HELP!! AWFUL rash..We are about to switch back to disposables.

[blessedmama59]

My DD is almost two and we have been CDing successfully for about a year. A few months ago she broke out into an AWFUL rash (her first rash ever)..blisters and everything. We ended up taking her to her pediatrician who actually thought it was a staph infection..it wasn't though, thank goodness. After a lot of effort on our part and dealing with a lot of pee and poo accidents around the house (she went without a diaper for weeks), it cleared up. I stripped her diapers..I did a typical hot wash..then a wash with dish detergent and a vinegar wash..then two-three more hot wash cycles. The rash was back within no time. Basically it has been a vicious cycle of getting the rash clear, then having it break out again once we start putting the diapers back on. We finaly gave in and hubby went and bought disposables..no problem whatsoever. We used the whole box of diapers, and I was honestly so relieved to switch back to cloth yesterday when we ran out. After just one day and night of the cloth, her bottom is FIRE red and I am sure at the end of the day, it will be blistered. I just don't know what else to do..we change her very frequently, I haven't switched detergents (I use Planet), and I have stripped them several times. I think we have slightly hard water, but something has GOT to give..she has scars from the first rash :( For now, we are back to sposies. Now I am questioning if I even want to CD DD2 when she arrives in July..Please help mamas.

[cristeen]

What dipes do you use, what detergent? How often do you change? Do you see changes in the rash from change to change?

W my DS we finally figured out his severe rash is diet related, it really had nothing to do w the dipes themselves. But if we went too long between changes or he was sitting in poo for even a couple minutes, he'd wind up w open weeping sores.

The easiest thing for me to do was keep him in coverless fitteds around the house. That way i can see when he pees. And we've been working on him telling me when he's pooed. Its not perfect, but hes only 19 mos. When we go out he wears pockets and im diligent about watching out for signs of poopie. Its been a couple weeks and he only has 1 open sore left, which has been steadily shrinking.

Also, while the marks may look awful right now, chances are good that they will fade w time. I was also really bothered by the "scars", but we had a period of about 3 weeks w no rash and by the end the marks were noticeably smaller/fainter/fewer.

HTH

[Jaimee]

Okay, so you use Planet- that's good.  And you've been successfully CDing for a year?  That would indicate to me that cloth itself is not the issue nor is your wash routine.  But the fact that it does not come back in sposies and does immediately come back in your cloth, that something is wrong with your diapers.  Your stripping routine sounds good for getting rid of detergent residue, but I don't think that's your problem since you've been successfully CDing for a year. 

Did ANY rash cream get used on your diapers?  Was the rash bacteria or yeast related?  With the sposies, did you use a triple cream (antibacterial, anti-fungal) to clear it up?  There are two possibilities here... one, there is cream residue on your diapers, which will require a different kind of stripping or two, you diapers are infected and need to be disinfected (with bleach, sunning, essential oils, etc.)

As the pp mentioned there is a possibility that food allergy is involved, but it has not been my experience that this would clear up in disposables.

There is also a possibility that after her stint in sposies, her skin will need time to toughen up a bit to handle a wetter cloth diaper.  What type of cloth do you use?  Prefolds may be too irritating to her skin right now when it's so sensitive from everything it has been through.  You could support her skin with a cloth safe cream like California Baby, Burts Bees, Arbonne, Avalon Organics, etc.  And, use liners with your dipes- like BioSoft flushable liners.

Lastly, have you considered potty training at this point?  A lot of kids, especially (anecdotally) girls, are ready before age two.  I know we had success with my dd at 20 months.  It was so nice not to deal with diapers anymore!

Good luck mama!

[blessedmama59]

Originally Posted by Jaimee 

Okay, so you use Planet- that's good.  And you've been successfully CDing for a year?  That would indicate to me that cloth itself is not the issue nor is your wash routine.  But the fact that it does not come back in sposies and does immediately come back in your cloth, that something is wrong with your diapers.  Your stripping routine sounds good for getting rid of detergent residue, but I don't think that's your problem since you've been successfully CDing for a year. 

Did ANY rash cream get used on your diapers?  Was the rash bacteria or yeast related?  With the sposies, did you use a triple cream (antibacterial, anti-fungal) to clear it up?  There are two possibilities here... one, there is cream residue on your diapers, which will require a different kind of stripping or two, you diapers are infected and need to be disinfected (with bleach, sunning, essential oils, etc.)

As the pp mentioned there is a possibility that food allergy is involved, but it has not been my experience that this would clear up in disposables.

There is also a possibility that after her stint in sposies, her skin will need time to toughen up a bit to handle a wetter cloth diaper.  What type of cloth do you use?  Prefolds may be too irritating to her skin right now when it's so sensitive from everything it has been through.  You could support her skin with a cloth safe cream like California Baby, Burts Bees, Arbonne, Avalon Organics, etc.  And, use liners with your dipes- like BioSoft flushable liners.

Lastly, have you considered potty training at this point?  A lot of kids, especially (anecdotally) girls, are ready before age two.  I know we had success with my dd at 20 months.  It was so nice not to deal with diapers anymore!

Good luck mama!

