I love Lil Z-Bear’s little hiney. What’s not to love about such a smile-inducing part of him and it fills those adorable onesies perfectly. I work very hard to keep this cherished part of him clean, dry, and free of the dreaded diaper rash.
When Lil Z was just a tiny cub, just over a week into this world, I noticed some angry red bumps on his tush while changing his preemie diaper that was still a tad too big on him. I remember freaking out and crying for over an hour after discovering that the little peanut had developed a diaper rash. Not because I am prone to such hysterics, but the rash was probably the last straw during a very trying time.
I didn’t get to hold Z-Bear in my arms when he was born. At 34 weeks, my husband and I breathed a collective sigh of relief when we heard him cry for the first time and we knew his lungs were mature enough to breathe on their own. I only caught a glimpse of him before he was whisked away to the Special Care Nursery. I learned to change his first diaper through the little openings in his incubator. He was swimming in the newborn outfits that I had so lovingly hand-picked for him. I could only hold and nurse the little one for less than an hour at a time. And even when I did hold him, it was a challenge to make sure the leads monitoring his heart and lungs didn’t slip because then it made an awful beep that would send the nurses rushing. I could only fill one of his cheeks with endless kisses because the other one had a feeding tube attached. Every day while leaving the hospital, I saw mommies taking their prized little bundles home, while I went home empty handed. But now that Z-bear is home and thriving, any hardship that we went through was worth it 100 times over.
After frantically trying several types of diaper creams since his first rash, I have finally settled on one I like. At the hospital they gave us Triple Paste. It is very thick and creamy, and feels rather globby when applied. The texture put me off from the beginning, and it didn’t work, because the rash crept back after using it for two weeks. So it was out of the running. Next I tried Bordreaux’s Butt Paste, because who could resist such a name. It smells amazing, almost made me want to taste it because of its ‘confectionery-y’ smell. It has a really nice creamy texture without being over-the-top thick like Triple Paste. However, much as I wanted it to work, it just didn’t and Lil Z’s diaper rash would not go away completely. So next up was Mustela Stelactive Skin Protectant: it sounded snazzy, with ‘enzyme fighting agents’. The cream is on the thin side, not great when you have some on your finger and are dealing with a squirming baby. And it did not work for us, Lil Z’s butt was still red after two weeks.
Now we were serious about finding something that would work. I stood in the diaper cream aisle with a myriad of options and there was the blue box of Desitin Rapid Relief. Early on, my aunt, who is a nurse and supermom to two beautiful boys, told me to use Desitin. But somehow, I had always steered away from it, it just seemed too generic. And the smell seemed a little too strong and a little too cosmetic-y. But I thought I’d give it a try. And what do you know, it works great. It cleared the rash in days, and it hasn’t come back yet. So consider this mama converted, I would happily recommend it to anyone. And striving for some ‘no diaper’ time is essential – Lil Z loves it, and his butt is much happier for it.
Lil Z-Bear 