Saturday, January 19, 2013

The Yeast Monster: How to Properly Strip Your Diapers of Yeast and Yeast Spores



Does your infant get a reoccurring diaper rash that literally tears your little ones booty up? I'm talking, raw, bleeding, and no matter what you do you can't get it to go away? A rash so bad that every time you change your little ones diaper your heart shatters and you want to cry? Yeah, I've dealt with that too. It's literally the worst thing in the entire world. I'm no doctor and I sure am not qualified to diagnose your child's diaper rash so I recommend that any rash that bad you get it looked at so that you can get the proper creams to clear it up as quickly and effectively as possible, but let me just tell you, that's no ordinary diaper rash. In the experience that I have had with it, after countless doctors appointments, I feel pretty confident to tell you that it is most likely yeast. If you didn't already know, your little one can get yeast rash's when you cloth diaper them. Yeast commonly grows in warm dark places and that of course tends to be a diaper. More specifically, a cloth diaper. If your little one has sensitive skin like my child does, a yeast rash can turn into the war with the yeast monster. Let me right now, if your child has a yeast rash that keeps coming back no matter what you do, you're dealing with yeast spores, not just yeast. Did you know there was a difference? I sure didn't. After literally months of dealing with horrible rash over horrible rash I was at my wits end. I was about two seconds away from throwing my cloth in the garbage (okay not really) and going back to disposables. I couldn't bear to see my little baby boy with such horrible rashes on his bottom! It just wasn't fair. That night after I had a mommy meltdown I stayed up and did over three hours of research, reading website after website, blog after blog, trying to figure out how to stop this evil yeast monster and how to be able to keep my little man in cloth. All signs pointed to Tea Tree Oil and Grapefruit Seed Extract. 

Tea tree oil is a natural antifungal and antibacterial treatment that is cloth diaper safe. This will kill any yeast that is on your diaper. I use tea tree oil ever other wash now with cloth diapers. It may be a little over kill but I figured it's safe on my diapers, so why not be preventative. If after using tea tree oil your child still gets the rashes then you're dealing with spores. Grapefruit Seed Extract is the only natural way to kill yeast SPORES. If you do not kill the spores your yeast will keep coming back. 

After realizing that I needed to do some serious stripping, I spent seven, yes seven hours washing and stripping my diapers. It was absolutely ridiculous, but it worked. Baby A hasn't had a yeast rash in months thanks to my dedication to getting the yeast monster out of our lives for good. Here's how you can properly strip your diapers and be done with the stress and heartbreak of awful yeast rashes.

First and formost, turn your hot water heater onto it's highest setting possible. You will need scalding hot water to properly clean and rinse your diapers.

Bye Bye Yeast:
1. Rinse your diapers to get the stinkies washed out a little
2. Do a regular wash with no soap
3. Rinse the diapers three times 
4. Add eight to ten drops of Tea Tree Oil and wash your diapers on regular
5. Rinse diapers 
6. Rinse them again
Optional Step (if you have yeast spores in the diaper, this is a must): Add five drops of Grapefruit Seed Extract
Optional Step: Rinse diapers
7.Wash diapers with Cloth Diaper detergent
8. Rinse Diapers
9. Switch to dryer on HIGH or sun dry

If you still have a severe amount of yeast in the diapers you may need to repeat this procedure two-three times before putting your child back in them. It only took me one time to strip the yeast out of my sons diapers, but it may be wise to repeat this procedure a second time to be absolutely certain  Make sure that you do this to all of your diapers otherwise it will defeat the purpose. 

Yeast Prevention:

Every other wash I treat the diapers by rinsing them, adding tea tree oil, rinse, wash with Cloth Diaper Detergent, rinse, and dry on hot. At least twice a month I substitution the tea tree oil for the grapefruit seed extract to triple check that there won't be any yeast spores. 

It's a lot of work, but the outcome is well worth it. You can beat this yeast monster, I promise! If you have any questions or need encouragement feel free to send me an email and we will get you through it!



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12 comments:

  1. Thank you Alex! I'll be passing this on to my neighbor, mother of 7 (bless her heart). Regards, chris

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  3. Do you do anything differently in a front loading HE washer? I had my (regular, non-yeasty) stripping routine down with my old top loader, but haven't been able to tweak it just right with the new machine.

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    1. Ashely to be honest I'm not sure, I don't have an HE washer or a frontloader :/

      I'm sorry!

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  4. Jesus! Thank you! I've been battling a yeast rash for almost 6 months now and it just keps coming back. This last time I had her in sposies for 2 weeks while using clorotimazol and it cleared but as soon as I switched back to cloth the yeast was back. I'm on the verge of tears! I'll try the oils during stripping. The hot water in my washer is tepid at best, should I consider boiling my diapers?

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  5. So glad I found your site! My son keeps getting reoccurring yeast infections. I had done the tea tree oil but kept coming back. Got the grape seed extract tonight and hopefully can beat this once and for all!

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  6. So glad I found this! At my whits end trying to get yeast out of my cloth diapers. Bought the grapefruit seed extract tonight and hopefully can get rid of it for good

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  7. Are you starting with dirty diapers or clean ones? That is the most confusing to me. I've been working on my routine and not sure when to add the tea tree and GSE.

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  8. I used GSE diluted in a little spray bottle to put on between diaper changes and also spray/wipe around my baby's mouth when she got thrush. I didn't think to put it in the diaper wash though! Great idea!

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  9. I put them directly in with the diapers!

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  10. I am using cloth diapers that were loaned to me by a close friend. All of her children battled with yeast. I stripped the diapers in boiling water in the tub with dawn (scrubbing each one by hand) scorching my hands, used calgon, and finally used oxyclean. It took me over a week to do all of this. But, now, everytime I put DS in them, he gets a rash when he poos. I put him in sposies and the rash gets better. I then put him back in cloth and the rash comes again when he poos. Am I dealing with yeast? I put Cj's butter on him with tea tree oil and that seems to help a little bit. Also, he seems to not like to be put in cloth. He cries and squirms everywhere. I have to use cloth because I cannot afford sposies and its better for the environment. Do you have any advice?

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    1. It does sound like yeast in my personal opinion, and it sounds like it just doesn't want to go away! Do you have a washing machine? I would recommend resorting to a bleach strip (even though I hate bleach, sometimes it IS necessary). Depending on your machine will depending on the amounts - I use this cheat sheet...

      Regular Top Loader:
      Small Load - 1/3 Cup Bleach
      Medium Load - 1/2 Cup Bleach
      Large Load - 3/4 Cup Bleach

      HE Top Loader:
      Small Load - 1/4 Cup Bleach
      Medium Load - 1/3 Cup Bleach
      Large Load - 1/2 Cup Bleach

      Pour the bleach in according to your washer/load and fill the washer with COLD water. Be sure that the bleach container says "Kills 99.9% of household germs" or something similar. It will not work if you use any of those bleaches that are "color safe" or "splash resistant". It needs to be good old fashioned bleach. Soak your diapers for 30 minutes and then I do the following..

      Cold rinse
      Hot wash with detergent
      Warm rinse

      That should get rid of any yeast or bacteria in the diaper. I would also recommend sunning them after you bleach them and the sun should also help kill anything that the bleach may have left behind (which probably isn't anything, but better safe than sorry).

      I hope your little one feels better soon!

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