This is going to be a long and probably pretty tedious post to read, so please feel free to skip it! I wanted to record how things are going with L’s health so I can look back in the months ahead and see how things have changed, and also make a note of how he’s changed already. If we decide to see a homeopath (but we’ll wait til we’ve moved) I’m hoping the detail will help. But there will be a lot about poo and rashes – you’ve been warned.
When L was born, he was very congested in his nose and while the osteopathy he had in the first weeks of his life helped his feeding action, the congestion didn’t really get much better til he grew a bit. For ages he would be stuffed up particularly at night and would wake up so bunged up he’d need to be held upright to clear his nose and he’d cough and throw up in the process. That’s improved a lot, though he still sounds stuffy and makes a strange snorty noise blowing down his nose as he feeds at times now. He’s also had 4 or so colds so far when he’s been extra snotty, which seems rather a lot to get so young.
At birth L had dry patches between his eyebrows and in the early weeks began to get dry and then slightly scaly patches at the tops of his arms and in his elbow creases, as well as large dry patches on his neck and awful weepy/crusty areas behind his ears. I put Lansinoh behind his ears to try and encourage healing (moist wound healing idea) and it helped a bit but then it would come back again. For the last few weeks it’s cleared up there but he has big dry patches in front of his ears instead – maybe its just moving?
We’ve always bathed L sparingly, maybe a couple of times a week, and didn’t put anything on his skin or in his bath water. We’ve mainly used washable wipes with just water for his nappy area, with the occasional sensitive skin wet wipes. His nappy area is one place he’s never had an eczema-type rash.
Around 2 – 3 months L developed 3 roundish dry scaly patches on his head, 2 at the back and one on his left above his ear. They were dry and perhaps a bit yellowish in the middle but had a red rim that looked sore and my mum wondered if he had something like ringworm. He also had more conventional looking cradle cap at the front and on the top of his head, and this steadily got worse. Lansinoh helped the dryness a little and some of the scales came off, but it still looked horrible.
In November I took L to the doctor who prescribed cradle cap shampoo to be used at least 3 times a week and Oilatum to add to his bath. The oilatum leaves an oily film on his skin but doesn’t last long. The cradle cap shampoo has shifted a lot of the scales but seems pretty harsh and smells terrible.
L’s dry skin got steadily worse and by the end of November his arms and around his knees were very dry and rashy. We used Lansinoh to keep those areas suppler. Being up on his knees rocking seemed to be making his legs worse but while we were at Okehampton, using lanolin morning and night and keeping his legs covered (pyjamas at night and BabyLegs in the day time) helped his knees clear up a lot.
In the last month, all of L’s tummy, chest and back has come out in a red rash with some dryness, and his legs look much worse than they were with the eczema spreading behind his knees. His arms are really dry, coarse and scaly now too.
In mid December at the music group party I was chatting to one of the other home edders who is an aromatherapist. She recommended lavender oil for baby eczema because it’s soothing, anti-itch and anti bacterial/fungal. Anti-fungal is one of the things about the cradle cap shampoo, so it kind of makes sense and I’m happier using something with fewer ingredients. So since 23rd December we’ve been putting on lavender oil (1 drop in 10ml sweet almond oil base – prices seemed reasonable from the aromatherapy company she suggested too) morning and evening. He smells quite nice (!) and his skin is mostly about the same – not especially better but no worse. The oil seems to soak in quickly so maybe redoing it halfway through the day would be better, but I don’t like faffing with his clothes on and off. His scalp is noticeably improved though and we haven’t used the prescribed shampoo (or any shampoo) since we began the lavender. It looks much less angry and has a lot fewer flakes and no flaky build up. A remarked on how much better it was looking now than before he went off with MR last week. L is still scratching when he’s sleepy though, so we put socks on his hands, otherwise he has big bleeding/weeping patches. But we haven’t had blood all over the bed sheet recently so that’s an improvement.
Since we started using lavender oil I stopped the lanolin, because so many people told me they are allergic to it. But the stuff I’ve got is supposed to be highly purified and L doesn’t seem to react to it, so I’m using it again on his arms and knees where he’s particularly dry, after putting the lavender on first, because the Lansinoh is so thick and gloopy it stays there for ages.
