Scratchy, Sleepy Baby…Musings from a Tired Eczema Parent

The current collection. Aveeno’s at the top of the leaderboard this month.

It’s hard to know where to begin, there is so much to say. What a journey this eczema experience has been so far…

My sunshine baby, T, is nearly 15 months old. He was a happy surprise as our second child after a fertility struggle for our first. T was born on a sunny day in June and has been a truly joyful presence in the lives of everyone around him ever since. He is usually grinning, chortling, and dancing, despite being so uncomfortable much of the time. 

Since he was 4 months old, T’s been dealing with near-constant ear infections (even after ear tubes) and significant eczema with frequent red, angry flares that leave him scratching furiously at hardened skin where soft baby folds should be. Uninterrupted sleep has been hard to find for our scratchy baby, and for us by extension…for months on end. Most mornings, T wakes up clawing at his frequently bloody wrists - an experience that, over weeks, reduced me to tears while on the phone with a nurse practitioner I didn’t know at our allergist’s office. Our older daughter, not quite 3, knows to watch for when T finishes his breakfast, and tells us as soon as he begins to itch again. It’s a tense and upsetting way to start the day. 

We know that we are so incredibly lucky, as my work with people living with very complex conditions reminds me every day. T is generally healthy and ultimately, as long as we avoid infection and manage to get enough sleep as a family, his eczema will be okay. But we still struggle. There was a period last winter when we took fewer photos of our beautiful little boy than we should have. It was hard to find a day when his face wasn’t marked by raw red patches that made us sad and felt tough to document. 

This summer, we’ve enjoyed a period of epidermal calm on T’s face, as the humidity seems to be helping us out. Instead, we’ve been battling against sores on arms and in sweaty spots, as we’ve had to keep T in long pants, long sleeves, and hats all summer long - sunscreen is not his friend. He loves to swim, but the chlorine seems to dry him out - so fun in the pool is followed by days of increased itch and stress to keep his busy hands from doing more damage to his irritated skin. 

Now, as the days shorten and the nights get cold, we’re readying ourselves with an attempt at a game plan for this winter. We’re pulling together everything we’ve learned so far about T’s triggers and what seems to work best to quell the itch and avoid unending courses of triamcinolone - so this fall and winter might be a bit kinder to our sunshine baby. 

Over months of learning, we’ve spent hours online learning about all possible products and approaches that might help T, months of food sensitivity experimenting, and a somewhat terrifying amount of money spent on creams, washes, bamboo clothing, silk pillowcases, scratch sleeves…

To help get my mind around everything we’re attempting, and in the hopes that our journey might be helpful to some in our Folia community, I’m going to be sharing weekly about our journey to help T get some relief from the itch this fall. Stay tuned, and wish us luck!

p.s. If you’re curious, here’s more about what Folia’s doing in the eczema space.