Baby powder

No. Never used it myself, and by the time my first baby was born in '81, there were already a lot of people saying it wasn't a good thing to use.

My second child was born in 1968.
One of my friends, a pharmacist told me not to use talcum powder as it was unsafe. She did give clear reasons at the time, but I no longer remember exactly what I was told.

No I never did but a friend once told me many years ago that her husband left an awful mess every day in their bathroom from dusting himself all over with talc. He died suddenly from an undetected cancer I wonder now if that might be related.

No, my first child was born at the beginning of ‘82 and there was already disquiet about baby powder. He went on to develop asthma, so I was happy that I hadn’t exposed him to baby talc.
However, it did have a lovely smell.

Yes, for both my children, born 1974 and 1976.

Not always Johnson’s, Boots own brand was cheaper.

Yes for one, but not for the one born in later eighties. My mother used it on me.

My mum used it on me and I occasionally did with our boys and have used it myself for years.

I didn’t use .powder on my babies (born 1971 and 74), not because there was any adverse publicity that I remember, but because it just didn’t seem a good idea for babies to inhale any powder.

I have used talc from time to time and still do.

However, I never used it on my babies and when I cared for neonates in hospital we never used it.

Fine powder generally is not good for the lungs, especially if it may contain asbestos!

I didn't use any on mine. The first two were girls, (in about 1966) and if their bottoms were even slightly damp when they were powdered, it clung and clogged as a paste in the creases. There were no warnings about talc being dangerous then. These days, baby powder doesn't have talc in it, nor does dusting powder for grownups.

My MiL wanted me to powder the girls (she only had boys, whose nooks and crannies are all external, and failed to understand the clogging problem) . She babysat the first baby one evening when we were out, and when we came back I noticed a pale patch on the Tintawn carpet in the hall - remember that? It was made of sisal and was very "three-dimensional" - very popular at the time. She confessed that she had changed baby on the floor, had powdered her bottom, and had dropped the tin, which left a heap of powder on and in the hessian-like surface of the carpet. To clean it up and hide the evidence she had scrubbed it with soap and water, which had combined with the talc to form a paste which made it worse.

When I was a child my parents used copious amounts of it after bath night - every Saturday - can remember walking into a cloud of talc in the bathroom, they obviously used it on me as well. These were pre-deodorant days so people would slap it on to smell nice. I don’t remember using it on my children, though I might have used it occasionally, I used a cream for nappy rash and that was all that went on their bums.

Mine were Sudocrem babies. I knew about the talcum powder issue in the seventies because one of the people I worked with at the time had gynae issues, and was told by her consultant to tell everybody she knew not to use it.

I used it on both of mine who were born in 1969 and 1972.So did my mother on all five of us.I can remember my brother when he was toddler, getting a hold of a tin of it and scattering it all over his hair!
I don't think it was used on my grandchildren or any of the great grandchildren either.

Yes. My mother used Johnson's on all her children and I did to start with. I think I was given a gift pack of baby toiletries which included Johnson's talc. However, I discovered that Boots own brand was much cheaper so I switched to using all their baby products.
I also used to sprinkle talc on my sanitary pads, something which many women did. I think this practise is why a lot of women have developed cancer in that part of the body.

Johnson’s products were what babies smelled like, after being bathed.

It was a lovely smell.

I spent all my late 1940's, early 1950's childhood summers on the beach. My Mum used to cover me in talc to get rid of sand before I got dressed to go home.
I used talc on my babies born from 1972-1985. It was widely used back then. When my 2nd daughter was born I used to let her older sister help me at bath times. I didn't want her to feel left out so her job was to pat her baby sister dry then shake on the talc, usually very liberally!

In the early 1970’s a friend developed a horrendous abscess in her armpit. After shaving under her arms she used to pat on Johnson’s talc, whilst having hospital treatment to drain it the doctor said it was an open secret and to tell everyone she knew to never use it,

I never used it on my babies. My husband had metastasised stage four, including asbestososis, the consultant asked if he’d ever worked with asbestos, no he had not. I’ve wondered ….

I’m wondering too. My husband died of peritoneal cancer, unusual in a man, aged 60. He used talcum powder all his life …..

Casdon

Mine were Sudocrem babies. I knew about the talcum powder issue in the seventies because one of the people I worked with at the time had gynae issues, and was told by her consultant to tell everybody she knew not to use it.

Yes I used Sudocrem and still keep a pot of it to soothe abrasions.
We had just sold our house complete with new hall carpet, the phone rang and DS (18mths) unsupervised liberally smeared Sodocrem on the carpet!
A liberal washing with Fairy Liquid got most of it out!

I never used it on either of my babies in the 1980s but my mum-in-law once bathed my older girl and enveloped her in a cloud of the stuff. She used it herself, and we would see her footprints in talc on the bathroom floor! But she died in her nineties of something unrelated (late effects of a stroke).

My first child born in 76 gad 2 more after that. I never used baby powder, it clogs and balls up on damp skin ! Definitely not necessary.

I don't think I used baby powder on my babies but I still use it on me!

Aged 93, I used baby powder and talc regularly and frequently.

I was hospital nurse from 1948 and in those days we used what they called "dusting powder" three times a day on all bedbound adult patients when we did this procedure commonly called "doing the backs". It involved washing the sacral area with soap and water, rubbing it with surgical spirit, and dusting it with powder ----but not of course if the skin were already broken.
later on when I was a mother of babies I used Johnson and Johnson baby powder in the belief it was absolutely reliable . I also used it on myself when when I could afford to do so.

It was not until sometime after 2000 that a pharmacist told me talcum powder was not good.