Losing will to live with cloth - HV not helping - help!

[bookbird]

Hi,

2.5 yr old DS has successfully been in cloth since 2 weeks old (motherease one size) with no problems, and I love cloth. DD is 4 months old and I bought some lovely new motherease one size in rainbow colours expecting a similar positive experience but she keeps getting nappy rash :-(.

Have found using cloth during the day and a disposable overnight has helped but I hate myself as I know "cloth shouldn't cause nappy rash". When I confessed to using disposables overnight when Health Visitor queried how her nappy rash was doing, her response was "ooh, that's one in the eye for disposables then". I could have choked her!

Has my DD got a particularly sensitive bum? What can I be doing wrong? Any advice to help me kick disposables to the kerb much appreciated.

Hi
When my ds gets nappy rash i used fleece or silk liners, changed every couple of hours and had outdoor no nappy time. It was a bit of a pita but cleared up within 4 days or so.
Fleece liners draw the wee away from the surface, and keep bottoms dry, most (all?) pocket nappies are fleecy inside too, but i find a liner (made myself just chooped out of fleece blankets) fine.
hth
HV sounds like an old bag! . ignore her, and keep trying - i am sure someone will be along with better advice soon!

what happens when they poo on the fleece liner though? dd is in cloth and we use flushable paper liners, so can i out that on top of the fleece liner, or just fleece?

We are having same problem.

My son is 2 next week and i kind of know when he poos (first thing in the morning) so i put fleece liner at the front and paper just at the back for overnight, but if bad nappy rash then i just use fleece, and scrape it off with wipes or loo roll, not wonderfully pleasant, but - the things you do for love , eh!
Occasionally i have thrown fleece liners away, but only a few!

Thanks tummy, I use fleece liners as standard but no difference, I bought a couple of silk liners but perhaps didn't try for long enough before copping out and trying disposables overnight (this worked)

I felt very under pressure to cure the rash. I feel HV/friends and family were judging that I was putting environmental concerns before DD wellbeing - not the case!

Now, the rash is away, I want to get back to fulltime cloth without the rash recurring.

Scorps, I give my pooed fleece liners a quick flick over the toilet before putting them in the nappy pail

thanks, i have been thinking of trrying some, she is in tots bots and i think she needs some different liner; even regular (2-3 hr plus poos) changing isn't helping; we too have gone disposable at times to give her a break.

DD got really bad nappy rash when we first started using cloth at 4 weeks old, we use BG but I switched to washing them with Fairy and now with EcoBalls and it's not so bad. She reacted to fleece liners so we just gave her lots of air time between changes and let her wee all over towels on the floor. She did settle down after a few months - good luck!

hi there
just a thought but i had this with my LO and was getting V disillusioned with my beautiful bitti d'lishes. anyway - i think it was thrush... i washed EVERY nappy/liner etc etc at 65, used canesten on her bum, and just used a disposable at night so that she had a "break" (groan i know i know but still) and it worked!
and nappy off time if she would leave her bits alone enough .
silk liners were also suggested to me, i didn't use them but have heard they are great.
That's another HV added to my HVs Are Useless argument!
good luck. don't give up! someone here will find you an answer to it!

Some babies have more sensitive skin and are just more prone to nappy rash.

The cure for my DS, who had the most horrendous nappy rashes, was to stop using paper liners and switch to fleece. The difference was amazing.

I shake the poo off the liner into the toilet but sometimes do have to hold the liner in the bowl and flush.

If you have a shower attachment which will stretch that far you could sluice the nappy over the toilet bowl.

I know this won't help you at the moment but my DD had such angry nappy rash with her cloth nappies that we gave up despite trying everything for a few weeks. She was tiny at birth so it took a while for her to grow into the nappies so I would guess we used them when she was about 8 weeks old and persisted for a month or so on and off. Each time we went back to disposables it got better instantly so in the end we gave up. We vowed to try again later and gave it another go once she had started on solid food. I didn't think it would be any different but no nappy rash at all and we have been using them for 4 months now. I think the change in poo really made the difference. So if you do need to give up do give it another go later.

My dd2 had bad nappy rash with cloth - but with disposables her whole body came out in hives ... never seen it before or since, it was awful.

So we used this barrier ointment and it made a massive difference. Massive! It is expensive, but was worth every penny.

thanks weegiemum, off to order some!

Have you tried using different detergent?

we used cheap and cheerful vaseline and it was the only barrier cream that did any good - my mum was v smug cos she'd been suggesting it for ages but I had to work my way through all the expensive ones first

usuing 1 non bio tablet. was using persil, changed to fairy but no difference. any detergent recommendations?

We did try Vaseline and it didn't work - don't know why. I wish it had worked.

The 3Bees ointment was great.

I had some issues with creams as I am highly allergic to lanolin - so there were a lot of things we couldn't use as they brought me out in whole body nettle rash (Pampers were awful as they had cream on them when our kids were small) and made me wheeze.

SO it had to be totally natural every time (and I am not normally Mrs Organic, though I did use washables for environmental reasons). The other thing that did work was olive oil! I massaged all the kids with olive oil, and with d2 used to soak her bottom with it before bed, which made a great barrier and also moisturised her skin.

Have you tried using soap nuts to wash nappies with?
They really work - i tried them on nappies first thinking 'if they clean ds's nappies then they will clean anything!'.
they have no chemicals or perfume, totally natural unless you add your own essential oils - and they are dirt cheap.
maybe that might help?

My DS had bad nappy rash for a while after he was born. Tried everything - disposibles, cloth, fleece liners, paper liners.... but then finally figured out what it was for him.... the wipes!

Tried every brand we could get our hands on, but have since discovered washable wipes with a homemade solution of camomile tea with 2 drops of testree oil. Not had any nappy rash since!

Do you do an extra rinse cycle when you wash? Maybe even do a quick wash after the main cycle with no detergent to make sure all of it is coming out?

I think it was maybe wipes that caused our problems even though we were using sensitive ones. Whilst LO was in disposables we had really bad nappy rash, changed brand, no difference. Tried airing bum, slight improvement but only temporary. Went into prefolds that someone gave me and it got better. So I thought, well cloth is the way forward and bought some sandys. Horrendous nappy rash is back!!! I am now rinsing her bum under the tap when practical (we have the right sort of tap ...) or using water and cloth wipes or cotton wool. Changing every 2 hours in day etc.

I tried all the popular branded ointments and also had a prescription for canesten HC, nothing made any difference apart from metanium. One homespun cure that made a bit of difference was vaseline mixed with equal parts of starch (cornflour). Aparently starch was an old fashioned nappy rash cure. I also tried fullers earth but not much joy there either.

Im thinking of ditching the sandy's and using tots bots as I used these with our older girl with no problems.

I big problem with cloth nappies is that sometimes they get too much detergent in. It may help to put your clean nappies through the washing machine with no detegent at the hottest temperature that the type of nappy can take to dissolve any excess washing powder.

For normal washes I suggest that you halve the amount of washing powder that you use and aqua softener or calgon to soften the water.

Please don't be insulted by this question. Are you using washable wipes or cotton wool to clean the baby at every nappy change and patting dry with a towel. Fleece makes good wipes and it might be worth using fleece liners for the nappies.

Another cure for nappy rash is egg white.