Adult diaper rash is a serious topic among many of those who use adult diapers routinely. Those who have to wear adult diapers deal with this condition routinely and I felt like I should address how I personally handle rashes associated with wearing adult diapers daily.
Adult Diaper Rash Cause
The cause of adult diaper rash can be caused by a few things but the most common is contact irritation by the diaper itself. In the diaper area, it is very moist and warm, allowing for a breeding ground for diaper rash. Since I wear diapers 24/7 – I have had my share of adult diaper rash even with as much experience as I have with wearing diapers. Unfortunately, sometimes the conditions are just too much to overcome.
Other causes of adult diaper rash include an infection whether bacterial or fungal. These causes are less common when compared to contact dermatitis/inflammation of the diaper area. If you suspect you may have an infection then see your primary care physician who can prescribe you an antibiotic or antifungal cream that can combat this. I have had only 2 cases of an infection in all my years of wearing diapers and it is bound to happen to even the most cleanest people. Both of mine were fungal and I was easily treated with a topical antifungal for my diaper rash and it went away.
Most people in the ABDL community are going to be dealing with an adult diaper rash cause of contact dermatitis due to walking around in a diaper for extended periods of time, usually because of a wet diaper or soiled diaper. This is where frequent changes come in handy.
My Tips for Adult Diaper Rash
Diaper rash in adults can be persistent and annoying if you do not take precautionary mewp_es. It can even turn people who need diapers to more desperate mewp_es that are more invasive such as catheters which in my opinion pose more hassle and more risk in multiple ways.
Below I have laid out my tips for preventing and dealing with adult diaper rash on a daily basis to hopefully reduce and prevent future diaper rash issues whether you use adult diapers for need or recreation!
Good Fitting Adult Diaper
A proper fitting adult diaper is one of the keys to avoiding diaper rash. If your diaper is too tight or too lose it can cause a rash. If it is too tight it can cause a rash because it will be digging into your skin the whole day. If the diaper is too lose it can rub against the diaper area which can also lead to the dreaded diaper rash. So, please if you take anything away from my tips – buy a good fitting adult diaper with high quality plastic. The proper fit will reduce the friction of the diaper against the skin and is key to preventing adult diaper rash.
Adult Diaper Absorbency is Key
The absorbency of the adult diaper is going to be another huge factor that I found that allowed for prevention of a rash. I use to use the cheap adult diapers you would find in drug stores and supermarkets that would barely hold one wetting and then leak. Here is how it works. If the diaper does not hold much then it going to not only leak but the fluid will accumulate outside of the absorbent material and “pool” in the plastic area leading to expansion of the plastic. This will in turn lead to rubbing against the inner thighs and crotch area (the main diaper rash areas) and cause multiple friction hot spots leading to a rash.
Choosing a diaper with good absorbency changed the frequency of diaper rash I was getting immensely. So, invest in proper absorbent adult diapers and you will notice a major difference.
Frequent Diaper Changes
Sitting around in a wet or soiled adult diaper all day may seem like fun to some people but it leads to a higher chance of developing diaper rash. Learning how much your current diaper can hold and absorb will allow you to know when it is time to change the diaper. My husband will attest to the pain that comes with diaper rash as well and he will even tell you it is worth the little bit of extra effort to increase changing frequency to cut down on rashes.
Proper cleaning and patting dry of the area in between diaper changes will also help cut down on diaper rash.
Barrier Creams Are Your Friend
Barrier creams can dramatically reduce adult diaper rash and great for treatment as well as prevention. You can be generous with the use of these creams. I always use some sort of protection cream with each diaper change whether it is petroleum jelly or some other brand of protective cream.
Warm Water Baths
If you do end up with an adult diaper rash, in addition to using a protective and healing cream…soaking in a warm water bath or epsom salt bath I found dramatically help speed up healing of my rashes. I will say these are like magic in healing, especially with epsom salt.
Air Out the Diaper Area
Airing out the diaper area for even brief periods can be liberating as well as therapeutic in diaper rash treatment and prevention. If you are comfortable walking around the house in just a diaper this will allow air flow to reach the diaper hot spot areas easier and help prevent moisture buildup in those areas and thus preventing diaper rash.
Treat Diaper Rash Fast
A final word of advice to those with diaper rash – treat it quickly. If you procrastinate and do nothing about it – maybe it will heal if your lucky but more than likely it will only progress. Worsening of adult diaper rash is no fun and can lead to multiple other problems such as serious infections. I have never had these but have heard about the complications from them. If you follow the tips above you should have no problems. But, if you do get a dreaded case of adult diaper rash – be aggressive in your treatment of it.
