Yeastie Beasties!

I have been fortunate enough to go a full 9 years without having to deal with the dreaded yeast rash on my kids.  Peanut had a yeast rash when she was just 1 week old.  It was due to the heavy antibiotics that I was on after her birth.  That poor baby had the most red, cracked skin that I have ever seen.  She was miserable and it took over a month for it to clear up.  She went through 3 different kinds of diaper creams and I used a special nipple cream too.  Hence, our cloth diapering days were short.  We did use disposables throughout the time that it took for it to clear up because I knew that cloth diapers and yeast rashes don't mix.  I did, however, use cloth with thick liners too.



Well, before I knew that it was a yeast rash, I had used a few of our favorite one size diapers on her without a liner or creams.  I stripped them a few times before letting her wear them again.  They were packed up and set aside for 2 months while we were in the process of moving.  (We used hybrid diapers during that time.)  Now that we are settling into our new place, we are back to using cloth full time on both Peanut and Little Man.  Peanut has also had some problems with Silent Reflux (more on that later) and it's making her poo very acidic.  She has an acidic poo in one of my favorite diapers and instantly it caused a huge red rash.  That rash also showed signs of yeast again!  OH NO!

I've heard that yeast can get embedded into your cloth diapers and sit dormant....lurking for a time to strike again.  And you know what?!  They are right.  So we went back to disposables for 1 week and used her special creams and, luckily, it cleared right up.  In that time, I also figured out a great solution to getting yeast out of your diapers!

• Start with rinsed, washed and dried diapers.
• Fill your washer to the top with COLD water and 20 drops of Tea Tree Oil.
• Add your diapers, let them agitate into the water, then let them set for 15 minutes.
• Finish your wash cycle.
• Do a second wash cycle with HOT water with 3/4 cup of oxygenated bleach.
• Do a third wash cycle with HOT water and your favorite cloth diaper friendly detergent.
• Rinse, rinse, rinse....
• Then dry them in the dryer on low, then make sure you end on hot for 15 minutes to kill yeast spores.  
• If you are worried about drying your PUL diapers on hot, you can skip the above step and set them in full sun until dry.

Make sure that if you are using cloth while treating yeast, that you treat them after every time they are used...otherwise, you will continue to spread the yeast.  Also make sure that you treat everything you use during diaper changes....wipes, wet bags, changing pads, etc.  If you take a hiatus from cloth while treating a yeast rash, make sure that you take your time after it looks healed to make sure that it is gone before resuming cloth.  The oxygenated bleach that I found was in my grocery store's natural section, along with the Tea Tree Oil.  It is Full Circle chlorine free bleach.  It had no odor at all and worked really well.  (For someone who NEVER has bleach in her house, I actually like this and use it for other cleaning needs too.)

Good luck keeping those nasty yeastie beasties at bay!