My son was born 10 days late. And even then, he didn’t really want to come out. I had to be induced. My actual birth story is for a different time. Instead I wish to talk about the single biggest issue that has continued to plague us since his birth. ECZEMA.
Eczema in babies is common enough. Everyone will tell you that. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a condition where the skin cannot retain enough moisture. We apply lotions and creams by the truckload on our little munchkin and it seems like it all just vanishes into thin
air. We attributed the problem to him being a later term baby. Soaking in liquids for 41+ weeks can do that to your skin. But as the months passed, his dry skin hadn’t become a whole lot better.Symptoms differ vastly, but some basic issues keep recurring with my kid. There is a lot of redness around joints (where the skin doesn’t get a lot of air and tends to be moist) and around his mouth (where it’s also moist because of all the drool) and scabs (from all the scratching, as it appears the skin feels pretty darn itchy)
His legs and skin behind the ear get the worst scratch treatment. He’s literally like a dog that’s infested with fleas. His arms work nonstop and he scratches like there is no tomorrow. And whoever tries to stop the itch-fest gets a long wail for trying. If you are persistent in trying to stop the scratching, then you also get wails with tears to boot. Putting on pants doesn’t solve the problem as he scratches through them and contending with the Indian heat, I do not have the heart to dress him up.
We were first told that going to India will solve all our problems. India is humid our doctor said, but turns out, she didn’t factor in where in India we’d be. Mumbai was great. Hyderabad, not so much. A moist cool environment seems to help the most.
My baby is 7 months old now and we’ve found a dermatologist and his skin is slowly becoming the soft dewy kind it oughta be. We initially used hydrocortisone (1%) along with copious amounts of cetaphil. Hydrocortisone is a steroid cream and extended use of it is not recommended. But no one has told me what qualifies as “extended” use. The doc
gave a non helpful “the skin will appear to thin and you might want to discontinue use then”. The first time we used hydrocortisone, we were using it twice daily and after 2 weeks, stopped it’s use abruptly. His symptoms that were almost gone, resurfaced with a vengeance. Confused, we continued to use the 1% strength hydrocortisone.The dermatologist in India prescribed a Flutivate (Fluticasone cream) over the super mild hydrocortisone. This bad boy is a potent corticosteroid and cleared up my son’s skin within two weeks of usage. There were some side effects like lost pigmentation, by those have disappeared since we discontinued use. We were asked to gradually phase it out this time. Until we were using it just twice a week and then we stopped it completely.
We were also asked to stop using cetaphil cleanser and switch to something called the Teddybar that is available in India. Not sure if soap is ok, but both the pediatrician and the dermatologist recommended it. Aveeno (even their dry skin line) did diddly squat for us.
The return of symptoms was slower this time around, but it’s happened anyhu. So now we are back on hydrocortisone on a once a day basis and I think, even though his skin hasn’t gotten better, it hasn’t gotten worse yet.
Ceptaphil continues to remain our buddy and we use it on him multiple times a day (3 to 4 times, if he’ll let me). Cetaphil in India is mostly sold as a lotion and the cream tubes do not last us long. Another great cream found in India is Efaderm. Efaderm smells delicious (in a fresh baby kind of way) and seems pretty emollient. We use baby detergent on his clothes and do an extra rinse on them and try to dress him up in organic cotton clothes (when I can get them for a reasonable price).
So for now, we hydrate him often. Use the least amount of cleanser possible and give loads of kisses on his raw scratched skin.