E's skin is so dry...patchy dry spots. wwyd?

[aisraeltax]

i just feel so badly for him. i put lotion on him every day. his cradle cap gets better, then worse. but his dry skin...g-d, i can't believe a babe has such dry skin. its really really bad...all over his stomach, back, arms and legs.
you know the soft and smooth baby skin?? he doesnt have that..it seems to get worse.
im on the probiotics and know i shoudl try to eliminate dairy but havent completely done that...but cant we find another remedy??? it doesnt seem to bother him but it makes me sad for him. but he does love it when i take his diaper off for a long time and lotion him up.
anyone else?
i dont think its exzema b/c it doesnt seem to itch him. do you think im right about that gut instinct???

[Panthira]

I gotta tell you, now that I'm actually able to eat REAL FOOD again (after a year people, a year of not eating anything but bland, boring food), I've been adding all kinds of things to my diet. The other day I ate some cheese (oh heavenly cheese!!) , and wouldn't you know it? Greyson broke out. He also got horrible gas and became kind of fussy.
So I can't have dairy it seems, and I stopped eating it again, and his skin cleared up and is prestine.
After not being able to eat almost everything for so long, it wasn't a big deal to give up dairy (again).

I took Grey to see a dermatologist a couple months back, and he told me my baby has a mild case of excema and to use Johnson's lotion on him. I won't be using that chemical filled lotion, and on researching different lotions, I read that using lotion regularly on your baby can actually cause the problem to get worse. Something about the body compensating and relying on the lotion to do what the body should naturally be doing so it throws their skin out of whack. Also, bathing your baby too often can cause dry skin.
Greyson only gets a bath once a week or his skin gets really scaly and dry.

[aisraeltax]

the thing is that i was bathing him every few days and then i stopped. he gets a bath about once a day now.
if I DONT put the lotion on him (i use burts bees), then he really does start to feel like an alligator. i will go for 3-4 days sometimes to see if it will get better and it doesnt. same with his cradle cap.
i see patches and patches of dry skin on his body..its just so sad to look at.
so, the consensus seems to be that dairy is the culprit?

[birthjunkie27]

Well, in our case..Samara does have excema...really bad. It started out as dry skin when she was about a month old and got progressively worse. She is 4 months today and we've JUST figured out what the culprit is. At least we think we figured it out. Everyone said dairy...but for her it's wheat.

Oh, and we tried a bunch of different lotions and nothing helped. We tried Aveeno Baby for dry skin, Melaleuca Renew lotion, Aquaphor (we still use this one daily)....and we tried bathing once a week....then we tried doing daily soaks for about 10 minutes..then immediately rubbing her down with the Aquaphor. That seemed to help a bit. Oh, and no soap whatsoever in the bath.

She's doing MUCH better now that I've cut wheat out. That's inclucing all bread, white and wheat, noodles, most cereals...there is so much food that has wheat hidden in it. I have to post an "after" picture in my siggy once she's all cleared up. I cut out dairy for a month, no results. I cut out eggs for 2 wks, no results. I cut out wheat...results within 3 days! I know a lot of people say it can take a REALLY long time for the offending food to clear out of your system, and then out of the baby's system...but in our case it didn't.

[DesireeH]

I would stop using the lotion and see what happens after a week. With Jevin......I used some lotion on him (and bath soap cause I hadnt researched that yet) and he had really bad cradle cap and itchy red patchy skin but when I quit, it went away. This time I have used NO soap at all on Daph and she only has a tiny tiny bit of cradle cap and it's not the thick yellowy looking kind that Jevin had. I dont use any lotion on her either. If she get a dry patch (like around her hairline and behind her ears) I rub a tiny bit of calendula oil cream on it so she isnt itchy. I know all kids are different though and it could be something else, like wheat, eggs, dairy, etc. It's hard to figure out, huh?

[allnaturalmama]

Just a stab - you could also try to increase the EFAs in your diet. Fish oil and/or flaxseed oil are good supplements for that.

[aisraeltax]

I did increase the fish oil.
interested to try nothing for a week though..i just worry he will turn into an actual alligator.

[xmasbaby7]

I second (or third) doing nothing, meaning no baths for a while. I would try to stay away from lotions and try oils instead, olive oil, Almond oil, etc. not a processed one, but sparingly.

I have given dd very few baths, every week and a half, b/c I had bad eczema as a kid and have been very nervous about drying her out. I think baths are the culprit.


Birthjunkie!! I am so glad you found your culprit!!! I am off the elimination diet (after 8 weeks!) except for dairy still but have snuck back in small amounts of cheese and eveything seems fine.

[Taedareth]

My son had dry flaky skin in his diaper area (lower abdomen, thighs). I solved it by not wiping after every single wet-diaper change (like maybe every other one - I'm using water on a washcloth) and applying Burts Bees Baby Bee apricot kernel massage oil on the dry skin 2-3 times a day. Works great. They dryness is totally gone.

[Minnow_]

Bethany, I'm so glad you figured out what Samara is allergic to. I was thinking about you over the weekend, wondering how she was doing. That's great news!

[amygoforth]

BADGER BABY BALM!!! It is the best, mildest stuff ever. Drew had some very dry patches on his face, and this cleared them right up. I use it on every part of both boys -- from lips to butt. They both are so soft. I also use Aubrey Organics kids shampoo and soap -- and Drew just gets a bath twice a week.

I've been using the Badger Baby Balm ever since that Mothering article about all the horrible crap in common skin-care products. I had been using Aveeno baby moisture creme -- which it turns out is totally and completely toxic! (a 4.1 on the 5-point skindeep scale, for those of you who have visited that site.) I am amazed at how much I love the badger stuff. I picked up a tin of it at Whole Foods, then found an easier-to-use tube of it at Wild Oats.

I'll say it again: BADGER BABY BALM!