Natalie’s Blog

Don’t worry, there will be no picture accompanying this post! I’ll also spare you the most gory details…

Poor Natalie’s bottom was in bad shape this week. Of course, just as Natalie was starting to be her happy self again on the changing table, she developed a bad rash, which means every diaper change is painful and therefore a struggle. I first noticed it Tuesday morning, the day that Nama was watching Natalie. Nama looked at it and declared, “I’ve seen much worse!” so I didn’t worry too much. We continued using our usual diaper cream. Tuesday night, Natalie was crying out in her sleep and waking up frequently (although I didn’t make the connection—being woken up repeatedly in the middle of the night doesn’t allow for the most logical thinking).

By Wednesday morning, the rash looked a little angrier. Chris was in charge of taking Natalie to day care that morning, so I asked him to be sure to tell the teachers about the rash. Of course he forgot, because it’s impossible to think straight when trying to smile and tell Natalie to have fun at school while she’s hysterically crying. 10 minutes after he came home from dropping her off, Natalie’s teacher called my cell phone to ask me if I was aware of the rash.

I decided to call the pediatrician’s office, even though I was pretty sure they were going to recommend I use diaper cream and tell me to go away. But no, when I described the rash, the nurse scheduled an appointment within the hour. (What gives? In December I called to say that Natalie was coughing so hard she was vomiting, which didn’t warrant an appointment and now they want her to come in for diaper rash?!?!?) So I picked Natalie up from school (poor thing was pretty upset when I got there) and we went to the doctor. It was a good thing the school called and we went to the doctors, because by the time we got there, the rash looked worse than it had only a couple of hours earlier. The two doctors who looked at Natalie’s rear and a test for a strep infection (who knew you could get strep butt?) couldn’t determine the cause of the rash. Dumbfounded, the doctor recommended we try triple paste—a recommendation I could have gotten from my mom’s group without a $30 co-pay.

Thankfully, the rumors I’d heard about triple paste are true! 24 hours later, Natalie’s rash was much improved and now 48 hours later, it’s almost gone. Like everything else, the rash was probably related to teething.

What good is a baby blog if it’s contents won’t embarrass said baby when she becomes a teenager?

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Challenges, Illness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.