One Thing After Another

My poor baby girl just can't catch a break lately. First she had the UTI, then she got the stomach bug, and now it appears she's got vaginitis (AGAIN - I hate antibiotics for that reason!!) and some sort of really strange rash. :( She's a tough cookie, though - none of this is slowin her down much!

The stomach bug lasted almost a week. It didn't stop all at once, it was very gradual. And thankfully no one else got it from her, which makes me think maybe it was, in fact, related to the antibiotics and not actually a virus (though she did have a fever for a few days, so who knows). At any rate, I'm super glad that its over. There is nothin worse than seeing your child in pain and not being able to help. And her little tummy was causing her a lot of pain!!

Every time C is on antibiotics, she develops vaginitis (basically, a yeast infection; not sure why her dr calls it something different). I mean every. Time. Its so frustrating. I know we can try to prevent it by getting her to take probiotics and eat yogurt. But, seriously, have you ever tried to get a toddler to consume something she didn't want?! Its near bout impossible. This time, I bought gummy bear probiotics, and I just knew she'd love them cause they're basically candy. Nope. She wouldn't touch them for days. Until we saw a commercial on TV and the littler girl ate some. Even after that I've managed to get C to eat maybe 2 of them. They taste pretty good to me, so I assume she just doesn't like the gummy texture. *sigh*

As for yogurt...she used to love the stuff. She'd ask for it. But maybe she ate too much of it and got sick of it, cause now she rarely will eat it. My MIL can't get her to eat it at all anymore, and I can only occasionally. I got her to eat one container of yogurt when she was on antibiotics this last time. After that she wouldn't touch it. So I pretty much resigned myself to the fact that she'd get a yeast infection at some point, and I've been watching for it.

Its probably been building up for the past several days, and we just weren't able to see any outward signs (i.e, redness) yet. Well, I saw the tell-tale redness last night. Thankfully, the last time we dealt with this the dr provided us with a ton of Nystatin cream, so I won't have to take her back to get a new prescription. She's already had 2 doses of the stuff, so she should be improving pretty quickly. But the stupid yeast infection makes her have accidents, just like with a UTI. Its so frustrating. I think its because the infection makes it burn when she pees, so she holds it until she just can't hold it anymore, then has an accident. Cause she's not just been having small accidents (like she did with the UTI - that was a tiny amount of urine every 20 minutes or so) - this is like a lake every few hours! Big mess to clean up. My MIL told me last week that C was still wetting her pants quite a bit, and I told her she's probably messed up from bein sick, just to give her time. But now I'm thinkin its the vaginitis that was brewing. *sigh*

The good news is that the Nystatin usually works really fast, and then she'll stop having accidents. I know the pattern. Luckily, she doesn't have to be on antibiotics very often since she's a pretty healthy child (other than recurrent UITs, and we are seeing a specialist next month about that). She's had 2 ear infections that we treated with antibiotics. The only other thing she's taken them for was UTIs. I think that's pretty good for 2.5 years. Anyway, the faster she gets, the better cause we're all sick of dealing with accidents! Yesterday she peed on my bed and my couch. And I don't mean a little bit. It looked like someone had spilled a gallon of liquid both times. Oh, and she did the same thing in the carseat over the weekend. *sigh!* You can't get mad at her though; she can't help it. We're just workin through this until she gets back to normal.

Now for her rash...this one has us all completely stumped. I noticed it Friday night. She was super ill Friday evening (that means she was in a bad mood, for all you non-Southern folks!) and we couldn't figure out why. She ate a lot at supper - I had cooked fried pork chops, fresh green beans, and fresh potatoes, and she ate everything, which surprised us. After supper, the 3 of us went outside to feed the animals. When we got back in, I noticed what looked like a bug bite on her shoulder. I had forgotten to put bug spray on her and it was at the edge of dark, so I assumed it was a mosquito. Well, in the bath tub later, I could see the spot better and it didn't look like a mosquito bite. It almost looked like fire ants had got on her. She had 6-8 little whelps and the whole area was very red. Wasn't bothering her though.

Then I noticed she had another really red area on the back of her neck. By the time we got out of the tub, I was noticing red places (and some with whelps) on several different areas on her body. None of the areas were bothering her, so I wasn't too worried. Until I was literally watching them pop up! It was crazy. When they got on her face (around her eye), I got concerned. So I gave her Benadryl. She hadn't had anything to eat that was new to her, and hadn't been exposed to anything new at all recently.

