In desperate need of all of your advice

unknownbliss

So obviously I'm a newbie and a lurker, (I often times post but not as much as all of you experienced CD'ers) but I'd like to first of all say a big THANK YOU to all of you lovely ladies! The reason? Your advice to put a fleece liner in to keep wetness away from my little girl's diaper area.

My LO has had a diaper rash for about a week and a half now, yes I've taken her to the dr's. She was given creams to try to clear it up and not wanting to ruin the CDs, I put her in sposies. I followed the dr's recommendations and slathered her with the creams hoping that it would clear up quickly. Well, the rash only began to worsen. I took her back today to see if her dr would give her something else that might help her more. Turns out, the sposies and wipes are irritating her horribly! To the point where it's raw!! What the heck is in those things?!

And now, to begin the begging for your advice (and shamelessly, I might add)... there's 5 different creams that I have to use on her now and it's a huge mess that I know would definitely ruin the very few CDs we have. I made her a few fleece liners but since it's a ton of cream/lotion, I'm thinking some might smear out to the cloth. Please, please, please, please help me out!! I want her out of those damn disposables ASAP!!

I don't know if it matters the type of CDs we have, if it does please let me know and I will ETA. Thank you very much in advance!

bethandjoe09

If you're using something like prefolds, I *think* it's easier to clean gunk like diaper creams out of them because you can boil them (which would damage elastic, snaps and PUL).  Regardless, you can always strip with Dawn to get out any cream that wanders onto the diapers.  It would require effort, but I highly doubt you're going to ruin your diapers.  However, I'm wondering which brand of disposables you were using and if maybe trying a different brand might give her a break and keep you from worrying about your CDs.  Aren't ones like Seventh Gen filled with paper pulp or something similar and non-chemical-y?

Otherwise, fleece liners and/or disposable liners are your best bet.  If there's a JoAnn's near you, you can usually find fleece in the remnants bin for pretty cheap.  You can also buy disposable liners from many CD stores (just be careful, the ones labeled as being flushable have a rep for clogging plumbing so you may want to toss them instead).  Also, have you considered cloth wipes?  They're incredibly easy once you're already doing CDs, and you could use just water on them, which would be easier on her poor bum.

tapcat63

I would use prefolds instead of sposies. You can abuse those things to the max to get all the creams off without doing any damage. Also, give her lots of naked time when you can. My oldest had a horrible rash when he was a baby that literally took a month to clear up and I didn't see any improvement until he went diaper free for at least an hour each day. Good luck!

unknownbliss

bethandjoe09:

If you're using something like prefolds, I *think* it's easier to clean gunk like diaper creams out of them because you can boil them (which would damage elastic, snaps and PUL).  Regardless, you can always strip with Dawn to get out any cream that wanders onto the diapers.  It would require effort, but I highly doubt you're going to ruin your diapers.  However, I'm wondering which brand of disposables you were using and if maybe trying a different brand might give her a break and keep you from worrying about your CDs.  Aren't ones like Seventh Gen filled with paper pulp or something similar and non-chemical-y?

Otherwise, fleece liners and/or disposable liners are your best bet.  If there's a JoAnn's near you, you can usually find fleece in the remnants bin for pretty cheap.  You can also buy disposable liners from many CD stores (just be careful, the ones labeled as being flushable have a rep for clogging plumbing so you may want to toss them instead).  Also, have you considered cloth wipes?  They're incredibly easy once you're already doing CDs, and you could use just water on them, which would be easier on her poor bum.

The only thing that I have at the moment are receiving blankets, which I'm thinking of using as flats since I really don't care if those are ruined by the creams. I had 3 prefolds for her but she's a chunky baby and outgrew them really fast.

I have Huggies and Pampers, which I now loathe for giving her such a horrible rash. Same goes for the wipes as her pediatrician is recommending that I not use them on her, and almost forbidding me to unless I want her to end up worse. I can't see how it could get any worse since it's almost to the point of bleeding from being so raw (TMI, sorry).

I did indeed visit JoAnn's yesterday to clean them out of fleece in the remnant bin    I'm using some old receiving blankets that are a bit more beat up to make some wipes for her until I am able to make another trip to JoAnn's for remnant fabric to make her some that are a bit more doubled for heavy duty cleaning.

