shazza hope you enjoyed your meal out. It's hugely frustrating knowing you want to move and seeing perfect house be snapped up because you're not ready to buy. We were horrendously lucky in that we viewed this house before ours had even been offered on and fell in love with it. We kept telling ourselves it would be long gone by the time we were ready to offer but it was still here. Trouble is there's far fewer people up here than down south so stuff stays on the market for ages. You will find something great though, it very useful to observe the market for a while first anyway.
keep, skin care is my favourite subject! We suffer from dry skin, eczema and cradle cap in this household and these are my cures. I try to avoid parabans etc but sometimes it's unavoidable. Aveeno isn't as pure as I'd like but it's marvellous stuff.
Eczema and general dry skin is kept at bay on me and both girls by using Aveeno oatmeal cream, daily for Ringlet, weekly for DD1. I occasionally give them oat meal baths by putting a handful of porridge oats in an old sock (use an elastic band to seal it!) and putting it in the bath water. To wash them I use Weleda baby wash which is very mild and has no nasty ingredients.
I don't know about baby acne, it's hormonal isn't it?
Sore creases need washing with plain water twice a day, drying thoroughly and then applying a thin layer of sudocreme usually sorts them out. (When the baby is more mobile they are less chubby and this problem stops.)
For more stubborn dry skin I use Waitrose Baby Bottom Butter. This is about £3 a tub and is a gorgeous thick olive oil cream. We have about three tubs on the go at any one time. I use it on Ringlets bum as a barrier cream at night, I use it on her face at night too especially if she is chapped from dribbling. It's like Vaseline but absolutely no nasties and smells lovely. It would be my Desert Island Discs luxury.
To remove cradle cap get Bottom Butter cream and rub it into the scalp in a thick layer. Leave it for half an hour and then you can easily scrape the cradle cap off with your nail. Very satisfying! I did this with both of mine just the once and it never came back. They will lose a bit of hair through this process but it's worth it for a clear scalp. Also mine were pretty bald at this stage anyway. You will need to use a shampoo on the hair after doing this but a tiny dot of baby shampoo will do. After you've got rid of it brush the baby's head every day, even if they're bald, as this will gently exfoliate the scalp and help stop it coming back.
I sometimes use olive oil as an all over moisturiser for them too but it's not as good as my Aveeno / Bottom Butter combo.
I don't buy specific skin care for myself anymore. I use Aveeno as a day cream and at night I use avocado or almond oil (100mls lasts me a year!) and Bottom Butter as an eye cream. My skin is no different from when I used to spend £££s on anti ageing moisturisers etc.
Hope some of this is useful!
Going to my parents today. Ringlet is not feverish but had a restless night and is very fretful and demanding but we're having a small family gathering so there'll be others there to help walk her around and I DON'T HAVE TO COOK FOR TWO DAYS!
Hope everyone else is well.