Cloth diapering rash/drama...seeking advice :)

[anneca77]

Hi Mamas,

I have searched the archives but haven't quite found the information I'm looking for. I posted last week and no responses so let me try again.

I have been cloth diapering my 6 mth old DD since birth using pre-folds and wool soakers. I put dirty diapers in a hanging wet bag and wash on hot with charlie's and biokleen oxy bleach, with the occasional half cup of vinegar in the rinse cycle.

A couple of months ago DD got a bit of a red patch on her bum that started weeping. The ped said it looked infected and suggested bacitracin and keeping her in sposies which cleared it up in 3 days.  Each time I have tried to cloth diaper her since, the rash comes back.  I have disinfected the whole stash 3 times...once with the charlie's, biokleen,GSE and baking soda, once with Charlie's, biokleen, and tea tree oil, and finally this past weekend I boiled everything for 20 minutes on the stove and then an hour in a hot commerical dryer. 

I thought the boiling would work for sure, but now I am stumped.  I waited a month this last time before trying a cloth dipe to make extra sure that her bum was perfectly healed.  She was good for the first few diapers, but my husband let her sit unknowingly in a poopie diaper for around 20 minutes and that's when I noticed the irritation come back.  Now DD is scratching it which makes it hard for me to leave her bum uncovered to air out. Do you think it could be yeast?  Or just an irritation due to wetness?  I'm having a hard time telling the difference.

Anyone have any ideas?  I would really appreciate any feedback.  I am starting to think we are going to have to give up on cloth, but I really don't want to.

Thanks,

Anneca

[IdentityCrisisMama]

I'm not sure but I would try bleach as well. Have you considered trying something like a fleece liner to keep her dry? There are a lot of cloth diapering options that mimic disposables in function as far as the baby is concerned. You could even try some sort of pocket diaper (maybe just borrow one?) to see if you get the same issues. Maybe a cloth diaper shop would let you try some other type of diaper so you don't have to waste money figuring out if you need to switch. 

[anneca77]

Thanks ICM,

I think you're right, bleaching may be the next step.  I had already ordered some microfleece to go that route as well.

I guess I need to try these steps and see what happens.  I would love to hear from some mamas who have been through something similar...especially with regard to combating yeast, or being able to tell if it is yeast or not.

Thank you so much for your response!

Best,

A
 

[IdentityCrisisMama]

One thing you could do is image search "yeast diaper rash" or something. That would give you a good idea of how to tell if you're on the right track. 

[anneca77]

I did do that, but the cases that come up look very severe...so I wasn't sure if my babe's rash was different or just the beginning of/or a milder form of yeast...

We have a well-visit with the ped Friday so I'm hoping she can tell me.

Thanks again,

Annie

[Adaline'sMama]

I'd bleach and boil at this point. Basically, what I do about every 3 months is boil a couple of huge pots of water and dump it in my washing machine with all the prefolds and add a about 1/4 cup of bleach to the load and let them soak until the water is bath temp. Then I run the load two or three times on hot. IMO, it's a pretty easy way to strip diapers. It does sound to me like they have a bacteria on them. 

[Basylica]

Its been a good 6yrs for me, but my doc had me mix up a cream for my oldest who kept getting persistant rashes due to abx for ear infections. Wasnt diaper related... Just all that awful abx laden poo

I know it was neosporin, anti fungal (lotramin, like for athletes foot) and a cream (like reg desatin, but desatin isnt great on cds so i used other types.
I'd squirt about 2 parts diaper cream, 1 part lotramin, and maybe a bit shy of 1 part neosporin.
Only thing that would help clear up the yeasty red rashes. Stumped a few peds!
Also worked really well on the sore noses that would crop up on my toddler. Just a tiny dab rubbed in welk tho, didnt want to have him injesting it!

I second fleece liner too, that should help.
The best non medicated diaper cream i found was burts bees, te consistancy stuck around well and didnt rub off on the diapers, and smelled good.
Ds was pretty sensitive to acidic foods as well, so if i had oj his little bum would be red!
I would dab a tiny bit on his butt after he pooped as it was generally red then, and if i saw any potential hot spots on his cheeks or the area where his legs met his groin, or around his balls(lol) since thats where the yesty rash would crop up and eventually ooze. If it didnt start looking better id crack out my container of the 3 creams mixed together. Id slather a thick layer at night and just dab a bit during day. Id always wipe them off as clean as possible using wipes squirted with warm water and a bit of babywash and reapply to keep neosporin an lotramin fresh.

Give as much nakkie or nearly nakkie time as possible. When my son was toddling id put on loose prefold or flat fold (using large flannel blanket) and change when wet. Or id put on wool pants for nap to help breathe.

