The Boy has been wearing the Tearless Teething Hazelwood necklace for 15 days now, so I thought I’d post a quick update to let you know how we’ve been getting on.
Since the two instances early-on in wearing the necklace, it hasn’t come off at all. Whether those instances were both The Boy pulling at the necklace or whether I hadn’t done it up tightly enough I’m not sure. We were fortunate enough that both times when it came off it was still close by, so we didn’t loose the necklace, and since those times it has remained in place securely throughout his everyday, normal activities.
The Boy hasn’t complained as he normally does about teething pain – he rubs his face, holds his ears, sits there working his jaw as though he is chewing – he hasn’t done any of that, but whether it’s because he’s not in pain because of the necklace and he is teething, or whether it’s because he’s not currently cutting any teeth, I’m not sure. At 19 months old he has a pretty full set of teeth already, all the front ones are in and that means I can’t safely see clearly all the way round the back so I’m not sure how many haven’t cut through yet! Recently he has been dribbling quite a lot and looking quite red-cheeked, which is usually a sign of him teething, but he hasn’t been concerned by it.
His nappy rash has completely cleared up – it is completely gone, not a mark on him, if you didn’t know you’d never guess how bad it was a couple of weeks ago with the bleeding spots, the lumpy, bright red skin – and as it doesn’t hurt anymore when you’re cleaning him up if he has had a dirty nappy, he’s perfectly happy just to lie back and let me get on with it – most of the time. I have to say that he now seems to be totally fine when it’s just me and him – he lets me get on with changing him, dressing him, whatever, without too much fuss at all, and he wanders off quite happily afterwards to play. It seems to now be when his daddy gets home from work he’ll then act up and throw a tantrum – either to me, because daddy is there now and he wants daddy’s attention and not mine; or a strop at daddy, simply because he’s not been there all day and The Boy maybe feels he should have been! When we were at my in-laws house last weekend, The Boy was wearing dungarees and the poppers on the legs kept popping open because he was running about and climbing on and off the sofa so much, and between trying to do those poppers up and changing his nappy, he threw a huge tantrum every time. I’m thinking now these tantrums are less to do with being in pain, or being uncomfortable, and more to do with knowing where his limits are with me but wanting to test other people a bit more!
We even had a break-through the other day when I was playing with him in the front room, up until now all he’s done is shaken his head ‘no’ for whatever question you ask him, but I paused playing and said, “Have you done a poo?” and he went to shake his head ‘no’ then thought about it for a second, nodded slowly ‘yes’ and pointed to his bottom! He then walked upstairs and into his room, was calm and co-operative the whole way through changing his nappy and it was done quickly and easily.
His eczema has been another matter. In the fortnight running up to him starting to wear the Hazelwood necklace, it had flared up really badly again – he mostly gets it on his back, concentrated around the lumbar region, but when it’s bad it also affects his legs, particularly the backs of his knees, and his arms, particularly the inside of his elbows – classic eczema! Prior to him starting to wear the necklace he’d had a week course of steroid cream to try and calm it down as it had flared up so badly, the steroid cream did the trick very quickly and after the week course the eczema was practically gone. We returned to using normal Oilatum lotion, and then when he started wearing the necklace I was hoping it would help get rid of any signs of eczema at all. While his eczema is a hell of a lot better than it was, it hasn’t cleared up totally, some days it just feels a bit bumpy and rough on his back, other days he’s scratching at it and it’s become red, lumpy and sore. It hasn’t flared up again to the point of him being covered, it is just the bit on his back that is always the worst patch – there’s a line which is just under the waistband of his nappy which seems to get quite sore, and his left shoulder too. These two patches are still evident, and I’m using Oilatum cream daily in an effort to make them less itchy to discourage him from scratching at it. I honestly couldn’t say whether the Hazelwood necklace is preventing it from getting worse again, or if it’s just because I’m being vigilant with it because it got so bad last time and I don’t want a repeat performance.
I think ultimately this is my issue with the Hazelwood necklace – I can’t prove for sure one way or another whether or not it is helping. For all I know he could be screaming in pain with teething, have awful nappy rash and really bad eczema without the necklace – or, it could be a case of he isn’t currently cutting a tooth, his nappy rash could have cleared up anyway as his nappies aren’t so messy now, and his eczema could have been going into a phase of not being so bad. My plan at the moment is for him to continue wearing the necklace until we reach the end of three months – this is how long they advise that a Hazelwood necklace is ‘good’ for. If, at the end of three months, the nappy rash flares up, the eczema becomes worse and he complains about his teeth again then I would be persuaded to think that the Hazelwood necklace has helped.
Our journey continues!
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