[carrieatltu]

Hi all,

Sorry I haven't posted in so long. My girls keep me pretty busy (and we now have another one on the way due in Sept). Anyway my question is about Isabel. She came home at 11 months old and the foster mom had her on the habit of going to bed with a bottle. She will drink milk out of soft sippy cups as well, but this is the only way she knows how to fall asleep. She is now 20 months old and I'm thinking she needs to break this habit but I'm at a loss of how. She won't fall asleep any other way. I've held her when she was crying at 2am (which still happens at least a couple times a week) and nothing will settle her down except laying down in her crib with a bottle. Does anyone have any tips???

Also, does anyone have issues with really sensitive skin in the diaper area? Isabel always itches regardless of what I put on her;.... and breaks out in diaper rashes pretty often. Its to the point where most of the skin that is covered by the diaper is a much lighter shade than the rest of her body.

Thanks,
Carrie

[Waiting4Bryan]

Hi,
My son is almost a year and my doctor insisted I stop the nighttime bottle feedings. In fact, she would have preferrred I did it sooner. She told me to reduce the amount by one oz every couple of nights. When I got down to only giving him one oz, it frustrated him so I stopped entirely. The next night he woke up and cried for about one hour, the following night he slept through the night and continues to do so. She told me to not go into his room and let him cry it out, that he needs to learn how to put himself back to sleep. Though it was hard, she was right on target. She also said she wants him totally off the bottle no later then the 14th month. For that, she suggested doing it in the same way, eliminating one bottle at a time over a few days.

[lexiesmom]

Hi

For the bad diaper rash, we use Bag Balm. Most pharmacies have it. It might not be on the shelf, you may have to ask for it, but it works wonders, so quickly.

For the bottle problem, my daughter came home on 9 oz of formula in her bottle at night. I weaned her off it. Now I give her a sippy cup 1/2 full of water, which she doesn't drink. I think it is just her comfort. It will take awhile but weaning little by little it will work.

Good luck

Donna

[Holifield99]

We had one with sensitive skin and repeated diaper rashes. Our pediatrician said the best thing to do is let your little one go diaperless as much as you can. It is a little hard to do, but really seemed to help. We had a couple accidents but surprisingly few compared to what I expected. We spent those times in rooms without carpet!

[cmc]

One thought- try changing the brand of diaper. My son uses huggies and never had a rash. The one time I tried pampers he got an awful rash. once I switched back, he was fine.
good luck.

[carrieatltu]

I know that the falling asleep with bottle/sippy needs to stop. She is 20 months old and will still wake up once during the night crying and the only thing that satisfies it is her milk. I let her cry too. Not just a minute or 2, she will cry for hours! I'm at such a loss. My bio daughter just turned 1 and most of the time will sleep through the night. I know they are different children, but I really need any suggestions you can provide. Can anyone suggest what kind of a feeding schedule their children were on at this age? Maybe she's still hungry...

[Kesti]

The Butt Paste works great for diaper rash. Also, have you tried plain old A&D Ointment as we used that for my bio daughter's diaper rash as she was getting horrible rashes due to all of the medications she was on before she died. Not the diaper rash A&D ointment, the regular kind. Our Ped. had told us to do the no diaper thing to but that means your baby will be urinating, etc. on the floor, you, etc. as I tried that and said forget it.

Originally Posted by carrieatltu

Also, does anyone have issues with really sensitive skin in the diaper area? Isabel always itches regardless of what I put on her;.... and breaks out in diaper rashes pretty often. Its to the point where most of the skin that is covered by the diaper is a much lighter shade than the rest of her body.

Thanks,
Carrie

[eniseday]

I'm having the same issues with my son as far as the bottle goes. He came home at 9 months and is now 11 months. He always goes down with a bottle. I've got a nice peditricain who said he would let us give him the bottle to go down until 15 months. He has suggested that we let him cry it out, but I can't do that yet. I usually give him the bottle while I rock him. Sometimes he falls asleep with the bottle and sometimes he finished the bottle and then I rock him to sleep. I like the idea of reducing it by a few ounces every few weeks. Good Luck and let us know what happens.

