questions with cloth diapering a newborn

ErinE683

Hi cloth diaper gurus!

My husband and I are starting the process of using cloth diapers on our new baby girl, and I have a couple questions. I figured this was the place to come  My daughter is 3 and a half weeks old, and we've been working on using cloth diapers since her cord stump fell off. 

First question-- we're struggling a little with mild diaper rash. This is causing me to switch back and forth between disposables and cloth. For cloth we mostly use prefolds and covers, and we have some ruperooz pockets we use overnight. I hope it's just an issue that resolves as she grows, but since she pees so often as a newborn, her diapers are constantly wet. I try to change her a lot, but she still ends up with a rosy bottom at times. Then, I switch to sposies so I can use some diaper cream. Is this pretty common? I"m hoping she gets less irritated as she gets a little older and pees less often. We have a Growvia magic stick that I use with the cloth, but I don't think it helps much. We use Waleda diaper cream with the sposies, and it seems pretty effective. Any insight or experience you can share on successfully CDing a newborn? 

Second question-- when you sposie, what brand do you use? One of the reasons I chose to CD is to limit the chemicals baby is exposed to, so I've tried more 'natural' diapers like 7th Generation or the Whole Foods brand. But we had some Pampers from the hospital, and they did seem more absorbent. Do you have a preference?

We're still really exciting about cloth diapering, and plan to make it work. I'm glad we're already cutting down on our disposable usage, and I know it will get better. I appreciate your advice, and look forward to sharing my own with other new moms once I get the hang of things!

tjkdlhb

Do you have any fleece liners?  You can cut up some microfleece and lay it on top of the prefold to keep moisture away from baby's bum.

Also, patting baby dry after wiping during each change can help.

My favorite CD safe creams are Earth Mama Angel Baby and Grandma Els.

EDIT: I haven't used disposables enough to be able to help you with your second question.

CLLDLL

So the rash is just redness?  Does it go away completely when you put her in sposies with the Waleda cream? I'm not familiar with that cream, but I'm guessing it's more of a barrier cream than a rashing fighting cream?

If that's the case your LO probably has a wetness sensitivity, which is really common in NBs.  Try adding a fleece liner (or cut up squares from a microfleece receiving blanket) on top of her prefolds to give a stay dry effect. 

Also there are good barrier creams that are CD safe.  We used coconut oil at almost every change in the early days.  @chickypoo2468 swears by waxelene.

We rarely use sposies so we just use Luvs when we do.  

Chichigo

I use Grandma El's as a barrier cresm , and add the fleece liner as needed.

For disposables, I prefer seventh generation and want to try honest for the cute prints. My baby breaks out from pampers.

freezorburn

We really liked Grandma El's during that wetness sensitivity stage. Waxelene is worth a try, too. I had some at the time but wasn't sure if it was CD safe, but it turns out that it is.

I found that sposie crystals seemed to heat up a little when they absorbed urine, and that caused added discomfort to DS's red areas. Earth's Best was probably the worst offender, so even though it was supposed to be a more environmentally friendly diaper, I stopped buying them because DS cried every time he peed in them. He did way better with Huggies Pure & Naturals, so we were using those for our ON diaper for a little while.

After we moved to the UK we had to find another sposie brand, since they don't sell Huggies here. Naty's are really easy to find, but they feel flimsy to me. My current favorite -- for travel and daycare -- is Bambo. They're about as environmentally friendly as a sposie can get. They're spendy, but we don't buy very many of them.

OmaCo

My dd has had the same issues. I mix a Tbsp of coconut oil with a drop of melaleuca and lavendar oil. It lasts for a long time and clears up any kind of rash/redness in a couple hours.

ErinE683

Thanks everyone! I tried coconut oil for the last few changes, since I had it around already. I'm going to try the fleece liner idea, too. Unfortunately, the redness has gotten a little more rash-like today. Are any of the CD safe creams good for fighting the rash, or are they all just barriers?

lunarrainn

I use waleda. It seems to work better than desitin for her. I've stopped using a liner with it, so far so good ( but it's only been a couple of months). I've found that nothing fights a rash like overnight in a fitted diaper. I am not sure why, but it works. I also have a toddler, so most of herrashes are caused by eating something weird or not letting me change a poopy diaper when it smell it.

Rrrrrachel

I use weleda and I know other cd moms who use it and haven't had problems. Their calendula cream is also good. I also like the California baby calendula cream (not the diaper specific stuff, this stuff is like lotion) and have had luck with it on rashes.

Chichigo

@zoegirlTX‌ You are correct about barrier creams. I use a grandma El's overnight because he will be sitting in a wet diaper longer, to protect his skin from the wetness.

CLLDLL

zoegirlTX said:

Chichigo thanks! that make sense

AFwifelife yea, I see coconut oil mentioned, both for a general variety of things & specifically for CD-ing.  Just wondering about the details.  

You want virgin, cold-pressed coconut oil from the cooking dept. Use as often as you want. A little goes a long way! We use ours for dry skin and diaper area. I buy a big jar and put it into little Tupperware containers so we don't cross-contaminate from the diaper area.

Rrrrrachel

A layer of coconut or olive oil works wonders during the meconium phase.

TJ1979

Coconut oil has both antibacterial and antifungal properties. That makes it ideal for any kind of rash.