Cloth diapers are giving ds a rash

[joyousTXmama]

We use a mix of brands - mostly pockets and AIO's or AI2's.

Our usual wash routine is cold cycle with no soap, warm cycle with 1/4 portion plain Tide, full 3rd cycle for a thorough double rinse. I do this to be as sure as possible no enzymes are left, since Tide has enzymes. My area does not carry any regular detergents that don't have optical brighteners and/or enzymes - they do have a few of the earth friendly brands - but I've heard those do not work well in our hard hard water area.

We've tried making our our soap with washing soda, ivory and borax. It just wasn't getting the diapers clean. They all had horrid odors after 1 month. Again, probably the hard water.

Diapers rarely sit more than 2 days without being washed. I've stripped in bleach and rinsed, rinsed, rinsed. But he cries and they irritate his skin with every poop and most pees. The one exception are my Little Boppers AI2's - those have a snap in bamboo liner that sits right again the child's skin (not a pocket diaper or AIO) and seem fine. :think We've gone back to disposables mostly. :troubled If I can't figure out how to get his cloth collection back to normal, we'll have to give up CDing - dh is not going to replace all these. :(

Suggestions?

[cindergretta]

Front loader or top loader?

Try stripping with plain, regular, blue Dawn dish detergent.

We have a front loader and after about a year, I could no longer use my dipes. :sigh I tried 101 ways to get them "fresh," but my poor wee one just got one rash after another. :-/

[milkmommy]

Honestly I've decided over the years that a big part of peoples CD issues comes more from too little detergant than too much.. I'd gather the diapers toss in a full scoop of tide then rinse like a mad woman after this up the detergent jsut a bit from what your currently doign and add an extra no detergent short cycle.

Deanna

[ShangriLewis]

We had the front loader issues, too.

You can order country save or biokleen from amazon and they will both work in hard water.

You can, also, use the blue dawn for regular washing. But, you only use a small squirt. I love the stuff for dipes and towels.

[mellifera]

My ds got rashes from any synthetic fabrics, like the fleece inside pockets--we could only use cotton or hemp next to his skin. If that were the case for your LO, would your husband go for buying some pf dipes, using your pockets without inserts as covers, with the cotton next to baby's skin?

[Sonata]

I found an oxy-clean soak every couple months really helped. I'd fill the washer up with hot water and a big scoop of oxy-clean, and let it sit for most of the day, and then drain it out, and repeat the whole thing. Then the double rinse.

If you don't have a top-loading washer, you could soak them in a big plastic storage tub or a baby pool or something. And I agree that putting cotton pre-folds next to his skin might really help. As long as you change it frequently, the cotton is probably the best thing.

Good luck!

[Aerynne]

I do a vinegar soak maybe once every 6 weeks (we have super hard water- 24 grains hard!) It totally saved my diapers!

I turn the hot water heater all the way up and wash and rinse the diapers the same as I usually do. Then I do a soak cycle with a quart of vinegar (4 cups) on hot and leave it 8 hours or so, then dry as usual. Works great! Then next time I do diapers I do it again to get the ones I missed last time. Twice in a row and all my diapers get at least one vinegar soak.

[MiriamRose]

Rockin' Green detergent might help too, since it's designed for cloth diapers and has a great hard water formula. I've been pretty happy with it. If you buy several bags at once the price is (I'm pretty sure) about the same as Tide.

Anyone know if vinegar is safe for FuzziBunz? I've been gunshy about using vinegar on anything other than prefolds after hearing that it was hard on pockets. I don't know if that's just for the BG (which I don't have) or for all pockets, though. My FB come out of the wash smelling clean but can smell really fishy or ammonia-ish after he pees, or after they've been in the pail for a few hours. It comes and goes, though, and has been better since I added a pre-wash, so I'm not sure what exactly the deal was and wanted to do some kind of strip or vinegar or something to see if it would make a difference.

[Chaos Coordinator]

vinegar can cause your PUL to delaminate.

my son got rashes from any non-wicking fabrics. he could sometimes wear a terry with a really thick pile, or some really lush velour, but fleece was the only guaranteed no rashes fabric (unless the rash was from something he ate, or something else in the diapers such as bacteria). with terry or velour i had to be more diligent - at one point i tried to change after every pee, but it seemed like he was constantly peeing, and i dont have enough diapers for that, so i thought i'd look into ECing - timed him, and he was literally peeing every 10 minutes. :hunh i cant hang with that. seriously.

oh and suedecloth did something horrible to his skin. same with most fold-over elastics.

[lilcrunchie]

what's the rash look like? any chance it is yeast?

Like PPs said, sometimes it is the material. Suedecloth, fleece, etc. can cause flare ups for some kids.