a rash of trouble

with our little string bean eating solid foods now (string beans included), we've found that the transition has been... less than simple. for about four days we found c was quite..backed up. adding a little more to his misery is that the introduction of food also caused him some diaper rash, which we very, very rarely encounter. over the week it continued to get progressively worse until his poor bum was so red and raw that he cried in discomfort. fear not, momma to the rescue! i hopped online and began researching the better acclaimed home remedies for treating diaper rash, and after ruling out many, i narrowed it down to a few things to try:

first i began airing out the area. now, with a six month little boy who no longer lies stationary (two days ago he began rocking up onto his hands and knees in an attempt to crawl!), i at first laid a few cloth diapers on the floor and let him hang out on them, but after getting on his hands and knees and rolling around on his back a few times while playing, i knew this was a recipe for disaster. so, i strapped on a cloth diaper with a snappi and left the cover off so air could continue to flow through it.
later i steeped a bath with a few bags of chamomile tea and a cloth full of oatmeal to create a soothing soak for his poor tush. after letting him play and sit in the warm bath for a while (about twenty minutes), i took him out and let his bottom air dry again and then applied our favorite remedy, passed down from my parents, bag balm. bag balm is a lanolin based ointment and does wonders for chapped, raw, dry skin. i repeated my cloth diaper sans cover routine, snapped the ends of his long sleeve onesie around his middle to keep the ends dry,  put on his legwarmers to keep his wee legs warm, and let him play on the floor some more. when he was wet or soiled, i discarded our usual wipes and patted him down with a warm wet cloth and let air dry each time before reapplying a small amount of the bag balm. at nap times, i simply put on a diaper cover.

the rash seemed a bit better by the day's end, and thanks to e picking us up some sea salt, i made our wee wren a second bath with the salts as praised by our favorite mother of twins. again i let him soak in the bath for as long as he would happily stay in and air dried his bum before bed and applied more ointment before bed. when he awoke in the night, i changed his diaper and noticed an improvement already. so this morning i will repeat yesterday's remedies and hope to see a vast improvement by tomorrow. here's hoping for a rash free buttocks soon!