Have you ever seen tiny little red bumps on your face, or on your hands? Sometimes they might be catchy, sometimes not, but it is not pleasant at all, right? Similarly, your baby also has these rashes for many reasons; but among them, heat is the main culprit. I knew about this even before I became a mom. So, when I saw these little bumps on my little girl’s forehead, I wasn’t surprised at all.
So what are heat rashes? Let me explain a bit. When it is hot outside, your baby sweats to release heat out of his body, right? But when there is extensive heat? Your baby sweats a lot. This could be a good thing until your baby’s pores of the skin, which release sweat, get clogged by the sweat itself by mixing with dirt and oils present in the skin. And as a result, reddish bumps appear all over the place. Is there any bad effect from this? Honestly, I don’t see any. However, I heard that if there are excessive heat rashes, which are caused by intense heat, they can lead to heat stroke. Besides that, they don’t look good, and many times they are very itchy as well.
So how did I fight against it? First of all, I didn’t get stressed out about this as I knew there aren’t possibly any adverse effects on my baby’s health. My thumb rule is, don’t get stressed about what doesn’t harm your baby’s health. Because there are tons of things to worry about with your baby. However, when I see some heat rashes on my baby and I feel that there is scratching heat, I take my baby to the bath and wash her full body with cold water for a couple of minutes. If you are using a bucket to store water, then you can use 1 tablespoon of baking soda with it. This solution is very helpful in such cases. Don’t do this over an extended period of time, otherwise, they might catch a cold. Once I finish the bath, I don’t use any cloths to dry them. Rather, I let them dry naturally or use a fan. I am a student of science and I know the power of latent heat of water. If it dries naturally, it takes out more heat from the body than it would if dried with a cloth.
The second thing I used to do is put some ice on a dry cloth and press softly on the rashes. But I didn’t press it for quite a long time; for the same reason, to avoid getting cold.
Thirdly, I usually use telcos powder once my baby is done with the shower during the summer time. It helps them from itching and there are several recon powders in the market which make you feel cool during a hot summer day. I personally use these powders sometimes as well.
I have seen one of my neighbors, who happened to be a mom of a 15-month-old, using organic oatmeal powder mixed with water to bathe her baby for around 15 minutes. She says it helps get rid of the heat rash. I personally never used that method. But I think it’s worth a try.
Aloe vera gel could be another wonderful solution. I used to have multiple aloe vera plants in my outdoor garden. These aloe vera plants are easy to maintain and give you so many health benefits for different health problems. I also used aloe vera gel and put it on the rash area. Extracting aloe vera gel is quite easy. You will find many videos on YouTube on how to do that and you can do this on your own.
But always believe in prevention rather than confrontation. So I would do anything to avoid these heat rashes. I put loose clothes on her and they have to be comfy. I usually put baby telcos powder on her neck and armpits, because these places are more prone to sweat. Lastly, I avoid taking them out in direct sunlight. But if I do have to take them, I usually use a sun protecting ointment from a reputed brand.