Eczema

Eczema is a disease in a form of dermatitis, or inflammation of the epidermis.  The term eczema is broadly applied to a range of persistent skin conditions.  These include dryness and recurring skin rashes which are characterized by one or more of these symptoms: redness, skin edema (swelling), itching and dryness, crusting, flaking, blistering, cracking, oozing or bleeding.

Jacob has all but the last two symptoms!

These two pictures don't even begin to show the degree to which Jacob has eczema on his face. One day his face looked similar to a few days after a really bad sun burn on his cheeks, ear lobes and under his chin. It blisters and peels then starts again. He even has a small amount on his elbows. Poor kiddo.

I kept thinking Jacob had bad baby acne and was going to ride it out until his two month appointment next Friday.

Enough people commented on his "rash" that I called Dr. Wilkes yesterday. The nurse had us come right in and it took all of two seconds for Dr. Wilkes to say "he had dermatitis". HUH?? (aka eczema, pretty bad) I can document back to 6/30 when we took Jacob's 1 month pictures when I know for sure this started. So yesterday was 3 weeks that I had let this go... 3 WEEKS! What kind of a mother am I? I just kept thinking it needed to run it's course and would go away on it's own. I WAS WRONG!! Some days were better than others, but none the less it kept coming back and finally spread all the way to his little ears and to the top of his chest :(

So, Dr. Wilkes prescribed a skin gel that is to be applied twice a day. I stopped by Walgreens on the way home, dropped the Rx off and went back later to pick it up. Pat and I put it on his face last night and this morning... and this is what he looked like at 9am.

HIS PRECIOUS CHEEKS ARE BACK!! It totally took out the redness. His skin isn't smooth yet, it's been less than 24 hours and it has some SERIOUS healing to do, but it's on the fast track to recovery. His face is like one big scab, no wonder he's been some what fussy this past month. I'm thankful that he shouldn't be irritated any longer and that strangers won't look at him so sorrowfully any longer and comment on his "rash".

This might come across as vain but, as I told Pat last night... I never understood until the last few weeks how my parents looked at me when I had horrid acne and told me I looked beautiful. I get it now. Jacob now looks to others the way I have been able to see him the past few weeks. Perfectly precious and sweet. Now everyone else can enjoy it too.