The never ending diaper rash

My daughter has had a diaper rash for FOR.E.VER. I think she's had it most of her 23 month old life. The dr. said it was staph, and that everyone has staph on their body, some more than others. He didn't seem overly concerned about it. We used 'quadruple butt paste' (Aquaphor, Nystatin, the stuff in A&D ointment, and one other thing I can't remember) for a while, and it seemed to help clear it up some. The dr. has put her on a round of Keflex after the 'butt paste' didn't take it completely away, saying that sould clear it right up. It didn't...but I didn't want to go back to the dr. and have him give her a stronger antibiotic for someting that doesn't really seem to bother her all that much. We do use cloth diapers, and I tried to changing the detergent to see if that would make a difference, but it did not.
My question is, is there something missing from her diet that could help this rash go away? Or is it just something we have to wait until she's potty trained for it to go away? It might not even be something we really need to worry about...I don't know. We have just recently started down the 'traditional food' path, and are still very VERY new to all of this.

Ouch! I couldn't help but reply. I think I have some experience with red bums. First keep her dry! Very important since bacteria love moist places. Powder helps, you can make your own or buy good stuff. Let her run free (birthday suit style ) when it's safe. Also try disposable diaphers for a while, just to see if it'll clear up. Maybe a week. You could go into healing it from the inside but that can get very complicated. I'm very sorry . I hope you can find some good help.

I do try to keep her dry-I change her at least every 2 hours. The weird thing about the rash is that it often goes outside of her diaper, up her back and starts down her legs. It NEVER bothers her. She doesn't act like it itches or burns at all. Powder is a good idea...I've not tried that. I have put her in disposable diapers (and put her in disposable at night) but that hasn't seemed to make a difference, in fact, sometimes it makes other diaper rashes she might get worse.

You did not mention what happened when you tried changing diaper brands or tried cloth diapers or how often she roams free. Diapering only when she in a car seat or other outing might be part of the healing process. To protect her use baby pants or little girl undies. Yes mess happen but so can healing. Good Luck!

My nickname as a child was "pinky" which I later found out was because I always had a red bottom. Now I know that it was a dairy and/or wheat allergy. I was formula fed from the start, so it was probably a cow-milk allergy. To me, it's a no-brainer that it could be a food allergy causing the problems (I'm surprised this hasn't been suggested to you yet). If it was me, I'd try cutting out dairy for a couple of weeks to see what effect it has, and if it doesn't change, then try cutting out wheat and/or gluten for a couple of weeks. Adding in probiotic foods could also help - kefir, yogurt, sauerkraut, etc. Rubbing fresh kefir directly on her rash could also help (kefir is like yogurt in steroids in terms of it's beneficial yeasts/bacteria).

If you're feeding your child fruit juice, there's a possibility it may be too acidic for him. Many years ago, when my son was a baby he also had a terrible rash that would not go away no matter what I put on it. Someone suggested I cut out all fruit juice. Within a few days the rash was gone. I then stuck with fresh fruit, and a bottle of pure plain water.

We had the same issue with my son while he was in cloth diapers. We tried everything you've tried with just about the same results. Eventually I decided that I would spend a crazy amount of time trying to hand wash all the diapers to remove any residues and such. While we were in that cleaning process (multiple washes and rinses) we used some disposable diapers that we had gotten as gifts. In 2 days the rash was clearing up. we continued with the disposable ones until the rash completely cleared. As soon as we went back to the cloth, the rash returned. I'm guessing that it was due to the fact that the cloth never wicks all of the moisture away from the babies skin so being in contact with the urine constantly was the real problem. Considering that he was strictly breast fed up to that point there was no way we could change his diet. We were using the most mild detergents that would actually clean the diapers. So constant moisture was the only culprit left.
We bit the bullet and switched to disposable diapers and now use the cloth ones as bathing suits for our daughter. The diaper liners make great cleaning cloths and car washing rags, so it's not a total waste.

I think is actually a mammal problem.

