Sunday, September 27, 2009

FLUFF BUTT: Diaper Rash

This guest post comes from Holly at The Cloth Diaper Experiment.
She started CDing her son a couple months
before I made the switch,
and has been blogging about the entire journey.
Holly is also one of my close friends IRL!
Her son is 2 weeks younger than CBug.
(which is how we met!)

She is also my inspiration for making the switch!

The Case for Cloth: Diaper Rash

Hi! This is Holly from The Cloth Diaper Experiment, Cassidy is AWESOME and is letting me do a guest post over here so, sorry, but you're stuck with me right now!

I have a 6.5 month old son, Jackson. I switched Jackson to cloth diapers in mid July and I have been in love with it ever since. It's way easier than I thought it would be and the diapers are just freaking adorable!
I now have a NEW reason why I love cloth diapers and that is--The Dreaded Diaper Rash.

Since the beginning of September Jackson has had TWO diaper rashes! Poor kid, he's never had a rash before this month and I feel so bad from him! I'm going to blame the rashes on teething and starting solids. I've dealt with the rashes two different ways...

--Diaper Rash #1--
Being relatively new to cloth diapers, I didn't know how to deal with a rash while in cloth. I bought a pack of Pampers Sensitive Swaddler diapers and some Triple Medicated diaper rash cream. I then typed up a post on my blog asking my followers how to deal with a diaper rash in cloth diapers, as I was terrified of ruining my diaper stash and have read in several places not to use rash cream on your fluff. The rash started on Monday morning (he apparently pooped while he was sleeping and it didn't wake him up, he woke up screaming bloody murder with a bright red booty and a couple raw spots...insert sad face and tears from mom here.) It turns out that the Triple Medicated diaper cream I bought didn't do a darn thing for it so we used Desitin, the Desitin seemed to help a lot more and by Saturday afternoon, we were finally back in cloth.

My blog followers gave me a lot of good advice, which brings me to...

--Diaper Rash #2--
I put Jackson down for bed Tuesday night, he woke up about 3 hours later screaming bloody murder again, my husband went up to check on him and was changing Jackson's diaper and I heard the most awful scream coming from him that I've only heard one other time and knew he had a rash. I ran upstairs and opened the door so there was more light in the room (we keep it dark at night when we check on him and only have a little light to go by). Hubs was using disposable wipes on Jackson and it obviously was hurting him very badly. I asked hubs to stop and use the cloth wipes because his butt was bright red and the disposable wipes hurt him. He hadn't even noticed the rash!

I decided to go about this rash in a different way. (Luckily, Tuesday afternoon while at Target, I had bought some California Baby diaper rash cream...thanks blog readers!) I had my husband put the cream on the rash and I got a diaper ready. I put a fleece wipe so it would sit between Jackson's butt and the diaper. (I had meant to go buy some fleece at the store earlier in the
week but never made it so the wipes are all I had!) Jackson went back to bed after some cuddles and I didn't hear a peep out of him until the next morning.

On Wednesday
, I kept him in cloth all day, keeping a fleece wipe barrier between his California Baby cream covered butt and the diapers. I let him hang out around the house with fitted diapers on with no cover so he could air out and I changed him very, very frequently.

This morning, Thursday, the rash is COMPLETELY GONE! In disposables, it took the rash almost a full week to go away! With cloth, it took 1.5 days! I am sooo amazed and thrilled at how much better the cloth worked for getting rid of the rash! Last night I went and bought half a yard of fleece that I am going to cut up to use as diaper liners in case he gets another rash.

Cloth really is better for your baby, it allows their skin to breath and rashes to heal faster. If you still haven't given cloth a shot, do it. You will NOT regret it in the end, I promise.

And now for a shameless plug...
Come stop by my blog! I have a Haute Pocket cloth diaper review and giveaway up right now and I'm going to put up another diaper review and giveaway by tonight!
Who doesn't love free fluff?!

Thanks for reading!

Holly (The Cloth Diaper Experiment)

5 comments:

Unknown said...

This is awesome! Kieran has been getting rashes and I wasn't sure what to do so I'd let her sit diaper-less for 20minues a couple times a day (not easy for a 5.5month old to do and keep something under her wiggling bum!). Thanks for this!

Anonymous said...

I've never used cloth diapers, but I wanted to with my third. However, over a day sounds like a long time for a rash to last. It must have been rough on the baby and you. Only one of my children has ever had a rash and only one time(the current baby), and it was very red and had one raw spot, but after I put cream on it one time it was gone. I'm so sorry to hear that some cases are much worse.

LifeMoreSimply said...

We exclusively use (and LOVE) cloth diapers. I have a lot of information on my blog about CD related things, but to sum up valuable information about CDing and rashes:

1) Most babies in CD's will never have rashes. We experienced a rash one time, and it was actually a thrush--not diaper--rash. If your baby is having rashes, look into what might be causing them! Food allergies, teething, material allergies (some babies are sensitive to the fleece in pocket diapers), and thrush are the biggies for cloth diapered babies.

2) Burt's Bees diaper ointment (what we exclusively use) and California Baby's diaper cream can be used on the bare bottom without a layer between the skin and diaper. We've never had a problem with BB's sticking to the diaper--it'll always wash right out! Commercial diaper creams will stick to your diapers though and are a PAIN to get out.

3) Baths and running around bare-bottomed are great for airing out those sensitive places. Just throw a pair of baby leg warmers on your little munchkin and you're ready to roll!

I love sharing the world of cloth diapering with other mamas, so please stop by and ask me any questions that you might have! Thanks for the great posts on CDing!

~Rachel http://LifeMoreSimply.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this great post! I just made the switch to cloth and didn't want to throw away all the diaper rash cream I had laying around. That stuff is expensive. My son has been getting a red bum/rash the last couple days. My bad for having him sit in his diaper for too long. I'm having a problem knowing when he poops, unless it's a blow out. Thanks again for sharing :)

Hippie4ever said...

My son had a problem with diaper rashes when he was in disposables (and I promise you he was never in a dirty diaper long, just very sensitive skin). These rashes continued when we changed to cloth and we tried the liner between him and the diaper (to protect the diaper) but rashes would come and go pretty frequently, we even used a prescribed rash cream. Finally I read about using coconut oil as a rash balm and it healed quickly and completely and has not come back!!!! I still put a little on him at each change and have had no problem with using coconut oil with cloth diapers either!
YAY!