I Think It's Going to Be Alright--Ben's not Scratching

Ben is sitting on the floor playing with the toys in his Ocean Wonders gym. His cotton gloves, which often are a bit gross from being covered with saliva, are off, and he's not scratching.

I think that's worth repeating. He's not scratching, not even trying to.

We decided to try--again-- The Disney's Gentle Naturals a few days ago that his doctor has recommended. The first time we tried it, he was too red and irritated, so we thought it wasn't working.

Jamie reminds me that these creams don't work instantly. He think I have a fast food mentality.
Sometimes, if they are going to cause irritation, they do work instantly, but they do--rarely--provide instant relief.

Also, we switched Ben back to Zrytec a few days ago. Claritin didn't work at all. We're giving it to him twice a day--half a teaspoon dose each time, what his allergist said to do. In times when he starts to scratch, this seems to calm it down. I don't know if the fact that we switched to the non-generic helped or if it's the fact that the lotion that we're using-for now--doesn't irritate his skin. Knocking on fake table wood.

Ben's head is very dry though, and we're still searching for a non-irritating shampoo. This afternoon, we did wash his hair in Dove for sensitive skin. So, we'll see over the next few days if it irritates him.

Ben's head has been very dry not just today but lately. We were rubbing olive oil on it, and that seemed to help with the dryness, but Ben was also itching his head a lot. So we decided to try not doing that. His allergist said that we could try Head and Shoulders, and we did try it once, on one spot, but I'm afraid to try it on his whole head. I don't want to cause a Johnson's Baby Shampoo-style rash.

Regarding diaper rash, Ben has been a little red and irritated down by the edge of his diaper. Earth's Best seems a bit papery, so we decided to return to Pampers since he wore them so long without a problem. The other rash he had on his back might have been due to lotion on Desitin. We should know in the next few days if that gets better. Here's hoping.

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?