Yikes! Yeast!

It's been difficult to get on the computer to blog lately because I've been battling a baby who is in love with his new found mobility and into everything. Even worse, I've been battling an even bigger demon- YEAST!

For a while I thought that it was just eczema because it was just red, dry and almost scaly. I'm embarrassed to say that we ignored it for a couple of weeks if not longer because we thought it was nothing. Within the past week it definitely started to get worse and my aunt commented on how bad it looked (I didn't know that it wasn't normal dry skin) I looked into it and called my pediatrician. They didn't see us but from what I said over the phone, they agreed that it was a yeast rash and recommended using ointment usually used to jock itch and apply it three times a day.

I looked online and saw that yeast stays in diapers so I had to disinfect the diapers. I had a load of dirty diapers so I washed those normally and then when all the diapers were clean, I did a few disinfecting loads (eeek- 1 regular diaper laundry load and then 4 disinfecting loads... don't tell hubby that we don't need ANY more diapers). I put the water on as hot as it would go and then threw in three capfuls of bleach, a quarter size drop of blue Dawn, about 20 drops of tea tree oil and then three BIG squirts of Bac-Out in each load. I set the wash to do an extra rinse and then when that was over I set it back to extra rinse AGAIN so it did two extra rinses. Hopefully it works.

In the meantime we used G-diapers with the disposable inserts and 7th Generation disposable diapers. Honestly, I was surprised with how much I liked the 7th Generation diapers. I liked that they listed some of the ingredients on the panel and I loved that they were unbleached so they don't contain dioxin, one of the most toxic ingredients. Obviously, I'd rather use cloth every day to avoid all the other health hazards in disposable diapers but if cloth is absolutely not available, I would use these again. The G-diapers are okay and great for days like this when cloth just isn't feasible but for everyday use the three part system is just sort of tedious. Honestly, I think that regular cloth diapers, even prefolds are less work. When the baby goes poop, sometimes the insert bunches up and the plastic part that makes the diaper waterproof gets dirty as well. The plastic part is pretty difficult to spray clean too. My biggest complaint with the G-diapers is that with continued use, he gets nasty looking red marks on his hips from the snaps. The rash looked less painful!

Between using diapers that didn't have yeast built up in them and the cream the doctor recommended, we noticed a difference in his rash after the very first diaper! It has been about 2 and a half days now and the rash is completely gone. I also read online somewhere that both vinegar and tea tree oil kill yeast so I threw about an ounce of white vinegar and about 20 drops of tea tree oil in his bath (we use a big garden tub to bathe him, so if you use a regular tub, I would probably use less) to help kill anything that was still on his skin. I will continue to use disposable diapers during the night for a few more days and I think that I will gradually switch back to cloth this afternoon.

To combat yeast in the future, I will do my intense clean with the Bac-out, bleach and tea tree about once a month or once every other month. I will use Bac-Out in every wash like I used to (I stopped doing this shortly before the rash started... I hope I didn't cause the rash). I will use a fleece insert in his night diapers to keep him dry during the night since he will be in those wet diapers so long. Also, I think I might put tea tree oil in his bathwater every so often to kill any yeast that might be stewing on his body.