Cloth with Kiana — Antibiotics and Cloth Diapers
So your kiddo needed an antibiotic prescription and you're wondering if it may have an effect on your diapers, like some diaper creams do.
The good news and bottom line is: antibiotics themselves don't really affect cloth diapers in any way. That's amazing to me, since it's just one less thing you gotta worry about during your cloth diapering experience!
Antibiotics, however, have the potential of causing some other things to happen that might affect diapering. Let's talk about it!
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The human body contains bacteria. Like, a lot of bacteria. In a typical situation, they all work together in harmony to keep our bodies healthy and functioning as they should. For example, our intestines have E. coli occurring in them naturally; it helps us digest our food and produce vitamins. When that E. coli enters anywhere other than where it's supposed to be (or when there's an excess amount) is when things work less like a harmony and more like a catastrophe.
Kids typically get their bacteria out of whack more often than a parent would like — ear infections and urinary tract infections are some of the biggest examples. In these instances, a broad spectrum antibiotic is prescribed to help bring a child's microbiome back to where it should be.
The mild inconvenience of such a prescription, however, is that this broad spectrum antibiotic won't really discriminate between "good" bacteria and "bad" bacteria. This means that while it could work fabulously at eliminating the bacteria causing your baby's ear infection, it could also end up disrupting their microbiome in a way that leads to a yeast infection. Now, if you've read my previous post discussing yeast infections, that definitely affects your cloth diapers and how you handle them.
It's not a guarantee that that happens, of course, just something to keep an eye out for!
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Antibiotics shaking up a kiddo's microbiome can also lead to more frequent and more acidic, loose bowel movements.
This, in turn, can lead to a pretty tender diaper rash that may be a little hard to get rid of until the prescription is finished. Because of that, many parents choose to utilize disposables during the course of the prescription so they can use globs of their preferred heavy duty diaper creams without worrying about affecting the absorbency of their cloth diapers.
That's not to say you must use disposables during such a time, though! If you're committed to using your cloth diapers, you can use disposable or reusable diaper liners for heavier strength creams. Just keep in mind, they may stain or you might need to scrub them out a little before washing them to ensure everything gets rinsed out!
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Speaking of stains, that pretty much the last thing antibiotics might afflict your cloth diapers with!
The biggest culprit that I've observed is an antibiotic that's pink. Just like with food, medications with dyes in them can certainly affect your bowel movements — and for a baby who isn't pooping in a toilet, their bowel movements might leave some crazy stains on a diaper! I would like to add that dyes are not always the cause, though; in my research, I've read that how a medication reacts to bodily fluids or excrement can cause a staining effect, no dyes needed.
These stains might look wild but they can usually disappear with some time in the sun or with your standard stain remover.
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Annnnd that's pretty much it! Have no fear if your little fluff butt needs an antibiotic prescription; a lot of people don't run into problems with their cloth diapers and if they do, they're problems that are easily dealt with!
As always, our Facebook group has guides that are always willing to assist if you need more help or something explained a different way. I hope this post was helpful to you and as always, thank you for letting me yap to you! :)
