Do I have to give up CDing?

[cristeen]

I LOVE CDs!  We CDed for almost a year with nary a rash.  No problems at all - well, some minor stink issues that were easily solved.  But now.  Now we're at the point where I have to decide - do I sell my stash and just resign myself to sposies, or is there something we can do to resolve this?

The summary:

Sometime around 11 mos, I want to say, he got a really bad rash.  It seemed to start as a food reaction, but then it just kept spreading.  And it wouldn't go away.  At the time we were using exclusively fitteds and wool.  We battled and battled and battled it.  Switched to pockets, and it improved for a little while (never really going away though), but then came back full force.  Finally took it into the doctor, who told us to go swimming 3x/week, 2 prescription creams and an OTC cream that I had to go to Children's to find.  It improved but didn't go away.  Finally, on the advice of playgroup moms, we put him in sposies, coupled with the creams, and it cleared right up after a few days.  It was gone for maybe 6 weeks, and now it's back.  This time we've been battling it for maybe 2 weeks now.

The rash itself seems to consist of 3 separate parts that come and go separately.   

Started as red scaly patches on his thighs.  We eventually worked out that this part at least is yeast.  It still comes and goes as it likes, but it doesn't seem connected to the other rash.  It responds immediately to Nystatin. 

Then there's a patch around his anus.  Maybe the size of a quarter.  This one also comes and goes and seems to precipitate the greater rash, but goes away a bit easier than the rest.  It's a pink area sometimes with tiny red dots that can get bad enough to bleed.  This is the part that seems to be a food reaction.  I know it gets worse when he eats oranges or green bell peppers.  This one doesn't seem to respond to anything but time. 

And then there's the overall rash covering the rest of his groin.  From anus to scrotum, and from leg crease to leg crease.  It varies in severity, but it includes open sores, pink patches, bleeding sores, and sometimes swelling sores on the scrotum.  (If necessary I can try to get a picture of this - it's pretty bad at the moment, although hopefully by morning it'll be better.)  This is severely irritated by poopies.  If he does a stealth poopie and I don't notice for a little while (more than 10 minutes), when his dipe comes off, this is the part that will be actively weeping/bleeding.  If the poopie is diarrhea, everywhere it touches reacts almost like it's acid - the entire area gets irritated and red and the sores start bleeding.  This is the one that responds best to the sposies, but 1 poopie can set us back days of healing (which is what happened tonight, he had a stealth diarrhea while I was at the gym and now is angry and bleeding again - I swear the childcare worker thought I was a horrible mom because of it). 

What I can tell you that works - Nystatin helps with the redness, which leads to the obvious conclusion that that part is yeast.  The sores don't respond.  The sores do respond to a coating of Ilex (the special cream I had to go looking for), which seals the open sores and keeps them protected.  Bad part is it's a chemical soup.  And it stops helping as soon as the sores close, before they're done healing (it only bonds to open wounds).  Sposies help with the keeping dry, but they're no help with the poopies.  Really, the best thing I've found for the overall problem is my Happy Hempys, which are a pocket fitted w fleece inner, stuffed with a PF under wool.  That's his night-time dipe, and he wakes up every morning looking better - dunno if it's the 12 hrs dry or what.  I just can't figure out why that dipe combo doesn't cause a reaction when regular fitteds or regular pockets both do.  I only have 4 HHs though, so only using those isn't an option, since sposies won't get us through the night dry. 

Laundry - front loader.  I've been using Country Save and vinegar since he was about 3 mos.  This last load I just switched to Nellies.  I do a cold/cold "express" cycle with a full scoop of detergent and vinegar.  Then I do a warm/cold or warm/warm "heavy duty" cycle w 1/2 scoop, vinegar and an extra rinse.  Machine dry.  If I've waited too long between loads (big load), I add 3 gallons of water at the beginning of the cycle.  Right now though I'm trying to wash fewer dipes at a time to try to get them really clean.  For a while there I was doing an express cycle followed by a Sanitary cycle, but that didn't seem to make any difference, and it takes an hour longer. 

Dipes - I have fitteds, mostly Dream-Eze and wool covers that seem to be okay as long as he doesn't poo in them.  But he pees right through them regularly, part of why I switched to pockets.  I have Rumparooz, Happy Heinys, Knickernappies pockets, all with fleece inners and MF stuffers.  I have Swaddlebees pockets with I think bamboo fleece inner and cotton stuffers.  I don't notice any difference between the synthetic inners and natural inners on the pockets - they all irritate his rash.  Oh, and I do have PFs, but he doesn't wear them very often because he can pee right through them... and I can't put a Snappi under wool (and I suck with pins). 

So -  I've given you all the information I can think of that might help - anybody have any idea what is causing this / irritating it / preventing it from going away?  What can I do about it?  Please help keep me in CDs. 

[HappyWoman]

You could try Rockin Green Cloth Diaper and Laundry Detergent. We LOVE their products. You can email them with your problem, and they can help you out.

http://rockingreensoap.com/

[MayasMama88]

The first two things that come to mind regarding the rash is:

1) Maybe your LO is highly sensitive to synthetic fibers in general. Even though some of your pockets have natural inners, the outers are still PUL, right? And the microfiber might somehow irritate him even though it is underneath the fleece. You mentioned that keeping him in HH's seem to help, which would make sense since they are completely natural fibers. My thought is that he needs diapers that are completely natural fibers, but with a stay-dry inner/liner like fleece. The urine being right up against his skin can cause severe rashes if he's highly sensitive to the acid content.

2) Maybe your diapers need to be stripped using some bleach? If he does have yeast, he will get re-infected over and over again if all of the yeast cells aren't cleared from the diapers.

3) (Just thought of another one) Maybe you're using too much detergent. Try omitting the detergent from the first pre-wash (cold/cold) cycle. Only add detergent during the warm (and maybe try HOT)/cold wash cycle.

If you find that the HH's really do work the best, you may consider selling/swapping the rest of your synthetic diapers to fund more natural fiber dipes. I hope your little guy's rashes clear up soon! I don't know if you've heard of CJ's BUTTer, but you might consider checking it out. She has some amazing products that works wonders on rashes and skin conditions and it's all-natural (so no "chemical soup"). I use it on my DD and can attest that it works! Check her out here.

[DevaMajka]

Can you try a few days where you change immediately after every pee? This is where the "pee right through" diapers might come in handy :) In the beginning when I did this with ds2, I put fitteds on him, under cotton pants so there was no way I'd miss it. This might give you more clues as to the cause.

With ds2, changing immediately didn't make much of a difference in his eczema, but did make the rest of his skin look healthier. But it told me that it wasn't caused by pee on his skin. His used to improve overnight too (in staydry cloth). It also didn't respond to diaper creams much. There is one cream that does help, Dermamed Baby calendula healing cream.

We've found a few food triggers of it, and it's quite mild now, but it was never as bad as your ds's. Poop touching it still seems to aggravate it a little bit.

[Adaline'sMama]

I have found that every time DD has a food reaction rash, it will not go away unless we either use disposibles or let her go diaper free for a couple of days. We ususally take the diaper off as soon as we realize that she is starting to get a rash. If we have to go anywhere, we put a disposable on. During the day, we alternate between no diaper and a using a prefold with a snappy (no cover). At night we use a prefold with a cover or a sposie with rash creme, depending on how bad the rash is.

Usually her rash goes away within a day if I can catch it at the very beginning. If I let it go, I wind up having to use sposies for 3-4 days solid. Its also helped us to avoid acidic foods.