Another post about diaper changes. Sorry.

Since we complained about Meg getting diaper rashes at daycare, they’ve been making a lot more notes on her daily sheet. They’ve also been changing her more frequently, which I appreciate. I understand some parents might only want their child changed every 2 ½ - 3 hours, so less diapers are used, but they remember we prefer every 1 ½-2 hours. Unfortunately, the more frequent changes aren’t really helping. The problem all along has been that Meg waits to dirty her diaper until right after she’s been changed. So while it’s good she only sits in a dirty diaper for a maximum of 2 hours instead of 3, she still gets a nasty rash on daycare days.

I try to be understanding. They’re changing her more often, making a note if she has a rash, putting cream on it, etc. They can’t watch my child like a hawk all day and change every dirty diaper seconds after it happens. Even if they smell something, it’s probably hard to track down which of the 8 kids smells, especially if some of the kids have gas.

But when they write this on her daily log, it pisses me off.

Am I being oversensitive, or are they implying she came with a rash so they shouldn’t be blamed? Because they’ve written this each of the last 3 weeks and its making me furious. Every Tuesday morning I make a mental note of whether she has a rash. I am 100% sure she had ZERO redness yesterday morning. None. I checked. I dropped her off at 7. The first diaper they changed was a dirty one at 8:30 and if she had a rash, it’s because she dirtied her diaper long before 8:30 and sat in it for awhile.

She had 3 dirty diapers at daycare yesterday and they must not have caught any of them right away because by the time she came home she was covered in red welts. WELTS. When I changed her diaper, it hurt so badly she cried for 10 minutes. And the stupid log makes it sound like they’re trying to say it’s not their fault. What do I have to do – have the director verify there’s no rash when I drop her off? Call every hour and ask them to sniff her backside while I’m on the phone? Pay for the ability to watch the cameras in her room via website and spend all day watching her instead of working so I can call every time I think she’s dirtied her diaper?

I understand they’re trying harder. I believe she did have a rash the first time they changed her. I also believe the rash was their fault, though I suppose they don’t necessarily have a way of knowing that. They certainly had to notice it got much worse as the day went on.

Maybe it can’t be prevented. They have seven other kids to watch. I really don’t know what I can do to improve the situation. I don’t think changing daycares would necessarily help. I almost took a picture of the welts to take to the director, but I just couldn’t take a picture of my daughter’s private area.

Obviously Meg has very sensitive skin. She went from no rash at all to angry red welts in 10 hours. All I can think of at this point is that my super special snowflake has such sensitive skin that a daycare setting just doesn’t work for her. I feel like I should quit my job and change all her diapers myself. It just makes me cry when she’s in so much pain.

But she loves daycare. She enjoys playing with other kids and usually isn’t even sad for me to leave. Yesterday she gave me a huge smile and a kiss when I dropped her off and got right to playing. I think she’d really like it if we sent her more than just 1 day a week. I just don’t know what to do.