Diaper rash part deux

After several days of using the cream the doctor gave us and not seeing any improvement, I changed tactics.

I tried letting her air out her butt, but she was having none of that!  4 hours yesterday of trying to keep a diaper off of her and her butt clean and I was exhausted.  She wouldn't sleep and just cried the whole time.  I had layers of those bed protector mats down in her bassinet, I tried a few layers of chux, and I tried setting her butt on a pile of cloth diapers interspersed with waterproof burp cloths all in an effort to let her just pee and poo in bed and still be able to clean it up quickly.  But sheesh, that did not work!  With the pile of diapers and the chux, she would just kick them all out of her way and smear her butt straight on the sheet.  The bed protectors worked fine, but she was peeing or pooing every few minutes so I had my entire collection of those in the laundry within an hour.

Keeping her butt clean was just constant.  The moment I had her cleaned up, I would turn to throw away the  shop towel (it's like an extra thick and soft paper towel) I had used in place of a wipe, turn back and there was a little bit of fresh poo all over her butt again!  Not much, just a sharts worth, but enough that I didn't want it irritating the skin so I'd start the cleaning process over again.  So frustrating!  I cleaned her butt 4 times in the span of 10 minutes.

So I gave up on the airing her tush method.  Here's what I've been doing for the last 24 hours and we're seeing a lot of improvement today.

Using the shop towels with plain water in place of wipes.  I'm keeping a peri bottle of water at the diaper changing station for this purpose.  I did get some chemical free wipes from Whole Foods yesterday and I'm starting to use those too.  After cleaning, blot with a dry shop towel.  Blow on the butt to ensure it's dry, then use a cotton ball to put on some corn starch.  Protect the face and blow off the excess (protect the face so baby doesn't breathe it in).  Cover with the powerful desitan like stuff the doctor gave us.  Put on either a cloth diaper or the chemical free disposables I also got from Whole Foods.

So far so good!  It's almost gone today.