HELP! Leaking reusable nappies and rash-giving disposable nappies

[jozie]

My 16 month old has been wearing tots bots easy fits since he was tiny now with no problems. Recently they started leaking after about an hour of wearing them. I have tried strip washing and I have also boosted them with bamboo boosters but they are still leaking. Eventually (and sadly) I decided to give up using them. He has now been wearing disposables for a week and has terrible nappy rash. His poor bottom is so sore and blistered and it's causing him a lot of pain and discomfort when he is being changed.

I need some advice, either on improving the absorbency of his reusables (he is in nursery so they can't feasibly change the nappies hourly and besides that would involve me having the washing machine on always) or on some disposables which are good for sensitive skin.

Any advice would be very gratefully received.

What nappy rash treatment are you using?

we have stopped using wipes and using water and cotton wool. As much as possible (ie when he is at home) we let him run around bare bottom. I have been applying sudocrem before bed but not sure if thats the best thing as its oil based.

Now I'm wondering whether to try potty training him as he does tell me when he has been for a wee or a poo but I'm afraid it may be too early.

We have (touch wood) never had nappy rash, we use a mix of reuseables and disposables and our cream of choice is coconut oil. Really nice for the skin and DS smells like a cake. Sorry to be a bit ruthless, but what have you done with your tots bots?

still got them at the moment. trying to decide what to do.

I've used tots bots for my 2, with pampers at night due to leakages. Metanium has always sorted nappy rash for me (dd used to get it really regularly). No nappy rash from Pampers but Huggies always caused probs. We moved onto bum genius when she was about 18 or 20 months as size 2 were getting too small but I didn't really want size 3s, figuring she would be trained soon (we potty trained at 26 months). Could it simply be that the nappies aren't on tight enough now he's bigger (I found at giving it a bit of a tug to get them tight helped prevent leakages).

It seems strange that they're suddenly leaking so quickly and being fine for ages. Are you sure the problem is due to not enough absorbancy (i.e. that it can be solved by boosting) or could it be something else?

Are the tots bots leaking round the legs or through the waterproofing? I find that if it's the case that a nappy needs more boosting then the leaks tend to be from wicking round the legs but if it's a dodgy wrap then the wet patches tend to be in different places. Might help to narrow down the problem with them. You could try a lot of boosting (two or three boosters maybe) and see if that helps them last longer then work back from there.

I must admit that all my cloth nappy experience is with two part nappies so may not be entirely relevant to your aio problem!

Ditto re old wraps causing leaks. Good luck!

Yes agree - metanium cream for the rash, we were told sudocrem doesnt work well with reusables and our experience has backed this up. But disposable nappy fan friends are also fans of this. And second the advice about the wraps. We like Motherease but I think they're no good second hand and if you leave the label sticking out it acts as a wick and they leak

With DS2 ever since we started using cloth at 13+ months old, Totsbots Easyfit(v2 & 3) just isn't good enough and never lasts more than 2 hours. I expect it not to though, so I normally change it before it leaks after 1.5 hours. At nursery, they change every 3-4 hours and so after many leakages with them, I've now stopped giving them the Easyfit altogether as I don't want to put them off cloth nappies. A bit disappointed as I bought those AIO for nursery and even bought extra when they requested for more AIO as I could get them cheaper than Motherease Uno. Now I try to only give them bamboo nappies with Motherease wraps, and Motherease Uno and they don't leak with 3-4 hourly change. I also give them RealEasy but they leak if not changed within 3 hours. With Easyfit you can't fold it so that it's thicker at the front, more designed for girls as you can fold it thicker towards the back. Oh, and it seems to also make a difference if we're using fleece liners nappies tend to last longer between change. Though this might not always be feasible if you've got awful poo like my DS2.

If you're going to keep going with disposables, you have to find the nappy that suits your DS. For some strange reason all nappies give my DC bad nappy rash except pampers Dry. They cannot wear anything else, not even other pampers. It's odd. Agree with using cotton and water, it helps when they are already in the middle of a bad rash. My DC don't do very well with nappy cream either, although did find metanium better than others. HTH.

Are they V3's? I'm in a cloth-related Facebook group and quite a few people have complained about the new easyfits wicking through the stitching all of a sudden. Apparently, its something to do with the PUL needing re-sealed, to do it you just put them in the tumble drier on low for a while. Not sure how long but this is TotsBots advice so you could always e-mail them and ask

HTH

Nature babycare don't give my baby nappy rash while the other brands of disposable do. I suspect it's because NB nappies are made of cotton, paper etc with no perfume. The absorbent gel stuff in other disposables tends to give off fumes when DS ees in them .