Would receiving blankets paired up with a cover work for now? We only have one cover so I'll have to be washing it constantly but I'm all for anything that will help clear up her tushie!

unknownbliss

tapcat63:

I would use prefolds instead of sposies. You can abuse those things to the max to get all the creams off without doing any damage. Also, give her lots of naked time when you can. My oldest had a horrible rash when he was a baby that literally took a month to clear up and I didn't see any improvement until he went diaper free for at least an hour each day. Good luck!

This is what I was thinking. I'm looking to get some for cheap to use on her (we're on a tight budget since I was unfortunately laid off not long ago).

She has been getting lots of naked time but since I wasn't seeing a huge improvement I took her back to the dr's, which is how I found out today that she absolutely cannot be in sposies. So now I'm stuck with a very very tiny cd stash and a very very huge amount of disposables that I will not be using. I stocked up on those before she was born and before I ever thought of cd'ing, which I now LOVE!

bluesage

For treating the rash, you might want to consider good ol' fashioned bag balm. My doctor always recommends this before he prescribes anything. It has ALWAYS cleared both my babies of any rashes within a day or two, even bad ones. You can also try natural sposies with cloth wipes til the rash clears if you don't want to worry about ruining your CD's. You can make cloth wipes for cheap out of remnants or extra flannel/wash cloths lying around the house. Super easy.

Oh, and also give her lots of "diaper free" time so she can air too. Keeping her nice and dry helps.

unknownbliss

bluesage:

For treating the rash, you might want to consider good ol' fashioned bag balm. My doctor always recommends this before he prescribes anything. It has ALWAYS cleared both my babies of any rashes within a day or two, even bad ones. You can also try natural sposies with cloth wipes til the rash clears if you don't want to worry about ruining your CD's. You can make cloth wipes for cheap out of remnants or extra flannel/wash cloths lying around the house. Super easy.

Oh, and also give her lots of "diaper free" time so she can air too. Keeping her nice and dry helps.

Are you able to get the balm anywhere? Do you mind giving me the name of the one you use? At this point I'm desperate to try anything to help her!

I'm definitely doing the "au naturel" time and already made her some cloth wipes 

bluesage

Yes, you can buy it from just about any pharmacy, and many major stores. I've bought some from Walgreens and Rite Aid before. Its the same stuff my mom used on us when we were kids - its in a green, square tin. I think its called "Vermont's original" bag balm. It was originally designed by a farmer to promote healing for cows that got chaffed after milking, but it has many other uses for it.

Just ask the actual pharmacist for it if you don't see any on the shelves (you don't need a RX, they just have it available behind the counter too). It works great, I just stocked up with some not long ago when my baby started getting a very severe rash from the antibiotics she was on - doctor's orders. It cleared it right up! 

bethandjoe09

unknownbliss:

The only thing that I have at the moment are receiving blankets, which I'm thinking of using as flats since I really don't care if those are ruined by the creams. I had 3 prefolds for her but she's a chunky baby and outgrew them really fast.

I have Huggies and Pampers, which I now loathe for giving her such a horrible rash. Same goes for the wipes as her pediatrician is recommending that I not use them on her, and almost forbidding me to unless I want her to end up worse. I can't see how it could get any worse since it's almost to the point of bleeding from being so raw (TMI, sorry).

I did indeed visit JoAnn's yesterday to clean them out of fleece in the remnant bin    I'm using some old receiving blankets that are a bit more beat up to make some wipes for her until I am able to make another trip to JoAnn's for remnant fabric to make her some that are a bit more doubled for heavy duty cleaning.

Would receiving blankets paired up with a cover work for now? We only have one cover so I'll have to be washing it constantly but I'm all for anything that will help clear up her tushie!

If you have a way to fasten the receiving blankets (you can just trifold them and lay in the cover, which works but will result in a higher likelihood of poop getting on the cover when she poops), then they should work.  They may not be the most absorbent diapers ever, but that's OK because you probably want to be changing her pretty promptly right now.  If it's in the budget, Green Mountain Diapers has good prefolds and I know they have flats too (we have some that we've only used as receiving blankets, ironically enough).  She also has more covers and snappis and pins, and she ships pretty quickly. Or you could find out if you have a brick and mortar CD store in your vicinity.  I'd say at least one more cover would probably make your life a lot easier right now, just so you can handwash if necessary and let dry.