Mum who felt ‘helpless’ as her baby suffered sleepless nights with horrific rash praises ‘life-saver’ cream

A mum who felt “helpless” as an “extremely bad” rash spread across her baby’s body, causing him pain, itchiness and sleepless nights, has described the high street cream which ended up soothing her child as a “life-saver”.

Sarah Clark, who works in a school, first noticed the red rash on baby Marley’s scalp when he was six weeks old and took him to the doctor when it started to spread to his neck, chest and stomach.

When prescription creams did not help Marley’s condition, doctors offered steroid creams instead, but his 31-year-old mum was reluctant to use such “harsh” treatment on his body.

Noticing that her son’s skin would flare up after going swimming, Sarah searched online for a cream that would act as a barrier between Marley’s skin and the chlorine in the pool, and came across Balmonds Skin Salvation.

Since she found the high street product, the little boy’s red patches have “drastically improved” and his mum says he is now able to sleep through the night because he is no longer feeling uncomfortable and itchy.

Sarah, who lives in Hartlepool with her husband Charlie, 32, and Marley, who is now eight months old, told PA Real Life: “It’s awful as a parent to watch your baby be in pain and irritation like that.

“When Marley had flare-ups, it would get extremely bad. It would really affect him, and itchiness is probably one of the main issues because he’d constantly be scratching.

“It was very worrying to see him in so much discomfort, but when the doctor offered steroid creams, I was reluctant to use it on him.

“Marley is so young and it seemed like a very drastic course of action to take, and I did not want him to become dependent on the steroid cream.

“Discovering the Balmonds cream, what I liked was that it was all natural and wouldn’t be harsh on his skin.”

Sarah first noticed a red rash on her son’s scalp but said she did not become concerned until it started to spread across his body.

She said: “When I noticed it spreading from his scalp down to his neck, chest and stomach, I became really worried and booked a doctor’s appointment.

“With him being our first child I think you worry more anyway, but I didn’t want him to be in pain, so we ended up going back and forth to doctors quite regularly.”

Baby Marley was prescribed various creams and treatments but nothing seemed to calm the rash, which started to become sore and itchy.

Struggling to find a solution, Sarah said her little boy started experiencing sleepless nights and she felt “helpless” as to what to do.

She added: “I could see that it was really itchy for him and he was constantly scratching it to the point where he wasn’t sleeping.

“It got to the point where the only option the doctor had left to prescribe was steroid cream.”

Due to Marley’s age, Sarah was reluctant to use a steroid cream and started searching for other solutions.

After realising that suffered flare-ups after swimming, she began looking online for a cream that would act as a barrier between his skin and chlorine.

Sarah said: “I worried about the effects of putting steroid cream on him when he is so young. I didn’t want him to become dependent on it, and I’ve heard of people having very bad reactions to steroid creams.

“When I looked for something to put on his skin to protect it when he goes swimming, that’s when I found Balmonds Skin Salvation and thought I’d give it a go.

“But I never expected it to work as well as it did.”

For the past five months, Sarah has been using the cream daily on Marley’s skin and said the improvement has been “unbelievable”.

“The improvements were obvious straight away and, as I continued to use it more regularly, Marley stopped itching his skin as much,” she said.

“It was such a relief to find something that worked for him as I could see he was in a lot of discomfort.

“His red skin has calmed down so much and the red patches are almost not visible anymore.

“We’re still awaiting a definite medical diagnosis as to what the cause of the rash is and we’re waiting for his hospital appointment, which is set for October.

“The doctors have considered things like baby eczema or milk allergy, but we won’t know until we have further tests.”

Now, Sarah applies the cream to Marley’s skin every day and tops it up if she notices him having dry skin.

She said: “I feel a lot more comfortable putting this cream on my little boy’s skin compared to others because it’s natural.

“While his skin issues aren’t cured, the cream has helped a lot with him feeling no itchiness and is now able to sleep through the night.

“It has been a life-saver for us at home as we were running out of options for what to do for our little boy.”