Day Five - Tearless Teething Hazelwood Necklace

Day Five of The Boy wearing his Tearless Teething Hazelwood necklace was a fairly lazy day. While we were up quite early we lounged in our PJ’s on the sofa – me with the laptop going, him playing with a selection of vehicles with wheels!

His first nappy change of the day had been wet but not dirty – his necklace was still in place when I went into him and he had woken chirpy and chatty. He nattered away contentedly while I worked, and we took a break for a late breakfast at about half ten. I decided to change him for good measure, but the nappy was only wet and not dirty. Since he hadn’t had a dirty nappy all day yesterday, I was beginning to get concerned that he’d gone too far the other way and was now constipated, so for breakfast he had whole-wheat hoops, and a handful of sultanas and apple. After eating as much as he fancied, The Boy tipped the bowl of whole-wheat hoops over himself (comedy moment – The Boy giggling away as milk drips from the end of his nose and I notice absent mindedly that he has a whole-wheat hoop in his ear) He was attempting to drink the milk from the bowl – but the cereal wasn’t finished yet and he didn’t touch the bowl to his lips – he’d just brought it closer to himself and tipped it. As a result once I extracted him from the highchair and brushed off the stray whole-wheat hoops I realised he needed a change of clothes. Upstairs, his nappy wasn’t even wet, so I dressed him and we returned downstairs.

At this point, I’d like to say that first thing in the morning this morning his eczema was almost non existent on his back – normally the worst affected area – he had small patches, about the size of penny pieces, that were slightly dry and scaly to the touch, but it was a huge improvement over this time last week and a massive improvement in comparison to the day before he was prescribed steroid cream for a week. His nappy rash first thing on Day Five was still slightly pink, but the raised bumps had disappeared and so had the bleeding spots. He was compliant and content each time I changed him and the whole ‘nappy changing’ experience has gone back to the stress free routine of old, rather than the screaming fits we’ve been having more recently. Still, eczema and nappy rash is present, so I am continuing to use his Oilatum cream and nappy rash cream. Should either or both the conditions clear up completely, I will stop using the appropriate cream and see whether we have any issues, but at the moment I don’t feel it is fair on him to cease using the lotions, as it clearly makes it more comfortable for him once they’ve been applied.

Anyway, the day wore on and we lounged around, mid-afternoon I took him upstairs for a nappy change because I thought I could smell a dirty nappy. Any fears of him being constipated flew out of the window as I discovered the nappy was pretty gruesome – he was definitely not constipated. However while he wasn’t exactly happy to have me cleaning him up, it wasn’t a screaming battle of wills with him kicking me and trying to grab at the contents of his nappy with his hands; he simply moaned a bit but on the whole he laid there and allowed me to do what needed doing. The nappy rash was slightly more obvious again after the clean-up, but still wasn’t bright red, or bumpy, or bleeding. I applied more cream, a fresh nappy, and he went down for a nap.

After his nap his nappy was wet, so I changed it, and the nappy rash had gone back again to a paler pink. One fresh nappy later we were downstairs playing; eventually play time turned into dinner time, and after dinner we went upstairs to play before bathtime. On the way upstairs I thought the bottom of his jeans felt wet, but then when I felt it again I couldn’t find it, so I thought I’d been mistaken – half an hour of playing later, The Boy began to wiggle about and pat at his bottom as if he was uncomfortable. By that point I was running the bath, so waited until I was ready then went to change him. For the second time today his nappy was awful – the bottom of his jeans had been damp as I suspected, unfortunately. The cuffs around the leg holes of his vest were marked and the nappy had obviously had a hard job containing everything (no disrespect to the nappy – I’m not sure many others would have done as good a job under the circumstances!)

