Dermatologist Recommended

When I noticed myself sneaking into the Little Man's room at night to steal his lotion, I knew he had a good thing. He has had some mild skin problems that culminated in a staph infection of the hair folicales on his back. Ew, gross, I know. Anyway, the antibiotic took care of the infection, and we went to see a dermatologist. Turns out he has some mild eczema. And the key to managing it is to keep his skin well lubricated. If not, it gets dry and flaky, and is susceptible to icky things like staph infections.

So what did the dermatologist recommend to keep his skin as soft as a baby's skin should be? Aveeno. Just the regular old Aveeno body lotion in the green and tan bottle. The one that says "Dermatologist Recommended" right there on the front. I think in the past I've always been turned off by the smell. But after using Aquaphor and Vaseline, it smells about the same, but it's not so think and goopy. And his skin is again as soft again as it should be. AND my hands are benefitting as well! Such a good solution. I'm thinking of getting a bottle for me.

Thermometers and the Related Fever

At the hospital, they sent us home with a simple electronic thermometer. And some sort of expectation that you'd be taking your baby's temp every 2 hours or something to make sure no fevers ever occurred. For the first six weeks, you live in fear of a fever because any real fever at that age results in a... FULL SEPSIS WORK-UP. Wow! What the heck is that? Answer: Blood, urine, SPINAL FLUID. Yes, spinal fluid. So you REALLY don't want your baby to get a fever. And I thought, if he DOES get a fever, I want to know right away. So I bought one of those $40 ear thermometers.

Here's the conversation I had with the nurse the first time the Little Man had a fever (luckily outside of the full-sepsis-workup age range):

Me: "My son has a fever"

Nurse: "How high?"

Me: "103"

Nurse: "How'd you take that temperature?"

Me: "With my fancy $40 ear thermometer"

Nurse: "Take it anally and call me back"

Me: "D'Oh!"

Because of course, you can't take a squirmy baby's temp while on the phone, so you have to hang up, take the clothes off, take the diaper off, figure out the cheap-o thermometer they gave you at the hospital, take the temp, then call back, wait on hold, explain the whole situation to a new nurse, and THEN get a same-day appointment.

The moral of this story is obvious: Save your money. Use the cheap-o hospital thermometer. We're still using it today, and the Little Man is nearly a year and half old.