Homemade Natural Diaper Rash Cream

Here is one homemade DIY natural diaper rash cream that seriously works – and it's 100% all natural, organic and pure luxury for sweet little bums.

Homemade Natural Diaper Rash Cream Recipe

I Used to Be a Desitin Lover…

I have always been a huge fan of Desitin, well, since becoming a parent three years ago, that is. That stuff just plain WORKS. We started off using Boudreaux's Butt Paste, but stopped when it failed to take care of a serious diaper rash that Gabriel had.

We switched to Desitin Advanced and were actually very happy with it until recently as I've become much more educated about all the toxic chemicals that are in so very many products in the stores.

So, when our last tub of Desitin ran out a week ago, I set out to make my own diaper rash cream that would have the same power as Desitin, but not be toxic AND work with our cloth diapers. Not only that, but it's WAY cheaper to make it yourself!

Toxins in Most Diaper Rash Creams

Speaking of which, I had no idea just how toxic Desitin actually is! Yikes, check out this report from the EWG's Skin Deep Cosmetics Database (one of my favorite resources for checking toxicity in beauty products).

One of the ingredients, BHA, gets a score of 10 (the highest level of toxicity) and causes cancer, endocrine disruption, allergies, organ toxicity, etc.

Desitin also contains a paraben, which is a preservative that mimics estrogen in the body and over time, builds up and can contribute to cancers like breast cancer (read more on parabens here). It's overall score, on a scale from 1 to 10, is a 6. Too high for me to be introducing to my precious babies!

Toxicity Score for Desitin Diaper Rash Cream
Beeswax for the Homemade Natural Diaper Rash Cream Recipe

About Zinc Oxide

The zinc oxide is what provides the moisture barrier for the little bums to protect them from the irritating acids in urine and feces. You'll also find it in my homemade sunscreen post here. In order to make sure it's safe, get non-nanoparticle zinc oxide. The particles are larger than regular zinc oxide and cannot be absorbed into the skin and into the bloodsteam.

DIY Nontoxic Diaper Rash Cream - totally safe and nontoxic

This Natural Diaper Rash Cream Worked Right Away!

Grayson, our second child, just so happened to have a nasty rash as I was making this natural diaper rash cream and after two applications, the rash dried up and healed. I'm so pleased with the way this turned out!

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Homemade Natural Diaper Rash Cream

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4.2 from 5 reviews

Here's a nontoxic, homemade natural diaper rash cream to make for little bums!

  • Author: Sara McFall

Ingredients

Scale

Instructions

  1. In a double boiler (or just a small pan inside a larger pan) with water in the bottom of the larger pan, place the shea butter, beeswax, and coconut oil in the top pan and bring to a boil. Leave in the pan long enough to melt all the shea butter and beeswax (5 minutes or less).
  2. Remove from the heat and place in the refrigerator for a few hours – one to two. The cooling step is a very important part of the emulsifying process and cannot be skipped!
  3. Once cooled (it will be harder), scoop into your mixer. A hand mixer should work just fine, too. Then, add the 3 tbsp. of zinc oxide and the 2 tbsp. of optional vegetable glycerin and beat for 5 to 10 minutes. The beating lets oxygen circulate through the cream to fluff it up and thicken it.

Notes

It will look creamy and oily when you're done, but after several hours it will thicken up A LOT. It's just as thick as Desitin and way less toxic!

Homemade Natural Diaper Rash Cream Recipe Photo Tutorial - Step 1
Homemade Natural Diaper Rash Cream - Step 2

To learn all there is to know about cloth diapers, see my Complete Cloth Diapering Guide.

See my other posts for babies here!

30 Comments

  1. Thank you for the recipe, so glad you included arrowroot and Beeswax as alternative to the zinc oxide. I’m making your recipe to include in a gift basket I’m putting together.