Cleaning him up was difficult, as he kicked about a lot more than he had done all day and made more of a fuss about it, but initially I didn’t think the damage was too bad – again it was pinker than it had been, but no raised bumps. Unfortunately a moment later I noticed a spot of blood swelling from the skin – so he hadn’t escaped completely unscathed, and another moment later there were a couple more blood spots I could see. After his bath, I applied Oilatum cream to his torso as his lumbar region and left shoulder appeared worse than they had done earlier in the day. I put nappy cream on his nappy rash as that also had become worse again. Having said that,  the nappy rash isn’t anywhere near as bad as I was thinking it would be when I first saw that nappy!

Once in his PJ’s and cuddled up in the glow of the night light, The Boy seemed perfectly content to drink his milk and slowly drift off to sleep. His nappy rash is vastly improved and so is his eczema, though at this point I don’t feel I can conclude it’s because of the necklace particularly – while it seems co-incidental that this improvement has occurred this week, perhaps it would have happened this week anyway, following our rigorous past four weeks of applying the Oilatum cream on a twice-daily basis. We’ll have to see what happens!

Tearless Teething - Hazelwood Necklace - Day Four

Day Four of The Boy wearing his Tearless Teething Hazelwood necklace was a fairly busy day. He woke shortly after 7.30 and when I went into him he was immediately pointing at the floor and saying “Gone” (or at least, he made a noise that sounded like that). I saw the necklace lying on the floor beside the cot, coiled snake-like where it had fallen. Picking it up, I examined it, but it didn’t appear damaged – again it appeared the clasp had opened and it had come off, whether this was due to The Boy pulling at it until it came off and then dropping it over the side of the cot I’m not sure!

As I was examining it, I noticed that there was some hair caught around the clasp. The Boy has quite long hair, and it looks like I’d inadvertently caught a single hair when I did up the necklace after it came off at Wednesday club. I don’t know whether that’s why the necklace was annoying The Boy and he pulled at it, or whether he decided to remove it for another reason, but anyway I removed the hair from the clasp and after checking it all appeared to be undamaged I put it back around his neck. The Boy has got very used to this now, and he will drop his head forward while I do up the clasp at the nape of his neck. I took care to make sure there was no hair caught in it this time!

His nappy was wet but not dirty, his sore bottom was loads better than it had been but there was still some nappy rash there, and likewise on his back while the eczema didn’t look bad at all, I still applied the Oilatum cream as normal.

That morning, my mum came round and took him to Friday club. It’s a group of children up to five years old, and while The Boy is one of the youngest there he loves to run around and play with the bigger kids, so it can get a bit hectic at times and sometimes a bit rough. Anyway this time was no different, and he was running about playing with the others for the best part of two hours before they left. Since The Boy is now very keen on walking, mum pushed the pushchair into town and then let him get out and have a walk around with her and they fed the ducks and had a picnic lunch. When they got home, The Boy was exhausted and went straight to bed for a nap. After that, he woke up and spent some time playing with my mum before The Hubby was back from work and I started dinner, mum left, and we got on with our evening as normal. At bathtime I noticed that both nappy rash and eczema were improved further, though the eczema was bothering The Boy last night and it hasn’t done for a while, he was actually scratching at it again and rubbing his back on the doorframe! Again I applied the usual creams, and he went to bed. Throughout the day, despite a lot of activity, the necklace didn’t come off again so I think previously when it has done it has been because of The Boy pulling at it. I discourage him from touching it too much but I don’t want him to think he’s not allowed to touch it – it’s on his neck after all! At the same time I’m conscious that I don’t want him constantly fiddling with it, because it makes it more likely to come off and the more that happens the weaker the clasp must slowly become.

His nappy rash and eczema is almost completely cleared up now. We’re still having occasional tantrums over nappy changes, but its no longer the huge battle it was before, and his skin overall appears to be smoother – he’s had a dry patch on his cheek since he was tiny that sometimes just feels a little rougher than the other cheek, but in the last few days that seems to have gone and I haven’t been remembering to apply Oilatum cream there as regularly as I do on his back (Mainly because if he isn’t feeling co-operative I’m scared I’ll get it in his eyes while he’s twisting about and shaking his head!) Is it coincidence or is it the Hazelwood necklace? I’m still not sure!

