Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Tips on Tuesdays--Diaper Rash

Our beloved Boo girl has been experiencing what can only be described as "wicked bad diaper rash." Seriously. I've had to tell the people in the nursery at church to come get me if she needs changed for fear that if they saw it, they'd report me to CPS. And this has been going on for MONTHS.

I've managed to cope with it using the usual methods--switching brands of diapers & wipes, using several different types of creams, and, when it finally "got away from me," a prescription from my doctor. No I didn't try cloth, and no, I didn't try seventh generation (or similar) because they don't sell those at a store near my house. And I'm not driving all over the world for diapers, people. In case you didn't notice, I work full time, have 2 kids and a husband, a house to maintain, and this blog doesn't write itself :) Anyway, we tried a lot of stuff and we managed to keep the diaper rash at bay, but it was never really gone.

So, after many, many conversations with many, many people, we finally have a system that seems to be working. I no longer feel like we're moments away from a "wicked bad" breakout at any time. When looking for a "cure" I wanted a couple of things:
1) Simple--I didn't want something that was going to be complicated for me, my sitter, or a Nana to do every time we changed a diaper
2) Portable--I take my kids with me pretty much every where I go, I wanted something that would be easy to take with me
3) Inexpensive--I'm not made of money, people
4) Green for my baby--I hate, hate putting chemicals on my baby. Every time I put that steroid on her I thought, "Honey I hope mommy isn't making you sterile doing this, but I don't know what else to do"
5) Green for the environment--I am a closet-environmentalist, you know. Something disposable (other than the diapers and wipes) would go against my nature...sort of.

Anyway, here's what I've come up with:
1) Drying--after each clean-up, I dry Bailey's bottom.
2) Norwex--I dry Bailey's bottom with a cloth from the Norwex company. My sister-in-law, Jen, sells Norwex products & I love them. They are self-cleaning, reusable cloths. I have 3 for Boo, and I switch them out every Saturday. They never smell, even with what they're put through each week.
3) Bourdeaux Butt Paste--I hate the name of this product, but I like what it does for my daughter. After she's good & dry, I apply this cream to her bottom. It is a yucky color of brownish-tan, which tells me that no chemicals have been put in it to make it that sterile "white" color. It smells a little like cinnamon & works pretty well.
4) Yogurt--I started feeding Bailey yogurt for it's probiotics. I feed her a little bit of Stoneyfield Farm's Plain Organic yogurt every day. This also seems to be helping.
5) White Diapers--She breaks out as bad with Huggies Organics as she does with the Parent's Choice brand from Wal-Mart. In fact, the Parent's Choice is what we've switched to officially because it doesn't have any dye in the, for lack of a better term, crotch area. I think all those cute baby Mickeys & Minnies were making it worse. The plain white seem to work a little better.

So, there you have it--a lot of little things that add up to..........some what better results for Bailey. Maybe I'll try 7th Generation after all. God is good all the time and I got a week or so's worth from my church recently for free.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

How long on bottles?

How long should my baby stay on formula/bottles?
Well, first and foremost, you should ask your doctor. Generally speaking, though, by one year of age, most babies will be ready to give up formula. My doctor, being the kind man that he is, lets me keep my babies on the bottle--not the formula--for an additional two months. This lets me get them used to drinking whole milk instead of formula before taking away what has been their comfort & food source their entire lives.

This, in my most humble of opinions, is a major benefit to bottle feeding: You can ease your child off first his type of food, and then his method of getting food gradually over time instead the all-or-nothing approach. No matter how thin you slice it, you can't give your child whole milk through breastfeeding--but I can put whole milk in my baby's bottle.

Sorry if this irks you. Occasionally, I have to take a small victory when I can. Two babies and almost 4,500 bottles later, it can STILL be a tough world out there for a bottle feeder.