4 Things To Try When Dealing With Diaper Rash (Hint... the DIAPER...)

I knew (and hoped!) when I married a redhead that chances were good that we would have a little red headed baby. Imagine my delight when June came bursting into this world with her dad's same shade of red locks.  Nothing quite prepares you to love a redhead.  Unfortunately nothing quite prepared me to care for a redhead's skin either. From the get-go June has had extremely sensitive skin that rashes up constantly. The first 6 months or so I was on constant freak-out mode trying to figure out what was going on with the never-ending diaper rashes. June went to the daycare at my school, and I remember being horrified when her caretakers would bring up the rashes. I kept hoping that they wouldn't notice. I felt like the rashes reflected my ability to mother June, and obviously I wasn't doing something right if her little bottom was home to a perpetual rash. (Oh, the mom guilt.  But that's a post for another day!)

Well, I am happy to say that a year later and after several pediatrician chats and LOTS of trial and error we have found a few keys to help June's skin stay smooth and clear. Here are four things that we switched out to make that nasty diaper rash go away for good.

1.  Soap and bubble bath. This was one of the first things that our pediatrician had us change when she saw June's diaper rashes. I was surprised to find out that babies definitely don't always need to use baby products. My pediatrician told me that some of the most popular baby products are actually not the best for babies' sensitive skin.  Who knew?  For soap she recommended CeraVe or Cetaphil.  We found the adult Cetaphil face wash to be the perfect gentle soap for June's baby skin.  We also did without bubble bath until June was over a year old. Now that she's a little bit older older and her skin a little stronger, we can use bubble bath, but we still use a sensitive skin line. We get our Sensitive Skin bubble bath from Avon,

2.  Baby lotion, cream, and ointment. I feel like we tried everything under the sun when it comes to this department. CeraVe was definitely the gentlest on June, but when it got really bad we ended up having to use Hydrocortisone. Hydrocortisone is a steroid and has to be prescribed, so for a long time we tried to avoid it, but finally gave in. A little bit goes a long way with Hydrocortisone so we would put just a dab of it with the CeraVe or even coconut oil. A lot of people suggested coconut oil to us for June's skin and we found it helped a lot. We would often mix it with her cream or even put a little bit in the bathtub with her. We also tried just about every brand's line of sensitive skin lotion as well as the eczema lotion in each brand. We didn't notice anything too miraculous with any of these.  Coconut oil, CeraVe, and Hyrdocortisone for the win!

3.  Wipes. The first year of June's life we rinsed her wipes before using them-- this was at the suggestion of our pediatrician. I guess whatever scents and soaps and what not they put on wipes can be irritating to a lot of babies' skin. The rinsing definitely helped.  Now that she is older and her skin is a bit more tough we don't have to do this every time, but anytime a rash flares up one of the first steps we take is to start rinsing the whites again.

4.  Diapers. Diapers are huge to helping diaper rash!  Shocking!  We went through about every diaper brand imaginable and here is what we found. Huggies Snug & Dry diapers far exceeds the competition not only in the leaking department, but in bothering June's skin the least.  That triple layer protection just can't be beat, you know? Huggies has up to 12 hour protection so I don't have to worry about June when I put her in Huggies to go to bed. I know that she will stay dry and that her rash won't flare up.  Nothing makes a rash worse than a wet diaper for hours on end. (And if your baby goes to bed at 8 and pees at 9, you are looking at hours on end in the same diaper). For a while we had another brand of diapers as well as Huggies in our home, and anytime we accidentally put the other brand on June to go to bed she would wake up in the middle of the night crying because the diaper was wet and hurting her little bum. Huggies Snug & Dry is definitely the way to go for the most protection for your baby's skin.  I would confidently say that this was the most important change for keeping the rash at bay.  Think about it- a baby's diaper is touching her skin 24/7 so making sure you have the right brand that isn't going to leak and irritate baby's skin is crucial.

We buy our Huggies at our local Smith's down the road.  You can find yours at any Kroger store.  And this next week you get even more perks for buying any of your babe's necessities at Kroger.  Shop at Kroger during the "Baby Me" Event going on between 3/20/16 - 4/2/16 and spend $40 on participating baby items so you can receive a $10 off coupon good towards anything at Kroger. (While supplies last)

I am always interested to hear in your experiences. Any magical solution that you have tried to help with the stubborn diaper rashes? I'd like to think that our journey into the world of baby rashes is over, but my guess is that with any future babies we'll be dealing with the same problem.

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Huggies, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #HuggiesatKroger  http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV