Yesterday morning, when I changed my toddler’s diaper, he was screaming while I was cringing at how red and inflamed his little bottom was. I haven’t had to deal often with diaper rash, but occasionally it does happen.
Several days ago, I asked for a suggestion at the health food store, and it was suggested that I use castor oil with some aloe in it. I didn’t have any aloe, but since I did have castor oil, that’s what I used. And it worked – except on the areas that it couldn’t reach, specifically where the elastic of the diaper enclosed the inner leg and the inner crack of his bottom (where they specifically said not to apply it). But now those areas were raw and almost bleeding – it was painful just to look at it.
So I tried more castor oil, and then put some cloth underwear on him so I would know immediately when he was wet and he wouldn’t have to sit in it for even a few minutes before he was changed. Then because he was crying that the underwear were rubbing the same place on his upper thighs, I took off the underwear and let him go without anything. He didn’t like that at all and kept trying to bring me a diaper to put on him, but I thought the air would be helpful. And maybe it was helpful, but not helpful enough. Fresh air and keeping the bottom dry are useful suggestions, but they are more effective in terms of prevention. As a cure for a nasty diaper rash, it just takes too long.
He was crying all day, walking in an awkward way to avoid anything touching that area, and only sitting on his knees. My dh had the van for the day so I had no way to get to a store to buy any kind of ointment. Finally, I decided to try the natural remedy that my 13 yo daughter has suggested to me several times. (She’s read a book we have around the house about natural home remedies and has alot of info in her head as a result.) I couldn’t see how it could work, but I was desperate to do something to help him, so I tried it.
The remedy is to brown some flour in a pan and then apply it to the diaper area when it’s cooled down. That’s the entire remedy. He had been crying at every diaper change (as well as a good part of the day), but amazingly, as soon as this flour was sprinkled on him, he stopped crying. Then he started acting more like his usual cheerful self, playing and running around. When we next changed his diaper, we couldn’t believe the noticeable improvement. It was late afternoon by the time we tried it, so I only was able to change him once (and sprinkle the flour on) before putting him in for the night. By this morning, it was much much better – we can see a slight bit of redness, but he has no pain or discomfort at all. All within a half a day’s time.
Since flour is something that everyone has in the house, and it takes just a few minutes to prepare this remedy, I thought that I should share something this easy and this effective with you!
Avivah
