Eli: Diaper rash, size 4's

Poor Eli has been fighting a diaper rash in the last day or two. I think it was sparked by the fact that the YMCA childcare doesn't change diapers and they can never find me in the swimming pool (or showers) when he does have a poop. There was one day they said he had a poopy for a long time but they couldn't find me even after 10 minutes of scanning the pool area. Soon after, rash.

So having done a lot of Desitin and A&D on previous diaper rashes out of laziness, I thought I'd try the NON-lazy route and actually wash his bottom with water, dry and let him run around without a diaper like I've read in various baby articles and magazines so his bottom can air out. I never quite knew how people managed to avoid accidents when giving advice like that. Maybe I'm just not "in tune" with my kids' pee and poop schedule to find a safe time to do a bare bottom. But for Eli's sake, I thought I'd try and hope for the best. I tried pinning a towel like a skirt around him so at least he's covered if he sits. But it fell off his big belly before he could make it to the playroom so that idea was scrapped pretty quickly.

Well, now I know that people who give advice like "let them run around bare" are full of horse pucky (how ironic). Not 5 minutes after I let Eli go bare, Tobey says, "How come there's a poopy on the ground?" How I wished at that point for a rock hard constipated poopy but alas, it was gooey like peanut butter, orange peanut butter from his lunchtime carrots. At that point, I was much more concerned about the carpet than Eli, which might have been a mistake because how much longer then was he running about the house with potential poop on his leg and clothes? Chaos ensued for about the next half an hour and I stayed miraculously calm cleaning and bathing and Tobey was thankfully self-entertaining.

It doesn't help the rash that Eli poops so much. His bottom rarely gets a rest to let diaper cream do its job. He's guaranteed 1 big poop every morning or often 2 medium ones which means he could be sitting in a poop everyday at the YMCA. Another poop before afternoon nap and sometimes we get a bonus poop in the evening. All this from a child who doesn't always eat a good meal and has the biggest belly this side of the developed world. If all his food comes out, why does he have such a big belly? We finally decided to help the cause by buying a fresh new Desitin, suspecting our existing tube might be older and less potent. This morning his bottom was much better and he didn't cry and squirm during his diaper change, or shall I say changes (plural).

One thing I did figure out from all these diaper changes: Eli is probably finally outgrowing his size 3 diapers. Tobey outgrew them by the time he was 4 months. Eli? 16 months. And it's not his hips. It's his big Buddha belly. One of our friends the other day actually rubbed his belly for good luck. Too funny. Maybe I'll rub it for good luck for his diaper rash to finally heal.