Lucky you are using prefolds, id wash em and bleach em and hang them in sun. Downside to prefolds is wetness against skin, so hopefully some fleece will help

[Basylica]

Oh, sorry abt typos... Stupid iphone

My mom used prefolds and plastic pants on my sister and i and she did old school bleach the heck out of them deal, and hung in the sun, rinsed like 4 times during wash crazyness!

Showing my age huh?
I think my diapers must have reaked of bleach... She used several cups i believe!
I think bleach isnt the best route for baby on reg basis, but i think if i had done prefolds only i would have had a monthly or quarterly spa routine and ran them with bleach and a good suntan

[pamelas1981]

hi there, been cloth diapering for many years now and after using sever different systems and considering all the reasons for and against all I must say you just can't beat good old fashioned cotton flats, even better if you can get organic but unbleached will propb do just fine too. I would NOT resort to bleach until at lleast giving some inexpensive flats a shot. Main advantages of flats include being able to get them completely and thoroughlt clean (ie no lingering bacteria or yeast) since they are only one large piece of fabric that's one layer thick and best part is you can dry them in a snap in dryer then steam iron them afterward in a flash to ensure nothing lingers on the diapers before they go back on baby's sensitive skin. Just my 2 cents . . .

[pamelas1981]

hi there, been cloth diapering for many years now and after using sever different systems and considering all the reasons for and against all I must say you just can't beat good old fashioned cotton flats, even better if you can get organic but unbleached will propb do just fine too. I would NOT resort to bleach until at lleast giving some inexpensive flats a shot. Main advantages of flats include being able to get them completely and thoroughlt clean (ie no lingering bacteria or yeast) since they are only one large piece of fabric that's one layer thick and best part is you can dry them in a snap in dryer then steam iron them afterward in a flash to ensure nothing lingers on the diapers before they go back on baby's sensitive skin. Just my 2 cents . . .

[time4latte]

Sound like ammonia burns. It took me over a year to realize that was the issue with my ds1. If you use a front loader its not running enough water through the diapers to remove the urine, so its just getting diluted and deposited on the diapers. Repeated long hot water soaks with LOTS of water should resolve it. Rockin green funk rock soak will help neutralize the ammonia build up. I still have a front loader that doesn't have a soak function. So I use a delicate cycle heavy soil as that uses the most water and then a regular heavy duty wash.

[wafflefish]

if it were me I wouldn't resort to bleaching yet. It doesn't sound like the diapers. If the rash only happens with poo the it could be just that. My DD gets rashy even if she only has it on her a few minutes. Fleece liners won't prevent the poo from irritating her bum if that is the problem. Maybe a barrier cream?

If it happens with no poo whatsoever...

Do you rinse with cold before your hot wash? It is very important to get rid of ammonia 

How many rinses after the soap? It might be building up.

Try a different soap?

I have had to deal with horrible rash problems so I know how much it sucks.

[withlittlelungs]

I have heard a lot of babies getting rashes from Charlies. Maybe switching up your detergent may help? 
Or if there is buildup, RLR is great for that!
Also, fleece liners are a great idea. DS was getting a rash from our fitteds, because he started peeing a ton since being potty-learned during the day. The liners keep the moisture away and we haven't had a problem since starting them!
 

[BK Mommy]

Hi there,
I would try bleach too and 3-4 rinse cycles.
But I wanted to recommend a product that I still use on my 22 month old now and then. It is called "mother love thrush and diaper rash cream.". I purchase it on Amazon. It is amazing stuff. I discovered it when my daughter had a mild case of thrush on her parts. It worked overnight.

Good luck to you

[wolfmama31]

Have to say I had the same problem (reoccurring rash every time I returned to cloth) when DD was in her first 6 months. And, I am embarrassed to say, it was so stressful for me that I just stuck my clothes (a mix of pocket diapers w/fleece, wool soakers, prefolds, etc) in 2 great big bags and got on automatic order via Amazon for chlorine-free disposies. I still feel guilt about it however if I think about figuring what to do to the diapers to make them not give her a rash I get little panic attacks. I think that now that she's 15 months her bum/system may not be so sensitive but just can't bring myself to haul out the clothes again. Yet. My own personal journey....

My point in writing is that for us it definitely was yeast. I had had no antibiotics and had been taking very high doses of probiotics from pregnancy. She hadn't had antibiotics either. But the yeast was there. And the cloth diapers just cooked it. It got so bad that my naturopathic ped said to go for nystatin. I freaked out about that but went for it anyway. I'd tried every other concoction I could think of and just wanted the rash to go away so we could get to work on what was causing it in the first place. The doc's take on nystatin is that, as far as anti-fungals go, nystatin is pretty mild. It doesn't break the skin barrier or something like that. So gut, etc, are not effected. I used it one more time after that when I saw a rash start to come on that reminded me of the 1st one. 

