Diapers and Diaper Rash

vn baby congrats on the birth of your cute little baby girl ... she shares her birthday with my hubby

what I do with my 3 month old is as follows - use the insert from bum genius inside the birdseye cotton diaper from gerbers. this I have about 10 sets and use them during the day. when they are all used, we wash them in the washer. at night, we use pampers swaddlers disposables.

diaper rash looks like a red mark on the bottom of your baby. to prevent it, we used to wipe the area well with wet wipes and then let him air dry a few minutes and then apply a diaper rash cream. put the diaper rash cream every time your baby finishes pooping.

my little one pooped 8-10 times a day the first month so he always had a bit of diaper rash. but that improved a lot when we started using cloth diapers during the day. in his 2nd month he was down to 2-3 poops a day which helped a lot with the rash. now in his 3rd month he only poops once every couple of days so the diaper rash is more or less gone.

 

Vnbaby, congratulations and welcome aboard! Joshika is a beautiful name. How are you doing?

Most of your questions below have already been answered in the cloth diapering thread, but here you go so you don't spend too much time searching. I can understand how it was when Riya was one month old, I just wanted answers since I was always short on time...

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Initially you will go through approx. a dozen to 14 diapers a day. Riya is a heavy wetter so we went through more than that on days. I changed her every hour to hour and a half, even if it was just a little wet.

Prevention - make sure you don't leave the baby in her diaper for too long, change every hour to hour and a half at this stage. If possible, leave her diaper-less for a while so she gets some air. When we went back to our first week check up, Riya had some signs of rash (redness and a little bumpy) so her pedi asked us to use Desitin ointment on her, we did and it helped. Make sure you put a good layer on the rash. I have also heard that Beaudrouex Butt Paste is good too. My MIL also told me using baby powder will help, but make sure you get the fragrance free one with corn starch (or use just plain corn starch). It will also help with keeping the baby's bottom dry.

Red rashes with little bumps is what I see on Riya.

Leave her diaper-less as much as you can, put a thick layer of ointment. I find Desitin really helpful (Riya still gets diaper rashes from disposables since she is totally used to cloth diapers now). Make sure you keep the area dry, even the thigh folds.

You can go through Cloth Diapering forum when you get a chance for tips on taking care of BGs. At this point, I would suggest that you use only disposables for a while. Unless you have help in the house who can wash your diapers and stuff them, it's not just worth it to add to your 'things to do' list with one month old around, especially if you don’t have a washer/dryer in your house. I had my mom here for the first three months, and even then Riya kept us all busy!

You don’t have to even wring the BG cover, just hang it to dry. In fact, sun drying is the best way to get rid of those poopy stains. But the inserts will take a whole lot longer to dry if you hang dry.

Sorry, no idea. I use pampers for traveling and love them.

What we do is, use a wet wipe (fragrance and alcohol free), then I pat dry with a dry soft cloth, then I pat some powder (frangrance and talc free with corn starch) on and put on the fresh diaper. If Riya has diaper rash, I do the same stuff (make sure you don’t wipe too hard), instead of the powder, I put a thick layer of ointment.

Yes, I think 4 hours is waaaay too long toleave a diaper on a month old, no matter how genius the cloth diaper is. But don't worry, we all made and still make mistakes, I still do. If you check the BG on the surface, it will feel dry because the lining wicks away moisture, so the best way is to check the insert and also use your nose to sniff. I still do that while potty training every hour , and if I get even a whiff of the pee smell, I change her. I have seen that prefolds are not as moisture wicking as Bum Genius ones and they can actually make your baby’s already existing rash worse.

Good luck and don't hesitate to ask if you have any more questions.

Raj

 

Welcome VnBaby! Please do check the cloth diaper thread for more info on buying/using/washing CDs. Raj has given most of the answers so i will only supplement.

Ideally as soon as it is wet. If you use sposies it is very hard to tell if they are wet initially so make it a routine to change every 2 hours atleast (more often if you can tell that it is wet/dirty). Its not the urine alone which causes rash - most of the rash is due to ammonia released from urine that has been sitting in the diaper for sometime. So even if the skin feeld dry the released ammonia (the nasty urine smell is due to this) will still irritatae the skin and cause a rash. This is why diapers need to be changed often.

