# please help! big blister on newborn's inner thigh crease!



## mom2ewc

We used disposables with my first son, so I'm new to CD. My little guy is 5 days old... and yesterday, I opened up his diaper to find a circle of skin had been taken off just under his cord... it's raw and red there. I think the umbilical cord remnants rubbed him under a wet CPF and pulled the skin off. He was wearing a CPF with a Lite Wrap when it happened.

This morning, I took his diaper off and he had a big blister on his inner thigh. It's pretty big, and looks to be getting worse. It was just an extra layer of skin, now there's pus in it. He was 2 disposables last night.

I gave him naked time this morning, and have been using just a CPF on him with a snappi, so I can tell when he's wet and try to change him right away.

He's such a sleeper that we've only been changing his CPF/wrap every 3-4 hours... could that be causing the blister???

I put some lanolin on it, to try and coat it... will that affect my CPFs? I then put some MotherLove nipple cream on it (with shea butter, beeswax, calendula, and olive oil in it), to provide a barrier... not sure if that will affect the CPF either?

Anyway, I would love any advice about trying to prevent this kind of skin irritation... on a 5-day old, it's so sad.


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## Michigan Mama

Awwww. Poor little one.

What kind of detergent are you using? Is he red anywhere else in the diaper area, or just where those 2 spots were?


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## mom2ewc

We're using Biokleen powder detergent. He's not red anywhere else, except those two spots...


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## mumkimum

The creams you mention using are unlikely to cause any problems with your diapers, so I wouldn't worry. Something like desitin or others are problematic with cloth diapers because of fish/mineral oils.

My daughter always seemed to have an extra sensitive bum and was prone to occaisonal redness and boils like you mention. Sometimes it seems like it was food related, sometimes something seems to just rub on her the wrong way which sounds like what you may be dealing with.

Olive oil is another excellent moisturizer I used on her skin and in her baths that helped us a lot.


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## mom2ewc

now I'm wondering if it's our detergent (Biokleen powder). My babe now has blisters on his belly (even above his belly button), as well as his inner thighs. The rash seems to be getting worse.

I don't put him in covers during the day, just a CPF, and I change at first sign of wetness or poop. I've been putting breastmilk on it... nothing seems to help.

Just sent DH to store for Planet, or another enzyme-free detergent. Please, any suggestions or helPp?

I put him in disposables today, don't know what else to do. DH HATES the cloth diapers, says they're too much work, and obviously not working.

I need a morale booster right now, and to get my babe's skin healthy again


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## brietta

Hang in there. It takes time to adjust to cloth diapering, especially if you don't have other moms nearby who can help you figure things out. I definitely had an adjustment period when I switched, and there were SEVERAL times I almost threw in the towel.

One thing I wished I had let myself do more then was just take it slow. When you're dealing with a rash/skin irritation/etc, don't feel guilty about using some disposables while you try to figure things out. You're not wasting $$ or failing, you're simply learning. There's a learning curve to pretty much every aspect of parenting!

Your detergent does sound like it could be the culprit. Are you sure the prefolds are rinsing well so there isn't any residue? Try putting them in the washer on a rinse cycle; if there are lots of suds, then you know you've got build-up. On the other hand, if your detergent isn't getting rid of the bacteria, you can also have problems. In that case, you wouldn't really have any suds on a rinse cycle, and that point may want to make sure you're using a good-rinsing detergent and that you're using enough.

Husbands/dads don't like to see us struggling with cloth! My husband wanted me to sell all our diapers early on when I was having rash issues. I'm glad I persevered; he's one of the biggest fans of cloth diapering now.









So don't be afraid to use those disposables as you work through things. You're not failing; you're learning.


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## mom2ewc

Thank you so much for the morale boost. I don't know anyone who uses cloth diapers - I am the newbie of my group.

I know my hubby will come around... but right now, he's the one doing the laundry, and he hates seeing all the diapers cluttering everything up. It IS kind of a pain right now. But I think if DS's skin was OK, we'd be OK with it.

The rash he has now has little tiny pus-filled blisters and red bumps&#8230; the location is strange though. It's above his belly button on his stomach&#8230; and on the thighs... but not where his diaper is&#8230; a bit lower down on his leg. It's almost as if it starts where the CPF ends. What could be causing that? Maybe it's because I was putting the CPF on loosely the past few days, so it was hanging lower on his thighs and higher on his belly than it did when it was in a cover... and that's why the rash spread to new areas.

I've got him in disposables today to see what happens... but the rash isn't on the diaper area itself, it's on the "outer edges."

We'll re-wash all the diapers in the new detergent, and do a few rinses to get everything out. Any suggestions on how to wash them to prep them for round #2? Should I add any vinegar or anything??

I hate seeing his red skin&#8230; makes me feel so bad&#8230;

Thanks in advance!


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## Michigan Mama

While some doctors aren't very informed about cloth diapers, it might be worth heading into your doc just to make sure it's not something that needs to be treated medically. It'd be a bummer to find out later it was some random infection or something that was not cd related... Who knows. But considering there's pus now and it's not under the cd - if it was me I'd take him in just to be sure.


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## Michigan Mama

Oh - and if there is a concern about some little germies in your diapers (though that would be weird, since you've been using them for such a short time!), you can always boil your prefolds. then you'll know they are totally clean with no bugs.


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## sbgrace

Make sure it isn't staph. That is relatively common now in babies. And it isn't necessarily scary awful staph drug resistant staph. A cream can usually treat it. But I've seen it on the boards and in real life plenty of times over the years. The description sounds like it possibly. If it is where disosables while you treat it and to let the skin heal. Your regular hot wash and dry of diapers will kill it fine. I'd boil anything you safely can just to make yourself feel better if you wash water isn't set extremely hot. But a regular hot wash should be ok with staph.


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## mom2ewc

I'd already made an appt with my homeopath pedi to make sure it's not an infection... the pus doesn't look good to me. Will let you know what he says!


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## Norabella

My dd, now 4 mos old, had a rash when she was ~1-2 wks old that sounds a lot like what you describe. At the time we couldn't figure it out, but later I realized that it appeared right after I had used reg. huggies wipes once while out. We use cloth wipes w/ water at home.

Anyway, it was all over from her belly button to partly down her thighs, mostly on her front, and looked like really big acne pimples and her skin was really red. I took her in the bath at least once a day, applied vit. E oil, and left her diaper (we use only CDs) off as much as possible. I just dressed her in a shirt and put a prefold and waterproof pad under her, either on my lap or on the bed/couch if she was napping, and put a receiving blanket on top to keep her warm. My midwife (who is also a naturopath) checked the rash and said to let her know if it started looking worse (it looked pretty bad at that point) and suggested leaving her bare as much as possible. It healed right up and was gone w/ in a week.

HTH


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## mom2ewc

My homepath doc said that it's impetigo... which is what it looked like to me on online pictures. he said that DS's belly button got infected, and that the rash is his body trying to get rid of the infection.

We're trying topical Rescue Remedy cream on him today, as well as rubbing alcohol on his belly button... and rhus tox homeopathic remedy. If it's not significantly better (or not spreading) by tomorrow morning, we will move to an antibiotic cream. Last resort will be oral antibiotics, but I'm really hoping to avoid those.

Poor little guy, he absolutely screams when we put everything on him. But he slept 5 hours straight last night, which was quite a gift to us. He's such a little sweetie pie.


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