Archive for November, 2009
Natural Cradle Cap Treatments
Nov
At about four weeks old, Kahlan started getting some tiny spots of flaky stuff on her scalp. In the beginning they were minor and small, however by six weeks the flakes covered her little scalp no matter how often we did or didn’t wash her hair.
After a bit of Google-ing and a visit to the pediatrician it was official, Kahlan had developed cradle cap. Cradle Cap is a flaky dandruff like condition of the scalp that is relatively common in infants. It doesn’t cause any harm, she didn’t even seem to notice, but hours of nursing and staring at the scaly flakes was driving me nutty.
The pediatrician recommended a product called Mustela. After checking it’s ingredients on CosmeticsDatabase.com for toxicity concerns, I found it’s high 7 out of 10 was unacceptable… So now what?
Being overly aware of environmental contaminants and the risks of all the chemicals we humans tend to put in and on our bodies, I wanted to find something both effective and more natural. Firstly, I read that rubbing a bit of Extra Virgin Olive Oil on the afflicted scalp, letting it sit for 5 minutes and then washing it out, would break up the offending flakes allowing them to be brushed out. After trying this method a few times I did find it effective in removing the scales. However, the heavy oil was difficult to wash out and left her hair greasy and smelling like an Italian restaurant.
During the last trimester of my pregnancy I had purchased a bottle of Motherlove Birth & Baby Oil to use for perineal massage. The oil is made from certified organic apricot oil and lavender. It worked great during pregnancy for a belly oil, perineal massage and any dry skin. I had even used it a few times on Kahlan for infant massage. One day, on a whim, I was reading the label and noticed it listed treating cradle cap as a suggested use.
Knowing it was already safe and natural, rating a nice “0″ on Cosmetics Database, I decided to try it out at her next bath. Following the same routine as with the olive oil, I rubbed it in, washed it out and brushed her hair dry, waiting to see the result. Being a lighter, thinner oil, it was much easier to rinse out. The apricot oil worked as well as the olive oil, leaving her scalp moisturized and flake free. Even better, she now smelled clean and sweet with hints of apricot and lavender, without looking like a greaser!
If your unhappy dealing with your infants cradle cap using the recommended cleansers too, I highly recommend trying Motherlove. If you decide it doesn’t give you the results your after, it still makes a wonderful massage oil.
Tags: cradle cap, Motherlove, Mustela, Olive Oil
My first Turkey…
Nov
I have figured out “holiday” means mommy dresses me in more complicated and/or silly themed clothes, the kitchen room smells funny (although oddly intrigueing) and Daddy is home during daytime. I think I like it, but the endless bright flashes could stop anytime now…
Tags: firsts, holiday, thanksgiving
Parenthood : Paranoid
Nov
Remember the SAT word association pairs? You were given two words like dog:cat and then had to know that chicken:man was equivalent because the association was the same number of legs or some other nonsense. I’m not sure if parenthood:paranoid ever came up, but I sure hope I answered something meaning they have more in common than just starting with P and ending in D.
Everyday of being a new Mommy is an adventure that likely would end in the cute “lesson learned” minute if it were a sitcom. But not every lesson is cute or humorous. The first close call, no matter how unlikely or easily resolved still shakes you to your core. It is one thing to face your own mortality head on, to then quiver in fear soaked panic at the very thought your child may get so much as thier first cold let alone be hospitalized. Surgery? Someone grab the smelling salts…
What started as a minor rash for our new nephew, a mere three weeks younger than Kahlan, quickly turned our entire familly into paranoid fearfull wrecks. In the week following Dev and his Mommies stay with us, his little baby rash developed first into larger pimple sized pustuals and then took over his little system. 2 weeks after thier visit we get a call… Dev has been hospitalized, he has a high fever, some kind of infection and a silver dollar sized absess on his chest. It might be MRSA.
Pre-parenthood response:
Offer to rush down to help in any way posible. Visit them in the hospital.
Post-parenthood response:
Offer heartfelt condolences and best wishes for a positive outcome. Jump on Internet and research MRSA. Have a panic attack becuase that crap is super contagious and your newborn just spent a week snuggling up for cute pictures with the now hospitalized cousin. Do more research. Inspect every inch of our newborn. Call back to see how cousin is doing, ask if they know what it is and if it’s contagious for the hundreth time. Inspect newborn again. Debate with spouse if what we thought was just regular old baby acne is realy something else. Second guess your eyes, your instincts and every tiny blemish for hours. Break down and call the pediatrition on a Sunday morning in tears convinced your baby is next. Ban anyone from coming near the baby or visiting who could have had contact. Consider cancelling Thanksgiving. Then consider cancelling every familly get together for the foreseable future, moving to a remote hermit location and installing a germ proof baby sized habit trail.
