Baby Eczema

Eczema isn’t fun at any age…. The itching, stinging uncomfortableness that goes along with it. The struggle to not scratch the itch….. It’s very upsetting to see your baby’s beautiful, smooth, flawless skin be transformed into scaly, dry, bleeding skin. But that is exactly what has happened with Zane. 

It started with just a little dryness. I thought it was just a little cradle cap at first. It was no time at all before it spread and by around 3 months, it was pretty severe. By 4 months, I had stopped using any soap of any kind on his skin and had started bathing him in coconut oil. After his bath, I would slather his skin with a range of different oils and ointments, looking for one that would soothe his skin and not worsen the rash. 

We tried daily baths, weekly baths, baths every other day… Oil, no oil, nipple balm, healing balm, belly balm, and in our more desperate moments, hydrocortisone cream. Nothing helped. For a day or two we may have seen improvement but then it would plateau and worsen again. Hydrocortisone gave us the most relief but it certainly doesn’t make me happy putting that on my baby, particularly his face. And coating his entire body in it was definitely not an option. 

I wish I could say that we found something that helps, but so far, we haven’t. However, Zane had a checkup today and we have some new weapons in our arsenal to try. First off, the eczema is showing signs of secondary infection. For lack of a better analogy, Zane smells like toenail jam. Fresh out of the bath even – toenail. The Dr said this is probably due to the rash being infected with yeast, and possibly staph as well. For that we are trying a prescription shampoo that treats yeast, 2-3 times a week. In between, we are supposed to use Selsyn Blue. 

To control the itching (since no matter how often we cut Zane’s nails, he can’t help but scratch his head and face), the Dr prescribed Zyrtec twice a day. Along with that, he also gave us a steroid cream to use on Zane’s body. It’s too strong to use on his head and face, so we have to mix hydrocortisone with Vaseline for those areas. 

I have $50 of various ointments that I bought in a moment of despair. I plan to keep trying those out on small areas to make sure there is no reaction. Hopefully one of them will work to lock in some moisture. Vaseline works decently but is so greasy! He had a bad reaction to Aveeno eczema cream which has colloidal oatmeal in it, so anything with that active ingredient is out. 

Trying one different cream per limb. Isn’t he too cute!?!

I hope I can come back and update that he’s healing up great and his skin looks and feels healthy again. Until then, prayers are appreciated!! 

Zane – 21 Weeks And Other Stuff

Lots of new stuff going on with Zane the last couple weeks! Last week at 20+5, he rolled over officially from back to front. After that initial roll, he was rolling like crazy the rest of the day and every day since. He is hit and miss with rolling front to back. He has before ever since 17 weeks but he doesn’t very often. He had rolled back to front one other time but as soon as he made it onto his belly, he immediately flopped onto his back again, so that didn’t really count.

 

 

Today, at 21+2, we started rice cereal! I am all for waiting the full 6 months to start solids but this boy is HUNGRY! He wakes at night to nurse now, usually twice, (he previously slept through most of the time) and just acts famished and desperate at night when he eats. He is getting plenty of milk and pees like a faucet but he’s SO active and I think milk just isn’t enough sustinance anymore. So, the rice cereal went well. We mixed it with breastmilk and per our usual tradition, DH fed him his first meal of solids. (To be completely honest, I did give Zane 2 tiny crumbs of pancake last week just because I wanted to see how he reacted to trying food.) Anyway, after the initial few bites and funny faces/spitting out the cereal, he started eating it really well and opening his mouth for more and swallowing it right down. I can’t believe my tiny baby is already eating babyfood!

 

 

And I say “tiny baby” but he’s not really that tiny anymore. He is outgrowing most of his 6 month clothes and is wearing lots of 9 month outfits now. He is tall but his length is mostly in his torso. His legs still fit some smaller pants but he definitely is too long for 6 month sleepers. I’m still putting size 2 diapers on him but I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to do that. We have several bags of size 2 that he probably won’t be wearing.

 

 

Most naps are in his swing now and he absolutely must have his arms swaddled to fall asleep. He’s also becoming partial to having his face close to/covered with a soft blanket/stuffed toy while he falls asleep. (Obviously, I only let him do this if I’m holding him and can move it away.) When he’s sleeping in his swing he likes the waterfall sounds or the music playing. Bless his little heart, there is always so much background noise he has to sleep through and a lot of his naps are cut short by one of his big brothers having a meltdown etc. But it barely fazes Zane… He’s such an easygoing baby. Right now DH and Zane are sleeping on the couch together for a little late evening nap. 🙂 They nap together less now than when Zane was a tiny baby but he still loves to cuddle in our arms and sleep occasionally.

 

 

Zane does love to be held a lot. His favorite is being talked to and smiled at. He is always smiling! All the time, this baby has a big ol’ smile on his face. He smiles at absolutely everyone. 🙂 He is still majorly impressed by his big brothers and wants to be part of the conversation and action. He’s always cranking his head around trying to watch them while they run around and play. He isn’t super vocal lately but sometimes we still have our *conversations*.

 

 

Sadly, Zane experienced his first stomach virus this week. I’ve never had such a young baby have a stomach virus. 😦 Last week Tru and Levi had it. Levi started throwing up around 12:45am Tues. He threw up 15-20 times (I eventually lost count) until 8am. Then he stopped throwing up and had a fever for a few hours. The next day he was fine but threw up his lunch even though he already held down a couple other meals.  I think his belly was still just sensitive. Then on Thurs, Tru woke up with a sour belly and threw up 3 times. He did the same thing with running a fever and the next day he laid around part of the day and then was fine. I thought maybe we were in the clear by Sun, but Zane woke up and threw up and it was obviously not just spit up. He threw up several times and it was complete with the pre-vom cough and retching…. So, here we are on Monday and he’s been a bit more sleepy than usual today but otherwise fine. I am hoping and praying that DH and I don’t get the barfies but I’ve been sleeping with my Zofran close by, just in case. (Long time readers know that I do NOT do well AT ALL with the barfies. I am a complete basket case if I have to.)

 

 

In other news, AF made her ugly reappearance last month (much to my dismay – I was hoping she would stay gone longer). The weird thing was, I had ovulation and then just 5 days later, AF showed up. That’s a really short luteal phase but I’m guessing my body is just getting in the new groove. It doesn’t even matter, honestly. But old habits die hard and I’m so used to watching what my body is doing that it just kind of comes naturally now.

 

 

Dear God, thank You for Zane reaching these new and exciting milestones. Please watch over and protect him while he tries out all these new things. Please help him to be safe and healthy and happy. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Unfortunately, we are still struggling with his whole body eczema, so his skin often looks a little scratched up.

A new favorite is sticking his tongue out