I Smell like Gum!!!

When Harrison was born and just a few days old, I remember him peeling like crazy. He had the driest skin of any baby on the planet and no amount of lotion seemed to help him. In the winter, his skin would get so dry it would crack and bleed, especially on his flanks. Our former pediatrician prescribed a triamcinolone ointment which seemed to help. I also tried keeping Aquaphor on him as much as I could. Still, his skin felt like low-grit sandpaper.  I also noticed that sometimes his skin would get so dry, it looked scaly.

The dryness would wax and wane. Recently, our pediatrician (who did a year in pediatric dermatology), examined him and said, "This is the first time I've seen the 'scales' on his skin. I'd like you to go home and do some research on 'ichthyosis' and I will, too. I think this is what he has."  That evening, I found FIRST and after an email exchange with one of their staff members, I was convinced that Harrison had X-Linked Ichthyosis (XLI). As it turns out, this was Dr. Weed's diagnosis as well.  Due to a deletion on the X-chromosome, Harrison has very dry skin that does not flake. It builds up as scales on him. Yes, X-chromosome - that means he inherited this issue from me. I've warped my kid. Of course! I'm the mom!! It's my JOB to warp my kid. Anyway...

Many moms have their ichthy kids soak in the tub with baking soda and/or bleach added (the bleach is needed to help keep infection at bay on skin that is easily broken - some forms of ichthyosis are much more significant than Harrison's). The baking soda helps soften the scales. Since we don't have as much of an issue with broken skin, we have started off with soaks in warm water - but we are about to add baking soda. Another thing these moms do is salt scrubs. Hmm. I don't have any salt scrubs, but I did get some sugar scrub for Christmas. Would that work? It works great on my rough elbows! Let me tell you, it works wonders on Harrison's "confetti skin." The first time we scrubbed his legs with it, his little face lit up and he said, "Mommy! My skin feels so good!!" I almost cried.

The scrub my friend made has sugar, coconut oil and a few other things in it. But the sugar and coconut oil have made a huge difference! The sugar exfoliates him, and the coconut oil moisturizes in conjunction with the compound. Now, the only "rough spots" on his skin are around his ankles.

He is loving his new skin-care routine and is taking it seriously. I always get a kick over how much he loves the sugar scrubs. My friend made him some this week that is Vanilla-Mint and he's super excited to "smell like gum." (really?! I swear everything in this house comes back to gum, you'd think my kids never get any!! It cracks me up.)  As I slathered him down tonight, I noticed the scaling on his legs is significantly reduced. Really excited to have found something that seems to be working for him and that he's "all in" for doing.