Yeast diaper rashes are no joke. To be honest before the last two months, they baffled me. Our oldest never got much of a diaper rash at all - let alone a yeast rash - ever. So I was mystified when my youngest would have rash flare ups. In the past Aveeno Diaper Rash cream would be our go-to product, but after a round of antibiotics to clear up a double ear infection, our youngest's rash took a turn for the worst. Little round pimple looking bumps, and a raised nasty looking rash that was painful to even look at - poor baby!
After hitting the internet we came up with several solutions and cream combos to try. But after over a week it seemed to be taking turns for the worse and become raw and blistery instead of healing or clearing up at all.
We were missing a crucial step. Airing out the area.
After lamenting my concern on a cloth diaper mama group on Facebook, someone commented with a simple, "try less cream." All the creams and lotions and whatever we tried helped keep that area warm and moist - perfect for yeast.
Part of not airing out for us before is because our youngest tends to go potty as soon as her diaper is off- gah! But a few accidents was worth the healing effect.
And our second secret weapon that finally brought relief was baking soda baths.
We tried it all folks, from Destin Ultra, A&D, a homemade version of "Riley's butt cream," bag balm, lotrimin -- it was frustrating to see days turn into weeks with no relief and several set backs.
So here is our routine, something I was constantly seeking advice on but not quite getting so hopefully it helps someone else out there seeking some help in figuring out how to tackle the diaper rash yeast beast.
1. Sensitive Diapers/Sensitive Detergent. If cloth diapering, you may want to consider getting some bleach and chlorine free all-nature sensitive type disposable diaper during this time and if using a detergent for cloth diapers make sure it is sensitive or that you are adding in enough rinse cycles. And definitely run your cloth diapers through a wash cycle with the recommended amount of bleach (in the bleach compartment) or vinegar to kill off the yeast and spores.
2. Ease up on the use of creams. I know for us our first reaction was to slather on as much as possible hoping they would work their miracle before soaking into the diaper etc. But what we were doing was creating a consistent warm moist environment for the yeast to continue and for the raw skin to stay raw and not heal. We back off on the amount and kept it at just a thin layer of lotrimin on the pimple looking bumps and raised meaty looking rash areas. We would mix it up with a thin layer of diaper rash cream like butt paste or A&D or Destin every other diaper or so.
3. Air out. It can be hard to do especially for an accident prone babe but helps so much. We found that letting her run around a bit after baths helped, or in between diaper changes - a good 10-20 minutes or so.
4. Baking soda baths. I read it was 2TB per baby bath tub, but we don't use the baby tub any longer so we were using around 1/4 cup and just lowering the water amount so it wasn't so watered down. We did this 1-2 times a day morning and night.
5. Disposables at night. We love cloth diapering, but 8-12 hours at night in a warm wet diaper is not going chase yeast away. Let that baby sleep and air out her bum a little in a disposable.
6. Frequent changes. And throughout the day change the diaper more often whether cloth or disposable - this lets you keep an eye on the rash and continue to layer on thin amounts of cream or have more chances to air out.
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