Far out! Ongoing rash

[helenn82]

We have been using cloth since Micah was about 1 week old and never had problems with nappy rash however in the last 3 months have been fighting a losing battle. He is blistering almost immediately under his scrotum, on his scrotum and on the tip of his willy. Nothing has changed.
We had him on antibiotics for a while to clear it up but as soon as the antibiotics were finished he got it back. I had him in disposables all last week and it cleared up.....what do we do???????????

Will silk liners help? I have been deliberately putting him in fitted nappies at home without a cover so he is getting changed a lot sooner (i.e no more than 1 1/2 hours). Is is a case of now that he has had rashes his skin is just more prone to getting rashes??

Help!!

[MadMel]

Silk liners are supposed to help.
What nappies are you using? It might be the microfiber, flannelette or stay dry liners that are making him rash up. Ash rashes up with the nappies that aren't natural fibers. I find the bbb and bbh and cute tooshies bamboo delights the only nappies that when I put on him his rash clears up a whole lot in one nappy change.

[kat13]

What sort of nappies are you using - it may be as pp said he might be sensitive to synthetic material.

Definitely try something more natural - I know swaddlebees have an AIO with an organic bamboo velour inner - they work well on my boys.

[Kaz]

Have you tried giving your nappies a hot wash? If he was ok before now I don't think it would be a synthetic problem. I would try hot washing and even a canesten or dettol rinse to give them a thorough clean.

[Linc]

it may not be nappy rash, my girl has a severe fungal infection to the point she is now going to go to a skin specialist. it looks similar to nappy rash but it just won't go away, maybe u should head to the docs just in case

[Leah]

We have just gone through the same thing

I had a special cream made up by my chemist like Hydrozole but a bit stronger with a REALLY thick layer of Sudocrem over the top. I also strip washed everything and now we don't use any fleece or suedecloth inner nappies unless it has a BIG cotton velour liner in it. I cut about 100 cotton velour liners

So it seems that maybe you can develop a late reaction to fleece and suedecloth??

I was devestated as I have about 30 Ittis but the liners seem to do the trick. I did try silk but it did not work for us.

If you want to try silk let me know and you can hve my liners (if I can dig them up )

I did use some sposies but mainly to stop the cream wrecking my nappies.

[bilbylove]

few things to consider

- WASHING ROUTINE
which detergent do you use? how much do you use? he could be reacting to the washing detergent.

- INNER FABRICS
what sort of nappies was he in when the nappy rash happened? did any of those nappies have the STAY DRY fabric inners e.g microfleece, suedecloth?

When my bub got really bad nappy rash back in Jan, the online tips i got, and tried (and worked!) were:

- only clean her with cloth wipes wet in water only
- make sure her bottom was really dry before putting another nappy on her
- give her nappy free time each day to air her skin
- use washing detergent very sparingly
- use mild washing detergent e.g no perfumes or enzymes in it
- put her in the most breathable MCN most of the time e.g fitteds with natural inners with woollie soakers (avoided PUL while she had rash)
- and the one i worked out for myself, when we go out, and she's in pockets with synthetic inners, i lay in my own home sewn, double layered flannelette liners, so natural fibres touch her wet zone.

i ended up getting nappies with natural inners, which is our preference now and that has made a huge difference.

night nappies with natural inners
(whizz kidz nightz and snoozywuns)
and maybe the cuddlesncloth bamboo night nappy

nappies with natural inners:

• baby greens osfa fitteds (hemp inner)
• little beetle sized fitteds has organic velour inners
• honeyboys with flannelette inners on request
• bits for bots with natural inners
• "very baby" with natural inners
• swaddlebees make a few natural inner options

- organic velour inner and outer pockets (fitteds)
- organic velour inner and outer fitteds (sized)
- organic velour inner and PUL outer pockets (waterproof sized pockets
- organic velour inner and PUL outer pockets (OSFA - wider in crotch)

• Happy Hempy
• the new bum genius organic
• cute tooshies hemp classic (osfa fitted)
• cute tooshies bamboo delights (osfa fitted)
• itti bitti boo (sized fitted)
• motherease bamboo
• sandy's bamboo
• UNLINED Mandy Mac's (hemp OSFA fitted pocket so you need a cover with it)
• tots bots (organic cotton, bamboozles but not the fluffles)
• baby eco sherpa nappy
• baby beehinds hemp fitted (osfa) and baby beehinds bamboo fitted (osfa)
• i have just listed relatively easy to get brands and styles. Many WAHM's also make small numbers or random nappies with natural inners too, eg. the lovely bamboo velour.
• You can also approach individual WAHM's and ask if they will make you a nappy/ies with a natural inner instead of the stay dry fabric.
• I guess you could also use bamboo trifolds, in a cover.
• alot of newborn nappies have a natural inner e.g Lushies at SHP, bambams, sherpies at bubblebubs
• this is not an exhaustive list, but it's something to start with . . . .

