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.

Hold the Cerave

Since so many people had recommended Cerave, we decided to try it again over the weekend. It did seem to moisturize, and it didn't seem to cause an instant rash, but then Ben itched at his poor, irritated neck--all night.

We weren't sure if it was the Cerave. Maybe his neck was just really irritated to begin with, so stupidly, not wanting to change too many things at once, we kept applying it. When it was really bothering him, we applied Vaseline instead, and that seemed to soothe him.

Also, on Sunday, when we went to Target, we got some Vaseline in a tube. Jamie thinks that Vaseline in a tube is easier to apply. Some other things we did were--we switched his allergy medicine to Claritin. This did not seem to help at all, so we went and got non-generic Zyrtec. Ben's allergist had recommended the non-generic of Claritin, so, after trying that, I thought maybe we should try the non-generic Zrytec.

Ben's regular doctor had recommended Disney's Gentle Naturals. It looks like now that they're just Gentle Naturals, minus the Disney. I had bought the Baby Eczema Cream and tried it before when his skin was really, really irritated and hadn't seen any results, but after applying mostly Vaseline to Ben's neck yesterday, we decided to try it again.

The base of the cream is basically Vaseline--Petrolatum, so it's not like the cream is all natural, but that is a good base for Ben because it seemed to soothe him. I was worried that some of the other ingredients--the natural ones--would cause an allergic reaction, but, so far, they haven't.

In addition to seriously irritating Ben's neck, the Cerave did not seem to help Ben's other eczema spots--behind his knees and in the creases of his arms get the reddest. With his neck and the sides of his face, there is the added nemesis of drool, especially now.

We also switched Ben's diaper rash cream from Desitin, which did work if he got red to Balmex because his doctor recommended not using fish oil, though I don't know why. Balmex also has an ointment, which has a Vaseline base that we purchased. It does not seem to irritate him. Vaseline bases seem to work well for him, as long as they don't contain Lanolistn.

I'm also not sure why the Disney's Gentle Naturals is working on him when California Baby had started to irritate him. Could it be the coconut?

All Natural is Not Allergy Free

The other day we started putting Burt's Bees Thoroughly Therapeutic on Ben. I started doing this because we were absolutely desperate to find something that worked. We had been using cocoa butter and olive oil. Olive oil seemed to help, especially on his head, but we had to apply the cocoa butter all the time, and it still wasn't stopping the dryness.

The ingredients in Burt's Bees Thoroughly Therapeutic are: water, sunflower oil, vegetable glyerin, coconut oil, stearic acid (vegetable fat), beeswax, glucose (sugar), aloe barbadensis leaf extract, honey, orange wax, rosemary leaf extract, milk powder tocopherol (vitamin E), xanthan gum (natural thickener) sucrose stearate (sugar emulsifier), sodium borate (natural borax), fragrance, glucose oxidase and lactoperoxidase (natural preservative).

Anyway, last night, Ben started scratching, so I gave him his Zyrtec and put on Burt's Bees, but the Burt's Bees wasn't helping. It was making it worse. So we gave him a bath--before the bath we tried Borage cream, and that didn't help either-- and washed his hair in Dr. Bonner's Magic Soap Baby Mild. This contains water, organic olive oil, organic coconut oil, organic jojoba oil, citric acid and vitamin C. So far, this does not seem to be irritating his skin.

We tried Cerave. This did not help either, and we had to give him another bath. By not helping, I mean making the itching worse. At this point, I did not know what to try. But we had to try something, find something to soothe his skin and keep it from getting more dry.

I decided to try Aquaphor. We had tried it before, and it hadn't seem to help. Eucerin, which is made by the same company, made his skin turn red, so I thought maybe he had a lanolin allergy, but we recently discovered that these travel wipes that he has been using also contain Lanolin, and they haven't bothered him, so maybe no Lanolin allergy.

Anyway, the Aquaphor seemed to soothe him. But we won't know for a few days if really helps or not. Sometimes, it takes that long for an allergy to show up. In the meantime, I called his allergist, and we're going to try and figure out if the Zyrtec is helping by taking him off it and then giving it to him when he's itching to see if does anything. If that does not work, we will try children's Claritin. Also, she recommended trying zinc oxide on his skin. We're going to wait and see about the Aquaphor first.

But the goods news is that my shipment of Lucy's cookies came, in four varieties.

And Sometimes a Rash is Eczema

The Desitin that we put on Ben did seem to soothe him, but it also dried out his skin. So, in the middle of the night, I put some Vanicream on him.

I started using Vanicream a few days ago. Someone on an eczema discussion area recommended it. It's supposed to be good for extremely sensitive skin because it's free of lanolin, dyes, fragrance and parabens.

Popular eczema remedies Aquaphor and Eucerin, which are made by the same company, contain Lanolin. Lanolin is used for its soothing properties, but it is derived from sheep's wool, and so it irritates some extremely sensitive skin.

Sunday night, however, I switched back to Cerave because I felt like Vanicream wasn't working quickly enough, though it did seem to be helping. Cerave contains ceramides, which are supposed to release the lotion over a longer period of time (24 hours) so you don't have to apply it as often. But Cerave contains parabens, and this may have been what caused Ben's skin to get so red and itchy that we had to give him an extra dose of antihistamine in the morning.

Yesterday, Ben's skin remained red and itchy. That's why J. suspected heat rash. Also, Sunday night, we had Ben in a long-sleeved sleeper but with the AC on. The sleeper may have been too heavy. Other nights, however, if we dress him too lightly, he ends up shivering. In order to prevent SIDs, we have not put Ben to bed with a blanket. When is it okay to use a blanket? Some people use 100 percent cotton blankets, which are breathable, but, due to complications after Ben's birth, I am more cautious.

I'm not sure if the corn starch was helping. I'm not sure if we gave it a chance. But the Desitin was temporarily soothing. We're trying to figure out if the neck rashes were caused by heat, drool, eczema or more than one.

We put cotton gloves on Ben to keep him from scratching. Unfortunately, due to much use lately, all of the gloves are in the wash, so I'm holding his little hands, and, today at least, he's not scratching as much.