I finally cleared my son’s diaper rash

In February, my mom, the baby, and I drove to Arkansas for a friend’s wedding. I had decided to use cloth diapers during the trip (which we use at home but usually opt for disposables for travel) because I wanted to be more sustainable, economical, and avoid the unfriendly plastics found in disposable diapers. This decision however, turned out to be a bust because my LO (short for “little one”) developed a bad diaper rash about halfway through our trip. The combination of sitting in a wet cloth diaper in the car seat for long stretches did not agree with his skin. I also didn’t eat as well during the trip – possibly some vegetable oil contamination and I didn’t stay completely carnivore/keto during the trip – and believe that this contributed to his rash. The rash looked like an eczema outbreak but only in the diaper area, because the moisture from the pee and the cloth didn’t allow his skin to breathe. Now, compared to the photos of diaper rash that I searched for online, his rash was fairly tame. It was just more irritated than it’s ever been.
We have been practicing elimination communication (EC for short) since birth. Hence, at home we either potty him when he needs to go or change his diaper right away if we miss his cue. While traveling, he doesn’t always pee while in the car seat, but sometimes waiting until we have a rest stop to pull over is too long for him to hold his pee, meaning more wet diapers and leading to the rash. So, once I noticed he was getting a rash, we switched to disposables. I applied some homemade rash cream that I had made with coconut oil, olive oil, and beeswax. I also had some natural diaper balm that I had purchased from a local herbalist. They both helped moisturize the area and keep it from getting worse, but it wasn’t getting better. We gave him a lot of naked time to let the area breathe.
Once we got home, I tried plain coconut oil for its anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties; it is also supposed to be gentle on babies’ skin. I was happy using coconut oil because it seemed like a clean and pure option to use on my baby. Once it seemed like nothing I was doing was helping, especially after using cloth diapers at night made the rash worse again, I turned to zinc oxide to try to cure the rash. I had one cream stashed away with 12% zinc oxide, but it didn’t have much of an effect. I realized I had to look for a cream to dry out the area in order for it to heal. I finally gave in to the popular marketed diaper rash creams, so I chose two without fragrances, soy, corn, and other vegetable oils. I also avoided “mineral oil” since my research found that it’s a general term. I wasn’t happy with all the ingredients in my two chosen creams, but they were going to be used temporarily. My two creams were aquafor and boudreaux. The aquafor did a good job of drying the area, but I still felt like I had to apply coconut oil during every other diaper change because the area became so dry. The boudreaux was my preferred cream in the end, because it dried out the skin while keeping a slight moisture layer and it would last longer between diaper changes. It did however stain my cloth diapers (I forgot that zinc is a no-no for cloth). The rash got better, but I still wanted to try a home remedy.
Now here’s the point of this long story…we have a lot of frozen suet from the various cows we’ve bought the past two years. With the purge of all things that include added fragrances, we purchased tallow-based soaps from a farm in Vermont. It was time to try our hand at homemade tallow products. I rendered suet into tallow and my sister-in-law helped me turn it into magical baby balm. We took a cup of rendered tallow, 1/4 cup cold-pressed olive oil (a fruit oil used to make the tallow spreadable), and 1 teaspoon each of chamomile oil and calendula oil (both of which I purchased from a farm in New Hampshire who makes these in an olive oil base). My sister-in-law used a recipe from https://bumblebeeapothecary.com as a reference, which also suggests whipping the cream to make for a nice white and fluffy look. I started using the cream right away, and it made a world of a difference. I didn’t even have to apply it diligently as I had with the boudreaux. I could actually start seeing the skin heal, rather than dry out. It worked much better than anything else I had tried. Because he’s a meat-based baby, why wouldn’t I try those good fats to nourish his skin? I was so excited during the process of making the balm because I knew exactly what each ingredient was and how they were processed. It was a stress-free process, unlike reading and interpreting unknown ingredients on a label in the grocery store. As a bonus, this new balm is cloth diaper safe and moisturizes my hands every time I apply it.
I would love to share our magical baby balm with any baby struggling with skin issues!