Look out for nappies with these fabrics as inners, if you want natural inners
- flannelette
- sherpa
- bamboo
- hemp
- cotton
- organic velour

You do end up changing your bub more frequently, in natural inners, but compared to them having nappy rash, i don't mind that.

I'm in such a habit of putting my homemade flannelette liners in EVERY nappy now, they cop the worst of it, saving the inners. Plus the little squirt is a huge help.

The other good thing about the flanellette liners, is that when you need to use a barrier cream that you know is no good for the MCN, our liners cop the cream, instead of the nappies.

It's hard for me to separate out, what changed things for us, cos i tried quite a few things and have incorporated many of them into our daily routine - i don't really care WHICH one worked, she's nappy rash free now, and that's all that matters.

Hope SOMETHING in there might help you out Helen, it's horrible watching them suffer.

My bub was FINE with synthetic inners for 14 months, then one day BOOM, coudnl't tolerate synthetic inners.

Leah - to give up THIRTY Itti Bittis! oh - that's sad! such a pity

[Beanie]

Sorry my pregnant brain can't cope with reading the whole of the previous posts, but just wanted to also add, is your washing powder a non-biological one?

When I was surfing about rashes one time, I found a website where a lady said her baby boy had the same rash as yours, and it turned out that the enzymes in the biological detergent were 'attacking' her baby's skin, since they are designed to attack and destroy biological material including urine. I

Something to consider..

[kat13]

Sorry my pregnant brain can't cope with reading the whole of the previous posts, but just wanted to also add, is your washing powder a non-biological one?

When I was surfing about rashes one time, I found a website where a lady said her baby boy had the same rash as yours, and it turned out that the enzymes in the biological detergent were 'attacking' her baby's skin, since they are designed to attack and destroy biological material including urine. I

Something to consider..

OUCH!

[Ying]

so what detergent doesnt have enzymes in?

[Leah]

Ying, you need to check each one but I have Purity, Green Choice and Seventh Generation, none of which have enzymes or fabric softener.

I am pretty sure Duo and some like maybe Fab and Biozet have enzymes.

[Beanie]

There's a Bambino Mio nappy wash powder that is specifically non-biological. I recently bought one called Castle which is just a supermarket powder, but is also marked as non-bio, and then there's another one I've seen, maybe Persil? Where you can get a non-bio version.

I think it's possibly not straightforward with the supermarket ones, as if they don't use enzymes they may use more bleach or something like that. Anyway, sorry I'm not very informed on the details but you could look into it.

[marymac]

My supersensitive babies always get rashes if I use any detergent. I stripwashed my whole stash and now machine wash without detergent and dry in the sun. We have no rash problem anymore and my nappies actually are a lot fresher. I hot wash once a fortnight, just to make sure there is no bugs.

[~Peta~]

He is blistering almost immediately under his scrotum, on his scrotum and on the tip of his willy.

Our son had the same thing happen to him and we worked out that it was from salicylates. It's also happened to our DD. They both had blistering, bleeding bums and they couldn't even stand having a shower cause it hurt so much.

Don't know how old your boy is, if he's not on solids yet, then it probably won't be the cause, but thought it might be something to consider.

Sals is a naturally occuring chemical in food. Most fruits have it, as do a lot of veges and herbs, it's in honey, the list goes on and on. Have a look at Sue Dengate's website for more info if you think it may be that.

For our son it started when he was about 12mths when we introduced dried fruit, fruit sticks, snack bars, etc. DD started having issues around 9 or 10mths, I think cause she is not only getting them through what she is eating, but also through the breastmilk, so a double whammy for her.

It cleared up as soon as we did the elimination diet with DS and DD and I have now been very low sals for a week and her rash was gone within a couple of days. DD is also a booster killer, which I think may be from the sals sensitivity.

HTH,
Peta.

[helenn82]

Deep breath to try and answer the Q's.... you'll have to excuse the post - it won't be in any order just answering some Q's

He is almost 15mths old.
We have always used microfleece liners in our nappies.
I use Earth Choice liquid and 1/2 a lid.
Peta - It has started since he has been on solids - so maybe it is food related????? But since it cleared up with disposables I don't think it could be food related

The Dr has seen him twice when he had the rash and prescribed antibiotics.

