Last week with Rachel being so very sick it was just bound to happen. Her poor body was fighting off the day care germs and couldn't fight off anything else. We noticed it when we had her in the basement last weekend: this little "bump" of sorts in her diaper area. I couldn't tell if it was irritated skin covered in diaper creme or a little fungus area. Either way, we tried to keep an eye on it and thought it was starting to go away.
Then on Thursday she came home from day care and her poor butt was pretty red. Then Friday morning came and disaster struck. I changed her in the morning before day care and it was flaming red and swollen. I applied a liberal dosage of Butt Paste and she screamed. Apparently Butt Paste burns. We have decided to not use it any more. Thankfully, I have this wonderful skin stuff for her that I put on little bumps on her face and it clears them right up. I took that to day care with her and left it there.
When I picked her up she was still miserable, and unfortunately we weren't going home that evening. I took her with me to see some of my friends and surprisingly she wasn't fussy. Just really red down there.
Jason and I decided when I got home later that night to try to have her without a diaper for as long as we could. It's what the day care ladies said as well as several websites. But what they don't say is: how do you let an infant lay around without a diaper and NOT make a mess? So here comes more Jason and Allison genius.
We've found that when any of us are sick it's easiest for the invalid to recover in our basement. Same with Rachel. She'd be happy anywhere, but for us to take care of her, it's most comfortable to watch over her and sleep on the couch. So what do you lay the kid on to catch all of the stuff the diaper normally catches?
We figured we'd lay her on the floor to sleep again on top of puppy training pads. That's right, you heard me, training pads. We had several left over from our last little puppy and those things can hold a lot of waste. So we laid her on the floor on top of a training pad to sleep:
So she slept with a long sleeved jacket and nothing on her little legs. Her feet and legs were ice cold, but I don't think she really minds. She's had to sleep on the boppy before so we know that works well. Aside from having to change the pad a lot, it's not that bad. Although it doesn't catch everything. I took the Friday night shift and woke up to her having slid off the boppy pillow and into the middle of the changing pad.
Thankfully, baby pee is a lot less potent than adult or even toddler pee since she's on formula. So it's really not as gross as it sounds. But that blanket she's laying on will be washed the next chance I get and the carepets will be shampooed once this whole ordeal is over with.
Yesterday we had plans and didn't want to cancel them, so we went ahead and put her in a diaper and tried to change her every hour. Sounds reasonable - but it wasn't easy.
Jason let us sleep in Saturday morning and I snuck out for about 45 minutes to hit up some local garage sales. I managed to get several really nice outfits for $1 each for this coming winter. They are adorable! Plus a bunch of toys that she and pick up and chew on. (My only critera for those is that I have to be able to wash them in the sink.) I found a ton of those, most of which are similar to the toys she has at day care and really likes.
When I got back we got everything packed up and headed out to a gun show then off to some friends house for cards and dinner. For needing to be changed every hour, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. And she was a big hit at the gun show: all those old guys love babies. And the couples' house we went to we were abe to change her frequently and that was nice. She did really well through the whole thing.
Jason was up with her Saturday night and she was NOT a happy camper since her schedule had been upset on Saturday and we kept her out really late. Jason said he gave up trying to sleep around 5am. Poor guy. But he did say she looked better.
This morning when I took over caring for her she does look a lot better. She's less red, but still pretty swollen. So we're keeping her out of her diaper all day today and tonight as well.
Tomorrow day care is closed for their continuing education day so I'll keep her home and "open faced", as I like to call it.
What has me concerned has really been the question of what caused this awful rash to flame up. I think it's a combination of day care germs and formula. The lady at day care said Rachel spits up a lot. I figured all babies spat up that much. Since I had no baseline or frame of reference I just didn't know any better. She also said that her urine is really strong smelling, which is a product of the formula. I had asked our doctor if we could take Rachel off of this special preemie formula and was told not until 6 months. Well, our daughter has a rash, spits up a lot, and has even recently not wanted to eat much. So I made the executive decision: we're changing formula. I'm tired of forcing my kid to eat formula she doesn't seem to care for, so enough! We started the new formula Saturday morning and I can tell a huge difference. She doesn't spit up hardly at all, she will drink her whole bottle, and the rash is going away. Thank you to everyone who gave me the freebie formula you got in the mail!! We're using it, and it's working wonderfully!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment