Out of the frying pan and into the fire

A couple of weeks ago, it occurred to me that winter is upon us, the central heating is on and we could all do with a little more humidity in our lives. So after Mallory's bath, I lathered her up with some Burt's Bees lotion that was, in fact, part of a baby gift basket we received when she was born.By the next morning she was red and scaly all over, and itching like mad. I guess instead of fending off the eczema she contended with last year, I brought it on. We have spent the past two weeks drastically reducing the number of baths she has and slathering her in Aveeno Baby, which is supposed to be great for baby eczema and does indeed seem to help.Yesterday morning she was in a completely foul mood, despite having had lots of sleep the night before and despite us catering to her every whim. We went to the Roberts family get-together yesterday afternoon and I was worried; if she was so cantankerous at home in the morning, how would she make it through an afternoon social event slated for the exact time she was supposed to be sleeping?She did fine at the get-together (catching a quick catnap on my shoulder to help her through it). But it all suddenly made sense when we got her home last night and changed her into her pajamas, and I discovered that she had two terrible raw, red patches of eczema behind her knees. Seriously, it looked like someone sat her on a stove burner or something. No wonder she was so miserable. I don't know how we missed that when we got her dressed in the morning, but we did.It was time to bring out the big guns. I still had some prescription hydrocortisone cream socked away, and though I hate using anything that's prescribed by a doctor who tells you to really avoid using it whenever possible - not exactly words to make you feel warm and fuzzy about what you're giving your kid, right? - I put some on her. And this morning, the areas do look much much better.

Unfortunately, this morning she has a terrible, hacking cough to make up for it. I went so far as to give her a half dose of cough syrup before sending her out the door this morning. They may not recommend it anymore based on the number of parents out there overdosing their kids, but I think I can handle reading the label and measuring appropriately. I didn't do all those titration labs in university for nothing.