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My daughter has been diagnosed with Atopic Epi...something...and now I have a question.
I was advised to put a zinc oxide cream on at every diaper change, and THICK - She's naked most of the time, but she still wears the diapers at nap and night and when we go out. I've got penaten and desitin - I was told to go high zinc oxide and no fragrances - any other suggestions? Everything else I could find had fragrance...any ideas where to find a pure zinc oxide cream?
Also, I was told only cotton against her skin (the dermatologist actually said no plastic diapers - score one for cloth!) which means no paper liners, no fleece liners...I've been using baby washcloths as liners, but I'm a little worried about the zinc oxide getting on my diapers and ruining them (we have another one in diapers, and am hoping to get one more diapered with this set!) Any cotton ideas? I was considering buying cheap thin towels and cutting them to diaper shape and using that...any comments?
Thanks for your help - with any luck, she'll be potty trained soon (she's 20 months and loves to let me know when she's peed), but I think I've got a least a few more months ahead of us in diapers. |
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I wonder maybe if some kind of flannel wouldn't be better than a towel. It's still cotton but thinner, easier to clean (no loops for cream to gunk up inside of) and I think that it would unravel less if you weren't able to serge the edges. Think about something like those really cheap receiving blankets or an old unneeded crib sheet? Or what about silk liners? They're a natural & breathable fabric, maybe that would be ok? I don't know where you'd get them exactly but I know that silk liners exist...
I wouldn't worry too much about the creams 'ruining' anything. Really they can't cause any permanent damage. Sure, they can coat the diapers, cause odors (those with fish oils like regular Desitin - I don't think it's an issue with others), maybe some stains but that can all be fixed. Stripping in really hot water will help, at worst you can just scrub with a toothbrush and dishsoap for hard to remove spots/stains. The absolute worst that could happen is that the diapers would get so coated that they'd start repelling and cause leaks. But again, that can be fixed... A bit of a pain, but all fixable...
Oh, and maybe since you don't need that many diapers per day you could just use a few diapers instead of the whole stash. Fewer diapers that would possibly need stripping or scrubbing...
Karen. |
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So Karen, you said that the cream could coat the diapers and cause odors - is that just cream with fish oils? Penaten doesn't have any fish oils, so maybe I don't need a liner - and I'll check the label of an oitment called Zincofax, I don't think it had fish oils. If it doesn't have fish oils, do I need the liner? Is it ok to get the cream on the diaper then? I like the idea of having a few diapers for her. She only goes through about 3 a day because of the bare bum time, and then if I did have to strip them it would only be some.
Thanks for your help. |
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No, any cream can coat the diapers, it's just that the ones with fish oils (which are reportedly very beneficial to skin fwiw) can also cause fishy odors.
What makes a good barrier cream is something really thick that won't wipe off easily (so it doesn't wipe off on the diaper) and isn't water-soluble (so that pee can't penetrate it). Anything that's not water-soluble and really thick is going to be difficult to wash out. For example, I remember when I used to use Penaten. Great barrier, but man that was difficult to wash off my hands!! I needed really hot water, soap and even some scrubbing. Imagine a washing machine trying to get that out of terry cloth diapers! A little bit wouldn't be a big deal, it would get washed out eventually. But if used on a regular basis then it could build-up and start causing issues. That's why I'd personally always use some type of liner with a diaper cream.
That said, there are supposedly some that are 'cloth safe' but I don't know much about those. Logically I would expect that those would be much less goupy/thick than something like Penaten so I would expect that it wouldn't make as good a barrier. But it could be worth looking into though...
Also, I don`t know if I`m being overly cautious but I thought I`d mention anyway that there`s a possibility that the diaper cream could transfer from the liners to the diapers in the wash. Under normal circumstances of say someone using a bit of cream for a couple of changes then it might not be a big deal, but if you`re really slathering it on with every diaper.... I don`t know, maybe not but it might be worth washing them seperatly just in case. That might be a bit of a pain (and possibly waste of water) though so maybe it would be easier to just take your chances and scrub your diapers down with an old toothbrush *if* it happens.
Another idea that I just remembered, you could always leave her diaperless even for naps by just layering a few towels underneath her (just cover the crib really well). As long as she doesn`t have the habit of pooping during naps...
Karen. |
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| Hopefully you don't still have this problem, but just in case... You could make inexpensive diaper liners out of old tee shirts. If your rag drawer isn't already full of old tees, then you could surely find some inexpensive ones at a thrift store. The edges will curl up but won't unravel, so you don't need to hem them. |
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