Get the call – NOT MRSA, just some unavoidable bad luck bacterial infection that unfortunatly absessed.
Cancel plane tickets to Alaska wilderness. Call off code-red. Reduce panic attack to
Tags: cradle cap, MRSA, newborn, skin
Growing Like a Tree!
Nov
On initiation to the new parents club, everyone makes sure to tell you how fast time flies with a newborn and to treasure every moment. I’m starting to feel that precious time slipping away as the grains of sand count down to my inevitable return to the workforce. My 5 week old baby is so far advanced from the little smoosh she started out as, that her birth seems farther and farther away.
Now over 10lbs and growing like a tree, Kahlan is learning new things faster than I can keep track of them. Yesterday, she was madly flailing her arms trying to suck her hands, now this morning the thumb flew straight into her mouth like an old pro. Where once she peered around in no particular direction and minimal focus, today she is bright eyed, sharply tracking objects and making eye contact when spoken to.
Most surprising to me, she is developing language skills already. Obviously, she’s not talking with words, but her little grunts and gurgles are starting to be mixed with little voice sounds. Her first cooings are daily starting to reveal the sweet timber of her voice. Even more astounding is the realization she is beginning to recognize words, or at least responding to the tone they are said in. At 5:30, when daddy pulls in the driveway, Kahlan lights up with the biggest smile when I exclaim “Daddy! Daddy’s home!”.
When she wakes up fussing and hungry, I talk to her to let her know I hear her and am nearby, not until I say “Boob time!” does she quiet down and patiently wait for a change and to be fed.
It feels like magic watching her grow and learn, even at this tiny and fundamental stage. It will be all to soon when her first calls for “Daddy!” fill the halls with her bell like voice. I only hope she figures out “Mommy” before resorting to calling me “Boob”…
Raising an iKid
Nov
My iPhone Landing Page... Where my Day Begins
I’m raising my newborn from my iPhone. Sound peculiar? I’m a self proclaimed “Mac”, my husband is “PC”, but we have both been iPhone fans, he earlier having discovered it’s many advantages for on-call work as a network administrator, and I more recently. After having finally given up on my long time “antique”, once the buttons fell off 5 years after purchase, and making the leap to iPhone this summer, I quickly fell in love with it’s many features. Now that I’m an urban chic Mac Momma, I don’t just “love” my iPhone, I would DIE without it. Here are a few of my most used preloaded features. As time goes on I will share and review the many third party apps that are making this momma productive in the wee hours of the nursing night.
iCal
Everyone wants to see the new baby, Dr’s and Nurses are scheduling follow-ups left and right and wasn’t I supposed to do something today? With all the new chaos surrounding a baby iCal keeps me organized and stress free so I can use those precious sleep deprived brain cells to nurture my little girl instead of wondering if I remembered everything I needed to do today or when the next visitor was showing up.
iPod / iTunes
Obviously, music right? But wait there’s more! I have a few of my favorite baby care videos loaded for those late night “what was that burping technique again?” moments and a number of baby specific play lists. An all classical list for our quiet time feedings and a few more upbeat sing along picks for daytime. Last, but not least, I downloaded some white-noise tracks. I have nature tracks as well as the basic fans and static. I keep these on a separate play list for the munchkins fussy moments. Works every time!
Camera / Photos
I don’t just take pictures with my phone. I’m using it to document, journalistic style, my little ones every moment and sharing it. The built in 3 megapixel camera on the 3GS is more than sufficient for posting on my blog or Facebook (more to come on running a baby blog from an iPhone). Combined with a few photo editing iApps like Photoshop Mobile, the need to wait to plug in at home is no more. We instantly post for our friends and family to share in the fun. In addition to the photo ops, I’ve built a special album of CPR and First-Aid instructions scanned and saved as JPGs. I keep this album synced so I have all the necessary visual reference on the go, at my thumbs, for any emergency.
Next time I’ll be reviewing my favorite iPhone baby tracker — Total Baby!
Boiling Hot!!!
Nov
Ok Mommy, I know you say it’s cute, but realy is this necessary??? Your honestly going to make me wear this puffy hot thing just so Daddy can play portrait studio and you can tease me with a pile of candy you won’t share with me? My cousin the Power Ranger says this whole “Halloween” thing is great and just a special day for us littles. I’m not convinced…
