Waking up with red bottom every morning

[Bananasinfadedpjs]

DD is about to turn two. We have used 2nd hand cloth nappies since birth.

Recently she has started waking up with her nappy (bamboozle stretch) smelling strongly of ammonia and her whole nappy area is red, and I think sore too :-(

I have been putting her straight in the bath and then letting her run around a bit afterwards with no nappy - the redness always disappears and she seems fine.

We use a different nappy in the day (modern baby pop in) and it doesn't happen, but I suppose I am changing her more frequently.

I strip washed the nappies on Friday, because I thought that was the problem, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. I cold rinsed, then washed them on a 3 hour 60 degree intensive wash with no powder or anything in.

We have recently moved house, to an area with very hard water - could that be the problem .
I put Calgon tablets in with the wash every time now, whereas before it was every now and then - could that be it?

She had a week or two in disposables just before and after we moved, while we were getting things straight, and the problem started on changing back to the cloth nappies.

Or the other thing I thought was that the wraps I use are getting a bit small, maybe they are pressing too tight and not letting the air flow round?

I am planning to start slathering her in Sudocrem overnight from tonight, but if I can't sort this out, I'm going to have to switch to disposables overnight, which I really don't want to do.

Does anyone have any ideas of what I could do?

Anyone?

I think it is just an age thing. I'm sure my dd's were the same iirc. They weren't bothered by it but we had to be extra careful to clean well otherwise they got a bit thrushy.

Do you use liners? Paper? Fleece? Silk?

On the hard water issue - try soda crystals rather than Calgon - muuuuch cheaper at about £1 a bag. And Which? found no evidence that Calgon works.

I use fleece liners at night, Popolini paper ones in the day.

at Calgon not working, and it costs loads! Will make the switch to soda crystals - do you think that might help?

I find metanium works loads better than sudocrem, if that's any use? I know your DD is nearly 2 but could she be teething? My DS2 always gets a red bottom when he's teething, a good load of metanium always sorts him out really quickly

I use soda crystals and they do the job nicely. Clothes are softer and nappy stains cleaner.

How about trying meta out instead of sudocreme? My DS had 'red bottom' for ages and it stopped as soon as I used metanium. Don't slather it on though - just a spot, smear all over and almost wipe off. Hope her bot is better soon.

Our random discovery in an emergency is that lansinoh is awesome at healing and preventing sore bottoms

She could be teething, but it seems too uniform for that. It's not spotty or anything, but her skin is flushed red in the exact shape of the nappy. It sort of looks more like mild sunburn.

The sudocrem has helped but she was still pinkish this morning. I have rewashed and rinsed all the nappies twice now as well. I will try to get hold of some metanium - not in the UK so not sure if we have it, but I could ask my mum to post some.

Silver liners work well on pink bottoms, the silver kills bacteria

Silk liners are recommended by The Nappy Lady.

Thanks, I'd never heard of silver or silk liners, so I shall explore that avenue as well.