Preventing Shinguard Rash

In a previous article, I discussed how I got rid of shinguard rash, a red rash on the legs from wearing shinguards too long in hot weather.  After curing it, I decided to go for some prevention.

I had read that it was bacteria related.  Here's what I found:

• Washing the shinguards in the washing machine with detergent did not work.

The machine-wash did cure the "shinguard stink" but I still saw raw red skin on the shins after wearing the washed shinguards.

So taking a page from my own book, I decided to treat it like diaper rash and used a diaper rash prevention remedy.  Here's what worked:

1. Wash the foam backing on the shinguards by hand with a heavy dose of liquid hand soap.
2. Rinse soap from shinguards and allow to dry thoroughly.
3. Once the shinguard stirrup is on the child's foot, liberally apply baby powder to the shinguard foam on the inside before attaching the shinguard with the strap.  Note: This will be messy, do it outside.

I put the shinguards on top of an air vent for several hours to let them dry instead of using the clothes dryer.  You can experiment with re-applying the powder.  I didn't need to re-apply the powder after a couple of days.  I didn't use anti-bacerial soap because we don't have it in the house.  But you could try it.
Since I was trying to get cure the shinguard rash ASAP, I wasn't very scientific.  So we're not sure whether either the powder or the hand soap alone prevented the rash.  Some other factors could have come into play as well.

• The exertion or sweat level of the children
• The children's skin adapting to the shinguards
• The heat level being lower (we didn't measure the temperatures, but they were relatively constant)
• The children changing their behavior and giving their shins a break by allowing them to vent during breaks or lowering their socks to let more air out.

So while this isn't science, it's something to try.  I would be interested to hear your results.

Soccer Shinguard Rash Cured?

So my son brought home a surprise from soccer camp yesterday: a nasty redness on his shins where his shinguards touch him.  He didn't complain about it, it didn't itch.  The rash's principal purpose seemed to be to make his parents worry. But, worry we did, so we struck out for a solution.

We'd seen this in the past, and have been told that it was from bacteria, so we washed and sanitized the shinguards.  No luck, it returned.  Internet searches revealed the same results from other parents.

What seemed to cause this rash was that it was on hot days or when he wore his shinguards especially long.  He certainly sweated a lot, and the shinguards didn't do a good job of wicking out the moisture.

So this got me thinking...  Moisture trapped against the skin by some material for too long...  That's a recipe for diaper rash.  So perhaps a diaper cream would work wonders?

Turns out it did.  We applied some zinc-oxide based diaper cream (Desitin) after his practice today, kept his socks off and kept him dry, and by nighttime it was nearly gone.

So hopefully Google will find this and help out some parents.

Is this thing on?

Hey, first blog!

So yeah, going to try out the blog thing. The idea is to try out posting photos and things to see how it works compared to Gallery. And maybe rant a bit.