Something Kristy Mead never imagined having to deal with as a mum with a baby in nappies, let alone a mum with a baby in cloth nappies, is a horrible bacterial skin infection on her precious babys bottom! Kristy had no idea how it came about and initially thought, “How the heck am I going to get the bacteria out of the nappies as well as apply a cream to treat the skin -that was likely not to be mcn safe.” Check out Kristys blog on how she over came this by using her greatest power ... a Mothers Instinct! As a mum who has always used cloth nappies, nappy rash is something I deal with a lot. But when I do, it’s a simple matter of using a flushable liner to protect the fabric and a modern cloth nappy safe cream to heal the skin. Of course how you wash your nappies and what you wash them with always helps! Something I never imagined I’d have to deal with as a mum with a baby in nappies, let alone a mum with a baby in cloth nappies, is a horrible bacterial skin infection in my bubba’s nappy area. I still have no idea how it came to be and initially I thought, “How the heck am I going to get the bacteria out of the nappies as well as the fact that I needed to apply a cream to treat the skin that was likely not mcn safe.” Firstly I think it’s very important to know when a rash or redness is not nappy rash. I’m no doctor but I do have something pretty powerful… Mother’s Instinct! Bub’s skin started looking blistery which was much different from the usual redness and dryness that I would see with nappy rash. The blisters very quickly spread and of course when the nappy rubbed the blisters, the skin became very raw. A visit to the doctor confirmed my suspicion that it was bacterial. Staphylococcus to be exact! So we were given a prescription cream to get on top of the infection. The next thing was to work out what to do with my nappies. The aim was to avoid the skin and cream touching the fabric and thankfully Cushie Tushies offer a brilliant little product called Eco-Disposable inserts! They have been an absolute godsend! I loved them already but now I have a new found appreciation for them. I really didn’t want to opt for traditional disposable nappies as this was bound to cause other problems with my bub’s already sensitive skin. So using these all natural disposable inserts was a no brainer. The design of the eco-disposables worked perfectly. I was able to fan out the frilly outer of the insert (see pic) so that the nappy cover didn’t even come into contact with the skin. I was happy that my baby’s skin could remain comfortable in natural fibres and that we could continue using our cloth (using the hybrid system of part cloth/part eco-disposable). As for the cloth inserts that had come into contact with the bacteria, I wanted to kill the germs without destroying my nappies so I spoke with the owner of Cushie Tushies and got some great advice. The nappies can cope in water up to 60° which was perfect for killing bacteria! I also made sure they saw heaps of UV as this kills bacteria effectively too. I was already using the Cushie Tushies Premium Laundry Detergent so I knew I could continue this and it would help. And although there is not normally a need to use any special anti-bacterial rinses (such as Dettol), in this particular instance a one off was going to be fine. What a relief that dealing with this situation was going to be plain and simple! I continued using the cloth wipes and the chameleon covers with the ecos until the infection was all cleared, washing the covers and wipes in 60° and with the Cushie Tushies Detergent. Once the correct diagnosis was made and the right advice was obtained from the nappy manufacturer, I was well on my way back to successful cloth nappying!
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 04:00:00 +0000