Cloth Diapers - The Ugly

The "ugly" goes hand in hand with the "bad". 

Letting a baby sit in its own poop (or wet diaper) can cause a diaper rash.  This is why it's important to know when your baby poops.  Twice so far Trent has pooped in his cloth diapers without us know it.  Both times he playing and we didn't notice or hear his grunts.  We knew he wasn't in the poopy diaper more than 30 minutes both times, but it didn't matter.  He had diaper rash.  And not your typical red butt hole or red patch on the butt cheek - we're talking about white open blistery diaper rash.  This rash made scream like you wouldn't believe.  Wiping his butt was the most unpleasant experience for him for days!  I wanted to cry every single time I changed his little diaper because I knew that pain was something I could have avoided had I checked his diaper a little sooner. 

After the last rash we took a break from CD so that his butt could heal.  We're only just starting to use them again, and I honestly get nervous every time I put him in one. 

I did some research and found out that what happened to Trent is common in the sense that most moms will miss a poop every now and then.  If you kid is off playing and you don't know he's pooping....well, it happens!  The type of rash Trent got, however, is not as common.  It could have been that his skin is just sensitive.  It could have been whatever was in the poop (whatever he recently ate).  It even could have been the poop reacting with the detergent I use.  Or a combo of things.  All I can do now is check his booty more often.  I could also apply a diaper rash cream with every diaper change as a precautionary measure.

I have to wonder if the same rash would appear if I left Trent sitting in a poopy disposable for a while.  I mean, poop is poop, right?  It's not like disposables absorb more poop than a cloth diaper, right??  But then again, there's been times when Trent woke up in the morning with a poopy disposable and no blisters.  So I guess it has to be associated with the CD, right??

That brings me to my next concern.....overnight.  I just raved about how great my CD's are for overnight use, but I'm so afraid Trent will poop in the middle of the night and wake up with blisters.  It's just not fair to him.  Granted, he hasn't pooped in the middle of the night in quite some time, but that doesn't mean he won't.

Like I said, we're just getting back into our CD groove after a week or so of taking a break.  As long as we continue to be rash-less I will regain my confidence in cloth.  In the mean time I am still a little paranoid and leery. 

This has definitely been the most unpleasant surprise cloth diapers has brought my way.  Now you can see why I said the lack of smell is a bad thing.