$856. That is how much I will spend on diaper rash cream this year if I continue to use it at the current rate. G has had diaper rash now for about 3 months (which is pretty impressive, in a bad way, since she turned 4 months old yesterday). It's not just normal diaper rash. It is bright red with open sores. Her bottom has bled before (thankfully, because of the cream, it is no longer bleeding). It looks horribly uncomfortable. Occasionally, her skin will heal most of the way. The sores heal over, and the redness diminishes. But at those times I am saddened because her skin stretches in an unnatural way. I think she may end up with scars.
I have tried everything that I can think of to get rid of diaper rash. I have used several different types of diaper rash cream (Burt's Bees, California Baby, Bummis, Triple Paste, Pinxav, Boudreaux's Butt Paste - both 16% and 40% zinc oxide, Desitin Max Strength, a mix of Aqauphor and Maalox). I even used a tube of colostomy cream and colostomy powder. The nurses at the hospital where Keith works like to hear about the baby. One of the nurses is very concerned by G's diaper rash and shared that information with the skin care nurse. The skin care nurse gave Keith the colostomy cream and powder with written out instructions and a promise that the diaper rash would be gone within 48 hours. At the end of 48 hours, G had open sores. While it didn't work, it was very nice of the hospital staff to pilfer colostomy care materials for our baby. The only cream that has worked in any way is Boudreaux's Butt Paste Maximum Strength. While it has not healed her bottom, it has helped to keep the open sores away...for the most part.
I have tried many other tricks that people have told us are "guaranteed" to get rid of diaper rash: cloth diapers, cloth wipes, soap, running G's bottom under water with each diaper change, letting her have diaper free time, using a hair dryer with each changing to make sure her bottom is extra dry, etc. So far, all I have really accomplished it getting poop on my hair dryer. The only thing that really seems to work is diaper free time, but there are many obstacles preventing that from happening. First, I am trying to get G to nap well. She tends to only want to nap between 35 and 55 minutes at a time. Unless she has a good solid 1.5 hour nap, however, she gets hysterical by the end of the day (usually much earlier and several times). This means that I need to be vigilant about getting her to nap on time and about jumping up at the first sound of her waking to nurse her back to sleep for nap round 2. Sometimes I will just take a nap with her so she can eat immediately upon waking and fall back asleep. Second, she spends much of the day inconsolable if I set her down more than a few minutes at a time. This means that I am either carrying her, holding her on my lap, or lugging her around in a carrier most of the day. This creates a very messy diaper-free situation. I sometimes try to carry her around without a diaper, but have found that this usually results in me being covered in a variety of substances.
I really wanted to wait until G was 6 months old to introduce solids. I wanted her to be exclusively breastfed. But that changed somewhere around 2 months of diaper rash. Now I just want her to not poop 10-12 times a day. I have decided to view solid food not as food but as a magical medication that has the ability to slow poo and maybe allow us to spend less than 5% of our annual income on diaper rash cream.
I have tried everything that I can think of to get rid of diaper rash. I have used several different types of diaper rash cream (Burt's Bees, California Baby, Bummis, Triple Paste, Pinxav, Boudreaux's Butt Paste - both 16% and 40% zinc oxide, Desitin Max Strength, a mix of Aqauphor and Maalox). I even used a tube of colostomy cream and colostomy powder. The nurses at the hospital where Keith works like to hear about the baby. One of the nurses is very concerned by G's diaper rash and shared that information with the skin care nurse. The skin care nurse gave Keith the colostomy cream and powder with written out instructions and a promise that the diaper rash would be gone within 48 hours. At the end of 48 hours, G had open sores. While it didn't work, it was very nice of the hospital staff to pilfer colostomy care materials for our baby. The only cream that has worked in any way is Boudreaux's Butt Paste Maximum Strength. While it has not healed her bottom, it has helped to keep the open sores away...for the most part.
I have tried many other tricks that people have told us are "guaranteed" to get rid of diaper rash: cloth diapers, cloth wipes, soap, running G's bottom under water with each diaper change, letting her have diaper free time, using a hair dryer with each changing to make sure her bottom is extra dry, etc. So far, all I have really accomplished it getting poop on my hair dryer. The only thing that really seems to work is diaper free time, but there are many obstacles preventing that from happening. First, I am trying to get G to nap well. She tends to only want to nap between 35 and 55 minutes at a time. Unless she has a good solid 1.5 hour nap, however, she gets hysterical by the end of the day (usually much earlier and several times). This means that I need to be vigilant about getting her to nap on time and about jumping up at the first sound of her waking to nurse her back to sleep for nap round 2. Sometimes I will just take a nap with her so she can eat immediately upon waking and fall back asleep. Second, she spends much of the day inconsolable if I set her down more than a few minutes at a time. This means that I am either carrying her, holding her on my lap, or lugging her around in a carrier most of the day. This creates a very messy diaper-free situation. I sometimes try to carry her around without a diaper, but have found that this usually results in me being covered in a variety of substances.
I really wanted to wait until G was 6 months old to introduce solids. I wanted her to be exclusively breastfed. But that changed somewhere around 2 months of diaper rash. Now I just want her to not poop 10-12 times a day. I have decided to view solid food not as food but as a magical medication that has the ability to slow poo and maybe allow us to spend less than 5% of our annual income on diaper rash cream.
If you're still having this problem: it's a yeast infection. My youngest son had them a few times. You just use an OTC antifungal cream (the kind for jock itch) after checking with your doctor. But it is QUITE common and you will get quick results. Smooth a THIN layer on a clean, dry bottom. Clean it off well with every diaper change. Google Image for "diaper rash" yeast and you'll see what it looks like.
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