AUGUST 2022 (Thread 5)

[Beth262]

New thread

Lovely to read all your updates 🥰
we’ve just recently finally managed to establish a bedtime routine (bit late to the party with that but it’s been a game changer) and now sitting in the nursery with a freshly washed, fed, sleeping baby smelling divine on my chest. I know you’re supposed to put them down ‘drowsy but awake’ but I love the sleepy snuggles too much so.. nahh 😂

With weaning, anyone else have days where they just refuse everything? He’s not super interested in food anyway yet but sometimes he will still have nothing but milk! Finding it hard to get him motivated to eat/try foods x

My best tactic is eating some of it myself. Suddenly it goes from 'no thanks' to 'ahhh why are you eating and I'm not! Gimmee!'

@ToCaden yeah I do this plus added over-enthusiastic ‘mmmmm YUMMY’ noises but he just looks at me like I’ve gone mad 😂 oh well I’m sure he will get the hang of it one day x

Lovely to hear everyone is doing so well! We had a first tooth this week which was exciting and terrifying, baby is chowing down on the food now but I know it's only a matter of time until I get a nipple nip 🫣

When is everyone back to work? I've only got a few weeks left, no idea how I'm going to fit it in with my social life 🤣

So lovely to hear all your updates 🥰 we are 8.5 months here and still no teeth! 😂🤷🏽‍♀️ very close to crawling, we’ve been stuck at the rocking on all fours stage for 2 weeks now. Weaning is very time consuming and I struggle for inspiration of what to give him, but he loves food thankfully! Unfortunately we’re also struggling with a bad case of eczema now too, and I’m desperately trying to find what’s triggering it but no luck yet. I feel so sorry for him as it’s all over! 😔

@Isonthecase several nipple nips in here (and they bloody hurt!) and even though there is barely any milk now I still don't want to give it up just yet - though this may change once the top teeth are through too and it hurts twice as much! I just love the closeness 🥰 Til the little sod bites anyway!

@SantiagoSister sorry to hear about the eczema. I was directed to the following link for DS1. https://www.scratchsleeves.co.uk/medical/top-tips-eczema-parents/natural-remedies-for-baby-eczema/
It may help or you may have already seen and dismissed. Baby eczema is awful.
With weaning inspiration DS2 generally has what we have (I can't be thinking about separate meals! 🤣) Jacket potato and cheese for lunch? Pop some in the blender. Chicken enchiladas for dinner? Yep, throw part of one of them in the blender too!

@SantiagoSister if you have tik tok look up blw there is loads of ideas on there

We have eczema here too @SantiagoSister - tried pretty much every cream out there and the best ones for us are Zeroveen emollient (like Aveeno, but cheaper, and in my opinion more effective), and Aquaphor soothing skin balm. The zeroveen we use head to toe, liberally, like it’s going out of fashion and it keeps things under control - mostly. His face is more tricky, having to use steroid cream a bit there which I don’t really like to do but he gets so itchy and sore when it’s red and inflamed that we have to really. x

Thank you @Beth262, I’ll have a read of that link now, I haven’t come across it before. What did you find helped your DS1?

Thanks @Delight12, I’m not on TikTok but I’ll have a google!

@squatternutbosh12 sorry to hear you’re going through the eczema battle too, it’s so hard isn’t it? I feel so upset that I can’t seem to find anything that helps him for very long. I’ve not heard of Zeroveen, I’ll order some to try, thank you. I’ve tried so many different emollients now and they don’t seem to do anything. I really hate using the steroids too, I’m so worried about the side effects. We had to use the quite strong steroid Eumovate to actually clear his eczema, it worked wonders in a week. I ran out and asked the GP for another tube, and she said there’s a national shortage and there isn’t any available! So within a week his eczema is back and looking awful. It covers easily 75% of his body the poor little sod. I’m considering maybe going private and having some allergy testing done, but I’m worried about spending lots of money and not actually getting anywhere with it.

@SantiagoSister gosh that sounds terrible, poor little thing. You can actually buy eumovate in small tubes over the counter, I don’t know if a pharmacy would sell it to you for use on a baby under normal circumstances, but if you show them your prescription and explain you’ll use it in the manner prescribed then maybe it would be ok? Obv the shortage could affect those too but just checked on boots website and seems to be in stock pretty much everywhere c

@squatternutbosh12 thanks so much for the idea! I think it’s worth a go trying to see if maybe the chemists will allow me to buy it over the counter. As you say, hopefully if I explain the situation they might be more accommodating 🤞🏼 I’ve ordered some zeroveen to try too! Thanks for your help 😊

@SantiagoSister no worries, really hope he can get some relief soon! X

For those with eczema, have you tried reducing dairy and/or gluten? I've heard it recommended by a few friends who have eczema or asthma as a way of improving things, apparently they can be quite similar to treat.

@Isonthecase yep, in fact he is on the prescription milk for cows milk allergy. His skin actually hasn’t improved much since starting the milk but he has stopped dropping weight centiles and his nappies are much more normal (he had really watery poo until we cut out dairy). I suppose I don’t know how bad his skin would have got if we carried on with dairy so it may have helped some after all!

Just popped into my head actually one of my favourite dry skin products- the scalp oil from Itchy Baby company. It is a bit pricey but it has done absolute wonders for my boys scalp which was so sore and red and inflamed before it would drive him totally bats.

