Monday, January 30, 2012

Better than Mittens.... No More Scratching!

The last 4 or 5 weeks we have been dealing with a "skin irritation" with our little Oliver... Initially we weren't exactly sure what we were dealing with... So, treatment was more or less stabs in the dark...
Is it a food allergy? We eliminated one food after another only to watch his condition decline...
Is it certain fabrics?... Okay... nothing but 100% cotton...
Is it detergent? Okay we'll wash everything in hot water only...
Is it bath soap? Okay then we'll bathe him in water only!
This has been my new mother's constant source of anxiety since before Christmas... I've been a ball of stress!
Well, the good news is, we have finally settled on a diagnosis; and are working on getting rid of the problem. Every day he's improving, praise God! I can get into details in a seperate post...
What I want to share here is my new invention (shown in pictures) that has been dreamed up out of necessity. Through out this crazy itchy scratchy nightmare, Oliver's skin continually flares up with itchy break outs here and there. Cortizones not only lose their effectiveness, but they ultimately feed the problem. Then, just when something about heals up, he scratches his skin open again... it's a never ending battle. We started swaddling him again at night and for naps... but little Houdini gets his hands out and begins scratching in the middle of the night before ever making a peep! I have walked in to find him more than half dozen times a bloody mess literally. SOOOOOOO frustrating!!!!!!
Anyways... the little mittnes are fine for tiny ones... but he is about too old to be swaddled and has long ago figured out how to get mittens off... If they stay on, even the cotton is TOO abrasive for his delicate skin! So it's been 2 steps fwd, one step back over and over again!
Anyways, I came up with this idea on sunday morning; laying in bed. After church, I came home and made a couple proto-types. They were too small... so today I whipped up a couple bigger ones. I think we may have a winner here.
The key here is 2 things:
1, the garment cannot be removed by the baby... but it can't choke or injure either. and
2, the satin fabric... no matter how much he rubs his skin, it won't scratch. At least I hope not.

He had a litte nap with it on and it looks to be a success... However, to be precautionary we have it on under the swaddler for tonight. I need to have a full day of naps to observe tomorrow and probably make another even a tiny bit bigger to fit on the outside of a blanket sleeper.

So what do you think?? Is this something you would use? Should I try and make more?? I think I would call it "Better than Mittens" or something like that...

PS Ignore the ugly gold color... it's the only color of this material I had... and I wanted to see how it would work first :) Thoughts Appreciated!


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1 comment:

Linda P. said...

I think this is ingenius Katie! I really think you could market these!