Dermatologist #2

Ben has his followup appointment with the allergist on Friday. We are now switching him to Children's Benadryl since neither Zyrtec or Claritin seems to be working to help stop the itching. On the Benadryl bottle, it says do not use on children under 2. Probably because you really have to be careful with the dosage. For sunscreen, the allergist recommended just trying pure Zinc Oxide cream. Zinc oxide is the active ingredient in many diaper rash creams. It was an hour-long appointment but helpful. He will go back to the allergist in September.

Today was our appointment with the second dermatologist. We almost thought of canceling since Ben's skin has been doing so much better since we started on the steroid. But we didn't know what to do to manage Ben's eczema once he stopped the steroid, and, also, Ben scratched himself last night on places where we hadn't put the steroid. So we went.

The office was crowded, but the wait wasn't as long past his appointment as the last time. Our appointment was at 12, and they saw us at about 12:15.

The dermatologist that we saw wasn't the dermatologist but a physician's assistant, but she seemed really nice and knowledgable. She told us to stop using Disney's Gentle Naturals and go back to Cerave, but Cerave in combination with other things. When I mentioned that Cerave seemed to irritate him, she said that any moisturizer would seem to irritate him if it was put on an area where he had cuts from scratching. She also said that she didn't know of anyone who was really allergic to Cerave.

So we are going to keep using the steroid but then stop using it when the inflamed spots clear up and then also use another lotion in spots where he tends to flareup to prevent the flareups. Then, she also prescribed a shampoo and a special lotion for his head to clear up cradle cap and stop the scratching there.

She also told us to get an allergy mattress cover for his crib, vacuum his room daily, wash his sheets 2-3 times a week, give him a daily bath (or squirt him down if we can't bathe him) and then apply a moisturizer. We will go back in a month. I forgot to ask about sunscreen, but the allergist had recommended that we try just regular zinc oxide cream. We tried to find that at Target but they didn't have it. At Target today, we looked for an allergy mattress cover for Ben's crib but couldn't find that either. We dropped off all four of the prescriptions at a local pharmacy. I am wondering how much they will cost, but if they help Ben's skin clear up and stay cleared up, they will be worth it.