Saturday morning, she looked better, but as the morning wore on, I was seeing more red places pop up. And then it got really weird. She'd get a red area and a whelp that looked like a bug bite, and 30 minutes later it was gone. You could literally watch it pop up then disappear. Crazy. It still wasn't bothering her, so I just let her go about her day as usual. The 2 of us went to my MIL's pool that afternoon, and I'm sure the chlorine didn't help her at all. When we got back home, it looked like she had eczema on her thighs and butt. I rubbed her down with lotion and got her to sleep, but she slept fitfully. That night I gave her more Benadryl. DH kept saying take her to the dr, but I knew they'd tell me to do what I was since it wasn't bothering her at all.

Yesterday the places were a little itchy to her, but not enough that it interfered with her day or anything. For church I put her in a super soft dress with no inside seams, and during church we were watching her get redder and redder, and little whelps popping up everywhere. And then disappearing. After church I let her be naked at home, because it did seem that any type of fabric was irritating her skin. That did help some, but she was still getting red places.

I gave her more Benadryl last night and this morning at first she looked much better. By the time I dropped her off at my MIL's, though, I saw several red places - on her feet and around her right eye. :( I've looked online and all I can find is reactions to changes in diet or things like fabric softener. Well, I've been using All Free & Clear for years now, and I don't use fabric softener cause I'm allergic to it (and it ruins cloth diapers). Absolutely nothing has changed lately. The only thing I can think of is maybe she's developed a sudden food allergy. But to what?? Over the weekend she ate a ton of bread and crackers, but that's normal for her. My girl loves her carbs, haha. I don't even want to call the pediatrician because they're gonna want to see her, and we are NOT doing that again right now. I hate exposing her to all those germs in that place, and I know her immune system is weak right now, since she's been dealing with so much. No, thank you. So I'm not sure what to do. I'm gonna keep researching and keep praying that it doesn't get worse. Maybe its a delayed reaction to the antibiotic she was on? Her last dose was Friday night. But she's had that drug before, several times. I'm at a loss!!

Sorry, I know this post was terribly boring for people other than myself. But I wanted to document it for later. I really hope I haven't passed on my freak gene to my daughter. We all know that Nikki has unexplained health issues that come and go. :(

I Was Wrong

Well, C had her 2 year check up appointment yesterday. She's growing right on track and the doctor was very impressed with her skills. And when I told him she's still breastfeeding he said "well, all I can say to that is AMEN!" I love that man. It sure is nice to hear such encouraging words regarding breastfeeding at this age. Most people are shocked that we're still doing it, and not shocked in a good way. Oh well.


He did recommend that we do a repeat renal ultrasound. When she was 10 months she got a nasty UTI, and an ultrasound showed some swelling around her right kidney. We thought it was due to the infection, but the doctor ordered a repeat ultrasound 6 months later. That one showed the swelling was still there. No worse, but no better either, which was puzzling. She did have one more UTI during that time period, though. Knock on wood, she hasn't had one since then. But the doctor wants to do another ultrasound just to check on the kidney. I think he just wants to keep an eye on it, make sure it doens't get worse. I feel like its fine, though.


When I showed him the rash on her bottom, he asked what I was treating it with. I told him everything I've tried. He said "well, that's all good and right for yeast. But this is not yeast. Its eczema." Eczema!! When the rash first popped up, I looked up eczema because it looked like that to me. BUT every website I read said eczema almost always spares the diaper area. So I dismissed that idea. Should have gone with my initial thought!


We've been treating her for yeast for 2 weeks now, trying to DRY it out. Turns out that is the WORST thing to do for eczema. This stuff needs LOTS of moisturization. Its essentially super dry skin that's irritated. I feel so bad that we've treated this all wrong. But the doctor assured me that I had done the right thing and she will be fine. He prescribed a strong hydrocortizone cream. I put it on her twice yesterday and it did start to look a little better. I started slathering her with lotion, too.


Last night she was really itchy, so I gave her children's Benadryl before bed. Thankfully, she slept all night, though she was itchy again when she woke up this morning. I slathered on the prescription cream and some Eucerin lotion and that seemed to help. But my mother-in-law said at lunch that poor C has been itching really bad, and not just on the rash on her butt. She's itching all over. Poor baby. So today I had DH pick her up some children's Zyrtec. We'll try that and hopefully it will give her some relief without making her so sleepy.


I can relate to her itchiness. I have extremely dry skin, too, though I've never had eczema. I had bad allergies as a child (and asthma, which means C probably will too, eventually), and now I'm good except for my skin. I itch all the time. But I never get a rash, so its wierd. Today I am itching like crazy! I don't know if its the weather, or sympathy itching for C (haha - mother's intuition?), or what, but I had to take Benadryl earlier (not that its helped - ugh).