Great Adult Diaper Rash Products for Treatment and Prevention
- Boudreaux’s Butt Paste for Adult Diaper Rash
: My favorite product that I personally use for treatment and off and on prevention of adult diaper rash. I highly recommend this product. It is a popular product among ABDL and incontinence community.
- Triple Paste Medicated Ointment for Adult Diaper Rash
: Another one that I really like and have as well. Sometimes I like to switch it up between this one and Boudreaux’s Butt Paste. They are both a little pricey but well worth it and last a long time.
- Aquaphor Adult Baby Healing Ointment for Diaper Rash
: Another very popular adult diaper rash product. A little more inexpensive and very effective. Still have some lying around.
- Desitin Maximum Strength Paste
: Great for adult diaper rash. Very thick and creamy and really hard to rub off so you know it will provide you with all day protection and treatment for adult diaper rash.
In conclusion, I wanted to write a serious post about adult diaper rashes as it is one of the most popular questions I get emailed about because of how often I wear adult diapers. I still get adult diaper rash especially in the summer months because of the increases moisture and humidity but when I follow the tips I laid out above it significantly reduces the frequency and speeds up the healing of the rashes I do get.
Feel free to share your own tips, treatments and preventative methods for adult diaper rash in the comments section so that other people can benefit as well!
I can attest to the fact that diaper rashes are horrible as to the fact that I have to wear diapers 24 /7… A nother thing you can do is see your doctor right away and get some CoraVe cream which will take it away very fast as well as this is a mostrising cream. I use it as well to prevint diaper rashes from developing…
I love taking warm baths, particularly in the mornings when I wake up and at night before I go to bed. Before I put a clean diaper on, I take a warm water bath. It feels good. 🙂
[…] would like to tips my readers about this blog post about how you can deal with adult diaper rash from adriansurley. That gives you allot of tips and information how diaper rash for adult can […]
A weary nice topic and a good post to.
It’s never fun to have diaper rash. Thankfully, I’ve been able to keep it to a minimum. I take warm baths at least twice a day. I change my diaper as often as I can. I keep my diaper area as clean as possible. I wash my hands almost religiously.
Poor Ellyn recently had a bad one mentioned in another blog comment section a while back. I hope she has healed by now. Diaper rash sucks; I have had a few of them. Usually they started off with irritation after cleaning too roughly in my thigh crease. My last one (in the summer) took a dermatologist visit and of course, it had been going for two weeks, developed into a yeast infection and took 4 weeks to treat at that point. I went through a whole tube of ketoconazole to treat it and get back to normal. It was so bad I went without protection two nights to air the area out and woke up soaked on my underpad slathered in creams. However, the dermatologist said it could have gotten much worse with more serious problems.
I hadn’t been using a good incontinence skincare system and during one hospital stay after a back surgery they gave me Aloe Vesta foam to clean with along with the moisturizer. BTW if you discreetly tell a nice nurse you are incontinent and need protection they give you all you need…they prefer that over soiled linens! However, the Aloe Vesta was so good I ordered more along with the barrier cream. Adrian is right on this one…barrier creams are great! They can feel weird mixed with sweat in the summer but it’s better than skin breakdown. I also bought new soft rags to wash up with…the old pilled ones were scratching my skin which was almost begging for problems. Aloe Vesta makes it easy, #1 is the foam pump cleaner, the moisturizer is #2 and #3 is the barrier cream. Used in sequence religiously at every change and shower along with the ketoconazole got me back on track. I also bought Coloplast’s antifungal powder to sprinkle lightly in my night diaper- it may look expensive but it lasts forever and is good for a prophylactic mewp_e. I still use the Coloplast and Caldescene every night; every now and again I use creams for moisturizing but when I use them I have to be careful not to wear my polyurethane lined pants (GaryWear) since the two don’t mix.
Adrian is right on absorbency too…I learned to wear just enough protection to get me by. I switched to Depend underwear mostly for daytime protection. Nights I still need the best I can get but that’s OK. Also, common sense is key to prevention. Spending 24 hours in a diaper sounds great for some people, but your skin will hate you for it. Also, for any messy diapers, sitting in it isn’t a good idea at all. The bacteria sees your skin and sees a place to live. Not good. Change the messy ones immediately if you can, definitely no longer than 30 minutes.
During the past 3+ years of being incontinent, I have learned several things:
* My wife is awesome. She has done nothing but accept me and love me despite my condition (and its ups and downs). I also wash the sheets myself if I have an accident and I am honest with her when my control gets bad or I’ve had it for the day and just want to wear a diaper to avoid the last 8 trips to the bathroom for the day (I go 20 – 30 times a day).