Now I use NEEM OIL if anything looks off and think that really helps. If she gets a few spots of rash that don't respond to being doused in Weleda's Calendula Diaper care Zinc cream overnight, I do a layer of neem (undiluted) then sprinkle probiotic powder on top then rub a layer of Weleda Diaper Cream on top. That's my magic formula!

Also, I've found that ALL the natural diaper creams out there INCREASE yeasty rash EXCEPT the Weleda one, especially California Baby and Burt's Bees. I know folks say that using cream over a yeast rash can cook the yeast more which is maybe what happens but Weleda doesn't do that in my experience. 

[BubbleMa]

Originally Posted by time4latte 

Sound like ammonia burns. It took me over a year to realize that was the issue with my ds1. If you use a front loader its not running enough water through the diapers to remove the urine, so its just getting diluted and deposited on the diapers. Repeated long hot water soaks with LOTS of water should resolve it. Rockin green funk rock soak will help neutralize the ammonia build up. I still have a front loader that doesn't have a soak function. So I use a delicate cycle heavy soil as that uses the most water and then a regular heavy duty wash.

I'm so glad I decided to read this thread!!  I've been trying to figure out what's going on with DD's bum.  It's different than a regular diaper rash, they're little blister/pimple looking things.  And don't respond to diaper cream or air time.  I didn't think it was very likely to be yeast either.  They come back every couple weeks and then go away after I wash the heck out of her diapers.  I bet it's ammonia burns!  Thanks!

[Chloe'sMama]

I didn't read all the responses, but I had to use the disposable liners with DD2 because EVERY time I used cloth (pockets, AIO, etc) she would get a rash.  After I started using the liners, no rashes.  Seems like an easy fix if it works.

Good luck!

[flyrabbitfly]

What are you using for baby wipes? My DS had some diaper rash issues when he was under 1 yr, and even a missed wet fart would make his butt raw, so for us it was more a contact rash related to poop than anything to do with ammonia or yeast. We washed his dipes with baking soda and vinegar in the rinse every time (and they were more training pants than dipes- only a few layers because we EC'd). He wasn't even in dipes at all more than half the time and he would still get a raw, painful rash at his bum. We dried in the sun. None of that helped. I mean, it helped his dipes smell great and be super clean, but he still got a horribly painful looking red raw rash. What DID help was switching to oil on a cloth wipe after poops. It got the poop off with less trauma than a commercial baby wipe, or the water-based solution we used previously with the same cloth wipes, and the oil residue seemed to moisturize and protect his bum. First we used light olive oil (cheap) and then switched later to coconut oil, just because it is supposed to be somewhat antibacterial and antifungal and super great. Honestly, either one worked the same= no more rash ever since then, in over a year.

All of that said, the itchiness you describe sounds possibly yeast related, and yeast is notoriously difficult to get out of diapers, especially when they are more than one layer. I'd second the recommendation for flats, because a. they get clean easy and don't get colonized like many layered diapers. b. The switch will let you know you are starting with no-yeast, and if it is the problem there would be at least a delay in recurrence, or no recurrence since they shouldn't get colonized  c. you CAN bleach them if you need to (some cloth dipes you can't) d. they are super cheap e. learning to fold them is a fun project!

If you can figure out how to keep them on without a diaper cover, I'd recommend not using a cover when you are at home- so you can know ASAP the dipe is wet to change it every time immediately, and there will be more air circulation. Keeping the area clean, and dry and ventilated are all important in avoiding/healing yeast.

Also give probiotics (you can get it powdered at a health food store) in some pumped breastmilk might help if it is yeast....

And finally, if you want to give EC a try, it is helpful for many people to solve diaper rash problems, and 6 mo is not too old to start...

[anneca77]

Thanks for the tips everyone!  I'm sorry I would have replied sooner but we've been a little under the weather here and offline a bit.  I am ready to give it a go again soon.  I have bleach and fleece liners.  I remembered a have a pack of the red line prefolds unopened and she's basically ready for that size now, so I think I'll prep them and start using them with her.  I think I will switch detergents as well and see how it goes!

xo

A
 

[anneca77]

I just wanted to follow up (sorry it's taken so long)!  After disinfecting my stash about 4 times (first three times used tea tree, GSE, vinegar, and boiling...last time went for the bleach), I finally figured out it was the Charlie's powder detergent causing the problem.  I think it was creating buildup on the diapers.  I also changed my washing routine to a cold soak & wash followed by a hot wash.  I haven't had any problems since switching to Country Save and or/ Free & Clear brands.

Thank you all for your advice and input on this!

xo

A