Am I going to have to give up cloth?

I’m very frustrated. As you well know, I LOVE cloth diapers. (More about that GoGreen diaper to the left soon!)

However, my baby has battled diaper rash on and off (mostly ON) since last November. I’ve mentioned this ongoing rash a few times. Oh goodness, I feel like a terrible mom just putting this out there. I’m hoping perhaps all our combined “Fluff Heads” can help me come up with a solution. Here’s the info:

THE RASH: Basically what will happen is he’ll get a terrible rash – many times starting along the lines of the diaper legs and then spreading to his whole bum. Often bright red like a sunburn. Many times it has watery blisters. Often the skin just breaks and he gets shiny raw patches. Sometimes he’ll just get red dots the size of breadcrumbs all over his bum area. The rash does not always look the same. It’s not always in the same place. It’s got to be either ammonia, detergent build up, or yeast. What else could it be?

WHAT I’VE TRIED:

• I’ve tried EVERY cream / balm known to moms (I’m pretty sure). Minimal clearing of rash. Except when I use the steroid cream prescribed by my doctor, but I don’t like to use that a lot.
• I’ve tried stripping the diapers with Rockin’ Green’ Funk Rock. Some clearing of the rash for a short period.
• Once a long time ago, I soaked the inserts with a teeny bit of bleach and a LOT of water. The rash cleared up a bit after this, but came back a few weeks later.
• Extra rinses with just water. (Should I use cold or hot for this?)
• Sunning the inserts. Does not seem to help. And side note, this has not helped me get stains out either.
• I have tried gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free diets. During this two-month period, the rash cleared up. However, I am pretty sure this was the month I was testing Charlie’s Soap Diaper Detergent. Then I went back to Rockin’ Green. The rash came back. But that was at the same time that I reintroduced gluten. He’s also been pretty consistently teething during MOST of the rash period (Nov-July).
• Using wool and other all-natural fibers exclusively. I tried this for at least two weeks. Some improvement, but still a little pinkish now and then.
• Today I washed my CLEAN diapers again with just OxyClean and on the sanitary cycle. The smell was improved (I hadn’t thought my diapers smelled bad until after this wash, when I noticed they smelled BETTER!). Stains were only slightly reduced. We’ll see if there is improvment in the rashing next time he wears them.

Could there be a connection among any of this info? Sometimes it seems like some diaper provoke the rash more than others… but I’m never quite certain. It’s like there are too many variables for me to figure out!!

WHAT HAS WORKED:

• Putting him in disposables, with tons of diaper cream. Any brand seems to work. Within 24-48 hours, he is clear. Within 2-4 days of putting him back into cloth, he starts to get rashy again. Not what we fluffy moms want to hear, right? I’m just being honest. And to be fair, once he clears, I put him back in cloth, so I don’t know if the rash would come back in the ‘sposies too if I stopped using creams.

WHAT I HAVEN’T TRIED (but might, because I am not giving up without a fight!):

• Boiling the diapers. I know. This is suggested on several sites. It seems horribly time consuming. Can someone tell me how to make it easy? Or is it just a pain and I should just DO it to see if it helps?
• Using Bac-Out. I just haven’t ordered it. Does it really work?
• Having his skin cultured to verify/rule out yeast. I have brought him to the doctor numerous times for this situation. But each time either they deem his skin too “healed” for a culture, or they make the “connection” with the cloth diapers and say to just stop using cloth.

Am I really going to have to stop using cloth? Really? There has to be another answer.

Please give me your insights!!

If you’re new to cloth, or considering it – do not be discouraged by this post. The MAJORITY of my time cloth diapering has been easy. And he doesn’t have a rash EVERY day. It’s the constant recurrence that is troublesome. And there are so many factors (including teething, AND that I use a wide variety of diaper types/styles/fabrics) making it hard for me to zero in on the exact problem. Cloth diapering in itself not hard.