* Leaks happen. More than you’d like. Washing the sheets gets you brownie points! And clean sheets!
* Being incontinent is expensive. About $1,500 – $2,000 a year I estimate for myself.
* Catheters eventually wear your urethra out and come with bladder infection risks. However, I have used them for surgery recoveries where changing would be too much twisting/bending on my back.
* Being ‘outed’ in public by small innocent children sucks. It happened to me the other day at a department store – “Mommy is he wearing a pull-up?”. Bend at the knees…dammit. It was the one time I used a plain white Abena M3 since I had a lot of errands to run. My track pants rode too low and what I wanted was on the bottom shelf.
* Cleanliness will lead to plewp_e between your legs…in all ways :).
Take care,
Colin
Hey Colin. I know what it’s like to be “outed” for wearing diapers. It’s embarrassing enough having to wear diapers, but to have someone mention that I’m wearing can be even more so. It’s particularly embarrassing when it’s a child who mentions it in front of a parent. If it’s someone I don’t know, it’s one thing, but if it’s someone I know, that makes it even more difficult, particularly when they go and shoot off their mouth, and then someone I know and then I’m in trouble.
I think this is related…. It might have even been talked about, but…..
This is an article on baby powder. Has anyone else heard or referenced it and what can be alternative answers for Baby powder?
My soon to be wife and I wear fairly consistent and were curious about this topic!! You did not mention it in your article here and am curious as to how this relates! THANKS!!
Hi Trevor,
I didn’t see the links you referenced but found two myself:
Just look up on Google “baby powder bad for diaper rash”.
Looks like I just switched away from talc powder forever…
Take care,
Colin
I began noticing I was getting more rashes about a year ago, corresponding both to increased weight and related increased use of baby powder to, I thought, cut down on chafing. I switched to a moisturizing cream, and found that the problem resolved itself very quickly. But yeah…sworn off baby powder pretty much premanently at this point.
Thank you Colin. I have been trying to recover from what may have started as a rash, then turned into a bacterial infection. To complicate things, I got a kidney infection, then a bladder infection, followed by a urethral infection… I am now on my third round of antibiotics. I was using a catheter for awhile because of the swelling and inability to pass urine, and that was horrible!! The infections seemed to be getting better only recently, however I find myself totally urinary incontinent right now. I have almost always been able to control my bladder somewhat during the day, but that seems to be gone for now. My urologist says that my “urinary system suffered quite a bit of distress” (his words) though I should get back to “normal” in a few weeks. Distress?!!!! I am now wearing my disposables during the day as cloth doesn’t work for me right now with needing to keep as dry as possible. Needless to say, I change often and am getting a large box of diapers delivered about every two weeks from Xp medical. My dermatologist prescribed a cream, which is a medicated moisturizer, and seems to be healing my skin (finally), though I’m still having a great deal of trouble with areas that are perpetually damp.
At night I feel best with triple cloth, though that can be uncomfortable as I’m a side sleeper. Disposable with a booster doesn’t work for be at night because I get too hot and -very- uncomfortable. I guess the added layers of cloth is enough to keep me drier, as I sleep through the night.
One more thing… I found that I am unable to wear Tena pull-ups right now as I seem to be allergic to something in them. As soon as I put one on, I itch horribly and skin turns instantly damp! The Abena X-Plus seem to be fine, as well as the Abena booster (maxi).
With all of this, my activity outside the home is curtailed so my husband has picked up a lot of the tasks. Every day, I feel a little better so I’m looking forward to getting past this (SOON!!!)
Hi ELlyn,
Glad to see you back 🙂 It seems you got the whole gamut of things with this one – I’m sorry. On the up-side…at least your sking is starting to heal!
I had problems with the Tena pullups leaving red marks on my skin as well…they may contain latex. I can’t wear certain overpants either for the same reason. Tena Maxi slips work for me though if I have to change a lot. They have good capacity and aren’t too thick.
I hope things continue to improve and soon you’ll be as good as new!
Take care,
Colin
I’ve never worn Tena Pull-ups before. Like anyone who wears diapers, I don’t like it when they leave red marks on my skin. Latex should be banned from anything that comes into contact with the skin.
Have you noticed that Desitin (and perhaps others containing petroleum products) cause some diapers to degrade? Specifically, I’ve found that the leak guards come apart and I end up with elastic strings loose inside. I know that those products cause damage to plastic pants, causing them to harden and crack.
That doesn’t make sense. I’ve used rash ointment and that’s happened with the diapers I use.
Thank you so much for providing useful information about Tips for Adult Diaper Rash.
Keep Sharing