What’s the Best Way to Prevent Diaper Rash?

"One of the most important ways to help prevent diaper rash is to wipe your baby’s fragile skin as quickly as possible after poops and pees. To further reduce the chance of irritation, I recommend using products that help restore the skin barrier and protect from chafed skin like CeraVe Healing Ointment after each diaper change. In addition to helping prevent diaper rash, these types of products can be used to soothe minor skin irritations in the diaper area."

– Whitney Casares, MD, MPH, FAAP, board-certified pediatrician, author, speaker and mom of 2

"Sometimes you can get ahead of the game on diaper rash if you just keep an eye on how your baby's diet affects their poop. My son is a teenager now but my husband and I still cringe about how his worst diaper rash always happened after eating canned mandarin oranges: He'd eat the entire can, then we'd find little pieces of undigested orange and awful diaper rash the next time we'd change a poopy diaper. I'm no doctor, but I think the acidity of the citrus in his poop irritated his skin. It's so important to watch how babies react to what they're eating. They can't always tell us how they feel, but their poops, grossly enough, can show us."

–Terri Peters, mom of two

"I use cloth diapers because it’s cute as all heck, but a happy consequence is that my son has never had a diaper rash while wearing them. We wick away the moisture using DIY fleece liners or athletic wicking jersey diapers so the urine passes through to the absorbent layers but his skin stays soft and dry. You also have to change cloth diapers more frequently than disposable so he’s never in a wet diaper for long."

–Bassey Etim-Edet, mom of one

"Air time works wonders. Especially for littles that are immobile, stick a chux pad under them and no diaper for most of the day. The skin gets a chance to dry completely. We rarely used creams and when we tried them they never seemed to really help. So, instead we would do diaper-free time when my kids had any rash or irritation and it would clear up in a day."

–Jessica Hare Whittington, mom of two

"Forget organic baby powder. It is so overpriced, but when you consider that it’s going on some of the most sensitive tissue on your baby’s body, it’s really worth the thought. I discovered that cornstarch is the effective ingredient in baby powder. I bought a bottle of “baby powder,” dumped it out, filled it with cornstarch (that I keep stocked on the changing table) and voila! The most effective and safest baby powder ever!!!"

–Mercedes Thomsen, mom of three

"My best mom advice to prevent diaper rash is to habitually wash, or even just rinse, the baby bum with warm water. I had a stack of napkin-sized wash rags (usually cut scraps of old flannel baby blankets or purchased baby clothes) and would fill a bowl with warm water to gently rinse baby’s sensitive parts with while changing diapers. Many times, I would just hold baby near the bathtub faucet and rinse their bottom quickly this way, especially as they got bigger and more wiggly during changes."

–Monica Sizemore, mom of two

"I live in the desert and it gets very, very hot. I used baby powder during every diaper change to keep the area dry. Otherwise, diaper rash and chaffing would happen."

–Lucas Herndon, dad of one

"If there's even a hint of diaper rash starting, I change my baby's diaper more often. I also keep the rash covered with a zinc-based cream."

–Jon Wagner, dad of one