So glad to be back for another week the ‘The Baby and Toddler Show!’ Not a lot has been happening our end this week because Alyssa has been recovering from a nasty bout of tonsilitis. However, thankfully she is on the mend so hopefully we will be off out and about next week again.

Last weeks post was quite heavy and dealt with an issue that all parents inevitably have to make a decision about ‘Immunisations: Are we harming our children?’ I was really pleased with the response and take my hat off to all the parents out there facing and making the decision.

This week I thought I would lighten the mood a little and go for some tips and tricks regarding one of the most annoying things a baby can experience…

Nappy Rash: How to Make it Go Away!

Swear to God, Alyssa had the same nappy rash for about 6 weeks at one point – it just wouldn’t go away. I took her to the Doctor, spoke to my Health Visitor and tried every cream on the shelves of boots with either no result or on one occasion I actually managed to make it work withiin seconds! I felt so sorry for her and so I started to look for alternative remedies and ways to perhaps cure her of it. As it turns out, it was a friend of mine, who made a suggestion she had gotten from her health visitor that eventually cured the rash but I still had a good look through some alternative therapies as well as traditional ones to try!

 1. Obviously you have your standard treatments such as Sudocrem which combined with Vaseline can make quite a protective barrier. I use sudocrem with every nappy change and find it helps to maintain a nappy rash free state once she is cured and is excellent at healing a slight redness.

2. For some, when this doesn’t work, many are recommended to try Metanium and Bepanthan which are available in most supermarkets and pharmacies. I tried both of these with differing results. Bepanthan did absolutely nothing and Metanium, within seconds of me putting it on, had inflamed her skin and made it worse. This I am sure is not a common reaction and obviously something in the formula disagreed with my baby’s skin.

3. Whenever Alyssa has any soreness due to nappy rash or dribbling (she’s doing a lot of that right now) I always turn to the traditional lavender. My mum has always been into herbs and oils and their properties and lavender is great as well as soothing and calming. A drop or two diluted in warm water and then used to bathe the area with cotton wool will do wonders. I also always put a drop in Alyssa’s bedtime bath and use some lovely baby lavender oil to massage into her skin.

4. The remedy that worked for us in the end (and was recommended via a friend from a health visitor) was actually Canestan cream (or Thrush cream as some girls will know it as!) I put some on twice a day and protected it with Vaseline and at other times went back to sudocrem and within a week the nasty rash that had plagued my baby for such a long time was gone. Now if there is even a hint of it, I pop a little on and it’s gone before it even begins!

5. A big recommendation that I have seen around quite a lot is to try Organic Coconut Oil, which due to the increase in healthy diets, is now easily available in most supermarkets or health food shops. Coconut oil has natural anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties all in one and if you mix a small amount of cornflour in with it to create a paste it helps it stay on the baby’s skin – it smells great and moisturises well too!

6. A strange one coming up now, but one suggestion was to coat the baby’s bottom all over in egg whites and then just put the nappy on as normal. Rinse throughly when changing the nappy and repeat. This is supposed to combat the high intake of acidity that babies get from all the fruit that they eat – let me know if you try this one?!

7. For those parents who are breastfeeding their babies, one of the best home remedies for healing is in fact breast milk! It’s suggested that you clean the babies bottom with some expressed milk on cotton wool and then leave it air dry. I suppose if it can heal sore cracked nipples it could work on nappy rash too!

8.  This one seemed quite strange to me but kept appearing and that was the simple use of flour – normal flour right form your pantry. All you do is pop some in a dry frying pan until it goes brown, let it cool slightly and then pop it on the bum. Simple!

9. We’re back in the kitchen for the next one again. Apparently letting them have a bath that has baking soda in it, followed by dusting their bums in corn flour before putting a nappy on will do wonders! I wonder what temperature we have to bake them at?!

10. The final suggestion is to use Lanolin or nipple cream that ordinarily is used for treating sore cracked nipples during breastfeeding. Apparently applying a little of this works really well. I have to say I didn’t try it but could see why this would work! However, this could get a bit expensive as I swear by the end, I needed to take out shares because I spent so much money on it for myself!

So there you have it, a real mixed bag of suggestions for what to do with nappy rash! Some very traditional and some very new-age… what I find surprising is the number of them that require you to head to the kitchen?! Almost like The Great British Bake ‘Nappy Rash’ Off! Still, if it works don’t knock it!

What remedies have you found that really work? Any random ones we should all be rushing to the kitchen, garden, attic to try? Luckily, our nappy rash has never returned and I have a happy smiley baby… 99% of the time!

 That’s all from Alyssa and I for another week. Don’t forget to head over to The Baby & Toddler show and see what amazing exhibitors you can expect to appear this year!

Any exhibitors attending  The Baby & Toddler Show this year who would like their products featured in a weekly blog post, pop me an email to [email protected]

Anyone looking for tickets for this years Baby & Toddler show head over to the website here for all the details

See you Next Week!