Is it okay to use corn starch on my cloth diapers?

I remember before I had children that diaper rash powder seemed archaic to me. Who would actually use powder anyways? Surely, in the 21^st century we’d have developed something to aid in diaper rashes that would be hipper than powder. Here I am though, with two children less than six months to go before I turn the big 3-0, and I get why the use of powder is sometimes the best thing in treating a diaper rash.

Now let me clarify that when I’m talking about powder I am not referring to the J&J brand or any generic brand of baby powder that contains talc (which has been loosely linked to cancer). I’m talking about good, old fashioned pure cornstarch powder. Is it okay though to use on my cloth diapers?

The wealth of information on the web is a little outdated when it comes to powder and whether or not it’s okay to use on cloth diapers. A few discussion boards I looked that were a few years old seemed to share the opinion that cornstarch and cloth diapers do mix well; one shouldn’t worry about hurting their stash by using starch. The nay-sayers that I came across were concerned about the use of powder due to the baby possibly inhaling it. It had nothing to do with the powder hurting the functionality of the cloth diaper though.

The other thing that’s really important when dealing with diaper rashes and the decision on whether or not to use a cornstarch based powder is determining the kind of rash you’re dealing with. If the rash is red (duh, they’re all red, I know) with any kind of open sores you might be dealing with yeast. I’d do a quick Google search to see what a yeast rash looks like if you’ve never experienced one. If your baby does has a yeast rash do not use cornstarch. The sugar component in cornstarch feeds the yeast and the rash will become ten times worse than what you were originally dealing with.

When should you use cornstarch if you want to use it? The summertime’s a good time to use it. Powder is a great thing to soak up sweat. If you’re married to someone who likes the air conditioning on the warmest yet comfortable setting (ah hem 78*) like I am then you might be sweating a bit. We do, after all, chase and carry our little ones around when we’re at home. Any kind of crease is a good please to put cornstarch.

My conclusion? Don’t be fearful to use cornstarch on your baby’s fluffy butt but first, do be certain that the rash you’re dealing with is not yeast.

Elizabeth (aka Bert) is a stay-at-home-mom and contributing writer for She Thinks Media. She lives in the Twin Cities with her husband, Ben, her son Buggie, and daughter Lady Bug.  When she's not trying to convince Buggie to expand his interests beyond Thomas the Train or put his pants back on she's writing about her experiences as a mom on her blog, First Time Mom (FTM). After all, Bert maintains there's a first time for everything, even if you  have more than one child!