Bumgenius and Nappy Rash

[cairnterrier]

Please can someone help? I've used Bumgenius on DS since he was about 12 weeks (he's now 5.5 months). Over the past few weeks he's been getting worsening nappy rash. I wash them in TotsBots magic potion and do an extra rinse. I change him every 2 hours and immediately after a poo.

Overnight I use diposables as he was leaking through, I've tried nature Babycare and Sainsbury's Eco, none of which seemed to really make a difference.

For wiping I've tried using water alone, Pampers aloe vera and now on Sainsbury's Eco sensitive wipes, none of which really seem to make a difference.

A v mild steroid cream does help to clear things up very quickly but the rash soon returns and I don't want to keep on using the steroid. I've also tried Sudocrem but this seemed to make things worse and I think that's he's allergic to wool like DH. Bepanthen seemed to help a little but it's never cleared up.

It's obviously bothering him as, as soon as the nappy comes off, he's scratch, scratch, scratch and has made himself bleed I've left him without a nappy on for a good 45 mins today and will carry on doing the same whilst the weather's good.

So any other suggestions? I think that we might be entering teething territory as well which isn't helping.I was wondering about laying off the Bumgenius for the time being and keep him disposables to keep the urine away from his skin but ideally would like to go back to reusables as soon as possible.

Are you sure it's not the disposables causing the nappy rash ? DD never had it until recently when we tried using disposables at night (see other post), we use terries.

Don't be too quick to blame your reusable nappies

If you have been using washables for a few months with no problems, the chances are that the nappy rash is due to teething (unless his diet has changed at all recently)
Leaving him without his nappy on for as much time as possible is a great idea. That really is the best thing for it.
It's a shame that Sudocream doesn't work so well. I have always found it works quite well, but I know it doesn't work for everyone.

Has there been any change in his diet recently?
Or, if he is breastfeeding, has there been any change in yours?
When my DD was one year old, she had awful nappy rash for a couple of weeks. I too started to debate using washables. Then I realised it was all caused by her eating satsumas.
As soon as I cut them out of her diet her rash went within a couple of days.

Using water only or a gentle antibacterial soap (eg detol soap) would be better than wipes. They have such harsh chemicals in them.

If nothing has changed that could have caused the rash, the chances are that it will clear up when his teething stops, but I hope you can find some way to help it before then.

Fibilou, the rash seems better in the morning but never goes away completely. I'm not sure if this is because it gets worse when he's up and about during the day and particularly if he's getting hot and sweaty in the warmer weather, or if it's due to urine sitting next to the skin. He seems to have reasonably sensitive skin anyway.

It's all a bit tricky!

Thanks for the speedy reply by the way.

i think ruth has been more helpful than me but you're welcome !

I'm not surprised that it's better in the morning. That could be due to him being dry in the night with the disposable nappies. I have occassionally put my DCs into disposables for a few days to allow bad rashes to clear up before putting them back into their washables.

Hi RuthChan

Thanks for the ideas. The biggest variation in his diet at the moment is between right and left boobs! have to admit that didn't really think about my diet....... but can't think that I've suddenly starting eating a lot of different things either

Oh well, at least so far no-one has spotted any school boy errors that I'm making. Shame really, I was hoping that there was an easy solution.

My friend suggested I use Metanium for teething or bad nappy rash especially at night. Thick and yellow but does the trick!

Well, if he's still only breastfeeding, the diet is unlikely to be the reason. (Do have a think to see if you've eaten anything new though. Anything acidic?)
At his age, teething really is the most likely cause. That won't stop for a while, so the best you can do is to try to help it and to help it heal quickly. Once these things get a hold they can be hard to get rid of. But once it's better, you should be able to return to your old nappying habits with no problem.
Have you discussed it with your GP or pharmacist? Maybe they can suggest a more effective cream (without steroids)

I used metanium with DD#2 with great sucess on a hard to cure nappy rash. I would recommend getting some fleece liners though as metanium will stain. If you ruin the fleece it's cheap and easy to replace. I also find with my bumgenius that I still need fleece liners with dd#3 or she is prone to getting nappy rash. They help to wick moisture away from her skin well.

Hi, I've been having the same problem with Bumgenius. In our case, I have found the cause to be detergent build up. Some research I've found is that the microfibre inserts tend to get a build up of detergent, more so than natural fibres and this can cause skin irritation/rash. My DD gets a dry eczema type rash, rather than a wet type rash caused by thrush. (It would help to see a GP to establish what kind of rash it is).

The suggestion is to strip the nappies by running them through the wash a few times with no detergent, with extra rinse cycles. Others suggest doing a rinse cycle using white vinegar for the inserts only (don't put the outers through a vinegar rinse as it will apparently damage the waterproofing). Or soaking inserts in a water/vinegar solution overnight followed by a wash with no detergent. Do a google search on how to strip nappies as there are many other suggestions.
I have just done a strip wash using a tablespoon of dish washing liquid, followed by several several wash cycles with no detergent to get it all out. (I have been getting bad ammonia smells, which apparently signals detergent build up). Seems to have helped.
The nappy off time is brilliant, especially if you can get a little sunshine on there.

I found the steroid creams did little, sudocrem dried out her skin too much and so have been using waitrose bottom butter (pretty much just olive oil) and raw Shea butter after bath as a barrier which seems to work well and keeps itching at bay (I use paper liners to avoid damage to nappy).

It could be thrush. I thought my DS had nappy rash and tried lots of different things - then HV said it was thrush, I used canesten cream, and it was gone within 24 hours.

Thanks everyone.

Monkey - your post is vv spooky! I've just started using Waitrose bottom butter and what fantastic stuff it is The rash has just about cleared up - like your DD it was more an eczematous type rash than thrush.

DS's first tooth has also just come through so we might have been going through the perfect baby nappy storm. Am going to keep him in disposables for the next week whilst we're at the grandparents and then try BG again.