Another two silly questions.

[etoilech]

First one is about the head and the effect of molding. Now, I know everyone is saying it'll correct itself, but Estella's head is still pretty wonky looking from her being stuck in my pelvis so low, for so long. Did anyone else have a baby with a really wonky head that eventually corrected itself?

Second, her skin. She's got little pimples everywhere and her skin is still peeling. She also has little abrasions in her folds around the tops of her legs and inthe folds of her neck where the air doesn't get at the skin. We've been doing naked time and only using gentle product sparingly. Any help?

Thanks, I feel like a rookie mama, since my son was in the NICU for 3 months and didn't seem to have any of these problems...

[CarolynnMarilynn]

May I answer? I don't know how old your baby is, but I am guessing a week to 3 weeks old?

Re: the head moulding: when birth related it generally resolves within a few days, tops. If her head shape is really strange, you may want a ped to look at it, but in no huge rush if everything else is normal. Craniosynostosis is when there is an early fusion of some of the bones in the head and can lead to odd head shapes and often requires intervention. Plagiocephaly is essentially flat head, and can be caused by sleeping on the back, or sleeping in the same position all the time. Just varying what positions your baby lays in, and giving tummy time when age-appropriate will help.

As for the cracks in the skin, use a fresh bottle of olive oil and grease her up. It's food grade, not likely to cause allergies, and does a great job of moisturizing the skin.

The peeling is totally normal: that skin was water-logged in the womb and will come off no matter what. Use olive oil to make sure the next layer underneath stays supple.

The pimples are likely totally normal. Called 'erythema toxicum' or 'pustular melanosis' or 'non-pustular melanosis' they are just little pimples that are not harmful. As long as your baby is well (no fever, feeding well, not super fussy), there is no concern. They are most common on the face and chest, but you may see the odd one on the trunk or legs. They typically look like a whitehead surrounded by a reddish ring, and are small. They usually just last a few days, heal up, and crop up somewhere else. We called in "the non-photogenic phase" (but of course it didn't stop the dozens of rolls of film)!

Do you have a care provider you can ask questions of?

Best wishes!

[etoilech]

I do have a midwife and a doula. I was just wanting to get some perpective from here. My midwife has looked at Estella and said that her head will round out and her skin will eventually clear up. I was a bit embarassed to ask her "Are you sure this is okay?" again.

Estella is two weeks old today.

[misseks]

I agree that it doesn't sound serious.

Baby pimples are usually gone by six weeks, I think.

K

PS, it's not silly to ask questions!

[Tine]

DS had a horrifying case of baby pimples and peely skin around 1 month. It did clear up on its own, but I (like you) was a little freaked out about it. He looked weird!

DD has the same issues in the fold of her skin. We find that keeping a barrier cream (we use Un-Petroleum Jelly) helps prevent that from happening. If she does start to get a little rashy, we found with both DS and DD that Burt's Bees diaper creme clears it up really fast (and smells wonderful, like peppermint and rosemary).

[yvonnemlv]

Yeah, our daughter is in the pimply phase too. Her swollen breast tissues are going down in size as well and she hasn't bled from the vulva since the second week of age.

Baby girls = a whole new playing field

She never peeled though.. unlike my son who peeled off in almost one big sheet of skin, lol.

[AppleCrisp]

Naked Time - little boys?

Originally Posted by etoilech

We've been doing naked time and only using gentle product sparingly. Any help?

Thanks, I feel like a rookie mama, since my son was in the NICU for 3 months and didn't seem to have any of these problems...

Well, this is kind of silly question as well, but how can you do naked time with a little boy? I'd like to, but as soon as the diaper is off, he's squirting all over the place. He can't hold his head up well enough to lay him on his tummy. And he has quite the range with that thing - got himself in the face already and he was actually wearing a diaper at the time.

[Tine]

Originally Posted by ahwuko

He can't hold his head up well enough to lay him on his tummy.

Laying him on his tummy is how he'll learn to hold his head up! He may hate it at first, because it might be frustrating for him (my DS sure hated it), but the more tummy time he gets, the more he'll build strength in his neck and torso.

[Daisie125]

Originally Posted by ahwuko

Well, this is kind of silly question as well, but how can you do naked time with a little boy? I'd like to, but as soon as the diaper is off, he's squirting all over the place. He can't hold his head up well enough to lay him on his tummy. And he has quite the range with that thing - got himself in the face already and he was actually wearing a diaper at the time.

We do chest-to-chest naked time, and I just fold up a prefold and put it over his bits. So not 100% naked time, but close enough

We don't put him on his tummy yet, he slamed his little head into the floor, and even with three blankets down it scared him and made him cry, so now he does his time on his tummy on my chest, that way he has some nice soft pillows to bounce his head off of

[Ell-Bell]

Well, Max (2 weeks, 4 days old) still has a big bump on his head from the birth. His head was trying to come out sideways. It has gone down since the birth, but it's still about the size of an egg sliced in half lengthwise. Our midwife said it could take a few weeks to go down, and I read in a book (I think Dr. Sears) that it is normal for it to take several weeks to get to normal.

All the other stuff... me too! Totally normal baby things, I think.