Happy New Year!!

It's hard to believe it's 2012 already!

Unfortunately, although we had lots of fun celebrating the coming of the New Year, we haven't exactly started the year out right.  Eric appears to be teething, and he always has his hands in his mouth lately.  The worst part of teething, though, is that it seems to always bring about acidic, "toxic" poo-poos. The worst part of that is that they bring about the most horrible type of diaper rash that I have ever seen.

So, last Monday, I couldn't figure out why Eric was just screaming and screaming, no matter what I did.  I tried holding him, breastfeeding, leaving him alone, playing with him...nothing calmed him down.  I just couldn't figure out what was wrong; that is, until it was time to change his diaper.

Over the last few days, he'd had a little bit of a diaper rash, but it seemed to be getting a little bit better.  He had a few areas that were a little bit red, but it didn't seem to be affecting him, so it wasn't that big of a deal.  In fact, it seemed like it was getting better, until Monday afternoon.

Despite having had Eric in my arms, I didn't realize that he had a little, tiny poo-poo in his diaper.  It was so small that it wasn't at all noticeable to me.  I wish that I could say the same for Eric because it was enough to burn his skin as if I'd thrown acid all over it.  Cleaning it was almost impossible because just looking at it caused Eric to shriek in pain.

Knowing that it was causing a chemical burn, I couldn't just leave it there, but Eric was so sensitive that I couldn't easily clean it either.  I decided that wipes would be much too irritating, and I got out a bowl of water and a soft cloth, and proceeded to clean his little bottom as well as I could.  I then put the hairdryer on the cool setting on the area to help dry it a little.  I dabbed a little cream on it, wrapped him in a cotton cloth, and brought him over to the couch with me.

I ended up holding him diaperless for awhile until Mauri came home.  He tried calling the hospital for me, but no pediatricians were available for an over-the-phone consult.  We tried calling several medical centers, but nobody would answer us because it was after 2PM. (I guess everybody has afternoons off.)

Not knowing what to do, we bathed him as usual, applied a cream and a diaper, and put him to bed.  Tuesday morning, things appeared to be quite a bit better, but he still had small areas that were very red and looked almost like open sores.  Fortunately, though, they didn't hurt Eric as much as they did on Monday.  His first diaper of the morning once again had a poo-poo, but he let me clean his skin well, and I left the area to dry for awhile.

I decided that, just to be on the safe side, I would keep him with his diaper off for awhile.  I put his pj's back on, so he wouldn't be cold, but left the diaper off.  I figured that I'd have to wash his pj's anyway, and this way I'd be able to see when he needed a change.  He ran around freely for awhile, until I needed to change him, and seemed to be feeling much better. When I went to change him, I once again blew cool air on the area, and it seemed to calm him so much, that he actually fell asleep there.  So, I sat by him and let him sleep his nap on the counter, with his diaper off, his legs wide apart, and air from the blow dryer blowing on the area.

Without the diaper, his next pee-pee woke him up, but he seemed to be doing so much better, that I put some cloth diapers on him, and let him run around the house.  I decided that with the cloth, it would be much easier to monitor wet/dirty diapers, and would be easier to keep him completely dry.  What I didn't count on, though, was that, once again, the tiniest little bit of poo-poo would be enough to have him screaming in pain again.  So, when I noticed him being especially fussy, despite not noticing a dirty/wet diaper, I went to change him, and found open wounds around a coin sized area of poo! 

I cleaned him as best as I could, and spent the rest of the afternoon researching ideas for the acidic, teething poo-poos that cause horrific diaper burns. I found remedies from using corn starch, to using bag balm (meant for cows’ udders), to browned flour, to coconut oil, to witch hazel, to lanolin left over from easing cracked skin of nipples while breastfeeding...I actually tried a few out, but since I didn’t really stick with any of them for long enough, I don’t know if any really worked.  I even made a mix of coconut oil with some leftover lanolin, and tried to use that through a couple of changes, but it seemed to me that anything that added moisture, being it a diaper cream for diaper rash or not, only made things worse!!

My homemade cloth wipes

Meanwhile, I worked at making up some cloth wipes so that I could use those instead of the commercial wipes, at least throughout this whole ordeal.  While there were lots of pages on the internet that show how to make your own cloth wipes, actually sewing them seemed rather silly to me.  Instead, I headed over to the scraps from the t-shirt and baby clothes quilts I’m working on, and found lots to work with.  In fact, the back side of the baby t-shirts, in most cases, was already left in a square shape that was usually the perfect size for baby wipes.  So, most of the work was already done for me.  I did cut up part of one t-shirt, and got many, many wipes from that!  To make things more fun, I found a YouTube video showing how you can put cloth wipes into a wipes box, making it so that when you pull one out, and they keep coming up, just like the commercial, chemical-laden wipes that were making Eric scream! 

