Diaper rash is another one of those things that’s different for every baby.

Then again, what isn’t?

Generally speaking, cloth diapering reduces the amount of times your baby will get diaper rash, but it does have some down sides. For instance, the rash remedies that are cloth diaper safe aren’t as powerful as those that can be used with disposables.

In other words, cloth diapers = less rashes + more hassle when rashes do occur.

That being said, I’d like to share with you my experiences, as well as a couple of tips from others.

When I put together my cloth diaper stash, I made sure to get a Grovia Magic Stick because the mom who owns Pinstripes and Polkadots (the cloth diaper store in Bloomington, IL) highly recommended it. The Grovia Magic Stick is cloth diaper safe, so I thought, what the heck, I’ll give it a try. I’m really glad I did.

To be completely honest, I love this magic stick. It’s not “magic,” per say, but it does do a really good job. And not just on diaper rashes. Any skin irritation that I find on Ginny heals very quickly when I rub this salve on her. Had you asked me a couple of months ago, I would have said that this stick is completely magical. Then I ran into teething diaper rash.

Luckily, I knew this was coming. My baby guru told me her babies get diaper rash so badly when they’re teething, they need to switch to disposables so that they can use a really heavy duty diaper rash cream. She recommended Boudreaux’s Butt Paste, so I got some of that as well.

Unfortunately for me, Ginny is more prone to diaper rash when she wears disposables, so that didn’t help me as much as I thought it would. I also found that, while teething, Ginny is more sensitive to disposable wipes. But cloth wipes are difficult to use with her because she’s so wiggly and they take a little more effort to do the job.

My baby guru also suggested that I add a Stay Dry Liner on top of the open cloth diaper (see picture on the left), and then put that on my baby while fighting diaper rash. The micro-fleece liner acts as an extra shield, pushing the moisture away from the skin even faster.   I purchased a 6 pack of Cotton Babies Stay Dry Liners, and then my mother-in-law graciously made me 10 more. They do seem to help…though once again, they don’t magically solve the problem. 

After some experimenting, this is what I’ve found works the best (for my baby) while dealing with teething:

1. Keep her in cloth diapers and change the diapers frequently. Really frequently.
2. Use cloth wipes and use bumGenius Bottom Cleaner when the diaper is simply wet. Use disposable wipes when there’s poop.
3. Apply Grovia Magic Stick during every diaper change.
4. Line the top of the cloth diaper with a Stay Dry Liner.

Like I said, this is going to be a little different for everyone. Some babies don’t have any extra diaper rash when they’re teething. Some are more sensitive to cloth diapers and might get rashes. Some can’t handle disposables at all, ever. Some might need to wear disposables while they’re teething so that you can use the heavy duty diaper rash cream.

How do you plan for this?

If you want to cloth diaper, I’d suggest purchasing a cloth diaper safe diaper rash ointment to see if it does the trick. If it doesn’t, you can always just go to your local grocery store and purchase disposables and the heavy duty rash cream.

If you don’t want to cloth diaper, see if your baby can handle the disposables. Most do. On the rare occasion that your baby is super sensitive to them, however, you can always find a cloth diaper store nearby or online and put together your own stash of “fluff.”

Either way, be aware that when teething time comes around, you may be in for a bit of a sore surprise. And teething can be a short period of time, or months. I will say that although Ginny has been teething since about three months old, the rashes didn’t show up until the teeth started physically breaking through the gums. I’m not entirely sure when this will end, but I suspect there will be a period of time when her teeth take a break from “cutting,” and I’ll have a break from fighting diaper rash.