Recurrent nappy rash with cloth nappies - am I doing something wrong?

[MummyElk]

hello! I'm in need of a nappy guru please...
We've been using Bitti D'Lish snap in ones on and off for about 6 weeks, but each time she wears them she seems to get awful nappy rash...she's one, so she's moving around a lot.
We've been away for the past week, and today was her first time back in them. Literally got through two changes, by the end of the second change her bottom was covered in big red blisters...
Do you think it could be a recurring yeast infection? It does seem really itchy for her? If it is would Canesten help?
She gets a bit of nappy rash with disposables but NOT within 2 hours...and anyway I've READ that you shouldn't get nappy rash with cloth if you do the right things..but what are they?!

I've dug out every nappy and booster and they are currently all going through the wash at 60...
I'm a bit disheartened - they aren't cheap and I really think she'd get on ok with them if we could crack this?!
Help please!!

Not an expert, but are you using napisan or similar? Maybe you could try teatree oil in water instead for soaking and a very mild washing powder or no washing power and wash at 90 deg. See if that helps? Might be a yeast infection, but lots of nappy off time could help. I also found with my two that washing bums with plain water at nappy change, letting bottoms get completely dry either by using muslin cloth or nappy off for a while helps. Frequent changing obviously. But you could go all retro and try terry nappy squares as liners? No plastic in them, and I found personally that they couldn't get on with fleece boosters. But I used Bambino Mio's boosted with muslin squares at night or terry squares.
HTH

This happened to my DD - was thrush. The blisters ring alarm bells for me. We went to HV who prescribed something which didn't work at all and then went to a homeopath. Homeopath worked a treat (and she was less than a year old so really didn't understand about the placebo effect ). Had recurrences a couple of times after antibiotics, quick dose of Actimel or similar seemed to re-balance her tummy. No problems since. Did wash all nappies on a 60 a couple of times just to make sure it wasn't re-transmitted (not even sure it can be, but just to make sure!)

robino - I think it's important if anyone in the family has suffered from thrush to make sure that all towels, pants etc are washed at a very high temp (I always wash towels and sheets at 90 as a matter of course), as candida loves a warm, damp environment.

if it was a thrush infection you would expect it to be just the same in dispoosables tbh!

i would try dry pailing, washing all the nappies a couple of times with no detergent to get rid of any build up and then just using bicarb to wash them with on a regular basis.

perhaps try some silk liners?

I have tried silk liners but didn't think much of them tbh. Fleece liners work much better to keep their bums dry. I have ittis and just use the trifold booster with a fleece liner over.

I use fleece liners on all of my nappies that aren't already fleece lined.

thanks all and sorry for delay.
all very useful...can i please ask one(ish) more question?
With dry pailing...do I put them in the bucket with a few drops of tea tree and that's it? Only, it's just my boosters that can be soaked so I generally don't soak them at all - stains seem to come out just fine so haven't been worrying about that...and how much bicarb? (REALLY sorry, i don't mean to be thick)

Plus - have washed them all now sans detergent so they are clean clean clean and will try them again this weekend.
Mumoftoby i didn't know you could just use the trifold (how dumb am i it seems completely logical) so that's also good.

I'm slightly waffling but just to say thank you for your responses, much much appreciated
xx

MummyElk - I had this with DD on and off around age one - she's now just over 2yo and is in cloth nappies almost full time without any problem. She was fine until she hit one and then had terrible nappy rash whenever I put her in cloth nappies - it went on until she was about 18mo. It coincided with her poo (sorry if TMI) changing from just being lumps of what had gone in to proper poo iyswim and I think the nappy rash was probably linked to that. I tried everything and posted on here quite a lot but eventually it just worked itself out. Just thought I'd let you know so if nothing works you know it might well come right with time.

Mummyelk - what washing powder etc do you use and how do you wash? I wouldn't even add tea tree or anything to the load TBH till you know what this is. I just dry pail with nothing in the bucket at all. I wash at 60 and give an extra rinse after. If you don't do an extra rinse already then I would do that to get rid of the detergent. MY DD had awful nappy rash a while ago (including bleeding) but we ruled out that it wasn't the cloth nappies doing it.

One thing that always make DD come up is disposable wipes. We switched to washable wipes a while ago and if somebody uses disposables on her, even just for one day the rash is awful. I wouldn't go back TBH.

We had a similar episode in the autumn. We've used cloth since birth, but did move to disposables for a bit because of the rash (this time it was better in disps, in the past it hadn't been; when i went back to cloth it came STRAIGHT back, so I realised something must be lurking in the nappies...)

Eventually I:

• washed everything at 90, maybe even twice?
• used canestan for about a fortnight
• put yoghurt on a couple of times

Worked miracles. And the canestan was much better than the presription stuff the dr insisted on giving me (wouldn't give canestan...)

Hi there, though all the above make lots of sense, here's a left field suggestion. Do you think she may be teething? My DS often had acid poo that seemed to burn his bottom when he was particularly teethy. At around 10 months, just after we had moved house and he had been consequently in disposables, he had a really bad patch. I thought it was the disposables doing it and quickly got back to using cloth, but he had a few other episodes after that and all related to teething.

Hi all
Thanks so much for the messages - makes me feel a lot better!! She's still got a pretty awful bum, and i'm using canesten and metanium now, doesn't seem to be fixing it much...but as you say, acid poos and possible teeth issues don't help!! she has 12 teeth. do the molars etc start coming through soon (1yo)

Mumofsoon2b4 - we use persil non bio i think, usually 40degree, with an extra rinse, though i've been 65ing it recently just for the nappies...

On a lighter note...i did find myself with handsful of poo the other night after deciding to give her nappy-off time!!! love it.

Anyway thank you so much for the messages...hopefully we'll have a nice smooth bum soon!!!