Tearless Teething - Hazelwood Necklace - Day 2

Day Two of The Boy wearing the Tearless Teething Hazelwood necklace was a busy day full of activity.

We were up early and once again The Boy had a dirty nappy and a very sore bottom. Changing him wasn’t as bad as it was the night before, but it was still a difficult task! I applied more nappy rash cream and worked out how long the necklace had been on for – less than 24 hours at that point, so I decided it wasn’t long enough to say I’d given it a fair try and it wasn’t helping! I got him washed and dressed, then sorted myself out, packed a bag and put him in the pushchair, and we battled against wind and rain to our regular Wednesday-morning group (he munched breakfast biscuits on the way!).

We got there and as usual I had to work quickly to free The Boy from the pushchair and the confines of his jacket and hat as he was keen to jump in and start playing with the other children. At 10 they stopped for a snack and I was a little concerned when I saw it was all fruit. Usually I try to give The Boy plenty of fruit and veg throughout the day, as he can be such a fussy eater at mealtimes, but given how sore his bottom had been and knowing what an affect fruit can have on him, I was a bit worried. I put a variety of fruit onto his plate which he quickly polished off, but then he helped himself to more and I had to eventually put a stop to it – he has a passion for grapes, but his already sore bottom told me it wasn’t a good idea for him to eat too many of those! He didn’t seem too fussed by the end of snack time though, and was soon running around again happily.

At snack time I removed his sweater because he was beginning to look a bit hot and rosy cheeked, and at that point his Hazelwood necklace was still in place. It tucked nicely under his t-shirt though, so it wasn’t hanging out for him to fiddle with or for it to get grabbed by another child or caught on something while he was playing. He hadn’t paid it much attention and I didn’t give it another thought until midday when we were getting ready to leave. The necklace was gone.

After searching the play room, concerned that it may have broken and left pieces on the floor which a child may pick up, and also wanting to see whether the necklace was still in a useable condition since I’d had less than a full days wear out of it, I then frisked The Boy and found that the necklace had come undone and fallen into his vest! I checked it over and it appears to be undamaged – it hasn’t broken anywhere, the clasp still functions and it is in one piece, so I’m not sure whether that is how it is meant to come undone under pressure and something had happened I wasn’t aware of during his time playing, or whether it had worked loose and come undone. Anyway I put it back on him and did it back up again tightly. This means that for an unknown period of time throughout the day, between 10am and 12pm, the necklace wasn’t fastened around his neck, but it was against the skin on his back (in direct contact with where some of the worst of his eczema is) and looking at the company website that may have been more beneficial as they say to wear the Hazelwood as close to the affected area as possible!

He wasn’t very interested in lunch when we got home, which I put down to all the fruit he’d scoffed at snack time and all the running around he’d done making him more tired than usual earlier in the day. Sure enough when he was put down for a nap shortly after one, he fell asleep almost immediately. Usually his nap time isn’t til about three. However he woke up just before three so his nap wasn’t as long as usual, but again he had a messy nappy that needed to be dealt with, and I’m fairly sure it was the discomfort of that which caused him to wake up, as he was still rubbing his face and acting like he was tired for some time after waking up.

Again the nappy change was challenging because by this point the rash was open and bleeding. He was screaming, thrashing around and generally making it very difficult to get him cleaned up and sorted out, though obviously I understand why he was behaving this way! Once he was sorted out I again used a very generous amount of the nappy cream which has always worked well for him in the past but which doesn’t seem to be doing much this time around. I made a mental note to give him some foods to actively bind him up a bit since the loose movements had been ongoing by this point for three days and wasn’t improving, and each time it made the nappy rash worse.