Poor, sore baby fell asleep with his diaper off

Earlier, I had actually tried out another homemade wipes idea from YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQc33ALhhos

Opening one of Maite's Christmas presents

I’ve been using the wipes I made like that, mine with coconut oil added to the water, and they’ve been working pretty well too, especially for when out of the house.  I’m very happy with my cloth wipes for at home, though, and wish I had thought of it earlier.  They wash up really well, and actually clean better than the store-bought type.  They are fun to use because they remind me of Eric’s old outfits that he has outgrown.  Best of all, though, is that they don’t sting Eric, and I feel much better about avoiding all of the unnecessary chemicals on his sensitive baby skin.

I saved this hand-me-down to put on Eric when he plays outdoors in the dirt, saving his nice jackets for when we leave home.

Speaking with Maite about the matter, I found out that a lot of the mothers use a red liquid on the area when it gets to the point of being ulcerated, like it is in Eric’s case.  After a bit of research online, I found out that the liquid was called “Eosina 2%,” and most people seemed to be pretty happy about how it worked.  It has to be prepared by the pharmacy, though, and supposedly lasts around 15 days.  So, the next day, when I saw Mauri’s cousin, Mauri, who works at the pharmacy that supposedly has one or two bottles ready at any given moment, I didn’t hesitate to ask him about it.  He told me that he would drop a bottle off at Mauri’s parents’ house later on in the day. 

Playing with Maite's drawers

Once we started to use the Eosina, things started to get much better.  It’s a bright Koolaid red that easily stains everything, but it was so worth it.  It dried up the rash pretty quickly; and now, about 5 days later, the biggest sore that formed has healed. 

Tasting the kings' candy

As for his teeth, Eric won’t let me take a look at them, but it looks like he’s starting to get several teeth at once.  I think he’s finally starting to get his right lower lateral incisor, as well as the upper laterals.  It even looks like the upper right canine might be trying to break through despite the fact that they usually appear after some of the baby molars.  I can’t tell, though, if the molars are on their way.  Eric doesn’t let me get a good look back there.

Here is one of the kings throwing candy

Otherwise, Eric is doing very well, maybe too well.  He keeps running around non-stop and getting into whatever he can get into.  I have to pick up and put away everything, from the books off the bookshelves to the various things in my kitchen drawers, numerous times a day.  I’ve started to be better about keeping the gate to the kitchen closed to keep myself from having to clean up after him.

Ready to help papi outdoors

He’s getting to the age that he wants to do more and more by himself, and throws big boy tantrums when he can’t, or when I won’t let him, or when things don’t go as he would like.  There are things that he’s pretty good at doing now, though.  I found out, almost by accident, that he can drink from a glass pretty well by himself.  I hadn’t been trying because he never could really drink from his sippy cups without help.  The second I gave him water in a regular cup, though, he drank it and put the cup back on the table when he was finished, just like he had been drinking from a cup all of his life.

My mouth hurts!!

He also likes to run around so much that I have started to let him run around with me at some stores sometimes.  He usually throws a temper tantrum when I put him into his stroller.  He doesn’t even sit still seated in the shopping carts anymore; so, when I don’t have much to buy, I have him walk with me.  The only problem is that most of the time he decides that he prefers to be the one to decide where we are going to go.  So, he lets go of me and goes running off, and starts laughing hysterically when I go running after him.

He does have a bit of a temper, though, and gets mad often.  For example, he usually starts screaming when we introduce him to somebody new.  He also gets mad at me when I bring him somewhere where he doesn’t want to go, like when I make him stop playing to go change his diaper.  He even tries to hit me and pull my hair!!!  Luckily he gets over it right away, and it isn’t unusual to see him half laughing and half crying at the same time.  (Good thing he's so cute!)

I can also tell that lately he’s starting to understand more and more about the world around him, but some things are still a bit too complex for him to understand.  I knew that the 3 king’s parade would be a bit too complex for him, but wanted to bring him anyway so that he could experience something new.  Plus, we had some presents waiting for him for King’s day. 

He seemed to like the experience, and wasn’t at all scared by any of it.  Afterward we brought him to Mauri’s parents’ house, and opened up a couple more presents.  He got a few more books, a play piano for his grandmother’s house, and a dog (with wheels) that “runs” when you push down on its head.  He especially seemed to like the dog, and kept saying “guau guau” and bringing it to me to make it go.  I tried to show him how to do it himself, but I guess it’s still a little bit difficult for him.

Playing with my push-and-go dog

He is getting to a point, though, that he can better play with some of his older toys.  He’s now able to start to put some of the shapes into the shape sorter toys.  When he gets one in, though, he tries to put the other shapes into the hole that “worked” before.  So, he’s learning, but still has lots more to learn.

Opening presents is fun!

Now that the holidays are over, I’ve taken most of the Christmas decorations down, but couldn’t bring myself to take down all of the extra led lights inside the house.  Otherwise, things are getting back to normal.  Soon, though, things will change again because Mauri will have a month off for another biological stop.  I’m not sure what we’ll be doing with the month yet; I’ll fill you in when I know for sure.