Apart from the dryness and rash, L’s skin is also sensitive in other ways. From birth whenever he fed his face and body would often go patchy/mottled red and white, though as he’s got older that’s reduced. Around his anus often looks bright red even though he rarely poos in his nappy and has it wiped straight away when he does poo. On the occasions when he poos in his nappy and I miss it for a couple of minutes (no more – quickly soaks through very obviously in a muslin!) everywhere goes bright red and sore and it lasts a couple of days. So I wonder if he’s reacting to something in the poo, or just has very sensitive skin.
From posts on the big EC Yahoo group and other things I’ve read previously, I wondered if L was reacting to something in my diet, passed through my milk. Cows milk protein seemed like a possible first thing to try as I know several people personally where this has aggravated/caused their eczema. I cut out all dairy for 2 weeks in November but saw no difference in L’s skin. So either cows milk is fine with him, or 2 weeks wasn’t long enough to see a difference or he’s reacting to several things and I’d need to cut all of them out to make a difference.
Since we came back from Okehampton the second week in December L’s had a lot of tummy trouble with wind and colicky behaviour. The night before the Thanksgiving service (weekend we got back) we were up a lot of the night walking him because he was crying inconsolably and colicky. When he pooed it was horrible smelling, bit like rotten eggs, not the OK smelling breastfed poo he’d had up til then. The consistency was also strange – really thick like ready mix paint and it stayed in rings in the potty instead of being runny. Far TMI!!! It stopped being seedy but was paler yellow. It stayed like that for a couple of weeks and then gradually got runnier and has gone back to a normal smell since Christmas. He still has a lot of wind and is much fussier and crying than he was previously. He is also now pooing several times a day and having little poo stains between times, and is hardly signally poos at all (though he signals wees more than half the time and some of the misses are me not paying good attention when he’s playing on the floor).
Finally, L’s weight gain has dropped off since the end of November. Up to 19 weeks he was gaining sensible amounts per week (weighed every 2 to 3 weeks) for a BF baby but it had dropped off alot when he was weighed mid December - but then it would with the tummy bug I suppose and maybe all the moving around he’s doing?
From reading about eczema on the internet in places like Dr Sears’ site, the EC list and the Mothering mag boards (places with a similar take to me on parenting I guess) then the congestion, eczema and tummy problems all sound like a reaction to something I’m eating. OTOH, I could just say that he had a tummy bug that he’s now getting over and several colds, he’s got sensitive dry skin and it’s common in babies and the grizzling is teething. If I go with the first idea, it means doing a much more severe elimination diet (at least cutting out dairy, wheat, eggs, soya, peanuts and shellfish) for a minimum of several weeks and I really don’t want to, but then that feels really mean if it is that and changing what I eat would make him a lot better. But it may not even be those things if he is allergic (though they’re the most common). And it would make me eat healthier which can’t be a bad thing! If he has a food problem we really ought to know before he gets going on solids. And it would be helpful to do the diet before we go on holiday to Melrose in February. But I know most people will think it’s barmy (but then if it does help L who cares?) and I’m being a pain in the neck saying I can’t eat this, that and the other. And I’d have to give up chocolate! Dairy, soya and wheat are in everything! All of our meals have lots of those in them! My mum can’t eat wheat without getting severe tummy problems and my sister is allergic to soya, so a food intolerance thing perhaps isn’t so unlikely. I’ve ordered a copy of “Is This Your Child?” about food allergies, so maybe I’ll just wait til I’ve read that. Aarghhh… I suppose I ought to try it and get it over with – either it’ll be a few weeks of difficulty with no result and then go back to eating general stuff, or we might find he is reacting to something and L’ll be so much better. But I haven’t talked myself into it yet…
He also likes to chew on his toes which are a new taste discovery this week LOL. He’s getting much more confident in standing alone too. When we’re out and I’m carrying him, we’re still doing great with EC, but at home (except at night and first thing in the morning) he doesn’t like to sit still long enough to wee on the potty - far more amusing to get off, fiddle with his bits, look at me and wee on the carpet. All a learning experience I suppose LOL.