Over the course of the afternoon, another two messy nappy changes, another two temper tantrums and tears over it being done. That evening as usual he had a bath, and as usual after his bath I coated his bottom in the nappy rash cream and coated the rest of him in Oilatum lotion.

In a previous blog entry I wrote about the skin problems The Boy has, and how we’ve been using Oilatum to keep his eczema under control. Recently he was prescribed a steroid based cream to use for a week due to a particularly bad bought of eczema – the steroid based cream worked brilliantly, cleared it up almost entirely within three days, and after a week of use it was practically gone. Unfortunately since swapping back to the Oilatum lotion again patches have returned, though at this point not anything major in comparison to what it has been like in the past. The Tearless Teething ladies at the Baby Show stand where I brought the Hazelwood necklace from assured me that eczema was a very common complaint due to the acidity levels in the body and that plenty of other Tearless Teething customers had found that the necklace helped clear it up by stabilising those acidity levels. At the point of getting The Boy into his pyjamas following his bath last night, I could see no improvement to the eczema on his back, nor any worsening. I applied Oilatum cream as normal, being careful to avoid the Hazelwood necklace (I was advised by the Tearless Teething ladies that Oilatum should not be allowed in direct contact with the Hazelwood necklace, and while they did explain to me why at the time I can’t honestly remember now so that’s something I’ll have to ask them to clarify again!)

So, at the end of Day 2 I can’t see a radical change – the necklace was placed on him at 10am on Day 1 and by bedtime on Day 2 his nappy rash was still very sore and his eczema still evident. Let’s see how we progress in the days to come!

A Sensitive Subject

From a young age, I suffered myself with eczema, psoriasis on my scalp and generally dry skin that was prone to cracking in winter. It was dealt with by application of many different creams, ointments, and I remember vividly a particularly nasty alcohol based solution which my mum was supposed to rub into my scalp after washing my hair but as my scalp was red raw this sent me through the roof in tears of pain, so she stopped doing that after a few attempts and we treated it with T-Gel shampoo amongst other remedies.

My father is prone to dry skin, particularly on his face and head, his elbows, knees and shins, and these areas seemed worse on me, too. As a child I wore my hair long, but during summer months the heat made my scalp itch constantly, until I was 11 and announced that I wanted to shave my hair off. As a compromise, mum allowed me to have an undercut, which I kept for two years before growing it out, and since then (touch wood) I haven’t had a flare up even half as bad as it used to be.

The Hubby also suffers from dry skin, which like mine becomes particularly bad in the winter. He remembers the skin at the bottom of his ear lobes cracking open the winter he turned 19 and was doing deliveries on a moped, constantly putting on and removing his crash helmet, and also the skin on his hands and fingers cracking open and bleeding. Like me, he also suffers with the inside of his elbows, the backs of his knees and his shins becoming red and dry.

It seems inevitable, then, that our son suffers as well. From a few weeks old The Boy had one rosy cheek that seemed hot to the touch and dry, but I applied various baby-safe moisturisers to no effect. During his first winter, his whole body broke out in red, sore looking spots of dry skin, so we took him to the doctor who advised it was eczema, and provided us with Oilatum Junior cream and anti histamine for treatment. He also advised that I used only Fairy Non Bio washing detergent, and avoided washing my own hands with scented soap as this could cause a flair up for The Boy.

It had an immediate effect and it was quickly cleared up (The Boy’s cream was so good that it even stopped my hands from cracking and bleeding as I was constantly applying it to The Boy) We used it less and less frequently until around April, when the weather was warmer, the central heating turned off and his skin remained beautiful and soft, like baby skin should be.

Like a bad penny, the eczema returned at the start of the winter again last year. I was prepared, having purchased the Oilatum Junior Bath Additive as well as a bar of Oilatum Soap, I made a return journey to collect the repeat prescription for the Oilatum Junior cream and we started using it all again. We imagined that it would be the same as last time, that it would quickly take effect and would soon be a bad memory.

