If you have ever met me, you know how big an advocate I am of cloth diapering. I love it, which seems really strange because I am not a crunchy granola hippie, at least I never considered myself one.
But recently, I began to doubt myself.
Cameron's bum has had some wicked diaper rash, so bad that her Diaper Area looked like she had a red diaper on even when it was off. It didn't seem to bother her, like the one time she'd cry when we put her in the bath tub (ack!). But for the life of me I couldn't figure out why she was getting it.
When we went to Oklahoma I was putting her in the semi-disposable gDiapers. She cleared up in the week that we were there. Now, I liked them enough, but they are not that great with milk-fed babies - the poo gets EVERYWHERE on the liner, which is a serious pain. Pee works GREAT. So I got to wondering what it was about the disposables, which are usually more likely to give babies a problem than cloth.
Initially I thought it was heat-rash related... we do live in south Texas, and we've been hitting 100-degrees pretty consistently lately.
My friend Kim gave me some pointers and things to try. I doused them all in Tea Tree Oil, with her suggestion that it might be a yeast infection. We did power of deduction, with no improved results. Then she'd mentioned something about a chemical burn caused by the detergent I've been using.
I was using Charlie's Soap, at first with no ill effects. We used it on our clothes, diapers, etc. and nothing was wrong for quite a while. Until the rash started developing. Then her tummy was starting to get rough and reddish, just the way the diaper area started.
Kim did some Googling (and probably knew about some of the issues before) and found that Charlies has a reputation in the diapering community for causing rashes. The company argues that we don't know how to do laundry (what a great way to argue with a bunch of mom's who probably do all the laundry in the household, and have for years!) and that their product doesn't affect babies like that.
But I can't get past the similarities of the posts I read. So many moms have seen their babies go from clean bottom to tomato bottom. Most of them think it's some sort of reaction wth the urine and the detergent. It claims to not leave any residue, but I am not sure I buy that 100%. I will agree that my clothes and diapers seemed soft and clean from it.
So, I bought some homebrew detergent from Kim's newest baby... Rockin' Green Detergent. I fully stripped the diapers of any Charlie's that might have remained in them, and kept Cam in the gDiapers, which seem to always clear her up, for the duration. When the diapers were done stripping, I hesitantly put Cameron in a cloth diaper and waited results.
Needless to say, Cameron's booty does not look like meatloaf any more. I got a tiny twinge of redness when I had left her in a diaper too long, but that cleared right up.
So, now I am a total convert to powdered detergent. Best of all, I am supporting my friend and her local business! :D Rockin' Green comes in some muy delicioso fregrances, too. They don't scent your clothes after washing (if they did, then it's leaving garbage behind coating your clothes, and those of us with sensitive skin don't want that!) but doing laundry is so yummy now. My current favorite is Cherry Lemonade, I'll have to peel myself away from it to give another scent an honest try.
So give it a try! It's not just for cloth diapers, but if it can get baby green poop out of a white diaper, I'm sure it can get your shirt clean. ;-)