Yeah, I definitely believe it is a problem with the diapers. I don't think it's diet related at all. For one, she's never shown any allergy/intolerance before and I would think the problem would continue even with the use of disposables. We did/have used several different rash creams..everything from Desitin and A & D to calendula cream and colloidal silver. I guess I had never really heard of the creams causing build up, but it is believeable. How would I strip them to get rid of the build up? We use prefolds mostly, with pockets at night. I realize the pfs constantly expose her skin to moisture, but I'm not willing to put forth the money for more pockets to fit her..especially with her (hopefully) being so close to being out of diapers. I've been trying to avoid using bleach, but if it will help, I'm willing to do it.
 

Originally Posted by cristeen 

What dipes do you use, what detergent? How often do you change? Do you see changes in the rash from change to change?

W my DS we finally figured out his severe rash is diet related, it really had nothing to do w the dipes themselves. But if we went too long between changes or he was sitting in poo for even a couple minutes, he'd wind up w open weeping sores.

The easiest thing for me to do was keep him in coverless fitteds around the house. That way i can see when he pees. And we've been working on him telling me when he's pooed. Its not perfect, but hes only 19 mos. When we go out he wears pockets and im diligent about watching out for signs of poopie. Its been a couple weeks and he only has 1 open sore left, which has been steadily shrinking.

Also, while the marks may look awful right now, chances are good that they will fade w time. I was also really bothered by the "scars", but we had a period of about 3 weeks w no rash and by the end the marks were noticeably smaller/fainter/fewer.

HTH

Thanks and I hope your son's tush gets better! I don't believe it's diet related at all..we were contributing it to teething, but she cut them and this is still going on.

[Kindermama]

I would boil them on the stove 1-2 at a time or if you have a top loader, put them in there and pour boiling hot water over them. You might have to use all your pots to get enough boiling water and then run a regular cycle. If this is all too time-consuming, I'd break out the bleach---it sounds fungal or bacterial. 

[Jaimee]

Originally Posted by blessedmama59 

I guess I had never really heard of the creams causing build up, but it is believeable. How would I strip them to get rid of the build up? We use prefolds mostly, with pockets at night. I realize the pfs constantly expose her skin to moisture, but I'm not willing to put forth the money for more pockets to fit her..especially with her (hopefully) being so close to being out of diapers. I've been trying to avoid using bleach, but if it will help, I'm willing to do it.

Creams that contain petroleum, petrolatum, fish oil and (IMO) lanolin will build up on your diapers essentially water proofing them and exacerbating the very problem you were trying to solve in the first place.  So if you did use Desitin and especially A&D, then you most likely do have cream issues.  The best way I know to get rid of cream residue is to use Dawn dishsoap and a grout brush (or very stiff bristled brush- I got one at Target).  Wet the diaper, put a drop of Dawn on it and then go to town with the brush.  Really scrub in all directions.  Don't worry even your pockets can handle it.  Then rinse as best you can by hand.  If you hold the diaper up to the light you will be able to see patches of white or maybe yellowish if there is still cream remaining.  Once you've removed all the residue and rinsed them pretty well, throw them all in the washer and run continuous hot washes without detergent until all the suds are gone.   For good measure you might want to add 1/4 cup bleach to get rid of any bacteria/fungus.  Line dry in the sun if possible.

If you do choose to use cream again, line your diapers fully with flushable liners like BioSoft.  To help with the wet prefold issue you can line them with a rectangle of micro fleece (you might have some scraps laying around?).  It will wick the moisture away.

[Carma]

I second the boiling as an alternative to bleach. It indeed sounds like some bacteria or yeast is in the diapers. Are they in any way smelly when wet? 

A big pot on the stove. Or soak a few diapers (after washing) in clean water, put them in a big microwaveable container and microwave them for a while (I did 15 minutes for 3 soaked FuzziBunz  inserts). That way you don't have to deal with a big pot of boiling water.

You can also boil the inserts of the pockets.

After that you can rinse them in the washer or by hand and maybe wash them again with some other laundry.

Hot (boiling) water also helps desolve cream residues like lanolin and beeswax, etc.. Bleach doesn't help with getting rid of cream residues just with bacteria etc..

carma

[Jaimee]

If your pockets have snaps (like FB's) be careful with boiling as the snaps can actually melt.  An alternative to boiling is putting them in the top rack of your dishwasher (cover the jetdry with saran wrap if you have any jetdry residue in there).   But honestly even though I use bleach for nothing else in my life and cringe at the thought of it, I went for the ease of bleach when dealing with rotavirus on my diapers.   And yes, the pp is correct, the bleach will not get rid of your cream residue so you would need to use the Dawn and grout brush route for that- just to clarify.  :)

[Carma]

Oh, I meant just boil the inserts, not the pocket itself, that would indeed be a bad idea  ;-) For that maybe bleach is indeed better and scrubbing.

Carma

[blessedmama59]

Thank you so much, ladies. I will definitely be scrubbing away lol I'm sending my hubs to the store for some bleach on his way home from work. So the bleach will be okay to use on my covers? I plan on scrubbing them as you all described with the brush and dawn, running them through a few super hot washes, then doing a wash with bleach to kill any nasties. I'm not sure what the chances of sunning them are going to be..all we've had here is rain and more rain :(