
We’ve received a few queries about this from parents, worried about cloth nappies leaving red marks. You know those marks you notice on your little one’s waist or thigh after a nappy change? We’ve all been there.
Red marks aren’t all bad: there are varying degrees of them… and it’s totally normal to get them with an elasticated garment. Question is, when is the red mark a sign of a nappy ‘betting’ into baby from being too tight?
If a mark is pink, and are light imprints from the elastic, all is fine and they should disappear within a few minutes.
If a mark is dark red or purple, and a deep imprint on the skin that doesn’t disappear after a few minutes, then the cloth nappy is on too tight & possibly chafing.
We stumbled across a great article by Dirty Diaper Laundry a while back that gives excellent information on red marks left by cloth nappies, and what’s a ‘bad’ mark versus a ‘normal’ mark, with images as examples. This is definitely a must-read for any cloth-diapering parent out there.