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| Benjamin during one of his poutful moments. See how heartbreaking it is? |
Since he was about 1 week old (he's now 10 weeks), poor little Benjamin has been battling diaper rash. If you're unlucky enough to deal with this problem with your newborn, be ready for a wide variety of medical opinions, internet search results, prescriptions, and over-the-counter-treatments. It can be a true roller coaster ride of frustration.
Every case is a little different, but ours certainly hasn't been fun, especially for our baby. For the first few weeks, especially, he was noticeably uncomfortable. The last thing a parent wants to see is a baby in pain. And it was obvious that the rash was the cause, because we've always made sure to meet his other needs. For quite a while, he would scream when wiped and whine much of the day, even while resting. This improved (once we reached step 9 below), but he still isn't 100%.
Since the redness and swelling first appeared, this is a rundown of our attempts to clear his little butt of its plague:
1) Desitin, because we and the doctors and thought it was a standard yeast issue. This had little effect.
2) We moved up to maximum strength Desitin (40% zinc oxide). Unfortunately, this didn't help either.
https://www.amazon.com/Desitin-Diaper-Maximum-Strength-Original/dp/B000056JBU
3) Next on the list was the renowned Triple Paste (12.8% zinc oxide). We often used Vaseline as well. For a while, we believed this was working. Some of the redness seemed to subside. Sadly, this wasn't the cure, either.
https://www.amazon.com/Triple-Paste-Medicated-Ointment-16-Ounce/dp/B000GCL2B8/
4) After a while, we gave up on these creams. Our little one had been through so much pain, for about a month at this point, and we figured it must be something other than yeast. So we visited a clinic and specifically said, from the outset (often a key tactic if you want to get your opinion considered by the physician), that we thought it might be bacterial. Both the resident and attending took a look and agreed that it might be perianal strep. The prescription? Mupirocin. We left the office thinking we FINALLY had the solution. Nope. Within a couple weeks, it was clear that this also wasn't our cure.
5) In the meantime, we tried a couple other over-the-counter remedies...
A&D Ointment: https://www.amazon.com/A-D-Ointment-16-Ounce/dp/B00BH0PP5W/
and
Weleda Calendula cream: https://www.amazon.com/Weleda-Calendula-Diaper-Cream-2-8-Ounce/dp/B000V3MFUY/
It's important to note that I am in NO way knocking the efficacy of these medications or creams...it was just that we needed something to cut to the core of our problem.
6) During this time, we also shifted from newborn Pampers diapers (what he used in the hospital) to softer, less irritating, newborn-sized Huggies. This had somewhat of a positive effect on his comfort level, by reducing a bit of the inflammation, but it obviously didn't fix everything.
https://www.amazon.com/Huggies-Snugglers-Diapers-Newborn-Packaging/dp/B00HJKP6PI/
7) One additional change we made was to use gauze rather than wipes. Even in "sensitive" wipes, there are chemicals that can irritate an already-damaged butt. So we've been ordering stacks of gauze from Amazon, and using 3-4 moistened pieces to wipe him gently during each diaper change. In our experience, it seems to help quite a bit. But again, he wasn't absolutely cured.
8) Around the beginning of July (about 5-6 weeks into the fight), we called in to Benjamin's primary care physician and she wrote a script for Nystatin. So we were back to fighting fungal demons, real or imagined. Did this finally slay our diaper dragon? Nope.
9) On our 2-month visit to his doctor's office (7-8 weeks into the fight), we saw a nurse practitioner and got his vaccinations. She also prescribed some new treatments:
Triamcinolone, a topical steroid for the inflammation.
"Silvadene" (silver sulfadiazine), a topical antibiotic cream.
So far, about ten days since we began this regimen, it seems to have been the most effective. But that's largely because the steroid reduces the redness. And if he goes more than 12 hours without some kind of cream, or light application of steroids (which aren't supposed to be used regularly after the first couple days), some redness returns. He also has some peeling/maceration going on in the most severely affected areas.
TO RECAP....
That's 4 prescriptions, 6 OTC treatments, one diaper change and one wipe change.
Will we EVER fully eradicate his problems? We pray every day for him. While we're lucky to have this as the only chronic issue so far for a preemie baby, it's still been devastating and perplexing.
To be continued...
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