Wow, what an exhausting couple of weeks it has been! A couple weeks ago Joe was diagnosed with an ear infection. Getting to that conclusion was tiring in itself. Joe was showing signs of an ear infection, but when I looked up the symptoms they were practically identical to symptoms of teething. I fretted for a couple of days. Do I take Joe to his pediatrician that would probably make me feel like a dope if he was just teething? (Remember, he is the one who reminds me of Freddie Krueger.) Finally I decided to put my pride in my back pocket and go to the doctor. He did have an ear infection, but just a small one. All those days of fretting- over, right? Nope.He was prescribed the antiobiotic amoxicillin for 10 days. It was a struggle to have him take it, but I was expecting that. A few days later I noticed he started getting a diaper rash. Joe never gets diaper rashes. If he starts to get a little red, which is rare, just one dab if Desitin will clear it up in no time. So you can imagine my surprise when the diaper rash didn't immediately disappear. Since I'm not used to aggressively treating a diaper rash I just kind of treated in now and then. It would go away soon.
Oh my... his diaper rash started rearing its ugly head. It looked so horrible and painful. Joe would even cry in pain when I would change his diaper. I hated seeing him in pain. I practically used a whole tube of Desitin and it seemed to be getting a little better.
After the amoxicillin dosage was over came the thrush in Joe's mouth. He was laughing one day and I saw the white patchy spots on the inside of his cheeks. I had read about this. He spent the whole day refusing to eat. I was getting engorged and soon Joe was screaming because he was so hungry but too much in pain to eat. I was sick with worry. I felt like a failure as a mom. Aren't breastfeeding babies supposed to be more immune from ear infections and such? Is my milk low-quality or something? Is he sick because I let him sit in a grocery cart seat or take him out and about too much? (Of course I'm exaggerating a little bit on these worries. Maybe...)
I have complained about the internet before, but this time it came in handy. It seems that a horrible diaper rash (a yeast infection diaper rash to be exact) and thrush are fairly common reactions to amoxicillin. I DIDN'T KNOW THAT! Thanks Dr. Freddie Krueger for warning me that this could happen! I would have treated the diaper rash more aggressively.
Dr. Sears recommends clotimazole which is a non-prescription cream to combat this pesky yeast infection diaper rash. When I asked the pharmacist where I can find this cream (it's Lotrimin) she said, "Just make sure it isn't staph infection." Oh hooray. Another thing to worry about. (But my gut says it's not staph. I've looked at enough pictures of diaper rashes to sort of tell the difference.)
We've had a fun time putting Joe butt naked on a towel. They say letting them be bare bottomed helps with diaper rash. This boy loooooooves to be naked and it's so cute seeing all his fat rolls and him grabbing his feet flashing the world with his dazzling smile!
Lesson learned: maybe next time Joe gets an ear infection take a different antibiotic OR start in with the diaper rash cream right away!
Because of his diaper rash I wanted to get a little bit bigger diapers just to let a little more air circulate. He is currently in size 3 diapers (fits 16-28 lbs.) Size 4 diapers starts at 22 lbs, and even though he's still a couple pounds away from that I know size 4 fits him fairly well. We went to Wal-Mart and saw diapers were on sale! I saw a size 4 with 108 diapers in a box. But size 3 had 128 diapers. Why the difference? Hmmm.. maybe this was a special "bonus" pack... 20 extra diapers- woo hooo!!! We needed to find this special bonus pack for size 4. I had Ryan dig around. A Wal-Mart associate came and asked if we needed help. I asked where we could find the box of 128 diapers for size 4. She informed us that the bigger the diaper sizes get, the less there are in the boxes. She pointed out that size 5 diapers only have 92.
I thanked her and said, "Can't you tell we are first-time parents," with a laugh. She laughed too and said, "We've all been there." After she left I made my typical frowny face and said to Ryan, "That's crap! Just because the diapers are bigger doesn't mean they need to skimp on quantity!" Ryan just smiled, grabbed the box of 108 diapers and off we went. I still made multiple comments of the unfairness of diaper packing. Ryan and I have been blessed to have generous parents that have supplied us with diapers after our 3 month supply of diapers we got at our baby showers ran out. Oh well. Such is life.
Lesson learned: Diaper companies are evil. Or maybe I'm just not that observant!
6 comments:
You may already know this, but Target diapers are also a great value! They're much cheaper than other brands I've seen and we haven't had any leaking trouble (well... none that were the diaper's fault...). I hope everything clears up for the little guy!
You crack me up :) And I meant to say after your last post that I would actually be interested in posts on baby poop, so I was glad to see this one :) Glad Joe is finally on the mend after all that!
The first time is the roughest. The first baby you handle with kid gloves :) and then we all joke, if you are baby #3 or #4, you can be seriously ill before mama calls the peds. When he goes on antibiotics again, they always switch the meds around as to not have an immune build up to the same one or an allergy break out to the same one. You are doing great!
First of all...I was there on the diapers with my first, too! oy! And honestly, my oldest was teeny-tiny and never moved out of size 3 before she potty-trained. So when our second child needed size 4 at age 12 months...we did the double-take at the quantities. Now Dominic is my first kid to move into size 6 (he's a giant!)...but we know what to expect.
Also...isn't it crazy? My only child that I breastfed (Helen) is the one that had the most ear infections (her whole first year of life was one big ear infection and she got tubes inserted at 13 months) and the other three who were only formula fed never had ear infections (Dom still hasn't had one!) So crazy! I think the being healthier thing is often due to being home with mom and not in daycare setting as a newborn. But that's my unofficial-I've-got-four-kids-with-one-on-the-way opinion. :)
Jack has that same reaction to ammoxicillian. Our pediatrician recommended Florastor for Kids (behind the pharmacy counter w/o a Rx) to give along side with the antibiotic. It helps maintain those good bacteria in the digestive track and worked WONDERS for Jack and his recurring ear infenctions... and he was breastfed too!
We've had our share of baby ear infections even though I breastfed. I did learn there is a link between lactose intolerance and ear troubles, and found that when I cut dairy out of my diet, the babies were less colicky and had less ear troubles. We also had to get ear tubes in three out of four kids...but what a blessing because no more earaches and no more antibiotics!
Oh, and the thrush...watch out for yourslef because if he has it on his mouth, you might get it around your nipples...
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