Newborns get licked all over when they are born, and are inoculated with mom's bacteria's.
Once you get the infection knocked down, try wiping her butt with a heavily spit laden cloth, to inoculate her with YOUR germs.
Would prob help with yeast infections later too, if you inoculate her with your other bacteria too.

if you have tried everything else, you can try these in ascending order

Baking soda. try to get the ones that dont use aluminum in the ingredients.
Saltwater. can use 'instant ocean" for saltwater aquariums, or Elete, a water treatment for hydration at hiking and running shops
Magnesium Oil. actually mag salt water. works great as antiperspirant too.
Silver salve for burns. get a tub if you can. 40 bucks or so.Tubes VERY expensive. excellent topical anti microbial/antibacterial. can sometimes be found online vet supply.
Thyme oil. Burns like heck on fresh washed skin, and irritated too. Will even kill MRSA tho.

Once you get it knocked down, double down and cycle thru everything you have, nothing the same more than 2 days in a row, or you will breed resistent bacterias.
then try inoculating with moms bacterias.

We found bare butt, and sun helps most.
Keep switching disposables, some have too many paper softners in the lining. That's why most folks with hemorrhoids clear em up on basic Scott tissue after a few days.
Sounds like your disposals are working tho, so stay with them.
We had better luck with baking soda than with any specialty powders.

This can also be caused by food sensitivities. A friend of mine's twin girls would get rashy after certain foods. Sorry, I don't recall what foods they were. She was able to manage it with dietary restrictions.

Lots of good suggestions. My son had a nasty rash which wasn't healing, what seemed to work was spraying with colloidal silver spray whenever possible and air drying.

I raised my kids in the era of cloth diapers and rubber pants, and one thing I found that worked wonders for diaper rash/rubber pants rash, was cornstarch and/or browned flour.

I used the cornstarch and/or browned flour (whatever I had on hand) exactly like baby powder, making sure I changed diapers the instant they were wet or soiled.

Additionally, allowing your child's bottom to air-out between changes, helps dramatically.

When our son had diaper rash we couldn't clear with over-the-counter products, we finally took him to see the pediatrician at our military med clinic (I was in the USAF at the time). We went through several rounds of powders and creams and gels to no use. Prescriptions did no good. I finally took my son to my old family doctor who treated me my whole boyhood and he laughed, wrote a note on a script pad and told us to go to the pharmacy because they keep this on stock there for him. We got to the pharmacy and showed them the script and the guy behind the counter took us to one of the retail aisles and handed us a small jar ... of old fashioned hoof dressing. Yes, hoof dressing. Diaper rash that my son had for months was now gone in a matter of a few days.

Sometimes it's wise to talk to some old people who can teach us so much, like this doctor who kept his medical records on index cards.

Dan, do you know the ingredients in hoof dressing? I wonder if one was lanolin? that is something we used occasionally years ago and recently our grand daughter is using coconut oil successfully for diaper rash on our gr. grandson.

Hi Judith -- always a pleasure to see your posts ...

Well, that was 27 years ago, but if memory serves, it was lanolin. I've looked up several that are pastes or lotions (not oils) and they all seem to have lanolin and glycerin, and then some mix of other oils or hydrating compounds based on the commercial recipe for that brand. What seems to be common among them was lanolin and glycerin. If I remembered the brand, that might be a big help, but I'm afraid I don't. I did run across a brand that also contained coconut oil. This product claims broader application than just hooves: http://hoofalive.com/ along with the aforementioned coconut oil and the common lanolin and glycerin.

The crazy thing is that it may be some coincidental ratio of ingredients of lanolin and glycerin and some other compound. But, all I know is that the hoof dressing worked for us. And, it could all be affected by the individual body chemistry as to what makes one thing successful and another not.

Take care and send us up some of that more seasonal weather. I've gotten softer in my old age.

One thing I remember about diaper rash, not only in my home, but in the homes where I babysat and/or changed diapers, was babies who wore disposables seemed to suffer the consequence of red and irritated bottoms more than their cloth counterparts.

In my home, elastic rash from the rubber pants always seemed to be more of an issue than common diaper rash itself... ghastly red-elastic rings the child wore around the tops of their legs throughout their diapering years, because once the diapers were wet, the elastic gathers around the legs would get wet/damp, and in no time at all I had a kid with rubber pants rash.