Rolling Brings New Challenges, and an Eczema Update

With the joy of Mason learning to roll over has come new worries.  It seems like there are so many opportunities for problems!  Over the last week Mason has become quite adept at rolling over to one side and back.  When he’s on his belly he pushes up with his hands and spins around to get at things, which means his siblings are learning not to leave anything on the floor. He rolls himself into a corner occasionally.  This picture came just after he tried pushing backward into the book shelf his toes are in.  Silly boy!The problem is that in all his rolling, spinning, and pushing backwards Mason’s legs get into some awful contortions.  This picture doesn’t show it very well.  He ends up with a leg hyperextended to the point that we worry he will injure his hip or pop it out of joint.  The dear, sweet boy!  Not being able to feel things certainly makes life interesting. 

He is also beginning to scuff up his knees and we’re having to watch for scrapes, cuts, and the like.  We do put down a baby blanket to help but he’s just not staying on it anymore.  I suspect that as soon as the weather cools a bit wearing pants will help protect his skin some.  If you’ve been wondering about the ace bandage wrapped around his arm don’t worry!  Mason’s skin is really sensitive and he has a lot of eczema.  That elbow has the worst patch of eczema.  It just won’t heal with all the itching, rubbing, and playing on his tummy.  He rubs off regular bandaids in about 20 minutes so we have been using ace banadages instead.  Being wrapped around his arm they stay in place much better.  

Related to the eczema, we have been trying a new formula for Mason to see if his eczema is milk allergy related.  Basically, we’ve used every cream and medicine the doctors offer and the only thing that clears up his eczema is an oral steroid.  That is not something he can take all the time, it’s not safe to do so.  Having tried everything else, we’re eliminating milk and trying a food allergy formula called Alimentum.  It’s expensive!  If this ends up helping Mason we will spend $300 a month on his formula alone – that is half of what we spend to feed our family of 9 in a month!  It will be worth it if it helps, of course. We are one week into the switch and should have a better idea if it’s helping in another week or two.

The new formula is having side effects on Mason’s poop, good and bad.  He’s not constipated (yay!).  He isn’t having to drink juice or use suppositories to poop.  The down side being his bottom is almost constantly exposed to poop (he can laugh, sneeze, or even just try really hard to roll over and he poops a bit).  That means we’re back to fending off skin breakdown with Ilex paste and vaseline, which also puts us out of cloth diapers and back into disposables.  Who knew so many little things could be affected by one change or another?

All in all Mason is a happy, delightful boy.  He keeps us smiling and finds joy in life.  He is healing really well from his shunt revision as well.