Baby wipes in the news

[Ceepa]

Thanks for sharing! Ds1 has a nasty hand dryness thing going on and I haven't been able to pinpoint the cause. I usually use diluted dr bronners for hand soap but I switched one of our bathrooms to an old Softsoap dispenser to use it up. It looks like it may contain this chemical so I wonder if there could be a link.

Glad you mentioned this. I grabbed a few Softsoap dispensers that were on post-holiday sale. My hands are so dry now and red in places. I'm going to switch back to our other hand soap and see if it helps.

[JBaxter]

Am I the only one that if I use a product on myself or my kids ( Soaps, lotions, detergents etc) and you START to see red or dry skin I stop ASAP? Seeing that 8 yr olds face was horrifying. I can imagine what her bottom looked like. My youngest is 5 and I think its been 2 full yrs since I bought any type of wipes anyway ( I bought 7th generation or made my own mostly)

[Ceepa]

Am I the only one that if I use a product on myself or my kids ( Soaps, lotions, detergents etc) and you START to see red or dry skin I stop ASAP? Seeing that 8 yr olds face was horrifying. I can imagine what her bottom looked like. My youngest is 5 and I think its been 2 full yrs since I bought any type of wipes anyway ( I bought 7th generation or made my own mostly)

Well my hands are a mess in the winter anyway from the dry air, but the redness started only within the last week; and that's when I switched to Softsoap, but hadn't made the connection until this thread.

[weech]

Thanks, OP. DH just bought a huge box of those Kirkland flushable wipes and has been having a really weird problem with dry red skin on his knuckles. I'm going to check our soaps and return those wipes. Ugh.

[GaPeach_in_Ca]

I don't think I have seen this posted yet:
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/baby-w...ies-2D11898693
...
We talked through every product I came into contact with, and the only thing we could identify that hadn't been changed during the whole ordeal was the Huggies Natural Care Fragrance Free Hypoallergenic baby wipes that I had been using since my son was a newborn.

Thank you for posting this! My YDS had a horrible rash on his bottom this spring/summer. I actually brought the Huggies Natural Care wipes with me to the doctors because I wanted to see if they could be causing the rash. I think we had switched to them a few months prior. He was just turning 5 and we only used the wipes at home after he used the toilet, so not even that frequently. The doctor said no it couldn't be the wipes.

I then took my DS to a pediatric dermatologist and he was just like, "oh, ezcema kid!" "Must be your first." Well, no, he was my 2nd and my oldest had ezcema and it was not the same at all.

$1000 in doctors appointments (which I paid OOP since I have high deductible) and perscription ointments and it was the wipes.

We went on a 2 week trip to China this summer and I brought a different kind of wipe in travel packs and the rash cleared up while we were gone. I wasn't 100% sure it was the wipes and not the water - by the way I mentioned this to the derm when we came back - but it was clear it was something related to our environment when we were at home. We stopped using the wipes after that.

This fall, DS started kindergarten. He started getting a similar terrible rash on his face. We were putting our perscription lotions and aquaphor on it and it wasn't responding. Then - lightbulb! I remembered that they use baby wipes (whatever type was donated) to wipe their face before rest time in the kinder class. I asked the teacher to not let DS use wipes. Bingo! Rash cleared up right away.

I am going to bring this article in to my ped. I will never go back to that dermatologist after he was so dismissive, but I'd like to send it to him also!

BTW - we use 7th generation wipes with no issue.

[MSWR0319]

I checked my soft soap and the chemical was not in it, which would explain why my hand hasn't been bad until I went back to the Huggies wipes.

[maestramommy]

Dh's cousin is the dermo that made the discovery, so the family has been reading a lot of news articles and watching interviews; it's been fun and we're proud of her . Esp. when we heard that Kimberly Clark is removing the MI from their wipes.

There were a few takeaways for me, since our family isn't allergic to MI (as far as I know. We've used Target sensitive for such a long time). 1) MI used to be combined with other preservatives in wipes, but the other ones were found to be allergenic, so they were taken out. Only then they increased the amount of MI by a LOT to make up for it. So that may account for the rise in allergic reactions. 2) Now that MI is going to be taken out of wipes, what will they replace it with? Because it seems like you do need a preservative to prevent mold and such. 3) I did read articles saying that MI is in other personal care products and Dr. Wu Chang also said so in one of the news interviews. So I guess if my family were found to have an allergy MI is one of the ingredients I would now have to look for in every personal care product we bought. Sounds like a hassle, but we do it now for parabens and sulfates.

[maestramommy]

Glad you mentioned this. I grabbed a few Softsoap dispensers that were on post-holiday sale. My hands are so dry now and red in places. I'm going to switch back to our other hand soap and see if it helps.

I just started using the Target equivalent of Softsoap liquid soap this month. After your post, I checked and there is no MI in it. So if you find MI in the Softsoap brand, you can switch to the generic. i use the Aloe Vera moisturizing liquid.

ETA: It does however, have sodium laureth sulfate. I'm sure that's in the softsoap brand too, since it's so mainstream. Do you have reactions to that?

[GaPeach_in_Ca]

Am I the only one that if I use a product on myself or my kids ( Soaps, lotions, detergents etc) and you START to see red or dry skin I stop ASAP? Seeing that 8 yr olds face was horrifying. I can imagine what her bottom looked like. My youngest is 5 and I think its been 2 full yrs since I bought any type of wipes anyway ( I bought 7th generation or made my own mostly)

Well, it's not clear what is causing a reaction. My son was also in pre kindergarten, so he wiped himself at school. I didn't know if the rash was caused by poor wiping (hence why I would wipe again at home with the wet wipe) or what. I had used baby wipes of vaiours brands since DS was born. It wasn't like I changed to a new wipe and BOOM! It was more like, oh it's red, oh it's getting raw, oh my gosh! Over days, weeks. Also, then the ped didn't think the wipes had anything to do with it.

[AnnieW625]

I just started using the Target equivalent of Softsoap liquid soap this month. After your post, I checked and there is no MI in it. So if you find MI in the Softsoap brand, you can switch to the generic. i use the Aloe Vera moisturizing liquid.

ETA: It does however, have sodium laureth sulfate. I'm sure that's in the softsoap brand too, since it's so mainstream. Do you have reactions to that?

My DD1's hands look like the child's mouth when she uses too much dual type soap or hand sanitizer, but we have been using regular non foaming soft soap and never had an issue, but thanks for letting us know that the Target soap is an okay choice as well; we have also used Method with no issues.