When you think of a baby, don’t you think of super soft skin
and that heavenly baby smell amidst snuggles?
I experienced that for about a year with Isaac until the dreaded eczema
hit. What is eczema? From what I’ve observed with my boys, it’s
extreme dry patches in your skin that become inflamed, cracked, itchy and even
bloody at times. I didn’t know what the
heck was happening with Isaac’s skin because I’ve always had oily skin. I showed my scientist hubby and he immediately
knew what it was. He was like, “Uh oh he’s
got eczema. I had it as a kid and grew
out of it.” I remember my dramatic
island mommy was around when he said this and was like, “Ohhh my gosh, wha kinda
nasty disease you give this child Jonatin??
EckZzema?! Put some aloe on it and watch it heal right up.” (FYI, my mom is like the dad off of My Big
Fat Greek Wedding, who believed Windex was the cure for all, except substitute
aloe-my friends and fam know the dealio lol!)
Initially, when Isaac’s eczema developed I was like okay, I’m
just going to apply some extra baby lotion to those dry areas, which were
located on his upper back, in the folds of his arms, behind his knees and on
his neck. Isaac was a chubster (he was
90-95% for height and weight up until around 2 years old), so at first I
thought his chunk rolls were giving him a rash, but when it started to get
really inflamed, where it looked blistered and was causing him a lot of
discomfort, I knew more had to be done.
His pediatrician confirmed that he had eczema and prescribed a hydrocortisone
cream. I used that on the severe spots
and that provided visible relief, but we noticed that overall his skin was
still really dry and that’s when we went through a plethora of creams to see what
would work. We tried Aveeno, Vanicream,
California Baby, Babyganics, Burt’s Bees, pure coconut oil, pure aloe, etc…and
none of these worked. It wasn’t until we
started to use Aquaphor in combination with the hydrocortisone that we saw
results and his blistered skin started to heal. We also noticed that skipping
baths or bathing him every other day seemed to further irritate his skin, so we
gave him baths every day and that provided the relief he needed. 
As warmer months ushered in, we wanted to use
a lighter lotion (Aquaphor is super thick and who wants that when it’s hot
out??). That’s when I discovered the
Honest Company and oh.my.gosh it saved my baby boy’s skin! It completely agreed with him and to this
very day we use their products (shampoo and wash, healing lotion, leave in
conditioner spray, face and body lotion, organic body oil, soothing bottom wash
spray for Ian, all natural bug spray, sunscreen and I keep their sanitizer
spray in my purse). I absolutely love
that these products are natural because I’m all about that and they smell so
good too! Now, the wash and lotion
worked great for Isaac, but Ian is another story. Ian's skin did not agree with the Honest Company shampoo and body wash.
When Ian was born, after only a couple of months we noticed
that he had insanely dry skin and we were like oh no! Turns out that Ian’s eczema is worse than
Isaac’s and he scratches like he has a tick!
To the point that he has scars all over his legs, arms and upper back
from grating his skin off and making himself bleed. I remember looking at his
nails and noting how disgusting they were.
I thought he had dirt under them, until my hubby pointed out that the
said “dirt” was in fact his skin from his vicious itching. When I took him to
his pediatrician he referred us to a dermatologist because of the severity of
his eczema. Nothing was working on Ian,
so when we took him to the dermatologist she prescribed antibiotics to clear up
his inflammation and a steroid cream.
His eczema cleared up while on these prescriptions, but quickly returned
once done.
At that point, I was like
okay, I’ve tried the medicated route, now I’m going to try my all natural route
that I prefer, so I started to research and found hazelwood cream. Other parents with babies suffering from the
dreaded eczema used it and had marked improvement in their little one’s
condition. I bought it and guess what,
it works!! It is really thick and has the consistency and texture of sunblock,
which is why we apply it to the extra dry areas. In addition, our dermatologist recommended that we use Dove body wash on Ian for eczema and we still use it (for sensitive skin and it agrees with his skin type). We also use the eczema relief lotions from
Mustela for the remainder of his body and man, his skin is back to feeling
smooth and he rarely goes into his crazy itching attacks! I don’t know if you remember from my first
pregnancy with Isaac, but I used Mustela on my belly and didn’t get any stretch
marks. I didn’t use it when preggers
with Ian because I couldn’t stomach the smell.
It would literally make me puke my guts up and yup, you guessed it, I welcomed
some stretch marks to my belly. Oh well,
c’est la vie! I say this because that fund
will be in full effect once we’re done having kids. You best believe that!
We’re praying that Ian grows out of his eczema like his
daddy and big brother. In the meantime,
we will continue to administer palliative care until it decides to leave for
good.
