The Peas Pod: Dealing with cast smell

The big tip that everyone will tell you is to keep the cast clean and dry. This is a fantastic tip and it is completely true however it is just about impossible. Once you reconcile yourself to that fact then your life with the cast will be much less stressful.

Yes, we tried our best to keep poo and wee off the cast but there were 'incidents' and sweat becomes a big issue as well. So each morning I do dry the back edges of the case with a hairdryer on the cool setting. If we have a big spillage we dry with the hairdryer or the absorbent kitchen cloth.

We have also used baby cologne (Johnsons and Johnsons) and vanilla essence to mask the smell. Curious George has very sensitive skin so I did not put the baby cologne on his skin. With the baby cologne I put some on a piece of cotton wool and then dabbed the edges of the cast around the nappy area. I also squirted little amount into the outside nappy. With the vanilla essence I also just dabbed some on the cast edges with a piece of cotton wool. Vanilla does a good job of nullifying scents.

However the thing that worked the best was something I invented (a little bit of blowing my own horn - sorry). I read that some people had sprinkled bicarbonate of soda on the cast. As we all know bicarb is great for soaking up smells - most people I know have some in their fridge. I tried sprinkling it on the edges of the cast but I was worried that it would cause CG a rash, plus it just makes a huge mess. So what to do.

Well I came up with the idea the bicarb bag. I used a filled a close weave teabag with bicarb and then taped it to the cast as you can see in my post on Nappy Changing. At the end of each day I take the bicarb bag off the back of the cast and throw it away. It works wonders at pulling extra moisture out of the cast and soaking up yucky smells. I put the bicarb bag on the part of the cast that seems to get the most damp each night.

Here's the how to on making the Bicarb bag.

To make the bicarb bag you will need a close weave tea bag (bags for things like rooibos tea have too wide a weave and the bicarb falls out), Micropore, a pair of scissors and some bicarbonate of soda.