Aftermath of My Absent Mind

I sat down on the plane to California, thrilled for our first family trip across the country with our two month old daughter. I looked down at my joyful infant who was smiling from ear to ear after a long, fussy eczema flare filled night and smiled with joy and excitement and curiosity for the wonderful trip to come.

From 0 to 60, happy to irritated

I was worried that the plane taking off would upset her but she was shockingly quiet and curious as the plane went up. Although the sounds and movements of the plane did not aggravate or upset her, her atopic dermatitis had begun to do just that. Her happy go lucky smiles and murmurs turned quickly into irritable, unhappy winces. My smile faded fast as I looked down at her beautiful, sweet irritated eczema filled face and realized the mistake I had made.

My mistake

I had left her cream, which was prescribed by her doctor for her eczema, at home, in Charlotte and we were in the friendly skies heading across the country with an irritable baby who was in great need of her cream and some relief.

Spreading irritation

Moreover, it was six o'clock in the morning so her usual face care routine had not been done since the night before. I was feeling first-time mother's mistake guilt at an all-time high. My poor irritated baby had to sit in pain because her absentminded mother forgot to pack her cream and we were in too much of a rush to use it that morning.

Desperate and helpless

Other passengers were starting to stare and whisper with annoyance and she would not be soothed. The minutes she spent in her fussy fury felt like hours to her father and I as we did what we could to comfort her.

Playing it safe

I debated with myself about trying to use one of her lotions or night balm and thought, given the fragile state her face was in, that it was best not to risk further aggravation or worsening an already severe flare up. I knew that that using other products could potentially be counterproductive to all the efforts we had made to healing her face which had been flared like this for an extended period of time by this point.

A bumpy lullaby

As luck would have it, some slight turbulence on the plane due to the wind, acted as a comforting distraction for my previously agitated angel. She stopped crying and rubbing her face and all was well for the rest of the plane ride.

Desperate to stop the irritation

When we got to California, we had a busy day ahead, and while her atopic dermatitis started to aggravate her again on multiple occasions that day, we were unable to go to a store to find some hydrocortisone. I also worried that over the counter hydrocortisone might not be as helpful as her prescription had been.

A band-aid or a solution?

When we finally had time to spare, we wanted to head to Walmart to get her usual hydrocortisone, only to find that there were none around. Now, I had to worry about whether the hydrocortisone would be productive and use a different product as we were unable to find the brand she was used to using.

Plan to be proactive

Though she stopped rubbing and seeming irritated with her face after we purchased the hydrocortisone, her face did not look any less flared for the remainder of the trip. I still wonder if my lack of preparedness slowed her healing process and now realize the importance of being proactive with preparation for my baby and to be as sensitive as I can to her atopic dermatitis needs as possible.