Cloth Diapers and bad diaper rash

[trales]

DD has had a very bad diaper rash for about two weeks now. We have been using desitin but it will not go away unless I stop with the cloth and put her in sposies. I only discovered this b/c we went on vacation for 5 days and used sposies, rash went away. Now that we are home the rash is back.

I thought the problem might be the diapers and build up. I added baking soda to the prewash, used free and clear Tide in the main wash, used the sanitize cycle, put vinegar in the rinse and did two extra rinses. This has not really made any noticeable difference in the rash.

Any thoughts? We went for a hike today so I put her in sposies and coated her is desitin which has seemed to help somewhat. I hate to use the sposies, I want her in the nice soft cloth. Please help.

Tracey

Mom to Frances 9 weeks

[luvsviola]

I am by no means an expert--DD is four months. But, how often are you changing the CDs? I aim for every 2 hours with fleece dipes if I'm home. We have much better luck with fleece pocket dipes (FB and BG)--nothing wet against DD's skin. Also, after each change, I give her a couple minutes of naked time to let everything dry. Anything wet against DD's skin seems to iritate it.

Something I used to do for the kid I babysat was to put down a waterproof cloth--you can get them near the mattress pads at Target--and then a towel over it, and let him play on it naked for as long as he would tolerate it. A cool hair dryer helped too.

Good luck!

Kristen

[KrisM]

What kind of diapers? Are they lined in fleece? Some kids don't like fleece.

How much detergent are you using? You may not have build up, but maybe you're not using enough to get them clean.

[kijip]

I have seen this happen on a few kids and my parents say I was one of them. As much as I love cloth, and encourage you to play around a bit and see if it might work, I don't think you should feel bad for avoiding a rash. Gotta do what you gotta do, especially with a baby's bum on the line. :)

[trales]

I am using Kissuluvs size 0 diapers. I have been experimenting with different amounts of detergent, less seems to be better, and two extra rinses seems to be better. I was hoping she would not get my sensitive skin :). I got a Bumgenious 2.0 in the mail yesterday, washed and put that on her last night, the layer touching her skin seemed less wet this morning and the rash was better.

Any thoughts on how to keep using the Kissuluvs?

Tracey

Mom to Frances 9 weeks.

[luvsviola]

Kissaluvs didn't work so well for us--DD soaked them so quickly that her skin was always wet. I hope the BG work better for you!

[MommyAllison]

Ok, I have a few thoughts :)

First of all, I know that lots of people have trouble with using Free & Clear detergents on diapers. It could be causing the rash, or causing her diapers to not get clean enough, which is then causing the rash. So I'd try switching detergents, first of all.

Secondly, do you use a top-loader washer? Can you check for bubbles in the rinse cycle? If you can, I would run a load of clean diapers with nothing in there (no vinegar, no detergent, no baking soda) and check for bubbles. If you see them, you have buildup.

I agree with Katie, there are some kids who are super sensitive to wetness and can't use cloth. But since you really want to CD, I'd try tweaking things before you give up. :) Please post an update with how things go!

Allison
Mama to DD 11/05

[mudder17]

Yep, I agree with Allison (and Katie). Try seeing if you even have build-up first. You can strip with something like calgon (and hot water and nothing else). And maybe try a different detergent.

Here are a couple sites I ran into during the diaper hunt that might be helpful:

http://www.sunshinediapers.com/cloth-diaper-university/
http://www.thestorkwearhouse.com/care.htm

There's one other site that had a break down of all the various detergents out there--a very useful chart, I thought, but I can't find it at the moment. If I find it, I'll come back and edit. The neat thing is that there was an overall rating of effectiveness of the various detergents out there, as well as a break-down of some possible problems.

FWIW, I use Charlie's.


Eileen

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[KrisM]

Here's the link for the table Eileen mentioned: http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/detergentchoices.htm

[KrisM]

Kissaluv's do seem to get soaked pretty fast. You can try getting some fleece from JoAnn's or Walmart and cutting rectangles to fit inside. The fleece will help the keep her skin dry.

Do you have any prefolds? Maybe cotton would work better?

[mudder17]

Thanks Kris! I knew one of you would know what I was talking about! I just couldn't remember which site I was on when I saw it!

Eileen

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[trales]

Thank you for all your help. We have made major progress thanks to your advice. I went and bought new detergent. No more free and clear, I stripped the diapers and having been using the baking soda, vinegar and a few extra rinses. The rash seems to be clearing up. I am also using the Bumgenious 2.0's at night, they seem to keep her more dry. The rash is almost gone, and we have much happier baby and mommy.

Thank you,

Tracey and Frances 9 weeks.

[MommyAllison]

Yay! I'm glad the rash is clearing up! I took my own advice and stripped our diapers too :)

Allison
Mama to DD 11/05

[elephantmeg]

I found that baking sode and vinegar actually added to my build up. I have to use a white bright type product for hard water stains (intended for laundry-finally found it at Kroger) to get mine clean. Any idea if you have hard/soft water? We have moderately hard water. I do a cold soak (but we have toxic toddler poop residue-I do use the mini shower), hot wash with detergent, cold wash with nothing, cold wash with nothing, cold rinse and that seems to do pretty well. Otherwise we get rashes. Summer is bad for rashes period though. You might also try cutting up some fleece liners.