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dry winter skin

  1. #17
    bumbeeno is offline Registered User
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    Forgot to add that bathwater shouldn't be too hot - that is also drying to the skin!


  2. #18
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    miriam228 is offline Registered User
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    Hi Bumbeeno,

    Thanks for your very detailed advise!

    Actually, my daughter is now 4.5 months old and started to have skin "problems" since about 2 wks ago, when HK was very cold. We used the heater for 2 nights in the nursery, and her face became obviously very very dry & rough (body is ok). So we applied Chicco's Soft Moisturizing Cream on her. Didn't seem to work too much. Then the relative humidity continued to drop & drop & drop, causing much drier cheeks.

    Then about 3-4 days ago, started to see some red spots on her earlobes and neck area (not dry/rough) and wondered whether it's the continuous dry skin or allergic reaction to smthg that she wore. (Coincidentally, she started to wear a light thin fleece cardigan/jacket which had a higher collar.) Immediately stopped wearing the fleece jacket and the red spots have gradually diminished. As for her face, we used Vaseline on her very severe dry & rough cheeks and it seems to be helping, or it seems so, unless it's the humidity which is going back up again...!! As for her body, her skin is slightly red/pink in the folds: neckline, arms and back of legs. (Am using Mustela's Vitamin Barrier Cream, since it contains zinc and can dry the folds. Is this correct? Why are the folds red? Caused by the sweat?)

    As there seems to be so many factors and uncertainties, that's why I posted a link "Eczema, Allergy, Rash or Extreme Dry Weather??" in which just Yonge has replied to. I really don't know whether my little one has a eczema or not!!

    As for the J & J milk bath, she has been using it since day one, and it seemed ok - maybe becoz she was born in mid-July and it was so hot then! But I am not using her bath water to clean her face. I'm using drinking water and cotton pads to clean her face daily, followed by a moisturizer/Vaseline. She has sweaty hands & feet, so does that mean her skin is normal?

    So many continuous questions as I'm a first time mother!!!!

    Sorry & thanks for all your advise!!! Much appreciated!!!

    Thanks!


  3. #19
    bumbeeno is offline Registered User
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    Oops, it looks like I have gotten the posters a little mixed up! Hopefully the posts will still be relevant.

    Miriam, my son is also about 4.5 months old :) He also had the redness in the folds of the skin (better now, but still has the occasional flare-up) and it's really common because babies are quite chubby so the folds are not usually exposed to the air and hence never quite dry. I think it's quite common: it's called intertrigo and there are varying degrees of redness. My son had it worst in the fold of his neck but it was also in the armpits and the fold between the thighs and groin. His paediatrician prescribed a cream to get a headstart on getting it better, because at that point it was really weepy and red, but once it's dry all you need to do is to make sure it's dry e.g. after a bath/feed. Things started to really improve when he started to hold his head up consistently and spend lots of time on his tummy - the neck area stayed dry. I tried using zinc oxide cream as well as baby cornstarch to dry the folds but I found they just made the area a bit yucky and the cream/cornstarch accumulated in the fold and was difficult to clean. So I just patted dry after each bath/nappy change/feed. Babies are supposed to grow out of this once they get older... and less chubby :)

    As to figuring out what it is... if the rashes don't go away after many days or get a lot worse and even after you've stopped using the fleece and tried all the remedies, for your own peace of mind you could decide to see the doctor about it. I have done that a couple of times because I was tired of guessing!

    Sweaty hands and feet are very normal for young babies :) Their circulation system is still quite immature so they overcompensate!

    Don't worry about the numerous questions - I'm a first-time mum too and am learning through all the 'trials' that my son and I experience. I still have loads of questions too and this is a great place to sound out our uncertainties - many other mums have felt the same way, had the same worries as we do!


  4. #20
    Query is offline Registered User
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    i wash my son's hair and face in the sugar water he bathes in and they become very soft too. It's totally naturally so I don't think it will cause any harm to anywhere you apply it on the body.


  5. #21
    thanka2 is offline Registered User
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    Quote Originally Posted by yonge View Post
    You might also want to try pharmaceutical grade, generic Aqueous Cream. I get them in 500g tubs at Mannings or Watson's. We slather it on the children after their bath which they take before going to bed. We also reapply throughout the day whenever their skin is dry. My husband had pretty severe childhood eczema and both children had mild infant eczema, so our family doctor recommended this since their birth as a precaution.

    If you're using a heater in the children's room, try to use one with a humidifier or use it along with humidifier. You might also switch from baby soap to a non-soap cleanser, such as Cetaphil for her bath. Hot water is also more drying, so try a comfortably warm instead of hot bath. I use a heater in the bathroom so that it doesn't feel so cold even when the bathwater is only warm. Good luck!
    I have extremely dry skin all-year round. Where I grew up the climate was semi-arid so I was constantly itchy and uncomfortable and went through tubs and tubs of skin cream--especially in the even drier wintertime. In Hong Kong, it's improved but winter still is pretty hard.

    I totally second using the aqueous cream. I just bought two 500 g tubs at Mannings yesterday for less than $50 HKD. Aqueous cream is the base for almost all skin creams--it's good to use it because it is non-scented and scents and weird oils can really make bad skin worse.

    DO NOT give your daughter HOT baths--even if it has oil in it. This is really damaging to the skin and will dry it out even more. I've had to see dermatologist after dermatologist for my own skin problems and the clear message that they hammer home every time is "LUKE-WARM water for bathing." As the weather is so cool lately, it might be hard to give a baby that cool of a bath. You might consider just giving her a sponge bath in the meantime. Unless she's really playing in the dirt and getting filthy, most babies don't need a full bath anyway. Every time you bathe you wash away skin oils--which sounds like a good thing and it probably is, unless your skin is dry and itchy.

    The dermatologists I've seen also say no soap or cleansing products at all for bathing. If soap is needed get something like Cetaphil cleanser that is soap-free and use it sparingly (feet, bottom, armpits etc.). Soap and cleanser of all kinds dries out the skin.

    As soon as I get out of the shower, I immediately put aqueous cream on. See, the job of a good skin cream is not really to "moisturise"--by the cream itself providing the moisture. The job of a good skin cream is to seal the moisture into the skin and create a protective layer. So, once you're wet, don't even dry off--just put on a thick layer of thick skin cream and massage the water and cream into the skin. Someone mentioned cold cream--this is a good idea because it is so thick that it seals moisture in better. I personally put on 2-3 layers of cream, massaging it in each time just to keep my skin from cracking when it gets dry.

    Take it from a veteran of dry skin--unless you've got some other dermalogical problems (eczema etc.) going, on you need to use cool water for bathing, only use non-soap cleansers (sparingly) and use a good, thick, non-scented cream, often and generously.

    I hope that your baby's skin gets better because dry skin is horrible!

  6. #22
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    Yonge, I noticed Cetaphil cleanser is a facial cleanser....?


  7. #23
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    Bumbeeno, really appreciate your valuable suggestions and answers!!!! It certainly has eased the "guessing game!"

    Thanks!!!!


  8. #24
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    Query, will he tend to become sticky, since it's sugar after all...??


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