Hopefully we can get this under control and get my baby some relief. If she's not better by tomorrow I'm gonna call the doctor again and see if there's something more he can give her. I hate seeing her like this!!


I'm so bummed that we'll be dealing with this monster now. I know lots of kids outgrow eczema, but some don't. Either way, we'll have to deal with it for years. I just hope we find the right product(s) to help C. And I hope I can figure out what triggered this flare up and avoid it in the future. I'll be spending all my free time now on eczema research. Fun, fun.


On the bright side, at least now we know what we're dealing with, and we have an appropriate attach plan. And all my diapers are super squeaky clean! haha. If any yeast spores were thinking about settling in there, they have definitely been eliminated. Nothing bad could have survived that assault, haha!

Potty Training Update!

I think the last time I blogged about our adventures in potty training, C wasn't too thrilled with the idea. Last summer, she was well on her way to being potty trained - I could take her out of the house in big girl panties and she'd do really well. Then suddenly, she decided the potty was terrifying. For months she wouldn't go near it. Nothing happened to her on the potty, so I'm not sure where the fear came from, but you know how kids are, especially toddlers! Kind of like the weather in NC - if you don't like what you're getting, wait 5 minutes!! (Speaking of that, we had sleet/freezing rain/snow on Friday, today its 39 degrees, and in a few days its supposed to be in the 70s!)

Thankfully, about a month ago C decided she does, in fact, like the potty, and doing her business in it. My mother-in-law had her in big girl panties for a large portion of every day, though not all day, and she was having 2-3 accidents a day. But she was trying! At home, however, she just wasn't into the potty. I could get her to pee in the potty right before her bath, but that's about it. We kept trying, though, since she was interested during the day.

About 2 weeks ago, a rash popped up on her hiney (not in the typical diaper rash area, on her butt cheek). It looked like a bug bite, so I didn't think much of it until it started itching her a few days later. Well, the area got bigger, redder, and started to look raised up. I finally realized it was probably yeast and started treating her with Lomitrin (athlete's foot/fungal cream). She had a rash similar to this when she was younger and the Lomitrin cleared it right up. Unfortunately, that didn't happen this time. I've had my mother-in-law keep C out of diapers as much as possible since letting the rash get air seems to really help more than anything.

Thankfully, C has really taken to potty training now. Some days she doesn't have any accidents! She only had 2 all weekend with me, and one was completely my fault (she told me she had to pee, but I thought I could wash her hands first - we were eating lunch. She tried to hold it but couldn't!). I even took her to church in panties yesterday! We were there 2 hours and used the potty 3 times, but that's okay. Her bladder is small. ( : At a wedding shower yesterday, she used the potty I think 4 times in 2 hours. Whatever it takes!

I think she's a ways from being able to go without a diaper at naptime and definitely overnight, but this is a really good start! Yesterday she was even telling me when she had to go potty, as opposed to me having to ask her every 10 minutes. Progress!!

As for her rash....we're going to the doctor tomorrow for her 2 year checkup, so I'll definitely have him look at it. Yesterday I bought some Monistat and started putting that on it. I also started her on probiotics. 2 hours after using Monistat on the rash, it looked a LOT better and wasn't itching her anymore. Last night, though, she obviously slept in a diaper, and this morning it looked terrible again. :( Tonight this mama might just have to be brave and let that baby sleep in panties! I'm sure if its not better by tomorrow the doctor will give her a prescription.

I did try home remedies, too, in case anyone is interested. Apple cider vinegar seemed to irritate the rash more (which is odd because everything I read said ACV was very soothing to a yeast rash). Soaking her in baking soda didn't do a thing except relieve the itching while she was in the bath. I've cut out her bubble bath, and only use soap on her when its absolutely necessary (its winter, she's not gettin that dirty every day), and have stopped washing her hair every day (so she's not always getting shampoo on her skin). I don't know how long probiotics take to work on yeast, but we just started those yesterday and I didn't expect an improvement overnight.

The diapers will have to be treated for yeast, too, or it will keep coming back. *sigh* Friday I got some soap nuts and washed the diapers in that on Saturday, but they need more than that. The health store in town was out of grape seed extract, which is what is supposed to help kill yeast in diapers. I found out this weekend, though, that tea tree oil does the same thing. And I found out today that Walgreen's carries TTO (its in the ethnic hair section for some reason), so I'm heading over there this afternoon. TTO + Oxiclean + soap nuts = hopefully bye-bye yeasties! Let us pray.

I hate that my baby has had to suffer through this terrible rash, but at the same time I'm tickled that she's really potty training!! :D