Bright red bottom after BMs

Poor dd has had fairly long-term issues with her poor little bottom turning bright red after poops. This doesn't necessarily happen every time, but pretty frequently. She frequently cries when I wipe her and squeezes her little legs together to try to keep me out of there. Last night though was worse than usual. She was screaming and clearly in pain from the wiping. I wound up using a washcloth with water instead of the baby wipe to try and reduce any stinging, but she still screamed. So...what's going on here? I've mentioned it to her ped before and asked about the possibility of food allergies, but she doesn't seem to think that's the issue, but that dd just has very sensitive skin (she does have eczema). Plus she says that any food allergy testing isn't likely to be conclusive anyway. So, what to do? I hate to see my poor baby hurt like that. :( Even worse, it makes her not like to poop which leads to holding it in whiche leads to constipation...not good. Help please! TIA!

Hmmm, we have that problem sometimes. It seems like their poop is more acidy than normal sometimes and we get the bright red, irritated bottom. Are you using any sort of diaper cream on a regular basis? My guess is that your daughter just has very sensitive skin so using some sort of barrier would help prevent the irritation-maybe triple paste or something along those lines? The other thought that I have is that it could be the disposable diapers that you are using. We finally switched to cloth after having problems with irritation from the chemicals in disposable diapers. It definitely depended on the brand so maybe try using a different brand of diapers. HTH a little.

We don't usually use a cream until after the redness. I suppose we could just put it on all the time. It's gotta be easier than an elimination diet, right?

I had considered that it might be the diapers, but since it comes and goes, I'm not so sure. Mostly I'm just really hoping she will PT soon so we can be past this. She's one of those that was doing really good and has now lost interest though. Now she likes to sit on the potty *after* she's pooped and gotten cleaned up. We'll get there one day, right? :)

Thanks for your input. I'm open to any other ideas though I know dh won't go for CDing. We gave it a brief try when I was spending more time SAH, but now that he's the SAHP, there's no way. Just send PT vibes our way!

I would definitely try a barrier cream like aquaphor. I'm guessing it is a food sensitivity, not in the sense of an allergy per se, but maybe something where the food causes her poop to be more acidic. MommyofTwo is having a similar situation with her DD and is toying with the idea of trying a naturopath to figure out the food sensitivy/allergy issue. Maybe that would be helpful in your case? Especially if you can't find a solution around this bright red bottom.

Okay, now other things you can try the next time it turns bright red. Will she let you put her in the tub so you can gently spray her bum with lukewarm water? When Kaya was having problems with a stomach virus and the poop was causing all sorts of problems, including open sores, the shower head spray was the only thing she would tolerate well. Then afterwards, if I was able, I would put her in a sitz bath of lukewarm water and baking soda. For something that's already red and irritated, aquaphor by itself doesn't work that well (in that case I use my aquaphor/Triple Paste/Mylanta mixture), but for something that is just fine, aquaphor works well as a barrier.

I hope she feels better soon!

Eileen

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Kaya will be a sister, ~11/14/06!

We love aquaphor here. It works great as a barrier when we are having problems and it doesn't dry out my girls skin the way a cream with zinc oxide (desitin etc) does. And I totally agree that some foods might cause her poop to be more acidic causing problems.

I just had to chime in and say that Eileen's concoction of triple paste/aquaphor/mylanta worked wonders for my ds when had the acid butt recently.

i agree that regular use of aquaphor as a barrier may help. i don't know how often you're having this problem but would it be possible to maybe keep a record of what dd eats and when she has the problem and see if you can see a correlation between a certain food and the acidic poop?

DS1 used to get that from eating citrus (or drinking OJ), eating tomatoes or drinking milk (he's lactose intolerant). It wasn't food allergies, but food sensitivities. I'd keep a food diary to see if it yields clues to what is causing this.

Thanks everyone for the input. I think I may give the food diary a try. I have long suspected she has a dairy sensitivity (back from days of infancy when dairy in my diet seemed to bother her) but no one, I mean no one else--not dh, not my ped--thinks that's an issue.
If that doesn't point to anything specific, we'll just start with the aquaphor barrier approach and wait anxiously for PT.
Is eileen's aquaphor/triple paste/maalox mixture (did I get those ingredients right?) described somewhere else here so I can find it? Thanks!

I don't have a set recipe, but basically, it's 50:50 aquaphor:triple paste and then I add a splash of the maalox (or some other liquid antacid). If you use too much of the antacid, it gets really runny. I think I usually add all three and then stir, although it's been awhile since I've put that together--which reminds me, we just ran out during vacation. :)

Eileen

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...ies/candle.gif for Leah
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbo...pphire_24m.gif

http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/t/catca...-6_Kaya+is.png
Kaya will be a sister, ~11/14/06!