Months ago, Penny had a persistent diaper rash. The doctor said it was yeast and prescribed some ointment, but it did NOT help her rash go away. Nothing did, except potty training and getting her out of the diapers. Thomas hasn’t had any problems except for a bad newborn rash that I traced to (corrected) washing problems with the low-water washing machine. Until this week. Suddenly, he’s got a rash that looks an awful lot like the one Penny had earlier this year. He just started wearing her old covers last week. I do not like this particular coincidence and I don’t know what to do about it. I’ve got the covers in with the diapers on a super heavy wash cycle with bleach. Hopefully that will kill whatever is infecting our little bums. Otherwise, I’m at a loss. If you’ve got any experience or advice, I’d appreciate the help.
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I would suspect something in the covers, either a bug (yeast, bacteria), or a buildup of detergent or residue of some sort that’s causing a reaction. I would go with the bleach wash first (including the diapers just to be sure), in order to kill any type of bug. But then I’d strip them…which means I’d rinse them a few times in scalding hot water, rinse them again, and then rinse them some more. I’d rinse all of them repeatedly, until the water is completely suds-free after agitation. Anytime we’ve gotten even a tiny bit of detergent buildup on our diapers, and especially if I’ve used bleach and then not stripped them clear of the residue, I’ve dealt with a case of a burn-type diaper rash. I rinse over and over, the first few times in hot water, until I see completely suds-free water when the agitation stops. That usually fixes it.
I hope this works for you.
I agree with Cam. After the bleach, rinse, rinse, rinse! And if it doesn’t help, I’ve got covers not being used I could send.
The bleach and hot water should do the trick.
Alright. Super rinsing coming right up.
Rinse with 1/4 c. white vinegar to help rinse all traces of soap out.
My kids had bad rashes with detergents that contained enzymes in them, like Tide.
I’d do the bleach, to kill any bacteria, etc, and then the rinsing as the others suggested. Rinse until you don’t see any suds in the water. Some detergents are better at “clean rinsing” than others.
The hard cleaning might not do any favors to your covers and they may end up needing to be replaced after this, but it’s worth it to take care of any persistent rash problems like this.
Keep us posted!
I’m w/ Barbara – rinse w/ vinegar. Then dry in the sun, if you aren’t already doing that. Repeat until you start to feel a bit fanatical, then do it once more. Then try them and see if that helps.
If that doesn’t do the trick, do you have any tea tree oil? Might try some of that, in case there are critters that the bleach somehow doesn’t touch.
We’ve had bad rashes here, too- I switched to Charlie’s soap and also put tea tree oil on the little boy’s bum– this seems to be working!
Detergent makes a big difference on those cloth diapers!!
I also give my kids children’s probiotics and cut the white crap (flour and sugar). A couple of my kids seem more yeasty than others. I enjoy your blog!
I definitely think the bleach will solve the problem. My son sometimes gets a rash, and the only thing that clears it up is to wash the diapers with 1/4-1/2 cup of bleach to sanitize them. Additionally, we always wash them on hot, and use half the recommended amount of Country Save (but this is all standard procedure. The bleach is what helps.) The other thing that can help is paying more attention to how many dipes I wash per load. I have a bad habit of putting too many in there, and that seems to have caused problems in the past for us also.
Good news! After just 24 hours in our newly sanitized covers, Thomas’s rash is nearly gone! I bleached the diapers AND the covers in hot water, rinsed them with vinegar and followed that up with two more cycles of just water. Then I dried them on the highest setting. I think it worked! I’ve got the rest of the diapers and the two covers that missed the treatment running through the washer now. I have a bit of Mommy-guilt, though. Poor Penelope, who had this rash for weeks, could have been saved by just a little bleach, and Thomas never would have suffered at all. The covers aren’t doing too well, though.