the barrier cream - vaseline, bapanthum. Put it on even for nappy free time. Make sure skin is clean and dry underneath. Sudocrem is not enough. CMPA can cause this so cutting out dairy may help but stays in the babies system for a few weeks.

Bacterial - you will find out from the swab. Generally more redness. Will need antibiotics - though these can mess with the digestive system too.

I really feel for you it's hell on earth. You are a great parent and sounds like you are doing everything right and then some. It's inevitable when they go that frequently (this is also still normal for a breastfed baby). You're not alone I know a lot of people who have been through this. It's so intense with the baby so upset, hang in there it will pass. I think the number of poos also reduces about 6weeks so time helps!

This sounds exactly like my baby. We were prescribed timodine at about 3-4 weeks too and it didn’t work (we also tried sudacreme, mitanium, talc, nappy free time. He was allergic to dairy, egg and soya but it was the egg causing the main problem.
Anyway the thing that fixed it (other than cutting out egg which reduced the number of poos) was Vaseline. I wouldn’t use a hairdryer to dry the bum with open sores, it could introduce bacteria into it. We also swapped to eco by naty nappies as the plastic and chemicals in the pampers didn’t help. These nappies (whilst expensive) are really soft and aren’t made of plastic.

have you tried a bit of breast milk on her bottom, it might help

I had this problem at the same age - lots of suggestions here https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/parenting/5095384-bleeding-nappy-rash-help

What worked for us was Bamboo breathable nappies, no nappy time and Fucidin cream, but you may find some of the other suggestions work better for you.

Best of luck, it's horrible and so difficult when they poo and wee all the time!

OP, this was exactly like my first two children! Oversupply and terrible nappy rash. It was especially bad with my first, which eventually led me to reading about elimination communication. It sounds pretty out there, and get absolutely slated on mumsnet, but it made a real difference. After a few weeks, I had tuned in to her patterns and she was doing most of her poos on a potty (a little baby specific one, not a standard toddler one). I think that doing that from the start was what made the rash much less severe with my second. It sounds impossible and like a lot of extra work to be using a potty, but once you are spending so much time nappy free, it's not too much of a jump. Best of luck resolving it!

DS had the most horrific nappy rash and doctor gave us Canesten clotrimazole and it worked like magic.

As PP have said it depends on the cause though.

Fingers crossed for you OP. It really is awful

Sounds like you've exhausted all options I'm wondering is it fungal infection? Did GP seem to think so? It's good that they have now swabbed it, might need an antifungal cream on prescription. The only thing I'd not do is bath so regularly. Gently remove the poo with wet cotton wool without rubbing the skin too much. Pat dry and air it out like you're doing. Always leave a good thick layer of vaseline on a clean bottom to act as a barrier, the poo shouldnt have much contact to the skin if its a thick layer. Have you tried Bepanthan cream? Only one that worked for DS. And maybe discuss with GP if baby needs a probiotic of some sort to help with the over active pooing situation. Have heard great things about BioGaia (but am not a doctor so I would think best to discuss for such a young baby). Hand hold it's so tough when you just want them all better.

my breastfed baby pooed loads for first month but then it settled down.Not seen a issue with dairy though.

I would change nappy my first daughter had a terrible reaction to pampers ,my current baby at mo i am using asda brand

Thank you everyone for suggestions and your kind comments. We have been using fucidin cream but it's only twice a day and when she poos that much it just gets washed off. I've had her on my lap for the past 2 hours near the window airing it out (she's asleep) and it's actually looking less angry. I'm not even dressed today 😅
Not sure whether to try the eco naty nappies? Not bothered about price, just want it to heal. But also don't want to change /introduce too many chemicals at once.

Btw if your son had CMPA that means it's more likely she has it. My baby was relatively content with CMPA apart from cluster feeding and loads of smelly poos. The symptoms got more severe when older but weren't that bad as a newborn. 100% cut out dairy and soya and see what happens.

The rash is no better and I just don't know what to do any more 😫 it's bleeding sores and there always poo there. It's awful and I feel helpless . Nothing seems to be working and I don't know why. I've cut dairy with no difference.

Gosh that's awful OP. Have you tried absolutely slathering her clean bum in Vaseline so the poo sort of can't 'get' to it? It can provide a protective layer to some extent but you need to then change the nappy absolutely immediately as it can get on the nappy and affect absorbency.

I definitely think you need to go back to GP. Poor thing .

This cream is a miracle. Works to heal it quickly and stops it returning when you use it as a barrier cream.

madeleines-cream.com

You could try switching to greener nappies with fewer chemicals. We didn't rate eco by naty but KIT and Kin sold in Boots are good. Or cloth nappies and get rid of the plastic bit all together.

Also definitely use the naty nappies. The chemicals in pampers etc are horrendous. I recommended Madeleine cream to a family member recently as it's years since I used it successfully and it healed up in 4 days and immediately soothed it. It's also great for eczema. I think it's anti bacterial, anti fungal and it's completely natural so no nasty chemicals. It works like a miracle. After we used it for the rash we used every day as a barrier and it never came back.

Also I noticed you said maybe baby is getting too much milk. That's really not possible. They will take what they need so keep feeding as you are. You're doing an amazing job.

Or the bamboo natural nappies are supposed to be good.

I see they do a few different ones now so go for the original:

madeleines-cream.com/collections/catalogue/products/original-madeleines-cream-170g

Mine had a bleeding raw bum at 18 days old, multiple trips to the GP, it took about a month to clear up. We started on a cream for a fungal infection then moved on to broad spectrum antibiotics (and has to return for another course). We were told to use the anti-fungal cream with Bepantham barrier cream on top for the first change, then second change the antibiotics cream and Bepantham on top, then next change the antifungal and Bepantham again, then the antibiotics and Bepantham and so on and so on.

We had tried so many different barrier creams including weleda calendula, yellow metanium, sudocream and etc. the pharmacist told us to avoid sudocream because it is aggravating for that level of rash (heavily perfumed he said) and also the yellow metanium pulls on the skin and is too abrasive so avoid that unless mixing it with another barrier (e.g. vaseline).

I had a 2yo at the time too, we still went out just took all the creams with us and had nappy free time as soon as we got home.

Good luck!

My little one had horrendous nappy rash, his skin was raw and bleeding and he screamed if we changed his nappy. We went to the doctors and got a fungal cream but it didn't really help. So the things we did were to air his bum as much as we could, putting him on a towel for a little while incase he pooed with no nappy on. We make sure to wash him in the bath and make sure he was completely dry and then we used yellow metanium (I know they've stopped producing it but maybe you can find some somewhere?) And we stopped using Pampers as we realised he had a bad reaction to it and we started using Aldi nappies. It meant we had a few accidents where the nappy didn't hold all the poo as well as pampers but it cleared up very quickly. Breastfed babies always poo a lot, so I personally wouldn't be worried about that.