Holly’s Check-up

Holly had her four-month check-up on Thursday. They measured her at 25 inches, which put her in the 74th percentile. The doctor also described her as “very social”… 74th percentile in height? “Very social”? I told Marcus there must have been a mix-up at the hospital 😉

While at the doctor’s office, I asked him about Holly’s skin. Emrick always had an eczema problem on his thighs when he was a baby, and he still gets it in patches on his shins and his hips. We’ve been using Aveeno’s Eczema Therapy lotion on him, and it seems to help a lot. So when Holly started getting eczema on her thighs a month or so ago, I used that same lotion on her. Unfortunately, not only did it not help, I think it actually made it worse. Her skin became extra red and inflamed after using it, and stayed that way for several hours. I even tried the lotion on her two more times, just in case that first time was a fluke, and the same thing happened. So I abandoned the Aveeno Eczema lotion (for Holly — it still works great on Emrick) and tried using on Holly what I use on myself: Vaseline’s simple, unscented lotion. They’ve changed the name and packaging a few times over the years, but it’s always in a blue and white bottle, and it is fragrance free. It’s a thin lotion, and the only moisturizer I have ever used that actually cures dry skin spots for me. I applied it to her a couple of times, but it didn’t seem to help much. But unlike the Aveeno stuff, it didn’t irritate her skin either.

Anyway, by the time we had our doctor appointment last Thursday, she had eczema up and down all four limbs, and on her belly and her back. Basically, it is everywhere but her face. It’s not severe, exactly, but it’s widespread. So I asked the doctor about it. He agreed that it was eczema and put us on a strict skin care regimen: a daily bath, plus two applications of hydrocortisone every day, plus four applications of a thick, fragrance-free lotion of my choosing. I went with Lubriderm — unscented. I wondered if maybe the fragrance in the Aveeno Eczema lotion had been the culprit in irritating Holly’s skin, but Marcus said it was fragrance-free. I didn’t think that was right because I know the lotion absolutely has a smell to it. But I looked at Emrick’s bottle of it later, and indeed, it is fragrance free. It does, however, have colloidal oatmeal in it, which must be where the smell comes from. And so I now I wonder if Holly has an oatmeal allergy and maybe that is why this supposedly eczema-healing lotion was actually making hers worse. Hmmm. I’ll ask about that at her next check-up.

But back to the Lubriderm. I’ve been using it on her for a few days now, and it seems to be working out just fine. There is a slight improvement in the dryness/rash, and more importantly, no irritation from the lotion. The doctor said that once things have healed up, I can cut down to just the bath and two lotion applications a day. He said I will need to continue with that routine or the eczema will definitely come back… that it’s probably in her genes to have eczema (thanks to me, I’m sure) and that the terribly dry Utah air of course exacerbates it considerably. ‘

Otherwise, Holly is doing great. She has inherited Emrick’s baby gym (pictured above), and is starting to reach and grab the toys that dangle from it. I say that she has “inherited” it from Emrick, but it’s rare that Emrick lets her lie there alone with it. Most of the time, he crawls under there with her and shows her the toys and helps her play with them. Sometimes it makes me nervous because he can be inadvertently rough at times, but Holly seems to really like having him there with her. She watches what he does and seems interested by it.

Of course, sometimes Emrick just gets silly while under the gym, like when he sucks in is belly and heaves up his ribcage, making for a pretty amusing — and vaguely frightening! — sight.

And let’s not forget the silly things he does with his baby doll…

Emrick suspended her from the baby gym the other day and so pleased was he with what he had done that he could not stop laughing. “Mommy, come check on baby doll,” he said to me. I went to the family room and laughed at what I saw, and then I cautioned him — just in case – that he was not to try this with Holly. I’ll be keeping a close eye…