  2. Followed the directions and everything looked good till after removing it from the refrigerator. Its basically a brick :/. Had to reheat it to be able to mix in the zinc oxide. Did i do something wrong?

  3. My son said that his baby seems to react to coconut oil. Can I substitute a different oil like almond or evening primrose?

      1. This cream is so lovely. I infused the coconut oil with herbs and used that to make it. Thank you for sharing the recipe. I’m so excited to use something natural on my baby






    1. Hi Alana! I don’t have an official scientific answer on shelf life, but for me it lasted for a year with no signs of mold in it. Now, I didn’t test it for mold so I can’t say for sure, but I do feel like it lasts a long time!

  4. i just made this recipe but i divided in 5 so i only made about 1/5 of this to try it out! my daughter is older so i rarely use this nowadays the texture seems really good so I’m excited to try! it was really hard out of the fridge but i used a hand mixer and was able to whip it up i had to stop several times to scrap the sides of my bowl and the beaters. i did’t use any essential oils and used the zinc oxide and glycerin since i had those in hand!






    1. Hi Bruna! Good to know, thanks for letting us know how it went for you. Yes, it can get quite thick because of the Zinc Oxide and be hard to wipe off of the beaters.

  5. Hi Sara,
    I slam about to make the cream, would you please advise when I should add the lavender oil? Does it need to be Refrigerated? Thanks

  6. You said something about cornstarch. Please can it substitute for zinc oxide as a thicker and do you think it will alter the smell or something?

    1. Hi Chyka! Yes you could substitute the zinc oxide for cornstarch – it won’t be as thick or have quite as good of a barrier to moisture, though. Zinc oxide really is preferred. But, try it and see how you like it for sure! It will not change the smell.

  7. I haven’t yet tried to make it yet but I was trying to find out if you know what percent of zinc that equates of the entire formula, as well as how many oz this recipe makes (for container purposes)?

  8. Thank you so much for the recipe. I was desperate for a homemade diaper rash cream. I used this only a couple of times for my baby and the rash went away. I didn’t use essential oil though. I like to keep essential oil out of my homemade lotions and soaps.






  9. This cream seemed absolutely perfect just as I finished mixing and transferred to a jar for storage. The perfect creamy consistency. But then when I went to test it out on my baby not even 30 minutes later, it was very hard and the little bit I had scooped up with my finger to apply slid right off. It reminded me of spreading butter on a warm ear of corn, except the corn was my baby’s bottom and I was chasing the slippery cream around desperately trying to rub it in! For that reason, I could only get a very thin layer. Not at all like the thicker paste I’m used to. I wonder could I have done something wrong or differently to avoid this? I want to love this cream so badly! I hate smearing chemicals on my precious baby’s bum every diaper change, but it feels like my only option!

  10. We love this recipe! We have a new baby but never stopped using it on our okder kids. It’s fabulous for chaffing, rashes, eczema, and minor abrasions!! We LOVE it!

  11. I made this but when applied was so thin :/ I don’t think it kept my daughter dry enough because she was super red and irritated right after I applied it. Could I add more zinc to thicken it up and add more protection? Any tips would be appreciated!






  12. The recipe seemed to come out amazing, I’m waiting to hear how it worked on my grandson. However, I made the huge mistake of washing out the bowl in my dishwasher. End result – plugged solid – new dishwasher ordered. I suppose I should’ve considered how to properly clean the utensils and everything I used. Any advice on cleanup? I also used a little more zinc than called for because I added fresh aloe so I guess that was the issue. I’m praying it doesn’t get rock solid on my grandson’s bum! Any advice on that cleanup too? Yikes

    1. I made the cream today and it was a messy endeavor. I used paper towels to wipe off all of the oil that I could, then soaked in hot soapy water with Dawn dish soap. Dishwasher is last in case I missed anything.

  13. First time making my own cream. So quick and easy and turned out amazing. I was buying Matys ointment and this is almost identical to that including texture without whipping & just stirring






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