Mum's Plea For Help After Daughters' Nappy Cream Nightmare

A desperate mum has turned to Facebook for help after her daughters covered themselves in nappy cream. And you’ll never believe how long it took to get the thick goo out of their hair.

We’ve all been there – take your eyes off the kids for just a couple of minutes and all of sudden they’re into the pantry or, worse still, nappy rash cream.

New York mum Wendy Pryce was in dire straights when she discovered her daughters, Jamie, 4, and Morgan, 3 had coated themselves in DESITIN Rapid Protection Nappy Rash Barrier Ointment.

It’s thick, gooey stuff designed to create a protective barrier – so you can only imagine how difficult it is to remove.

“My immediate reaction was to put them in the bathtub,” Wendy told TODAY Parents. “That was my first mistake — getting their hair wet. Zinc oxide is water insoluble.”

She spent the next three hours frantically trying to get it out of the girls’ hair, and Googling for a solution. In desperation, she posted in a Facebook group. “Please any mamas have tips for removing DESITIN from Hair?” she wrote. “We’ve tried bath soap and Dawn. Thank you.”

Nappy-Cream-in-hair-1

The post included a photo of her gorgeous girls, covered in nappy cream. “I was absolutely convinced we were going to have to shave their heads,” the mum admits.

But her fellow mums came to the rescue, with hundreds of suggestions and comments. While some recommended a gel spray that removes adhesive, Wendy wanted to try something she had on hand. She decided to try a mum’s suggestion to use cornstarch and baby oil.

Wendy used the cornstarch on the girls’ hair first, to absorb the grease and stick to the cream. Then she added lots of baby oil, because ‘oil removes oil’.

Then came the painstaking part – using a fine tooth comb to brush out the concoction. She then used dishwashing detergent to rinse the hair. But it wasn’t an immediate fix. It took five days for the hair to be completely rid of the cream.

“There’s no chance they will ever do this again,” Wendy said. “The removal was torturous.”

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31 Comments

- - meedee said
  - 14 Jul 2024
    3:51 pm
Oh good lord. I had to have a giggle at the photo though.

- - mom101628 said
  - 06 Jun 2022
    1:02 am
It is amazing what children will get up to – and how hard it is for us mums to fix the final problem. Do feel for this poor mum, but her children have learned a valuable lesson!

- - mom323673 said
  - 26 Feb 2022
    4:53 pm
Awwww mate!!! I remember my niece and nephew covered in the stuff.. painting eachother and the tv. I was glad I didn’t need to clean it up. Sheesshh

- - Tiny Tot said
  - 02 Feb 2022
    10:07 pm
What effort!!! Mine have never done it that bad

- - smart_ass said
  - 31 Jan 2022
    5:21 pm
OMG! I’m not sure how to help but this was a laugh.

- - mum300445 said
  - 12 Jan 2022
    9:07 pm
Omg what a nightmare! Found my 1 year old opening the sudocrem the other day, thankfully I saw her before she stuck her hand in it!

- - ashna9 said
  - 11 Jan 2022
    6:06 pm
I have no help. I just want to laugh!!

- - SAS185 said
  - 07 Dec 2021
    9:05 am
O showed my husband this article and he was mortified. Imagine the drama this would have been to remove.

- - Jessica said
  - 06 Dec 2021
    2:26 pm
Oh there’s just no way id die haha poor mum and poor girls bet it seemed like harmless fun too.

- - becstalou said
  - 05 Dec 2021
    5:36 pm
What a nightmare I definitely don’t want to be trying to remove that from hair.

- - LRichards12 said
  - 05 Dec 2021
    4:23 pm
I almost feel this pain. back when my girls were little I was cleaning the bathroom when I realised they were a bit too quiet and came into the kitchen to find the attached photos. My eldest had taken out the new 1kg tub of margarine from the fridge and the results were as shown. It took multiple showers, and they were very slippery showers, to get all of the marg off them, and their pajamas (new I might add) were never the same. The worst was the tile floor, trying to get marg of it was a nightmare.

- - mom160270 said
  - 04 Dec 2021
    9:50 pm
I can imagine how difficult it would be to clean up.

- - SAS185 said
  - 04 Dec 2021
    9:03 am
This makes me laugh. Kids are so mistievious. Would not have been a fun 5 days for anyone.

- - ~Loui~ said
  - 03 Dec 2021
    9:24 pm
This looks so so sticky. IT’s probably the same as Sudocrem.

- - mom482552 said
  - 03 Dec 2021
    10:33 am
That’s a lot of nappy cream. Wow.

- - mom200556 said
  - 03 Dec 2021
    7:12 am
Omg! I would totally freak out haha

- - mom400215 said
  - 02 Dec 2021
    11:47 pm
This poor Mum.. glad it wasn’t me

- - sars_angelchik said
  - 02 Dec 2021
    1:25 pm
My daughter got into the Sudocreme and put it on her baby doll when she was copying me with our new son. Thankfully she didn’t cover herself in it- dolls and furniture are a little easier to fix!

- - tessie said
  - 02 Dec 2021
    11:56 am
Kids do the silliest things sometimes don’t they? At first it may look funny but when you try to sort it out, that’s when you realise just how bad it is

- - rovermum said
  - 02 Dec 2021
    9:40 am
OMG! I have never seen or heard of this before. But how great that a community of people were able to help this mum. I’ve no doubt her kids will never do this again.