It didn’t disappear as we’d hoped. Instead of soothing his skin and making it better, it just seemed to keep it on an even keel and stopped it getting worse. As the eczema is concentrated on his back we didn’t think he’d be able to scratch at it, but we were wrong on that count, too – now an inventive little monkey, The Boy has taken to rubbing his back against things to relieve the itching (rather like Baloo the Bear from Jungle Book) He knows that the Oilatum cream helps, though – last night after his bath I was drying him off and he grabbed the tube of cream and was waving it at me. I did the usual thing of putting it in my hands before putting it on him (it’s a thick cream and its very cold straight out of the tube) and as I reached toward him he sat right forward to expose his back to me and was moaning with relief as I rubbed the cream in. He even picked up the tube and put some in his own hand then rubbed the lower part of his back where he can reach – it was so sweet to see him do, but also a bit sad as well, because no child of his age should be so used to using cream for sore skin that he helps you apply it!

While his back is the worst affected area – from the shoulder blades all the way down to his bottom – it is not the only affected area. The tops of his arms and his armpits are prone to becoming red and sore if not kept on top of, his thighs tend to feel a little like he has goosebumps if I haven’t applied the cream and his tummy gets small, penny sized circles of dry skin crop up randomly. I’ve got to the point of coating him entirely with the cream from top to toe, to the point where he’s a slippery little eel and if he was to wriggle away from me I’d never be able to catch him again! Dressing him afterwards is challenging, to say the least – especially getting a nappy on him! (He hates wearing a nappy anyway, so trying to get it on when his legs are greased up and you can’t hold him still is even more difficult!)

We were in town yesterday and I stood outside the doctors surgery for a while debating whether or not it was worth another appointment. Eventually I decided that I’d see what it looked like in the bath last night, and make my decision. When I undressed him it didn’t take much of an assessment to see that it had become more inflamed during the day – though I couldn’t tell you what might have caused that – and as soon as he was undressed he was rubbing his back against things and scratching as much as he could (I try to keep his nails as short as possible but despite that he cuts himself where he scratches so much if you’re not careful) In the bath, he shuffled himself to the end so his back was pressed against the lip of the bath, then wriggled against it. He knows the bath water helps soothe the itching, and he knows we use either plastic pots to pour water over him, or the sponge, and last night was no exception as he even refilled the pots to hand to his daddy to pour over his back, and tried to reach himself with the sponge.

This morning, I rang the doctors surgery and an unusually helpful receptionist spoke to me. She said the soonest appointment was in two weeks time, but if I felt it was urgent she could arrange an emergency appointment today. I said I didn’t think it warranted an emergency appointment, but that waiting another two weeks wouldn’t be helpful, so she suggested that she got a doctor to phone me and have a chat, and we could decide the best course of action from there. Fortunately the doctor who called was one who helped me before with The Boys skin complaints, and he wasn’t surprised to hear it had flared up again or that now, at 18 months, The Boy was being inventive with scratching the itch. He advised that he’d write a prescription for some steroid cream which I’m to use twice a day on the dry skin for a week, which should rein it in and then after a week return to using the Oilatum Junior cream again. I should continue to use my Fairy Non Bio for the laundry, and he recommended more Oilatum products for the bath like I’ve already been using, or else he said that E45, Simple and Dove were good alternatives. I did pick up some kids E45 bath stuff yesterday for sensitive skin, as the Oilatum products are so expensive - the soap bar is around £4 and the bath additive around £10 (but I can’t deny they’re good!)

So we’re off to the doctors to pick up another prescription, and we start the steroid cream tonight. What The Boy will make of it I don’t know, but he knows now that I put cream on him and it helps the itching so even if it’s a different cream maybe he’ll make the association. Whatever happens, I just hope it works and we can get it under control again before it gets any worse. It’s horrible to see your child uncomfortable like that, and I know how uncomfortable dry, itchy skin can be so fingers crossed this is our last trip to the doctors for a while!!