I need to talk about poo and I think that I am in the right place here. My poor little boy has suffered with terrible nappy rash his whole life. For those who don’t know, he was diagnosed with severe reflux at three weeks old and has been on medication since he was around thirteen weeks old. He is also lactose intolerant and is completly dairy free. He takes ranitidine three times a day and omperazole when he is having a bad patch. This is all fine. If his meds are up to date he is fine. But his nappies are NOT. They explode. They smell like vinegar gone eggy. They sting the eyes something terrible and they sting his skin even more.
Mostly his rash is fairly mild and clears up after a day with Sudocrem. Sometimes though, the rash reduces us all to gibbering, screaming messes and nappy changes can become an awful ordeal. Sometimes the rash is more like angry blisters and it can travel down his legs if the poo was particularly runny. Its awful.
We are under consultant care at the hospital and we also see a dietitian (who isn’t very good, as it goes) and we have been told that his nappies will sort themselves out once his diet is sorted. My son now has two bottles a day, one at bedtime and one either in the night if he wakes, or in the morning if he sleeps through. It’s lactose free formula mixed with soya milk, with a view to wean from formula completely. His diet contains no milk at all. He has NOT grown out of it.
Yesterday I got sick of seeing him suffer. I called my health visitor who had a recorded message telling me that she would take calls between 4 and 5pm. I called my GP who was at lunch. I called my consultant’s secretary, who didn’t answer the phone. I called my health visitor back and she is coming to see us next week.
So why am I telling you this? Because I need help from real mothers. I need someone to tell me that they have been through all this and that they know the answer! Is it you? Do you know what to do? Do you have a remedy for this nappy rash? Do you want to come and change the nappies for a bit so that my husband and I can have a poo holiday? Go on, please…
My poor boy. Nappy rash sucks.
image source: childhealth.co.uk
ghostwritermummy 
June 2nd, 2011 at 6:16 am
For bad nappy rash I use a 24 hour plan :- use only cotton wool (or old soft cloth) & water to clean – no wipes. Let baby’s bottom free to air as much as pos – tho be aware metanium stains fabrics!
Slick thin layer of metanium cream on, only thin layer, so you still see skin texture – is likely this will sting 😦 Then a thin slick of Vaseline over the top. This makes it easier to clean as well as being a barrier.
Each nappy change, clean with cloth / warm water, but don’t try to clean metanium off, just the poo. Then reapply another metanium / Vaseline layer.
Repeat for 24 hours and at the end soak the metanium off in a warm bath.
Usually can see an improvement quite quickly.
If it’s not clearing, can sometimes be thrush present too. Second son used to get this with bad nappy rash and cleared with cream from gp.
Hope it improves soon, poor baby xxx
June 2nd, 2011 at 6:18 am
Nappy rash does suck! Poor little man.
We haven’t had to endure anything on a similar scale, but by daughter is prone to blistering nappy rash. It happened first at about 2 weeks old, so I phoned the docs who prescribed hydrocortizone cream.
I’ve usually been able to make do with Sudocreme, but the hydrocortizone is really good for clearing up the inflamations.
Good luck, hope you get something sorted.
X
June 2nd, 2011 at 7:39 am
The one and only thing I have ever found that clears bad nappy rash is metanium cream, it worked a treat when Zara had it so ba it was bleeding. We found that it it didn’t work then it was usually a thrush rash and some canesten cream from the doctors cleared it up. I’m having similar problems with Oscar, he has reflux and we tried him on soya milk but it was going through him and made his bottom bleed, I’ve ended up going back onto staydown milk for now even though I still think he has a milk allergy.
June 2nd, 2011 at 1:43 pm
How old is Oscar? Luka is 17 months now and stil suffers, he was only diagnosed lactose intolerant at 12 months, poor thing. Is Oscar on any medication or seeing a consultant? You have my deepest sympathy!
xXx
June 2nd, 2011 at 7:56 am
Awww poor little man – nappy rash does suck big time. The only thing that works for us is metanium and some nappy off time. Hope it clears up soon xxx
June 2nd, 2011 at 7:09 pm
My boy has similar smelly runny icky nappies when he’s had too much fruit. Sometimes happened when teething. We give him lots of water to drink, fresh air to botty, and a gasmask for me. 🙂
June 2nd, 2011 at 7:16 pm
It has been a long time, nappy rash that is, for me/us to deal with and none of my children were lactose intolerant but if/when they did get nappy rash we used to clean with warm water using cotton wool and applied lots of zinc and castor cream. Where possible no nappies at all.
It’s so distressing, all round, when they suffer from it. I hope your little boy is soon free from it x
June 4th, 2011 at 6:54 pm
We haven’t had it as bad as that, but we did have quite a bad episode. I use reusable cloth wipes with plain water and CJs BUTTer cream (you can get it from babybots.co.uk) this cream cleared it up when even metanium was failing, and now it’s all I use. They do it in a lotion, which I use daily, and a spray, which I use when it’s sore so there’s no need to touch it. I’d really recommend giving it a try x
June 29th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
[…] today. So I’ve already blogged about the toddler’s lactose intolerance and subsequent nappy rash that comes with it. Over the last couple of days, the toddler must have encountered some lactose […]