Monday, July 21, 2008

One problem gone, another arises

Well, his runny nose is all cleared up. Call it first time mommy paranoia because it lasted about 3 whole hours and I was panicking!
The diaper rash has come back though. I'm at a total loss for what to do. Cloth diapers are supposed to prevent rashes, not cause them. At first I thought it was his urine reacting with the soap we make, since it has some harsh chemicals in it. (Borax, washing soda, and Ivory soap) So I stripped them to make sure all of the soap was out and I used a soap that's free of dyes and perfumes and that is recommended for cloth diapers by several websites and hundreds of moms. But yesterday it came back. The thing is, it doesn't even look like a rash. Rashes, whether diaper rash or a yeast rash, have bumps or spots, but this looks like a burn! I just can't make sense of it.

So, we're back to disposable diapers and I am so frustrated. I'm still looking for a cause, but unless someone comes up to me and has been through it and solved it with their own baby, I just can't bring myself to put him back in the cloth diapers. I'm really disappointed because, cost aside, there are so many reasons that cloth is better. Of course the cost is bothering me too, because the investment we made in the covers was fairly big considering they haven't even paid for themselves yet. In a month or so, if I still don't have any answers, at least I can resell them and make most of my money back. I was just really looking forward to cloth diapering him. But if he's getting a rash when he's never in a diaper for longer than a 3 hour nap, what are we going to do when he starts sleeping through the night?

Chris says this shouldn't bother me so much, and he's probably right. But something is hurting my baby and I can't figure out what it is. I've always relied on research to solve so many problems, and none of my research is telling me what's wrong here. I have a doctor's appointment for myself tomorrow, so if it's still there I'll bring him in to see if she can identify it. I also have a WIC appointment this morning, so maybe she'll have a clue. I am just ripping my hair out over this!

In the meantime, here's a picture I snapped of him in my arms yesterday. I was trying to catch a smile because he is REALLY smiling at me now when I catch him in the right mood, but every time the little green light came on to focus, he stopped.


Edited to add: I just checked my email (why didn't I do that first? I have no idea) and I have TWO moms from one of my message board offering to send me new diapers! Well, they're used, but cloth diapers are constantly being sold used because they're so easy to sanitize. So if it's my soap or something in the diapers, I'll know! Between the two of them, I'll have almost enough diapers to throw away the prefolds I've been using if they happen to be the problem! Of course, I'll be doing laundry every day, but it would be do-able! Yay!!!!

2 comments:

Donna said...

I don't have personal children but I had 6 babies.

The burn rash is just diaper rash. And here's what will fix diaper rash forever....mostly and it will prevent yeast rashes.

Caldesene power. Do not get the cornstarch kind. Yeast feeds on starch.

http://www.walgreens.com/store/product.jsp?CATID=100352&id=prod1081

I am so not kidding. No goopy desitin and crap.

I never cloth diapered because it's a fucking pain in the ass but a diaper is a diaper. That powder...get it. Seriously.

Jen said...

How often are you changing him? SweetiePie used to get d. rash frequently also and I realized it's because I wasn't changing her often enough. Also, do you use Vaseline on him? It'll help with his skin not reacting to the urine.