Some mystery rash has befallen my little one. It started the day Leigha fed her peas for the first time. Leigha has no love lost for peas, so she was happy to blame the ailment on the vile vegetable. The doctors agreed it was probably an allergic reaction to the peas, even 3 days after the suspect dose. They prescribed benadryl, a treatment our little trooper spat out without much delay; she would not be fooled by our so-called cherry flavoring. Saturday, five days after she was examined, the rash seemed to be getting worse, not better. Monday, the doctors gave up, and referred us to one of several pediatric dermatologists in more demand than a witty metaphor (fully 8-12 weeks for two of the three!). We got an appointment with the third dermatologist for September 9th.
In the process of trying to make the medicine more palettable for our young connoisseur, I started googling for various combinations of “benadryl” and “baby formula” which mostly lead to forums about drugging children to behave on planes. When Leigha visited the doctor the second time, I suggested she ask whether we can mix the benadryl into the baby formula. The answer was ambiguous: “No, she might not get the full dose due to not finishing the bottle or the medicine sticking to the side of the bottle”. The implication is that it would otherwise be acceptable to mix the dose into the formula, but not really express approval. Before the consultation was made, I achieved reasonable success by diluting the medicine in water and feeding her the solution in a bottle. This only worked one out of the two times I tried.
On Friday we went to our ungodly 8am appointment and things are looking better. We met with Dr. Nikolai Talanin, who was very nice and knowledgable. (As a side note, my Russian-radar must be more finely tuned than Leigha’s because she didn’t catch it until after we left; meanwhile I kept resisting the urge to call him Dr. Comrade. Whenever I talk to someone with a clear Russian accent I can’t help wanting to call them comrade.) He pretty much diagnosed it as eczema on the spot. He did it so quickly that I kind of felt blown off. He handed us “standard stupid parent form #3″ which had information on dealing with eczema (which he proceeded to recite from memory to us), prescribed (more) hydrocortizone, some antibiotics, and a follow up appointment for two weeks and then politely excused himself. The whole conversation would have lasted about 3 minutes if I hadn’t asked annoying questions for another 7 in an effort to look informed.
I left not really expecting much; kind of a “this is exactly what we have been doing - stupid communist doctor” attitude. Leigha left with a “I told those stupid capitalist doctors at Fairfax Pediatrics it was eczema, why didn’t they listen?” attitude.
The next day her eczema already looked better. By Sunday is was all but gone, the minutest of nearly invisible traces left and Anna was clearly less itchy. So we’re happy. And I’m happy that whatever socialist magic Dr. Talanin performed worked on Anna. She really looks great but I have to wonder what really changed. The only changes he prescribed were: 2.5% hydrocortizone ointment twice a day chest to toe (1% for the face). We voluntarily switched from Vaseline to Aveeno (which I’m especially happy about). That’s mostly it. We were doing Vaseline head to toe, with 1% hydrocortizone cream in the trouble spots. Maybe it’s the antibiotics, who knows.
I’ll write about our hassles with Fairfax Pediatric Associates separately, since that one might not have such a happy ending.
Last Saturday, Anna fell asleep on my chest for the first time since the included picture was taken. I had a bunch of other things I needed to do, but nothing seemed quite as important as sitting there in the rocking chair in her room, listening to her snoring away and just enjoying her while she is little.