@SantiagoSister sorry for the late reply! I was going to say cutting down dairy but isonthecase beat me to it! I definitely find his is worse when he's eaten more cheese/yoghurt than usual (milk volumes doesn't seem to affect it strangely). The one thing I found worked for him - after trying loads of creams - was baby aveeno. But then they changed the packaging - and seemingly the recipe too. There were 100s of comments on line at the time (around 12 months ago) from other users saying the same thing. He's had steroid cream prescribed on more than one occasion and whilst it brings it under control within a few days, maintenance with a daily moisturiser can be hit and miss. Most recently he's been prescribed aproderm but screamed when I put it on him and he told me it was burning. So stopped that one sharpish! My BIL suffers with bad eczema and said quite a few creams actually sting/burn slightly when applying. Not helpful for a baby who can't tell you. Just keep it in mind if baby cries as your applying any. I saw a new (to me) baby aveeno today so picked up to try. There were no tears tonight with it at least but I'll see if it works over the next few days. Also, picked up oat bath soaks to try. Pictures below if you want to check them out xx

Thanks for the advice regarding dairy @Isonthecase and @Beth262. We have both been dairy free for about 3 weeks now and his skin does seem to have improved. I also cut out strawberries which I read could be a contributor, as he was having them nearly every day in pancakes etc. The trouble is I cut out dairy for a week, then also cut out strawberries, and I changed his emollients all at the same time so I can’t be definitely sure which is was that helped 🤦🏽‍♀️ but I’m just glad it seems to be getting better. I’m putting 1% hydrocortisone on his worse bits and it seems to be calming them down well, there’s still some pink/red but it’s not angry and scaly like it was before. Thanks for the heads up on Aproderm, that is funnily enough the one we’ve been using for the last couple of weeks and I think it’s helping. He stays moisturised longer with this one over any others I’ve used so far! No crying when applying thankfully, but that may be because his skin isn’t broken, just a bit patchy and dry now. I will definitely bear that in mind though, thank you, how awful when baby can’t tell you it’s burning 😢

@Beth262 how are you finding the Aveeno? I haven’t tried the oat soak, that sounds really good. We’ve been using oilatum in the bath but I like the idea of the oats to try.

I was also going to ask, are any of the babies going through the 8m sleep regression currently? We are and it’s been hell 😩

@SantiagoSister hang in there it doesn't last long I promise. It's really hard to believe my girl is 1 in 15 days. How's everyones blw going?

There's an 8 month regression?! Thought he just had a cold 😅

We are loving the weaning, seems to prefer puree though. Eggs are a particular favourite.

That's exciting, much planned for the first birthday?

@Isonthecase eggs and strawberries are her faves, we are having a little tea party and a trip back to the hospital she was born in to say hello. It's 5 hours away from where we live so will make a day of it

My little diva boy likes to be hand-fed raspberries. He can do it himself, he just prefers mummy doing it. 🙄🤣

@squatternutbosh12 sounds like he has you wrapped round his pudgy little finger 🥰

@Delight12 what a lovely idea! I know someone that visits the hospital his premature baby was in every year to volunteer, he said it helps with the feelings to put something positive over them

@Delight12 aww that is a lovely plan 🥰

@Isonthecase 😂 you are absolutely right

Typed out a whole message and then lost it 🤦‍♀️

@SantiagoSister Different people react to different creams but I'm glad to hear the aproderm is working for you 😊 Did you have it on prescription? I have a big pump bottle here and 3 smaller tubes all unopened. Let me know if you want me to send them on. They're no use to me and it seems such a waste otherwise.

The Aveeno seems to be working OK at the moment but he's in a mild lull so won't rave about it just yet. Tried the oat bath this week and it seemed to make his skin very soft. Looked like powdered cement as I was pouring it in though. I did do a double take 🤣 I've used oilatum in the past. Only downside is it makes them like slippery eels to catch!!

No sleep regression here... but that's probably because he hasn't mastered sleeping in the first place 😭 was 9 months on Saturday and he's still not gone longer than a 3 hour stint. It's usually every 2 hours. I'll be honest, I am broken! DS1 has only recently started sleeping through at 3 years old so I only have another 2 and a bit years to go. Pray for me 😆

@Delight12 That's lovely going back to see them. I'm sure the staff will get as much out of it as you guys.

@Isonthecase a puree fan here too over blw. Unless it's wotsits. He'll happily feed himself a few of those!

Hope you've all had a lovely Bank Holiday weekend x

So lovely to read all the updates. It's amazing how they suddenly become their own little people, so quickly.

Sorry to hear about the little ones suffering with excema. We have a (luckily) very mild case here, but the baby Aveeno seems to have cleared it right up.

I went back to work 2 weeks ago, so she's in nursery 3 days a week, which she is absolutely loving. So sociable and loves watching the other children. No crawling yet, but in the 2 weeks she's been going, I'm definitely seeing advancements in that area!!

Only issue we're having is, being a solo parent in the week (DP works away Mon-Fri), I've managed to create a sleep monster who will only breastfeed to sleep, and will only settle for me... We're on to night 8 of falling asleep, only to wake 20 minutes later, screaming, and refusing to go back to sleep for about an hour... It's draining. My poor eldest is starting to feel very neglected. I know this time is short, but having just gone back to work, I need my evenings to get things sorted. On top of the fact she also doesn't go more than 2/3 hours overnight, I'm shattered.. But I know this too shall pass. Maybe its the 8 month sleep regression - that would give me some hope that there's an end in sight

Hope everyone had a lovely bank holiday weekend!