He's a Doll

When I think back over the last few months, I can see that, in many ways, we've been lucky. We haven't had to call his doctor many times with emergencies. The exception was the one day he threw up and I couldn't figure out why, but, a few hours later, he was fine. Eczema has been frustrating, but, as his doctor pointed out, there are worse things.

Trying to control eczema without steroids was frustrating, but I was given so much contradictory advice. His doctor didn't think he needed them, but I can see now that we should have used them much, much, much sooner. The first dermatologist gave him steroids only, and that's not really a good long term plan for managing eczema.

I read somewhere that uncontrolled eczema can flare up without much reason. So, now, finally, it seems like we have this under control. He's not all red everywhere. He's not covered in rashes. Now, when we take him out, people don't say, "Oh, can't you do something about that rash?"
Instead, it's, "Oh, he's a doll." I feel like sometimes that we've been so caught up in managing these issues that we haven't or at least I haven't been able to enjoy him being a baby. On June 2, Ben will be eight months old. Probably five of those months have involved struggling and battling with eczema. Now, it seems like we have a good routine going.

Put Cerave on him with every diaper change. Put Epicream Barrier Cream on him two-two three times a day. During flareups, use Desonide Steroid Cream. Bathe him daily, usually just after dinner, though this can be adjusted. Use Niz Prescription Shampoo. If he's having a flareup, apply Elocon or Elotone (Ben's sleeping on me so I can't get up to check), to his head. Also, we, usually Jamie vacuums the upstairs daily, especially where he sleeps, and we wash his sheets 2-3 times a week. Yes, this leads to more laundry, but we haven't been buying cream after cream, lotion after lotion, hoping that something would work.

If you had asked me a year ago, I think I would have thought doing all of these things would be hard, but now they don't seem so hard. They just seem necessary. And, now that Ben's eczema seems to be under good control, we can just enjoy the little milestones of babyhood. He's crawling and teething and pulling himself up and then crying when he falls back down. He's smiling and laughing and chasing the dogs and seeing things he wants and going after them and getting mad when one of those things happens to be something that he can't have. He is, always has been, a good baby, and now his skin looks good as well.