Skin Problems

Our son, Ben, who is 6 months-old, is a perfect miracle. However, his skin problems have been less than perfect and less than amazing.

He started developing problems with redness and cradle cap in the first few months of his life. At first, we didn't know what it was.

Upon seeing his red, irritated skin, our doctor pronounced, "It's perfectly normal." He said he thought it would go away on its own.

The doctor recommended using Johnson's Baby Lotion three or four times a day. That didn't work, and, in fact, it seemed to only be irritating his skin. We tried everything that was recommended to us.

Aveeno Baby Lotion didn't seem to irritate his skin, but it didn't seem to help either.

California Baby Calendula Cream seemed to help at first, and then it didn't. We also tried the super-sensitive lotion, and that didn't help, and it also smelled somewhat unpleasant. The Calendula Lotion from California Baby made his skin very itchy.

Eucerin and Aquaphor made his skin red and swollen.

In March, we took Ben to an allergist. She said that helping relieve his skin problems will be trial and error. She gave us samples of Cerave to try and suggested putting one lotion on one leg, and one on the other.

I try to just use one lotion at a time, but when his eczema causes skin inflammations, sometimes it is tempting to just keep putting on lotion after lotion. This does not work, and is not a good idea.

I'm learning that a lot of things in lotions, even supposedly hypoallergenic lotions, can be irritating to people with skin sensitivities.

Ben's allergist recommended that we rip labels off of products that irritate him and put them in a notebook. This can begin to isolate the cause of the irritation. This is a plodding method. I wish there was a cure right now because I don't want my baby to suffer. He is healthy and good tempered, and we love him so much.

A final note in this first post: We had read that eczema can be related to food allergies. We had a blood test done to test for food allergies. Ben is allergic to eggs, wheat, peanuts and some tree nuts. I am feeding him, so this means that I have had to alter my diet. This has been a challenge, but hopefully it will lead to healthier diets for all of us.