Contact rash from cloth diapers. Please help!!

Jordan - posted on 09/28/2010

try using 1/2 of peroxide at least per soak and wash of your cloth diapers. It helps with smell, stains, and germs. Also try putting them out in the sun to dry (both are bleach like). Hope this helps!

Majaliwa - posted on 04/27/2010

Amanda, I agree with Jan that it sounds like the rash is from the detergent. While 7th Generation touts its' "eco-friendliness" it's actually not that good for cloth diapers. Here's a list of recommended cloth diaper detergents:

http://www.pootersdiapers.com/recommende...

Here are also some simple instructions for stripping your diapers. FYI - stripping is the process of removing detergent build up from your diapers.

http://www.pootersdiapers.com/stink-out-...

Jan - posted on 04/27/2010

Stripping diapers means getting rid of any residue from detergents, creams, fabric softener, hard water, even the oils from baby's skin. It's a good idea to strip diapers at least a couple of times a year or of course if you are having any issues with rashes, repelling, or stink.
There are a bunch of different ways to strip your inserts,

1) Super hot wash, you can crank up your hot water tank to get the water really hot and run your clean diapers through a few full hot wash cycles with no detergent. this will work for detergent build up.
2) orginal blue dawn, wash your clean diapers in hot water with just a small squirt of blue dawn dish soap, continue to run the diapers through hot wash cycles and extra rinses until all the bubbles are gone. Don't try this in a front loader you will kill the pump on your machine, works well for getting rid of detergent build up, oil, fabric softener and diaper cream
3)RLR, rlr is a laundry additive, just add a package of it to your clean diapers and run the longest hotest cycle you can, continue to run hot wash and extra rinse cycles until all the bubbles are gone, this stuff is amazing and works to geet rid of everything including hard water mineral buildup on the diapers.
You can see pics of what happened when I used it the first time to strip my hemp fitteds on my blog http://moderatefamily.blogspot.com/2010/...
4) boiling the inserts, this is time consuming and I don't really find it works very well but if you want to spend your whole day boiling pots of diapers on the stove that's up to you.

Good luck HTH.

Amanda - posted on 04/27/2010

What do you mean by strip the diapers?

Jan - posted on 04/27/2010

You willl most likely need to strip the diapers to get rid of all of the residue from the problem detergent. RLR is the quickest easiest way to strip IMO, but blue dawn works well too. Once you have all of the residue off of the diapers you will most likely be best going back to your old detergent, or something else that doesn't give her a reaction. Most people are sensitive to one kind of detergent or another, the fact that she is getting a rash from it makes me think it's best not to use it on any of your clothes, repeated exposure to an irritant like that can make the reaction worse over time. My DH is so sensitive to detergents that if we use the wrong soap his hands feet and throat will swell up.

Amanda - posted on 04/27/2010

Yes, it only started recently when I changed detergent. I was using BioKleen with no problems, but then switched to a homemade detergent, then I tried 7th generation Baby detergent. The soakers I use are the ones that go with the Gro Baby system. My wash routine is cold pre-rinse (no detergent), hot heavy wash cycle with detergent (1/2 the amount for 1 load), then 2 cold rinses. I usually throw them in the dryer or line dry.

Jan - posted on 04/27/2010

have you had this problem all along or is it just all of a sudden now? Since the rash is all the way up her tummy I don't think it's from moisture but rather from the soaker fabric or the detergent you are using to wash them. what type of soakers are you using? what is your wash rutine?