When my daughter was born, she was diagnosed with VATER syndrome. Her renal system and vertebrae were fine, but she did have an esophageal Atresia and an imperforated anus. In her first week of life, our baby had two surgeries; a minor one on her butt and a major one on her esophagus. As a result, she was in a lot of discomfort and needed as much rest as possible. In addition to not wanting to disturb her, the nurses also had to be extra careful not to irritate her bottom area. Therefore, they did not change her diaper as often as one would for a healthy baby. You would think that they would have needed to change her diaper more frequently in order to prevent infection. However, Lily’s surgeon told me something I’m still not sure I believe. Baby poop is sterile. Sterile or not, Lily got diaper rash. Bad.
Obviously, at the hospital, diaper rash was the least of their concerns. However, when we brought her home and realized it wasn’t subsiding after a few weeks, it became a concern of ours. We tried everything. We changed her diaper every hour regardless of whether she went to the bathroom or not. We even let her spend hours at a time without a diaper. “Diaper-free” time is what we called it. I’d post some of the pictures of my wife holding Lily with her little naked butt hanging out, but I’m not exactly sure what Families.com ‘s policy on nudity is. : )
At one point the rash got so bad that her GI doctor wrote us a prescription for Sensi-Care, but even that didn’t work. Our pediatrician had never cared for a baby with Lily’s birth defects. So she had been willing to defer to the specialist. However, when she realized they weren’t doing enough to combat the diaper rash, she recommended Triple Paste. She said it was the diaper cream that parents turn to when nothing else works. Sure enough, it worked almost immediately. Lily still has sensitive skin and probably always will, but I’m glad to know that I can rely on a product that truly does work.
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