You'll know a rash when the diaper area is red/inflamed/bumpy. Changing dipaers often is the best prevention coupled with lots of airtime. Since you have a girl it should be easy to leave her diaper-free for an hour or so 3-4 times/day. Creams/powder can help but air is best. Applying breastmilk also helps.

If you are ok with washing, then use a prefold alone pinned up (fold like this) with a rubber/plastic sheet underneath. You will know the minute she wets/poops and its very comfortable for the baby. Use a sposie for the nights alone. (i dont know what the weather is like where you are and if its warm enough to do this).

Vanathi.

 

Hi, Just wanted to add a couple of things. We'd started using wipes for the newborn. The meconium was so difficult to get off the skin and K got a rash the next day eventhough he was on cloth diapers still at that point. Alcohol and fragrance apart, I found my LO was also sensitive to some of the chemicals used in wet wipes. I shifted to cotton pad for cleaning, wet them with warm water and cleaned his butt. WIth breastfed poo, I found it easier to just clear with water and cotton. Around two months, when we started diapering with disposables, I started wipes again.
Does Bum Genius have a microfibre inner layer? While that wicks away moisture excellently, it does give DS a rash. I wonder if it irritates the senstive skin. So at 23 months, I still change cloth diapers as soon as he wets them.

 

I used only Huggies diapers from his day one....initially it took a pack dialy for my kid(10 per pack). Almost we used for 5 months. After that, Huggies Nappi pads which are also very helpful with airfree and no lock over his waist. so,currently using nappipads at home. the cost is half to the diapers. But at night I use Diaper only as he may not wakeup soon.

 

Diaper Rash

Hi,
I am new to this forum. I have a six month old baby girl. I have been using disposable diapers from day one. She is having diaper rash most of the times and its very bad in the evenings. I also give her diaper free time but nothing works. I really feel bad to see her soft skin suffer so much. I want to use cloth diaper but as we are here in US, the washing and cleaning process is quite different from the people in India. I have seen another thread, where people give their tips about cloth diaper. I saw Bumkins All-In-One diaper bundle 6 pack with inserts for 90$. It is very costly and I am not sure how good it is. Or should we just buy prefolded gerber cloth diapers?
I just want to know if I am the only one who sees so much rash and whats the best solution?

 

Re: Diaper Rash

Hi, Have you tried other brands of diapers. I know a couple of people whose LOs get a bad bum rash after using Huggies - turned out they had allergies to some ingredients in it. If I remember right, corn starch. Just wondering if that was the case with you.
If store-bought cloth diapers are expensive for you, why dont you look up WAHM directories for diaper makers. Diaperhyena.com does have a lot of links. If you have a sewing machine and a couple of days free, you can make your own bundle.

P.S. And welcome, looking forward to getting to know you.

 

Re: Diaper Rash

Hi Kuttipappu,

I don't know which diapers you use. I have been using Pampers for my daughter and they are a really good brand. Compared to other diapers, I feel Pampers is more absorbent, better fitting and softer to the skin. I also make it a point to apply Vaseline/Petroleum jelly during every diaper change to prevent diaper rash. You can also use diaper rash creams such as Destin/Balmex etc... but Petroleum Jelley works just fine and it is more cost effective.

Hope this helps!

 

Re: Diaper Rash

kuttipappu, I am not a huge fan of Huggies (if that's what you are using). We used disposables on our daughter for the first three months (we now use only cloth diapers unless traveling).

How often do you you change her diapers? A mistake lot of moms make is they dont' change the baby as often as they would with cloth diapers thinking it's absorbable. Disposables are absorbable, yes, but rashes happen not mainly because of wetness but because of ammonia released in the urine. Make sure you change her often and instead of Huggies, try Pampers Sensitive. They are pricey but I really liked them. The best part of this diaper is that it has a yellow line running across the diaper and it turns blue when the baby is wet! Even without the yellow line marker, I used to change her every hour to an hour and a half.

Do you use any diaper rash ointment on her? Try Desitin, it works wonders to get rid of those pesky rashes. Put a thick layer before putting on a fresh diaper. It will stop the contact of urine and poop to the skin.

Raj