While I was using the disposables I strip washed all his nappies and gave them a hot water wash with a tiny amount of dishwashing detergent (think 5ml) and then rinsed them about 4 times. I haven't used my microfleece liners again as I'm not convinced they are totally stripped.

Bilby -

We only ever use water to clean him at nappy changes.
He has nappy free time every arvo before bedtime
I think the night time could be the worst as he is wearing it for a long time. We use abby gros (which is top lined with microfleece)with a wool cover.

Fungul infection?? Maybe??? The last dr just said it was nappy rash??? But you never do know with drs.

My nappies vary from
BBB
cute tooshie bamboo
cute tooshie minky (microfleece inner with minky lined top)
bubblebubs (with some flannelette and some velour)
beetlebums (suedecloth)
bg(suedecloth)

Maybe I can try cutting some flannelette to line the nappies?? Are there any natural fabrics which are stay dry? I don't like him feeling wet.

Leah thanks for offer - I ordered some a couple of weeks ago and are still waiting for them to arrive as they sold out. Maybe I'll let you know if they help.

Thanks for the replies - you have given me some ideas.

[Beanie]

Poor thing, it is so hard when you can't work out why. When DS had a bad rash I did use disposables each time, and it cleared it up (probably the dryness factor?), but then I just went back to cloth again with no dramas, however if it's as bad as you say then it might not be as easy as just a few days in disposables.

Hope you can work it out

[helenn82]

He had is really bad a few weeks ago and he was on anitibiotics and we were able to clear it up using cloth but it took 2/3 weeks! This time it only took about 5 days to clear it up with disposables with no antibiotics. We're using cloth again but I can see that it's starting again.

So maybe I just use a disposable every now and then???? I hate the things though....they smell.

[~Peta~]

Peta - It has started since he has been on solids - so maybe it is food related????? But since it cleared up with disposables I don't think it could be food related

Are you using creams when you revert to sposies? I find that Abby's rash clears up if I put her in sposies and use pawpaw ointment. But when I go back to cloth it starts again.

Maybe keep a food journal to see if it's something he's eating that's triggering it. With Angus he could eat one or two pieces of fruit a day and be ok, but if he had a couple of pieces of fruit, a meusli bar, some medium or high salicylate veges, maybe some jam or honey on a sandwich, etc. then it was enough to give him the rash again. We've only just cleaned Abby out so we're yet to start trying to find her safe level.

Interestingly, we changed gps a couple of months after doing the elimination diet and I casually mentioned to our new dr that Angus used to get really bad nappy rash and he turned to me and said "that'll be from fruit", really shocked me that he actually new what he was talking about. lol

Hope the rash clears up for you soon
Peta

[kathok]

Oh poor little Micah

What AB's did the Dr prescribe Helen oral or a cream? Cady had a really bad rash around 3 months and was prescribed Bactroban cream. It worked really well and we managed to get on top of it everytime it started to come back. I started using Simmons PawPaw ointment after that and it seemed to help somewhat. I also started using Ecostore detergent as well (the liquid). You can get it at the Terry White chemist at Clifford Gardens.

We also worked out she was allergic to Suedecloth around the same time but that was more of a entire nappy region skin reaction, rather than a blister rash.

Hopefully the silk will help, it is the only natural fabric that I can think of that will draw the liquid away somewhat. You could try bamboo/cotton velour though. That seems to draw it away a little bit too. If you want, just buy some fabric (silk and velour) and come round for a visit, you can use my overlocker to do the edges while the kidlets play.

[bilbylove]

of course, i had forgotten about the "fruit" connection. At one stage, the ONLY solids bilbs would eat, were FRUIT - and yes, once i cut that down, things improved alot. All that fruit was "burning her" as it left her body.

all the natural inners DO get wet, so we change more frequently using them

i asked Spotlight for the silk you use to make raw silk liners out of, they didn't stock it, only the raw silk you make ballgowns (!!) out of.

i have seen the right raw silk online from the US.

i bought some raw silk liners from baby soft landings.

Spotlight do sometimes sell cotton velour (80% cotton, 20% poly) - that's our compromise fabric. but you still need to change them MORE freq than when in a stay dry fabric.

You really sound like you're doing SO many of the ideal things already, what a pest this is happening to poor Micah. Maybe prioritise the use of the natural inner nappies for now, and rest the synthetic inner ones, until you can sew up some natural fibre liners to put inside them? That's all i got.

[helenn82]

Thanks.

Kath, the dr prescribed oral AB's and said to use a barrier cream - which I did (with fleece liners at the time) and the silly cream has stained a lot of my nappies

I might try and buy some cotton velour or similar then.

Thanks.