Dealing With My Toddlers Eczema.

My 19 month old daughter Lauren suffers from eczema ever since birth. It started a few weeks after we brought her home when we noticed that her cheeks were inflamed with red bumpy rashes. We didn’t know at first if it was allergies or eczema. So we took her to the doctor and he said that it was a combination of both. The doctor told us that the chances of her having eczema was very high because my husband also suffers from the same skin condition.

My daughter Lauren when she was 1 month old.

I’ve done a lot of research about eczema and I found out that it is hereditary. If one or both parents have eczema there’s an 80% chance that their child will have it too. We were hoping that it will bypass her but of course it didn’t happen. The good thing was it wasn’t severe.

Just in case you’re wondering what eczema is…

Eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, is a skin condition that causes recurring skin rashes, dryness and itching. Some of the symptoms also include redness, red bumps, flaking, crusting, bleeding and temporary skin discoloration.

What is her excema like?

Not all eczema are alike. In my daughter’s case her rash was mostly visible on her cheeks, behind her ears, inside her elbows and behind her knees. Sometimes it comes and goes, but when it does appear her cheeks gets red and bumpy. Her elbows and behind her knees gets really dry, scaly and patchy. She would also get rashes on her tummy and behind her neck.

The most frustrating part is the itching and the scratching. She gets scratch marks that turns into scars mostly on her arms and behind her knees. She scratches so hard that sometimes it bleeds. The intense scratching mostly happens at night. She’s usually fine in the morning and in the afternoon but as soon as night time comes she scratches like crazy.

If anyone knows the reason why, please enlighten me!

How do we treat her eczema?

We’ve tested a lot of different products and some of them worked for her and some not so much. But our main rule in buying baby products is no perfume and no dye. Here’s some tips that worked for us.

• Bathe in lukewarm or cool water.
• Always, always moisturize! We found that Aquaphor works the best!
• In worst cases where she can’t stop itching we would give her children’s Zyrtec especially at night.
• When her eczema flairs up we apply a small amount of hydrocortisone to relieve itching and to reduce the inflammation

We are still treating her eczema everyday and every night by greasing her up with Aquaphor. When it does flair up we try to control it as fast as possible by applying 1% Hydrocortizone. It’s frustrating for us but it’s probably more frustrating to her. We’re just hoping that it will improve soon.

Review: Dyson DC17 Animal. The Best Vacuum Ever!

We have a 3 year old, gorgeous Victorian Bulldog that sheds like CRAZY!! His sheds huge chunks of dog hair that would stick to our clothes and our couch! And no matter how much we brush him, his hair would continue to fall out! It’s crazy!!

So my husband called me one day and asked me if we can buy a Dyson Animal. Of course the first thing I asked him was “how much”? He tried to sugar coat it at first, then he said “probably more than $500″.

“Hell no! More than $500 for a vacuum???” I wasn’t about to fork over hundreds of dollars for a vacuum. But then I thought about our horrible shedding problem so I did some research.

Well anyway to make the story short, after hours of research and looking for other reviews I finally gave in and we bought a Dyson DC17 Animal at Lowes that night!

I was still somewhat skeptical but excited to use it. We’ve used other brands of vacuum cleaners before and they’ve never really satisfied our cleaning needs. The other brands still left a lot of dog hair on my carpet, my clothes and furniture. So I was hoping that this will solve our dog hair problems.

Our first try was the living room. We went over a small area once we couldn’t believe our eyes! Hair, dirt and dust started to accumulate inside the container fast! My eyes were fixed on the clear container and my jaw just dropped!

My dear fellow moms and consumers, my heart beats when I say this with passion….

“THIS IS TRULY THE BEST VACUUM EVER! IT’S WORTH EVERY SINGLE PENNY”

We could not BELIEVE how much dog hair, dirt and dust it picked up. It was so disgusting. We were both staring at the container in awe. We could’ve made 2 new puppies with all that dog hair that we picked up.

So we put our new Dyson DC17 Animal to another test. Vacuum one of our rooms with the regular old vacuum (starts with B ends with issel) and see how much dirt and hair it picks up. Then vacuum the same spot with the Dyson DC14 Animal and see if there are any leftovers.

The results. The Dyson STILL picked up A LOT of leftover loose dog hair and dust after vacuuming the same spot with our old vacuum. Amazing!!

Can I just say it again…

“THE DYSON ANIMAL IS THE BEST VACUUM EVER! “

In addition to it’s awesome and powerful suction the Dyson also comes with a bunch of other attachments that makes cleaning a lot easier. We’ve used it for our curtains, hardwood floors, upholstery, our stairs and even our car!

Sometimes we vacuum for entertainment. We show it off to our friends and family and their all SOLD!! Dyson should hire me in Sales! I suck at selling but I can sell this product easily because I truly believe in it.

I don’t think I can ever go back to using the other vacuums. Yes, I forked over hundreds of dollars but it’s really, really, worth every penny, especially if you have pets who shed. I love this vacuum!!

Did I mention that…

“THE DYSON ANIMAL IS THE BEST VACUUM EVER! ”

Picky mommy gives the Dyson DC17 Animal 5 stars!