Questions and Guessing

Being a first-time mother of a newborn is the most wonderful, life-altering experience any woman could ever be blessed with the great fortune to endeavor. It's a great journey of self-discovery and endless adventure as well as daily lessons learned. That being said, being a first time mother of a newborn is also an extremely emotional and anxiety-filled experience at times. And doing the first couple months, I would venture to say almost daily worries and anxieties are experienced.

Is this the right way?

You often question or second guess almost everything and you just want to do everything "the right way" while discovering more and more each day that there really is no right way, just a way that is right for you and your baby. And that "right way"  is subject to change and also subject to the suggestions of many which may start the process of second-guessing and questioning all over again. Couple the aforementioned with an infant with atopic dermatitis and you've got a recipe for worry and concern.  That recipe for concern reaches new heights when her atopic dermatitis is increasingly severe and on her face, where even strangers may call to question your choices.

Deciding what helps and what hurts

When you're the mother of an infant with eczema everything is called to question, as it should be. I was worried and unsure about everything for the first couple weeks. My questioned tripled when her face became flared and discolored due to her atopic dermatitis. I questioned her washing powder, what to use on her body, even the material her clothes and diapers were made of. More challenging still was how to find answers. Do I use trial and error and risk the possibility of making her atopic dermatitis worse before I could make it better? Do I not experiment and stick with what I am used to using on her? If I change multiple things I use on her and for her products how will I know which is the wrong one?

The endless question of what caused this flare

The suggestions doctors had to offer were the same as google and my own mind, a long list of possibilities and what-ifs with no "real" solutions, just what "could" be. My husband asked about allergy tests to get clarification on what the root cause was by I already knew that could do more damage than good at such a young age and the doctor confirmed with a firm no. We started with changing her products one at a time to no avail. She continued to have outbreaks and we were unable to tell if the products we tried were causing or contributing to her atopic dermatitis or whether her breakouts were just bound to happen regardless. We came to the harsh reality that searching for causes was not an option for our baby. We had to just select gentle products with no perfumes, use water-based simple products with minimal ingredients and be mindful of the materials we laid her on or against including our clothes and blankets and what they were washed in.

We still don't know what the "cause" is or was of her atopic dermatitis but we know that the aforementioned works as prevention better than using "regular" baby lotions ad items. Though flare-ups still happen frequency has decreased drastically. Howevere when they do occur it continues to be a guessing and questioning game.