It might sound odd, but the secret to healthy skin has more to do with detergent and wash routine than diaper creams and balms! If your baby develops diaper rash, it's common (and necessary) to lean on rash cream to quickly alleviate their discomfort. But it's just as important to rule out the culprit to prevent future rashes – rather than continually relying on creams to heal them. Even the strongest diaper cream can only do so much when what's causing the rash is right up against the baby's skin.
When cloth diapering, the key to rash-free skin starts in the laundry. Ensuring your cloth diapers are clean, rinsed, and pH balanced is critical. In this blog post we will talk about how your cloth diaper wash routine affects your baby's skin and how to perfect it so your baby doesn't ever have to suffer from diaper rash.
Let’s start with three questions to ask yourself when optimizing your cloth diaper wash routine for healthy skin…
How to get my cloth diapers clean?
As we mentioned above, diaper creams can only do so much for a rash if the diaper you are putting on your baby's skin is causing the rash. Ensuring your cloth diapers are clean and ready for reuse is imperative.
At Esembly, we have a pretty unique advantage when it comes to understanding the best way to get diapers clean. Before we ever created our own cloth diaper brand, we were washing over 15,000 cloth diapers a week at our busy NYC cloth diaper laundry service! Needless to say, we gained a wealth of experience and knowledge – understanding the ins and outs of what it takes to get diapers clean, and how to do it in a way that is simple and effective. We now call this method of washing “The Esembly Way”
We promise you that the Esembly way is truly the best way to wash cloth diapers. We recommend warm water with the first wash cycle, which serves to lift the top layers of soil and ammonia from the diapers and then flush it all away, preparing the diapers to be deep cleaned in the heavy second wash cycle with hot water. (our step-by-step instructions can be found here)
It’s also just as important to make sure you’re using a powerful, clean-rinsing, detergent – like our Washing Powder to get your diapers clean! Cloth diapers are some of the dirtiest laundry you’ll likely ever wash, so choosing a detergent that’s up for the job is essential. (fun fact: our Washing Powder is the only detergent specifically formulated for washing cloth diapers with a patent!)
How to make sure my cloth diapers are rinsed thoroughly?
In addition to your cloth diaper detergent being powerful enough to get those dirty diapers clean, you also want to make sure your detergent is clean-rinsing. Most laundry detergents on the store shelves are loaded with ingredients that remain on the fabric after the final rinse. This is by design! Ingredients like fragrance, fabric softener and optical brighteners hang onto the fabric fibers in order to do their job (which is to mask any remaining odors with perfume, feel greasy-soft or reflect light to look brighter). The problem with these ingredients that don’t rinse out is two-fold:
- The ingredients themselves can irritate sensitive baby skin
- The lingering ingredient molecules give the ammonia and bacteria something to latch onto making it harder and harder to wash out in future washes. Which results in the ammonia and bacteria buildup causing skin irritation too.
We highly recommend only using a clean-rinsing detergent (like our Washing Powder) to wash cloth diapers. Learn more about why you should be using a clean-rinsing detergent in our recent post.
Is the pH of my cloth diaper too high for my baby's skin?
Time for a bit of “laundry science” (one of our most favorite topics of conversation here at Esembly 🤓) Let’s talk about pH and how in can affect your baby’s skin, and diapers!
Most laundry finishes at around a 7 on the pH scale. That’s neutral. Some things that could contribute to a higher pH are your water (some households have water that is higher or lower than 7, which is totally ok) and the detergent (all natural detergents, especially powder, tend to have a higher pH than liquid). Baby skin is generally fine with all of these variances but occasionally there are babies who are super sensitive to pH and we need to lower it below neutral. That’s where vinegar comes in! Vinegar is laundry magic! It will soften the fabric, lower the pH, and help release any built-up detergent or water minerals, leaving the diapers even more gentle on extra sensitive baby skin.
Using white vinegar to lower the pH is easy: simply add ½ cup of white vinegar to the fabric softener dispenser in the second heavy duty cycle.
Important Reminder: Please note that if you plan to add chlorine bleach per our Optional Refresh instructions as well as white vinegar, the bleach will need to be moved to the first cycle. Chlorine bleach and white vinegar should never be mixed in the same cycle!
