Cloth Nappy Tree Forum

Hi
Does anyone have experience of using cloth nappies with a child who has eczema? I have used cloth for 4 years - my son potty trained at 3 and was in cloth pretty much 100% until then and my daughter has been in cloth until recently.
But our pocket nappies (mainly BG) now irritate her skin and leave her with patches on her legs So sadly I am having to use disposables. While convenient, they are costing me a fortune and they really pile up in the dustbin too!
I've tried strip washing, changing frequently, extra boosters etc but nothing seems to help. Within a day of going back into cloth, she gets patches of sore skin on her legs.
I don't want to try other types of nappies as I have a big stash that I will now have to sell I think Annoyingly, I bought loads of nappies for my little girl but made do with 20 BG for my son, who had no problems in them!

DS has eczema too, he gets patches on his legs from cloth nappies also. I have found that paper liners make the irritation worse. I am also careful to make sure the leg elastic is further up the leg in the groin area when i put the nappy on iyswim? when the patches get bad i use tesco terry nappies (very cheap) with a nippa and fleece soaker so there is no elastic on the thighs for a day or so or lots of nappy free time. Very frequent application of emollient (every nappy change) and occasional steroid cream helps also. With J disposables also cause sore patches on the thighs so not really an option for us.

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to try switching her back again soon as the disposables are costing me a fortune and with all the real nappy deals on at the moment I don't think I'll make much selling my large cloth stash! The patches are always in the same place and I switched from Easyfits to BG as the Easyfits were tight in the wrong place (she's chunky). I'll give it a try. The other thing I found helped was a large fleece liner and some bepanthen, but it's difficult as when she's at nursery they don't really understand about cloth nappies and nappy cream!

Can you use emolient with cloth or will it damage it like nappy cream does?

I use tonnes of emollient and have never had a problem with my nappies. Another thing that can help if you have velcro nappies is to angle the velcro when you close them so the legs are a bit looser. Having the nappies on a higher rise than needed can also help but you have to be careful if they are too loose you will get leaks. Large fleece liners are a good idea, i might try that and your right about nurseries, just getting them to change dd often enough was enough of a nightmare. Are nursery putting the emollient on for you? if so how often? you really need to be getting them to do it at least 4 times a day.

ooh forgot to say that bepanthen on the eczema patches is not a good idea as it is a barrier cream so keeps the area dry, eczema is actually better when wet so you should use just emollient (and some steroid if required) on the red patches. HTH

Thanks! I've switched her back to cloth and her skin is suffering a bit, but I think it's just the change and her skin will calm. I've been slapping on the emollient and it is helping. I also tried the looser fit and that helps too - I use BG V4 poppers on the loosest setting and BG velcros. No leaks yet
She is quite chunky so sadly my lovely slim easyfits are too small now

Nursery are fantastic at doing the cream - they do it religiously and make us sign a form every time we pick her up saying it's been done. They'll be fine about extra nappy changes too. We have had a few issues with them but I have to say they're very good at nappies and the caring side of things.

Feels great to have her back in cloth

We've had an appointment with the dermatologist today and he has prescribed hydromol ointment for joes thighs as it is greasier so shouldn't rub off so much and also some dermasilk leggings and vest to be worn 24/7 hopefully these will help as well. might be worth seeing your gp if you don't already have an ointment.

Hannah's skin is slowly improving and the emollient on the nappy area is really helping. I'm hoping we will be able to stick to cloth and it's looking good so far, although I'm having to change her approx every 2.5 hours and that's with 3 LL bamboo boosters! She is soaked as she drinks a lot.

Also, we have tubifast leggings that I got on prescription and they work wonders at night under her sleepsuits (from cotton comfort - they were also revolutionary and sorted out the night time itching)

Thats fab, we have the tubifast leggings and vests, they do work well. Josephs heavy wetting has really settled down since weaning started but before that he could outpee boosted fitteds in an hour. Hope you keep making progress and can stay in cloth