Terrible A.M.

Lina <3, you had a terrible night last night, early morning and this morning. You had been scratching non stop since the middle of the night. You spent the night in our bed and that did not make you sleep better. Up every hour, scratched, scratched, and did not fall back to sleep easily at all, starting after 12a.m. I even nursed you back to back, hoping you would sleep better but it did not help much. Daddy was up as well trying to soothe you by rubbing your head, massaging your belly and body. It was obvious that you are tired, yet you still wanted to play with Daddy and Mommy. Tried to make you understand that there is playtime and there is sleeping time by having Mommy not be playful with you when it is time to sleep. It is kind of cute when you wake up in the middle of the night and want to play, you would toss and turn and roll over, and bump into Mommy on one side and bump into Daddy on the other side. Daddy and I pretend to be asleep and not indulgence your playfulness when it is time to sleep.

The scratching and itchiness was intense int he middle of the night and this morning. Daddy and I felt so helpless and powerless when it comes to the itchiness that you get. Luckily, we have the Scratch Me Not Mittens which works wonders to stop you from drawing blood from all the scratching. You still scratch even with the mittens on. I constantly tell you "no scratching" as I removed your hand(s) from where you are scratching. Oh what to do, what to do, what to do? HELP!

After cleaning you up  and moisturizing you this morning, you were still scratching and itchy. So we washed you up again, moisturized you again, and changed your clothes, an hour later, which seemed to help a little. We played on Mommy's bed and you were happy, smiling, laughing, and mostly importantly, not scratching! After an hour of playing, you finally wanted to be nursed, and asleep you went and still sleeping for an hour now :) Sleep my baby, and let's have a good afternoon.

A better day...

Today is a better day, the symptoms of her eczema are under control. YAY!! I hope no new mothers have to go through having a baby with eczema. It is so much work, and time consuming, well then again, babies are a lot of work and take up a lot of time. Work that a mother would do without any hesitation; and with all the love, and care in the world.
 
The scratching is under control as well. She still scratches but only before nap time because it is her way of telling me that she is ready to go to sleep. The toys kept her busy. Wearing a long bodysuit, and long pants keeps her from scratching herself. Moisturize, moisturize, and moisturize after each nap, after each diaper change, after each feeding, and after playtime. I am reverting back to moisturizing her 4-5 times a day, hoping that it will help relieve her symptoms.

Besides the moisturizing, Lina <3 did a lot today. She played on the floor, crawled, pulled herself up to standing position, squealed/shriek in excitement, knocked down the building blocks that Mommy built, grabbed her toys and tossed it around, and walked with the walker with assistance from Mommy. She ate well. Ate all her food, mashed up sweet potato, mashed up broccoli, mashed up baby carrots, baby cereal, breast milk and purified water (not all at once, of course). She napped, but always cried, stood up in her crib, and played in her crib before falling asleep. Took a walk up the block to watch the cars go by, and to look at the vegetable gardens in the neighbors' front yards.

Overall, her schedule was diaper change, eat, play, sleep, diaper change, eat, play and sleep. It is a wonderful world she have, all her needs are taken care of.

Itchy and Scratchy

Does anyone remember/know the cartoon show, The Simpsons, which usually shows the children watching the cartoon, Itchy and Scratchy? I hope so, but there's no blood, and no killing one another in this household.

However, there is a lot of scratching from my little baby :(  The symptoms of her eczema has come back, and it looks bad. My baby is scratching like there is no tomorrow the last few days. I am so glad that I gave her a mani/pedi (manicure and pedicure), so when she scratches she is not drawing any blood or making any marks. It is a little funny (and such a smart thing to do) that when she can not scratch with her hands, she uses her toes to scratch the other leg. It kills me that I can not help her, and ease her discomfort. I think she was scratching because she was itchy (she usually scratches more near bedtime, and naps; not from being itchy). With a nice bath this morning, has helped a bit, as well as distracting her with toys, and teethers. There are so much products, and remedies for eczema out there on the market, but I have yet to find something that works exceptionally well. Moisturize, moisturize, and moisture always helps. The itchiness is the tricky part because sometimes, it is hard to distinguish rather she is itchy or not.

 I hope that she will get past the scratching, and itchiness. Thank goodness for the Scratch Me Not Mittens. The mittens are amazing especially right before she fall asleep. Other than the scratching, and being itchy, my little baby had a okay day. She ate, slept, played, read, and listened to music.

Eczema Glore and Ms. Scratch A Lot

When you were three months old, you had red, blotchy, and dry looking skin between the folds of your neck, behind your ears, and in the folds of your arms and your legs. It was diagnosed by the doctor as eczema. The cause of your eczema was unknown. The doctor thought that it would be best to stop eating eggs, soy, wheat, and nuts; to try and determine the cause. After stopping one thing at a time, the symptoms of your eczema did not get better. As the heat increases this summer and humidity hit, the symptoms of your eczema got worse. Mommy moisturized your face and body every day, at least five to six times a day, basically every time you woke up from sleeping/naps. Mommy tried many lotions. The moisturizers that worked well were Aveeno Baby, Eczema Therapy, Cetaphil Restoraderm, and Albaun-petroleum jelly. It took a while to figure out which ones were the best ones for my little princess; as well as a lot of time and patience (but nothing is too good for my princess). Even taking baths had to be changed; we went from taking baths every other day to every two to three days to see if it would help the symptoms. Your clothes could not be too tight on her, as I had read that tight clothing could make the symptoms worse.

This is also the beginning of your scratching. At first, you would scratch as a indication of being tired (so I thought), and would only happen at nighttime before bedtime. However, it is hard to tell you if you were really itchy or not. Daddy and I used hydro-cortisone cream 1% on the areas where you were scratching with your hands but it does not seem to help. Of course, the hydro-cortisone cream was recommended by your doctor. Also,used aloe gels (but tested it first on her arm to see if she is allergic) but it does not seem to help that much either. The scratching only got worse over time. Daddy and I felt so helpless when you would scratch because you look so uncomfortable and itchy; and there was nothing we could do for you. You would scratch and scratch during diaper changes, bath times, when you lays down, you plays, and right before your naps or bedtime but you can be distracted with toys which does not last long. At first, you would scratch your necks, behind your ears, and your head. Now, it is wherever your hands lands. The scratching, unfortunately, appeared to be habitual and I don't know what else to do. The big relief is using mittens. She outgrew her first mittens fast, and then another pair, and used socks; then she learned to pull them off her hands (which is the cutest things but not when she would scratch after they are off her hands). After much research, Daddy and I found scratchmenotmittens and it works wonders. We still use it now. The grooming of her finger nails and toe nails had to be cut and trimmed every other day; otherwise, she would end up with scratch marks all over her face. The scratch marks would end up all over her forehead, and cheeks. It looked like it would scar, but not matter how bad the scars were, they eventually went away.

Present time, my little princess still scratches, whenever it gets close to bedtime, naps, during meal time, during playtime, during diaper changes and bath times. Lina wears the mittens whenever she goes to sleep. The symptom of your eczema has gotten better. Mommy is only moisturizing you a few times a day and your skin is not that dry. Bath time is every other day. Clothes are loose and not too tight. Nails, finger and toe, are cut and trimmed every other day, sometimes every day. Mittens are still being used. No scars are accounted.