Diaper Rash

The girls weren't due for another pediatric appointment till sometime in July, but they both came down with a bad diaper rash that Desitin wouldn't fix shortly after I started breastfeeding them more. Poor Lily even cried her first real tears during a diaper change about it. We called the pediatrician (of course it was a Friday) and although they gave us ideas I really wanted them seen. I was worried about it being a yeast infection and not typical diaper rash. Or maybe an allergy to the new formula we'd just started the week before. Or maybe something in my breast-milk that they were allergic too... (cue spiral into Bad-Parenting Guilt Vortex of Doom)

So we took them in, after giving them an oatmeal bath:


and letting them have some naked time on towels:


They enjoyed that. We all enjoyed that. Well, except for the poop in the tub (courtesy of Gabi) and the poop on the towels... and the pee on the towels. Seriously we went through something like 12 towels for this bath!

The pediatrician said it wasn't yeast yet, but gave us some other stuff to use. She said it wasn't anything we did or did not do, and put my mind at ease because I was afraid it was from the breastfeeding that we were doing. She said they're just having more frequent poops because of the breastfeeding, and they are acidic and burn the skin. But that they didn't look at all like a food allergy to the breast-milk or the formula.

She said when diaper rash is this bad then the wipes hurt (because they have soap and alcohol in them, even the sensitive ones we use) and Desitin hurts too. So we started wiping them with soft cloths and water (like we did in the NICU) and using Maalox on their bottoms to neutralize the acid in their poops. We just patted it on with a cloth. (Bonus- it was mint flavored Maalox, so they had minty smelling bottoms for a while.) Then we just put on some Aquaphor . She showed us how to just squirt it on and said not to worry about spreading it around. The diaper and body heat would do it for us. That was good to hear, because that stuff is greasy! She gave us some Aquaphor samples to last us a few changes till Tom could go get some.

And you know what? That diaper rash that we had been fighting for two days started improving within hours. I'd say within 24 hours it was so much better, and within 48 it was totally gone. I still am Maalox-ing and Aquaphor-ing them after poops or if there's any hint of redness, but they're much happier babies. Oh, and I got a great idea from another mom on facebook to use the regular sensitive wipes we have, but to rinse them. This worked great since we were running out of those cloth wipes from the NICU pretty fast.

So diaper rash was conquered, breastfeeding is underway, oh, and my Dad suggested using those chucks pads on top of a towel while giving them naked time. Great idea! And we even have a whole bag of these things from when we were potty training Nicky.

Oh, and one more thing. So this was Friday, June 18th. The girls came home on June 1st. We went ahead while at the pediatrician and weighed the girls. They were in diapers and a little dress, so it's a rough weight, but still their clothes weren't that heavy.

Gabi weighed exactly 8lbs. Lily weighed only 2 ounces less. Awesome!

Happy Bottoms = Happy Babies