Sudden HORRIBLE diaper rash....with cloth diapers...

[organicmom3]

my one year old just got his FIRST diaper rash and it is AWFUL!  Our naturopath last week thought it was due to my yeast infection and had us treat it with an apple cider vinegar wash....it seemed to sort of get better but we were not consistent and it got worse again...now even using the wash for a full day and a half it got progressively worse and started BLEEDING!  My husband decided to give in and use the A&D ointment with Zinc oxide....it seems to sort of be getting better...sort of ?  But I have a few questions on my mind....

first....where did this come from?  Maybe it was due to my yeast issues (he still breastfeeds)

It can't be from a new food because we haven't introduced anything new in almost a month!  Though his bowel movements over the last couple of weeks have been highly potent....almost smells like vomit to me...of course I'm feeling a little sensitive too (just found out I'm expecting again)....so maybe there's a change in the milk?

And we use BG cloth diapers so I just temporarily switched to disposables to use with the A&D since I don't have liners to put in the BGs to protect them.

Any thoughts on what could cause a sudden rash and thoughts on how to treat it????

[organicmom3]

I'm also wondering about using the BGs at night.  Two of my friends said they used disposables at night because their little ones seemed to get diaper rash from wearing the BGs all night....it doesn't make sense to me but I"m wondering what others have experienced.

[runner29]

Our daughters both used BG (bum genius, right?) at night once they started sleeping thru the night and until they started soaking them every night (then we switched to a disposable for night.)

I never noticed any problems with getting rashes more with the BG. I think maybe you're better off with disposables while you're using the cream (we always used A&D if they got a rash - which was rare) but we often just used the diaper anyway (though usually a prefold/cover, not BG) with the cream. I know you're not supposed to, but I figured that prefolds are fairly cheap and we weren't putting the cream on with every diaper, so we never seemed to notice a problem.

Some diaper rashes are due to something the baby ate. It doesn't even have to be something new. My neighbor's son got a terrible rash after eating grapes, which he had had many times, but he ate a LOT of them.

My girls always got red rashes when they were teething - something about the extra drooling and maybe it made the pee/poop more acidic and bad on their skin?

But the bleeding doesn't sound good... I've never seen that before. So maybe it is related to yeast issues?

I would keep going with the BG as soon as the rash clears up with the cream though because I doubt they're the problem. 

for whatever its worth!  Good luck!

[EchoSoul]

You could also get an aloe vera plant. I have one, and was using it on our infant for his diaper rash. He calmed down immediately and stopped screaming because he felt so much better. :)

[skfmama]

My 13 mo old just had something similar happen. We use prefolds/covers during the day and super stuffed BGs at night. One morning he pooped, I changed his diaper within a few minutes, and I noticed his butt (looked like wherever the poop had touched) was bright red. Wasn't like that before. Since then it's gotten a little splotchy and some spots have gotten raw. It's been maybe a day and a half since the original poop.

This has happened before, and we use coconut oil at every diaper change, liberally. Doesn't damage the diapers. We also have a bit of vinegar in our wipe solution (but we do that all the time). Hopefully it'll go away soon. I might have to try the aloe vera idea.

I don't know the cause...he is majorly teething and getting 2 molars right now. I don't think he's had any new foods either.

Hope your son feels better!

[MEcatlady17]

My little one got her first real rash at the same age.  I find that she gets a blistering rash when she is teething multiple teeth, had a cold recently, and gets red/ammonia burn-ish when there is build up in the diapers.

Have you stripped your diapers? not a bad idea while he is in sposies and you are treating the rash.  Were they smelling when peed in?  BG suggests a little bleach occasionally so it would be okay to do that in case of bacteria.

I like Weleda diaper rash cream and then once her rash cleared and was just kind of dry I use a homemade beeswax, olive oil, vit E ointment that is safe for natural fiber diapers. 

We have actually had to trade out our microfiber recently due to the 'toddler' pee just being too strong and the microfiber not washing well in my Front loader and hard water. Has made a big difference for us.

[cristeen]

Wish i had an answer. We've been battling something similar on and off for 6 mos. I know its caused by his poop, but i dont know why sometimes and not others. The one that has me stumped right now is he got a cold and pretty much starved himself for a week a couple weeks ago and the rash disappeared for several weeks. Then all of a sudden popped up again 3 days ago. Ever since, his poos have been mucousy and yellow on and off and he's hurting bad.

When it gets really bad, an epsom salt bath twice a day makes him feel better at least.

I do also have a cream i use when its bleeding. Its called Ilex, my ped recommended it, i had to go to the pharmacy at Childrens for it. And i dont trust it w my CDs even though it doesnt have zinc in it. But it seals the wounds from all moisture so they can heal. But the next poop just has me starting all over again.

[amnda527]

My son got horrible rashes whenever I drank anything/ate anything really acidic. Even just a little bit. I was at a family party, and I had a small amount of pop, maybe a 1/4 cup. I nursed my son, and a hour or so later he was screaming in pain. We didn't know what was wrong, dh went to change him and his whole butt was beet red and swollen. It was from the pop. I had to be careful to stay away from oranges, lemonade...things like that.

[Jaimee]

The fact that you're dealing with yeast and you mention that A&D helps sort of, but not totally makes me think that he probably does have a yeast rash.  It would be my advice to just knock that out with an anti-fungal cream.  Switch to sposies while using it and the A&D.  Keep at it until he clears up completely and in the meantime, fix up your cloth diapers.  This may involve Dawn dish soap and a grout brush to scrape off the cream residue.  It will also involve sunning the dipaers or washing them in bleach or various anti-fungal EO's to kill off the yeast that may be living in your diapers.  What happens (and I know from unfortunate personal experience) is that the skin gets infected and the diapers get infected and just as the skin clears, the diapers reinfect it in a vicious cycle. 

I would try this first and if things clear, great!  If not, then there is another culprit.  Teething, maybe.  I was wondering about pregnant breastmilk myself as my ds has had some disgusting poops recently and I, too, am expecting.  Keep us updated!

Oh, and we use BG's exclusively at night without any rash issues. 

[TNmommyBFB]

http://domesticmother.blogspot.com/2011/01/cloth-diapers-youre-gonna-use-what.html

[TNmommyBFB]

What detergent are you using ?

[organicmom3]

Thanks.  The rash is clearing up with the A&D and using disposables at the moment.  I am going to strip the diapers as I've done before with the dawn and am also hoping for a bright sunny day so they can dry in the sun for a change and get help from that as well.  I use planet....it's a great detergent...have used it the whole time with no problems at all, just need to occasionally do the stripping. I imagine not being in the sun all winter has had it's toll on them as well.  So hopefully tomorrow I can get around to stripping at least half of them really well and do the rest another day so they are ready once we are done using the A& D.  I hate to admit it but I've kind of liked the break of using the disposables.  Life has been hectic recently.

[Jaimee]

Originally Posted by organicmom3 

I use planet....it's a great detergent...have used it the whole time with no problems at all, just need to occasionally do the stripping.

  I agree- it's my favorite as well.  Glad it's clearing!  If you can't sun them, a little bit of bleach in the load won't ruin your diapers.  I'm generally anti-bleach, but sometimes...