Home Remedies for Diaper Rash

There are many home remedies for diaper rash, but no one remedy always works on every baby. You may have to try different remedies and prescriptions before you find one that will work on a bad diaper rash. If a diaper rash does not clear up after a couple of days, it is possible that your baby is allergic to something in the diapers; you should consider changing brands, which doesn't always work, switching to cloth diapers or trying a different kind of diaper liners.

Some home remedies for diaper rash you can try include the following:

• Clean the baby's bottom with warm water and a soft cloth. Pour breast milk on the baby's bottom and allow it to air dry before re-diapering.
• Use Neosporin or another over-the-counter cream for rashes.
• Use cornstarch at every diaper change. If your baby has open sores from the diaper rash, do not use cornstarch until the rash dries up, as it may introduce bacteria into the sores. Once the sores are healed, use cornstarch at every diaper change. Some baby powders also contain cornstarch.
• Mix Nystatin and Maalox together, then coat the baby's bottom with it. The Maalox neutralizes the acids that cause the diaper rash.
• Use Bag Balm. Bag Balm is generally used for chapped cows' udders, but it can be found in most drugstores.
• Make a paste out of petroleum jelly and cornstarch. Spread it on the baby's bottom, not just the affected areas. Again, be sure there are no open sores before using any remedy that calls for cornstarch.

Before trying any of these remedies for diaper rash, make sure your baby is not allergic to any of the ingredients in them. Otherwise, the rash will only get worse.

To try to prevent diaper rash from happening at all, always clean your baby's bottom well, then apply baby powder before applying a clean diaper. Make sure to check and change diapers frequently to keep the skin dry. Check diapers for snugness, as well; while you don't want a diaper to be so loose that it leaks, you do need to make sure that there is good airflow to your baby's skin.