Ok, it hasn't been a secret that we've been battling diaper rash on and off for the past couple of months. The Chewy Tot's bum will start to get a little better, and then before I know it, it's all raw again. :( So, in conversation with my sister, she mentioned that when she had the same problem with one of her boys - our Grandma told her to use burnt flour. She said my reaction was pretty much like hers... Burnt Flour? Really? I've never heard of that...it sounds totally ridiculous, and if it really worked, wouldn't I have heard about it before now?
Well, everything else we had tried would start to get better, but then just not quite heal up - and cause another flare up. I was ready to try anything, and on Thanksgiving, my sister reminded me again, and how it had worked for her. So, that night, I put about 1/2 cup of white flour in a cast iron skillet, and started cooking and stirring with a wooden spoon over medium heat. It took about 5-10 minutes to get it to a dark tan color (about the color of a brown paper sack), and I was constantly stirring and scraping it from the bottom of the pan. WARNING - it does STINK!
The next morning, I starting using it on the rash - using a pretty hefty pinch and rubbing it right on the sores. (I use about a teaspoon each change.) Within a couple of changes - we could already see dramatic improvements! What I really noticed - was the flour was keeping his sores DRY. There was a dry layer of flour still against his skin. The other flour that does get wet, isn't gluey either like I thought it would be - I'm guessing that is because of cooking it.
We have now been using it for a few days and he is almost totally healed up, the smaller sores are all better already. He also doesn't freak out for diaper changes like he had started to (he knew it was going to hurt!) so those are about back to normal, except for the addition of the flour - which is MUCH easier than trying to smear any cream on!
We did switch to disposable inserts or disposable diapers while we are on the heavy doses of the flour - I just don't want to risk gumming up the pocket diapers. Now that we are mostly healed - I am hoping to start to just use a sprinkle of the flour until we are totally healed - and with the smaller amount, I think I will just use a liner in my pockets - and not worry about a little bit of flour if it gets through.
Overall, I am totally AMAZED at the success of the burnt flour, and surprised that it isn't something that I had heard more about. I think it's a great "chewy" choice since it's cheap, single ingredient, and "homemade".
I let my sister know how well it worked, and I got the same response that I'm sure she got from Grandma White twenty-some years ago... "I told you so!"
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