When my twins
were born, I took one look at Lucas (my fair-skinned red head) and just knew
that he was going to have sensitive skin like his mommy. I am about as pale as
pale can get, and I grew up only able to use white soap. Anything containing
any kind of dye broke me out severely. So, I was prepared with gentle body
washes and laundry soaps before the boys were ever born.
Within a few weeks I started realizing that I was wrong. It wasn’t
Lucas who was sensitive, it was Zachary, my tan baby. If milk, saliva, sweat,
or anything else for that matter, sat on his skin too long (5-10 minutes), it
was bad news. He would get a raw area wherever the fluid had been, then it
would dry out and crack open. I felt so bad for my poor little guy. The
pediatrician recommended Baby Aveeno body wash and lotion. I purchased both
items and began using them immediately. Sadly, those didn’t work out so well,
they actually made it worse. It didn’t take long to come to the realization
that Zachary was dealt a pretty severe hand of eczema. This was new territory
for me, so everything I tried was trial and error. I Googled and read countless
articles, I tried many things that had been suggested. By the time the twins
were around 10 months old, I was ready to pull my hair out. Yes, for 10 months
I’d been fighting this and nothing seemed to work.
One morning, Zachary woke up and he was covered in red, raised
bumps all over his entire body. His back felt like sandpaper. I took him to the
pediatrician and was told he was on the tail end of a viral rash, but the
reason it was so severe is that it had caused his eczema to flare. It was the
worst case his doctor had ever seen. I decided then that enough was enough. I
came home that day and tossed all of the baby wash and lotions we’d been using
in the trash. I didn’t Google anything, I just used my mother’s intuition. That
evening I put Zachary in a luke warm bath and bathed him in my Dove Sensitive
Skin body wash, patted him dry, and coated him in a thick layer of Cerave
lotion. I put his pajamas on him and put him to bed. The next morning his
eczema had improved at least 70%! It continued to improve a little more each
day, until it was completely gone about 3 days later. I couldn’t believe it had
actually worked. It was a long shot, but I was willing to try anything at that
point. Both of my boys are belly sleepers, so when they are teething and
drooling up a storm, sometimes they lay, a good portion of the night, in their own
saliva (pretty gross huh?) What I found that worked on his little red, chapped
cheeks, was none other than Vaseline. Your baby may look like a greasy mess all
day, but it really creates a nice barrier and lets the skin heal nicely.
The boys are 21 months old now and Zachary has only had a couple
of eczema flare ups since I changed up his bath time and lotion routine. I also
only give him a bath every 4-5 days since baths are very drying to the skin.
I hope this helps any of you mamas out there that are about ready
to pull your hair out too. It can be very frustrating trying to find something
that works for your baby as they are all unique. I’ve learned sometimes it’s
better to just follow your own intuition. Sometimes mother’s really do know
best!
Hugs and Love,
*I am not sponsored by any of these brands. This is just what
worked for my baby :)
