Summer Diaper Rash in a Toddler
I finally got my daughter’s recent severe diaper rash under control. I absolutely hate it when my kid gets a bad one especially the summer kind, and I feel guilty for every moment that I am not airing out her little behind. In nature, I think to myself, I would let her run around al fresco. After all, diapers are a first world response to the fear of a little dirt, and our young suffer because we need to sanitize the most basic of human functions.
But I am not Jane Goodall, raising my young among the chimps of the Gombe Game Reserve, and I don’t want the kid to dump on my flokati rug. So I had to learned the hard way how to treat her dermal trouble and how to keep the rash from coming back.
Here is what I do: First, I attack the rash with the big guns: applying heaps and heaps of zinc based diaper cream (the white stuff) like Balmex or Desitin. You can even use some fancy variety with goat’s milk or organic aloe vera, as long as the stuff has zinc. I change the kid’s diaper as often as I can, loading on the zinc-based cream each time.
At night, and here is the thing I stumbled upon in a moment of genius that only of exhaustion and guilt can produce, I watch her as she sleeps on a Wee Wee Pad, the absorbing pads that people use for dogs that don’t go out much. They look just like the pad that the pediatric nurse uses to line a baby scale. It only takes about thirty minutes of airing for two or three nights. For the slight of mind (or for those who are temporarily stupid from sleep deprivation) be sure to observe your kid for this airing out period. They can roll off the pad and piss on the floor. Worse, the pads are backed with a light sheet of plastic and are not safe for the unsupervised young one.
Then, to keep the rash away during the hot months, I apply a smidge of Vaseline Petroleum Jelly now and then to keep her bum from becoming irritated a gain.