Vindication for Cloth Diapers

I mentioned on here a while ago that Sly has had a vicious recurring rash in his diaper area. The doctors thought at first it was herpes (it wasn't, thank goodness!) and then some sort of bacterial infection (not that either). After all three of the doctors at our pediatricians' office had failed to identify what the heck the thing was, they sent us to a children's dermatologist.

My fear was that this doctor wouldn't know what it was either, and that he would for some reason blame our cloth diapers. Cloth does hold the pee directly against the skin (unless you buy the more expensive style of cloth diapers, which wicks it away), unlike disposables. Although I've read in a lot of places that babies who wear cloth get fewer rashes, it does seem counterintuitive. Maybe the dermatologist wouldn't have heard this fact? I lamented to Tom last night that I just knew the doctor would tell us we had to switch completely to disposables forever. Noooooo!

This morning, the dermatologist took a look at Sly, and fortunately, he recognized what the problem was (I can't remember the name of the condition, but it's a recurring inflammation issue). He gave us a prescription for some cream which he was very hopeful will clear up the problem. He pointed out that the (disposable) diaper Sly was wearing (I had one in the diaper bag, and he had needed a change before the appointment) was probably exacerbating the rash, since the dyes they use in them are very irritating to the skin. "Oh! Well we usually use cloth diapers," I said, "we just use disposables when we're traveling." "Good," he replied, "if you can use exclusively cloth diapers from now on, I would advise you to do that. They're much better for the skin. And if you have to use disposables, find some without any dyes."

Sweet. I'm happy to hear further support for cloth diapers, and from a skin professional at that! Seriously, people - they're so much better for your babies, and so much better for the pocketbook!