About 4 or 5 months ago, my son had a very bad rash on his penis. It seemed to develop rather quickly. He had large, fluid-filled blisters and the area was so swollen he could not pee! He is ECed, and near graduation, so he only spends night time in a diaper. Nevertheless, this was first identified as a yeast rash, so he was prescribed a cream for that. (I would have tried something natural, but when your kid can't even pee...) It seemed to work very well, but then came back even worse, and this time we were told it was a bacterial infection of some kind and he was prescribed a different cream. Again, it appeared to work, but it always came back.
I, of course, got the idea that I needed to strip his diapers (prefolds). So I tried all the ways I know how to do it. I washed them tens of times with TTO, then bleach, and many, many VERY hot water only cycles. Still, the problem has kept reoccurring. I never saw bubbles in the washes, but his diapers do smell quite badly after a whole night. I am not sure if this is because they still need more stripping, of if there is something about his urine at night that does this.
At some point during the stripping ordeal, I ended up buying a pack of enviro sposies and his rash went away quickly, even without special creams. Now, I am alternating cloth with sposies. Anytime I see that he is getting a little bit red, he wears a sposie the next night. In this way, I have kept the rash at bay.
So now I'm getting to the last couple sposies in the package, and I don't want to buy more.
What can I do? He is my third child to wear cloth, so I am pretty experienced in wash routines and neither of my other kids ever had any issues with rashes. Certainly, by the time they were nearly out of diapers, they didn't have even a hint of a mild rash. He himself also never had any issues until the last 4-5 months.
The only thing that has changed is that we are now living in an apartment building with shared washing facilities. Could there be some kind of bacterial issue with the communal washing machines? If so, shouldn't the bleach have taken care of it anyway? If this is the problem or part of it, what can I do? I cannot have my own washer, nor do I expect that going to another shared machine in a laundromat would be better. Maybe it is something else entirely.
Ideas?
TIA!
I, of course, got the idea that I needed to strip his diapers (prefolds). So I tried all the ways I know how to do it. I washed them tens of times with TTO, then bleach, and many, many VERY hot water only cycles. Still, the problem has kept reoccurring. I never saw bubbles in the washes, but his diapers do smell quite badly after a whole night. I am not sure if this is because they still need more stripping, of if there is something about his urine at night that does this.
At some point during the stripping ordeal, I ended up buying a pack of enviro sposies and his rash went away quickly, even without special creams. Now, I am alternating cloth with sposies. Anytime I see that he is getting a little bit red, he wears a sposie the next night. In this way, I have kept the rash at bay.
So now I'm getting to the last couple sposies in the package, and I don't want to buy more.
What can I do? He is my third child to wear cloth, so I am pretty experienced in wash routines and neither of my other kids ever had any issues with rashes. Certainly, by the time they were nearly out of diapers, they didn't have even a hint of a mild rash. He himself also never had any issues until the last 4-5 months.
The only thing that has changed is that we are now living in an apartment building with shared washing facilities. Could there be some kind of bacterial issue with the communal washing machines? If so, shouldn't the bleach have taken care of it anyway? If this is the problem or part of it, what can I do? I cannot have my own washer, nor do I expect that going to another shared machine in a laundromat would be better. Maybe it is something else entirely.
Ideas?
TIA!
