A few updates are in order:
Mason went back to the orthotist for an adjustment on his foot brace and bar Wednesday and it seems to be working a bit better. His heel had been slipping up off the sole of each shoe a lot. I’m not sure we’re completely adjusted, but it’s much better. You can read more about that appointment on my homeschool blog here because it ended up being a field trip with all 7 of my children!
Mason’s bottom is beginning to heal.
It is really frustrating because it gets so bad (bleeding as the cells try to regrow and you wipe and break them trying to get the poop off him bum) and then it begins to clear up for no apparent reason. We tried Desitin and it did NOT help, so we switched back to Cavilon No-Sting and Proshield. I spoke to the Wound Care Specialist at Children’s hospital and we’ve got Ilex paste coming in the mail to try. Of course it has yet to arrive and his bottom is healing. Still, we’ll try the Ilex in the hopes that we can avoid such a bad skin breakdown next time.
The Ilex paste is a thick barrier that adheres to the broken and healing skin. We are supposed to apply that and cover it with a thick layer of petroleum jelly. At diaper changes we are to wipe off the poop and only what petroleum jelly needs to come off. The goal is to not disturb the Ilex paste which is protecting those healing cells. Then we apply more petroleum jelly. Once a day we are to soak Mason’s bum in water and clean off all the Ilex, air dry his bum, and reapply a new layer of Ilex paste and petroleum jelly.
When we are in this process Mason cannot wear cloth diapers (the Ilex and petroleum jelly will ruin the diapers’ ability to absorb pee), so we’ll have to have disposables on hand a lot. I’m open to suggestions for inexpensive places to buy diapers (and what brands are cheapest). So far we’ve used both Parent’s Choice (the WalMart brand diaper) and Luvs and Mason seems to do fine with either. I’ve heard that Huggies has a line of fragrance free/natural disposables. That might be worth paying for to avoid a lot of chemicals and things that will aggravate the open sores/healing skin. I just don’t know yet…
Poor little guy :(
ReplyDeleteI always use the Kroger brand and have never had a problem with them. The newborn sized ones run between $6-8 a pack.
I sure hope his poor little bum heals. As for diapers, I found joining amazon moms club and then doing a subscribe and save order of diapers to be cost effective. It was a much better deal last year, but I guess amazon caught on that it was too good of a deal, but maybe you still can get a better deal than the stores plus they deliver to your door, so much easier.
ReplyDeleteyou may also want to look at diapers.com
ReplyDeleteThey have free shipping on orders over $49 and right now they have $15 off your first order when you order a case of diapers. The code is on their home page.
I just started reading your bog. I am an LDS Mom of soon to be 7. My oldest son has really bad skin and had terrible rashes, sores, bleeding on his bottom as a babe. Our ped recommended CALMOSEPTINE. It is wonderful. Over the counter, ask your pharmicist. Thick barrier to put on between each diaper. And told us to only wipe poo away with a very soft cloth. (like your old cut up garments....) I hope his little bum gets better soon. I know once we did this, Tristan's was way better.
ReplyDeleteMy friend gets hers from Amazon. There's some sort of schedule set up and they just arrive at her door.
ReplyDeleteI get my Pampers from Amazon subscribe and save. It costs $37 for 192 size 4 diapers (I'm not sure how many come in the smaller sizes). I have to get Pampers because Huggies don't fit well on my children, they seem to work better for narrow builds.
ReplyDeleteWe use amazon mom subscribe and save for diapers, but I understand from other moms that have tried to sign up recently that the deal is not so good anymore. I've found that the walmart brand does not keep pee off the skin very well. If you have a Sam's club membership you can get a deal like Amazon mom where it is between 13 and 15 cents a diaper for LUVS and just comes automatically every month in the mail. I love not having to go to the store to get diapers. Target brand diapers work fairly well and are pretty cheap, but tend to leak more than the name brands. Of course, if you are changing Mason's diaper a lot that shouldn't matter at all. (But if you always go to walmart and never to target, I wouldn't start going just for diapers)
ReplyDeleteFor diaper rash, I tend to wash the babies bottom with warm soap and water at every diaper change. Often I will soak their bum in the sink for like 10 minutes. It has worked better than anything else I have ever tried. But it is a whole lot of work. It also sounds like you are doing that by using soap and water instead of wet wipes. Some years ago, I made a bunch of soft flannel wipes and those were a lot softer and nicer than face clothes.