How long can yeast live in diapers?

flyer23

DS has been in disposables for about a week and a half (since Thu, Dec 1) at the advice of his doctor due to a yeast rash. Well, I ran out of disposables and I'm sick of them and they don't seem to be helping the rash anyway, so I'm going back to cloth (and asking for a dermatologist referral).

If it IS yeast, how long can it live in diapers? Can I consider them to be "sanitized," because they haven't touched his bottom in so long that any yeast in there would've died off? Or should I give them a good bleach wash to kill off any lingering nasties? I don't mind bleaching -- just want to make sure I don't make things any worse.

hispenguin

Bleach! I don't know if time will kill off the yeast alone, but I always bleach my CD's and wipes after we've had a yeast rash. Sunning helps too if that's an option for you.

chuicafina

We haven't dealt with yeast but from what I've read you need to sanitize the diapers with bleach if they've been exposed to yeast. I've also read you can use tea tree oil, but bleach would probably be more of a "sure thing." Also, if you decide to use cloth while your LO still has the yeast rash, you have to continue to sanitize the dipes after every use, otherwise they'll keep reinfecting him. GL!

barnwife

Studies show that yeast can live in fabric/cloth for at least 2 weeks. (I've been researching, as J. has a yeast rash now too.)

We haven't taken him out of cloth yet. I've boiled some PFs and have been adding TTO to the wash. When he seems to be symptom free for a few days, then I will bleach the diapers.

sdpookie13

We've had this problem many times...which is a huge pain!  Bleach and hot hot water seemed to help but I also heard that disposable wipes aren't good for the infected area (???).  We use cloth wipes anyway but added tea tree oil to the wipe solution.  Apparently it would take a lot of tea tree oil to be effective in your wash cycle so bleaching is best and simple.  Make sure you remove or discard anything else that might have come in contact with the bum (rash stick, liners, etc).  We found that our Magic Stick was causing our yeast to keep coming back.  Ick!