Other Common Culprits for Diaper Rashes
While having a perfect cloth diaper wash routine will prevent most diaper rashes, there are a few that are not laundry related that may still sneak up on you:
Diaper rash caused by not changing baby often enough
If you detect poop, you must change your baby's diaper immediately (even if they are asleep). Poop against the skin, even if just for a short period of time, will lead to a nasty diaper rash. Otherwise, plan to change your baby every 2-3 hours when they are awake (you can go longer during extended sleep stretches by adding an Overnighter cloth diaper booster for extra absorbency).
The urea that the baby pees converts to ammonia when it hits the air and the ammonia will break down the top layer of their delicate skin if the baby is left in their diaper for too long. This applies to both cloth diapers and disposables.
Diaper rash caused by "Secret Poo"
Regardless of if you’re using cloth diapers or disposables, (or a combo! Because in case you hadn’t heard, cloth diapering is not all or nothing😉) babies require changing every 2-3 hours, or immediately if they poop as we just discussed. Problem is, at the newborn phase, you might find that your baby deposits a tiny amount of poop, and sometimes, this tiny amount can go undetected! This is the genesis of the notorious "secret poo" rash. That sneaky little bit of poo left against your baby's delicate skin, even for a short period, can lead to nasty irritation.
If you’re changing your baby and you see a hot pink/red shiny rash in their butt crack or around their anus, this is it. The rash generally looks like a sunburn with clearly defined edges.
If you’re dealing with this kind of rash, we’re here to help! You can learn more about the secret poo rash and how to treat it effectively from our recent post.
Diaper rash caused by Yeast/Fungus
If you've ruled out everything above and your baby's rash will not go away, it could be a yeast/fungal rash. Your pediatrician is the best person to diagnose this. If your baby has yeast, ask your doctor to prescribe a 10-12 day course of anti-fungal treatment like Nystatin CREAM or Lotrimin CREAM instead of Nystatin OINTMENT (the creams are safe to use with your cloth diapers, the petroleum based ointment is not).
If you plan to use your cloth diapers while treating a fungal (yeast/ candida) rash, be sure to properly disinfect all diapers and accessories with chlorine bleach by following our instructions for an Optional Refresh. This will knock out any lingering yeast spores and the diapers will be safe to use. It's very important to run the Optional Refresh at every wash throughout the entire 10-day treatment to prevent reinfection.
How to Treat Diaper Rash in Cloth Diapers?
If despite your best efforts your baby develops a diaper rash, it’s time to use a zinc-oxide-based diaper rash cream to clear things up – like our Rash Relief Cream!
Zinc oxide is often seen as problematic for cloth diapers, and in many cases, it can be. High concentrations of zinc, especially when combined with certain ingredients, can cause buildup and damage cloth diapers. That's why it's crucial to choose a diaper rash cream with the right zinc percentage and ingredients to ensure it's cloth-friendly. (both our Rash Relief Cream and our Everyday Balm are specially formulated and guaranteed to wash out of your cloth diapers!)
To learn more about cloth friendly skincare and how treat diaper rashes, check out the post all about cloth diaper friendly skincare.
Skincare Starts with Laundry
In summary, the secret to avoiding diaper rash starts with how you wash your cloth diapers. Keeping the natural fibers of your cloth diapers happy and “healthy” will allow your babe’s skin to stay happy and healthy, too!
Here are some helpful links to help you do this:
- The Complete Guide to Washing Your Cloth Diapers at Home
- What Kind of Detergent Do You Need to Wash Cloth Diapers?
- Can You Wash Cloth Diapers in Hard Water?
- How to Diagnose and Treat the Most Common Newborn Diaper Rash
- What is Cloth Diaper Stripping and Do I Need to Do It?
- Understanding Cloth Friendly Skincare
Products you will need:
Want to Learn More About Cloth Diapering?
Our co-founders host a free, virtual, Cloth Diapering 101 class every month to help cloth-curious parents get all the tools and information they need! You’ll learn:
- How to use the Esembly diapers and accessories
- How to easily and effectively launder your Esembly diapers
- The impact that your choice has on the planet, your wallet, and your day-to-day.
You'll leave with the confidence to Live Less Disposably and a 20% discount code to use on your first order. 🥳 We hope to see you there!
Sign Up for Our Next Cloth 101 Class
