Mysterious cloth-diaper-hating rash

[persephonefalls]

My daughter has had a really aggressive nasty rash/yeast infection for MONTHS. We had seriously tried just about everything to make it go away--different ointments, creams, we took her to a dermatologist, and literally nothing was working. We thought maybe there was some lingering infection clinging to our cloth diapers, so we stripped them, but

Comments

[rachaelhubbard]

I've also heard of chemical burns w/Charlies. I would say try a different soap...

Did you rule out yeast?

[labradors]

We had rash problems in cotton prefolds with and without fleece liners to keep him more dry. It would clear up after a few days in disposables which was really frustrating when we were first doing cloth. I eventually switched to bumgenius which I think has a suedecloth liner? No more rash. I'm not sure if its the dryness or the material that made the difference.
I've also heard of detergent rashes from Charlie's so it's probably easier to try a different detergent first. When we were having rash problems I also started adding a few drops of tea tree oil or grapefruit seed extract to the wash as a disinfectant and it seemed to help a little.

[sunshadow]

Try a different detergent. I'd use Tide for awhile to get them clean. Natural soaps are great, I use country save, but they can have a hard time getting them super clean if the water is not super hot. I started alternating country save with Tide when my daughter was 8 months old. I haven't had a single rash since then and she was in diapers until 26 months and my son is now 24 months. If you do not want to try Tide, try adding boiling hot water for a few washes. We had the opposite occurred. We went on a trip and used disposables and that's when my son got his first rash.

[coendou]

Stripping won't get rid of yeast - bleach the diapers, that finally got rid of our recurring yeast rash.

[teacup9]

How did you do it? I've tried some bleach, stripping, and vinegar. (Not all at once.) My daughters just have the most awful yeast and it does seem so much better in disposables. I got so tired of fighting it I trained by toddler at two and a bit just to be done with it. My infant's yeast is all over and so bad it got a secondary infection so I'm treating that with a dermatologist and using 'sposies for now but she doesn't really understand cloth diapers.

And to the OP I wish I had some advice, but after four years of cloth diapering I am at my wits end. We use Planet and occasionally Tide for what it's worth.

[countessof_roth]

Tea tree oil maybe?

I'd go NUTS if I couldn't use cloth but Roland's eczema is exacerbated by 'sposies :(

[teacup9]

Yeah I have been nuts. The truth is I'll never know if the girls had the same thing because it presented differently in both of them. Bayla tested positive for an infection, but I am still waiting on the other cultures so I don't even know for sure if it is yeast, but the doctor and I suspect so. The thing is I think it started on the back of her knee and not even in the diaper area.

[jchammonds]

Vinegar (or bleach, but vinegar isn't as hard on your dipes) and really hot water is needed in every load if you have yeast. Dry them completely in the dryer (unless you live where it's hot & sunny now). If it's yeast, I'd try that for a bit

[teacup9]

Wow. I was nervous it would be so much work. I have a hard time with naked time right now and even washing wool covers. I mostly have pull on, not wraps so they can be more work for diapers changes right now. I have two older ones in nursery school and I just potty trained the middle one so I'm still spending extra time with her in the bathroom. My poor third baby with the yeasties kind of gets dragged around a bit. I'm hoping once this bought clears in sposies we can get back into cloth and I'll be more vigilant.