overnight cd help - rashes & such

huntjul

LO is 13 mo old, been in CDs since coming home from the hospital. We live in a tropical climate but have controlled any mild rashes with CJ's butter easily until about 2 weeks ago when she started to develop first redness through the entire diapered area, which progressed to small rash bumps that were worst in her creases and front, which then started to blister, and in two spots became small open sores. Throughout this time we treated with CJ's every change, changed more frequently (hourly), did no-diaper time, and did baking soda and water butt soaks daily.

We use AI2 (grovias with stay dry inserts) and pockets with 2 mf inserts during the day and ecoposh fitteds with 2 bamboo inserts with a cover at night. She goes 12 hrs at night without a change. In the AM her fitted is pretty soaked but we rarely get leaks (~ once/week maybe). During the day we normally change her every 90 minutes or earlier if she poops (have been doing more frequently since rash developed). We use wash cloths wetted with water as wipes. Wash routine is cold rinse (our machine won't do anything except a cold rinse, weird but true), hot wash with Tide powder up to the "1" line, cold rinse, all in a TL washer, hang to dry.

Since the rash got bad, we started using sposies at night so that we could use diaper ointment (benzalkonium, a mild OTC antibiotic), then use the usual daytime CDs. As long as we do that, the rash stays very mild (gets worse during the day but then improves dramatically overnight with the ointment), but as soon as I switch back to CDs overnight, the rash gets out of hand. I'd like to use the CDs overnight--fewer leaks and better for the environment--but am not sure then what to do about the rash.

Would it be helpful to strip diapers? Or add some kind of liner like fleece to keep wetness away from the butt at night? Do i have any options besides going to a disposable liner or sticking with sposies overnight?

TJ1979

You could try a stay dry liner.

Is there any smell?

freezorburn

You might have some kind of buildup or maybe your ON fitteds aren't getting fully clean. Are you smelling anything when you take them off in the morning?

I just went through a stretch of troubleshooting my ON fitteds, and here are a few things you can try:

• soak the wet fitted in hot water when it comes off in the morning, then wring it out after it has cooled and put it in your diaper bin.
  
• Instead of a cool rinse and spin, can you start with a quick warm wash?
  
• are you using the longest possible cycle that your washing machine has? If you already are, is it possible to stop the machine mid-cycle so that you can have some soak time mid-cycle? If your machine agitates for only 15 minutes, for example, can you stop it and let it soak for 30 minutes and then start it up again?
  
• check the hardness of your water, either with your local water authority or by testing it with a strip or kit, then come back here and ask if anyone else has hardness in the same range and how much Tide they are using.

A fleece liner can help with wetness, as well as something like Grandma El's or Waxelene or Magic Stick (if you don't have beeswax allergy). 

huntjul

missmimsyy said:

Are you doing a second rinse after washing? Stripping probably wouldn't hurt.

Yes, so the regular wash has a rinse, and then I do a second rinse.

TJ1979 said:

You could try a stay dry liner.

Is there any smell?

No smell.

freezorburn said:

You might have some kind of buildup or maybe your ON fitteds aren't getting fully clean. Are you smelling anything when you take them off in the morning?

I just went through a stretch of troubleshooting my ON fitteds, and here are a few things you can try:

• soak the wet fitted in hot water when it comes off in the morning, then wring it out after it has cooled and put it in your diaper bin.
  
• Instead of a cool rinse and spin, can you start with a quick warm wash?
  
• are you using the longest possible cycle that your washing machine has? If you already are, is it possible to stop the machine mid-cycle so that you can have some soak time mid-cycle? If your machine agitates for only 15 minutes, for example, can you stop it and let it soak for 30 minutes and then start it up again?
  
• check the hardness of your water, either with your local water authority or by testing it with a strip or kit, then come back here and ask if anyone else has hardness in the same range and how much Tide they are using.

A fleece liner can help with wetness, as well as something like Grandma El's or Waxelene or Magic Stick (if you don't have beeswax allergy). 

No smell in the morning besides some ammonia which I attributed to the amount she pees (a lot). For a while I was spraying off the overnight diapers before putting them in the wet bag, but I admit I haven't been consistent about it.

I could switch to a quick warm wash instead of the initial cold rinse.

I'm not using the longest wash cycle - I've been using "regular" but our machine has a "heavy duty" that's longer. I'll switch to that one.

We are moving this weekend, so testing water hardness won't be helpful now. After the move we will be using the washer at my parents' house. We have used it when LO was 0-8 weeks old and it seemed to work well. It's a TL where we did warm rinse, hot wash, an extra warm rinse, dry in dryer with the same line 1 of Tide powder.

ETA @freezeorburn We also have a Magic Stick. Would that be better to use than the CJ's we're using at each diaper change already? No allergy when we've used it before.

freezorburn

A few hot water washes might help with the ammonia buildup.

Good luck with the move, hope you are able to resolve your issues.

Brandiewine11

You've gotten good advice already. Maybe after you move do a few hot water washes with no detergent just to be sure there isn't some buildup in your diapers. And definitely start doing the soak on the ON diapers.

As far as clearing up the rash, CJs did nothing for us with preventing redness. I switched to just plain coconut oil and it works like a charm. I use grandma el's for a more heavy-duty rash cream and that works too.

Since it's clearing up in sposies, maybe do sposies and the cream you've been using at night for a whole day or so until the rash is totally gone, strip your diapers with the hot water washes, then start over? And then try waxalene or coconut oil for a better barrier?

huntjul

freezorburn said:

A few hot water washes might help with the ammonia buildup.

Good luck with the move, hope you are able to resolve your issues.

Ok, will plan for a few hot water washes once we're at my parents' house. Their hot water is definitely hotter than ours.

Thanks for the help on the rash and also the wishes for the move to be easy! It's an international move with DH, a baby, and a cat to Ohio, followed by another move in 4 weeks to TN for me to start my new job, all in holiday season... so it's looking pretty stressful ATM.

huntjul

Brandiewine11 said:

You've gotten good advice already. Maybe after you move do a few hot water washes with no detergent just to be sure there isn't some buildup in your diapers. And definitely start doing the soak on the ON diapers.

As far as clearing up the rash, CJs did nothing for us with preventing redness. I switched to just plain coconut oil and it works like a charm. I use grandma el's for a more heavy-duty rash cream and that works too.

Since it's clearing up in sposies, maybe do sposies and the cream you've been using at night for a whole day or so until the rash is totally gone, strip your diapers with the hot water washes, then start over? And then try waxalene or coconut oil for a better barrier?

We'll switch to the Magic Stick then.

We'll be in sposies-only for 2 days during travel this weekend. Then I can strip when we get to my parents' house and try again.

Thanks for the good advice!