Thursday, February 15, 2007

Foiled

I decided to be brave and take Claire out in the car today as per her dad's suggestion. We were going to visit her dad for a cuppa in the afternoon and buy some supplies at the Pump Station but halfway there Claire was scratching and screaming so I pulled off the freeway, got her out of her carseat and soothed her. Next I readjusted the carseat straps and covered them and the buckle with an extra long-sleeved onesie, covered the carseat with a receiving blanket, cranked up the A/C, opened a window and drove back home. She fell asleep soon after I started up again. Whew!

We did go to the doctor yesterday for her RSV shot, and he also prescribed two things for her itchy skin: one oral and one topical which are already starting to help. But she is still itchy part of the time. A few days ago she rubbed one of her arms raw. It is starting to heal now. I just feel so bad for her. I've been wearing myself out tyring to keep her hands and head covered, her skin well-moisturized etc. I take off her mitts for playtime while I'm watching her and can distract her from scratching by handing her a toy. The Doctor said she may be allergic to something and asked if we changed laundry detergent or soap or my diet. I can't figure out what it might be.

We finally heard from Lanterman Regional Center about respite care again. Our coordinator re-refered us to an agency. (Last time the agency didn't have anyone available to work in our area and we were left out in the cold, so to speak.) It will be nice to have a few hours a week to take care of myself. I hope the scheduling will be flexible.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, help sounds like it is on the way. Great!! This should be a big help and relief. Good for you for pursing it again.

Ma Torg said...

Hi Jen,
we've made real progress with Lucy's excema in the last few days. I didn't want to continue using the steroid creams and I talked with my doctor (and consulted Dr Sear's baby book). We started experimenting and have had really good luck.
1) we started using Dove's hypoallergenic, unscented moisturizing bar on her skin to clean it instead of other baby products. We even use it to shampoo her hair now. We're just real careful to keep it out of her eyes.
2) we are trying different lotions. Although Eucerin (what we were using) was one of the creams highly recommneded for Lucy, it didn't seem to help much. So, we've tried a couple others out that are working better (Aveeno's excema one and a Johnson & Johnson one)
3) We use Aveeno's hydrocortisone cream on the trouble spots as soon as they start forming)
4) We haven't needed to do this one yet, but Dr. SEars suggested running humidifiers if the above didn't work. He said just making sure to have enough moisture in the air can help excema problems.

Good luck! It is such a pain and so sad to see their poor skin in such irritation.