[mary594]

I guess I just think differently than everyone else and so does my pediatrician. Juliet is 21 months old I still give her a bottle before bedtime. She has a queen size bed so I lay down with her she drinks the bottle hands it to me and rolls over and goes to sleep. Now what is wrong with that!!!! The way I feel she is not going to be 10 years old and wanting a bottle. During the day I usually give her milk in a bottle. I use sippy cups and straws for everything else. Everyone is to fixated on when to stop bottles, I don't believe in letting them cry it out. I tried that with Juliet and after hours I said forget it, if she cries then I go get her. Again this will not go on forever eventually she will grow out of it.

The couple times she had diaper rash the only thing that worked for her and fast was plain old cornstarch. all the other stuff was useless.

Good luck to you, don't stress out to much over it.

Mary

[jnancynancy]

Good luck with this one,

For the diapers have you tried the Chlorine free ones? I've never used them for my kids, I'm a Pampers lover, but she could be having a reaction.

As for the bottle...I agree with mary594 I didn't mind my kiddos having them. We didn't even have a big transition off of them they just stopped when they needed to around 3yrs. This was for my younger 2 kids with my older one I did whatever the pediatrician told me. I would go with your gut. I know some people have put water in the bottle so the kids can still have it, but with out the milk they don't like it as much.

Like Mary said she won't need one in kindergarten...my kids now 10 & 11 sleep just fine.

Good luck!

[adoptionnewbie]

I have no advice regarding the bottle.. my little one still takes one at night at 11 months old.. but regarding the diaper rash.. I wonder if some hydrocortisone cream might work? My little one had a stubborn rash and that took care of it after a couple of days. It couldn't hurt to try it.

Best of luck to you!

[jnancynancy]

Another thought on the diaper issue, has your pediatrician ruled out a yeast or "athlete's foot" type of infection? My daughter would get itchy light spots on her cheek (face ) and we had to use a cream for athlete's foot because it wasn't just dry skin.

[lwils89701]

and then pushed back the time frame. One night my son woke less than 2 hours after he had been put down and was refusing to settle again without a bottle. I knew he couldn't be hungry so I tried water. To my surprise, my son was just as happy with warm water in his bottle as he was milk.

He also started waking more often and earlier and earlier, which was leading to sleep deprivation for the both of us. It was hard, but I decided I would not offer him a bottle if he woke before 3 am figuring his dinner and pre-bed bottle should hold him at least that long. I would hold him quietly in the dark and rock him...and every 20 minutes or so try to put him down. Sometimes he slept other times we started over, but no bottle was offered until he woke after 3. It took him all of three days to figure it out. He started sleeping till EXACTLY 3 am and then waking for the bottle. (I was flabergasted at how quickly he caught on and how precisely he could estimate time! How did he know when it was the magic hour?) I slowly pushed the time back...no bottle until 3:30 am, then 4. Within two weeks he was sleeping till 5:30 and I felt like I was human again.

I don't know if it will work for you, but eventually you will find the thing that does...just plan on a gradual change to make it less stressful for all.

Good Luck.

[carrieatltu]

I do kinda like the way Mary thinks. But I wonder if she is drinking too much milk. I suppose I could make the bottles smaller. As I mentioned, I've tried letting her cry when she wakes up in the middle of the night to see if she'll put herself back to sleep. Occasionally she does, but more times than not she will cry continuously for hours. I can't imagine it would be any different going to sleep that way. Perhaps she just isn't ready yet.

[AddisonsMommy]

For the stubborn, icky diaper rash, try this....it works WONDERS for us and always cheap and easy to do.....

Mix some plain old cornstarch into a bowl of plain old Vaseline petroleum jelly. What I do is get an old throwaway butter container, or something...something you don't mind if it gets greasy and then you can toss it out later...I put the Vaseline in...actually I used the whole container so I could have my "concoction" on hand all the time. Then I put in some cornstarch. Use your judgement on how much, but be generous. If you take a fork and stir it around, you can mix it well and see how it forms a nice, thick paste. It's greasy, yes...but let me tell you it works like a charm!!

Addison had a BAD diaper rash, the burning, red kind...and it cleared up in no time. These instructions were not from someone's old wives tales, they were straight from my pediatrician's office. All the women there use this on their kids with great success!!

The Vaseline protects, while the cornstarch heals. TRY IT!!!

Jen