Burns and Nightmares

It only took 3 doses of Augmentin before the trouble really started. It began with a scenario I hadn’t seen in months, Carter walking around with his hand grabbing at his bottom and saying “Owwwie”. I changed him and was met with acidic poop and a bright red bottom. There was a small, raised bump on his bottom as well. I coated him with Desitin and it only made him cringe. Little did I know at the time, but Desitin is not the best idea to help extreme cases of reactive diapers. 

Later that day, he pooped again, and started to cry. This time when I changed him, we both ended up in tears. He grabbed and clawed at my arms, screaming in pain as I wiped his little bottom clean. That “small, raised bump” had turned into a raw, oozing burn the size of a quarter. The rest of his bottom was covered in red bumps and was red and swollen. I coated the entire area in Aquaphor, my new best friend. He cried out and winced in pain when I picked him up and pressed against his diaper area. When we got downstairs, every step was followed by an ouchie kind of noise. He was walking with his legs spread wide apart.  And them he sat down to read a book. The shock surprised me almost as much as it did him. He couldn’t sit down!!

We’ve had some nasty diaper rashes in the past. We’ve had one’s that have bled and covered his diaper in blood, but they never caused him this much pain. I gave him so Tylenol and we settled him in a bath. It was like having a newborn again. He couldn’t sit, do we had to lay him down. And surprisingly enough, he didn’t fight it. He just laid there while we poured water on him to help sooth the pain. It was almost 2 hours before he could sit down again. We stopped the Augmentin and it still took over a week before the acidic diapers went away, before he stopped screaming at every diaper change. The oozing burn on his bottom has turned into a scar. That was 3 teaspoons of medicine over 3 days. That was all it took to wreck havoc on his system.

And if all that wasn’t enough, we’ve had to stop the Singulair because it DID give him nightmares. How can you tell if a one year old is having nightmares? Hour after hour of crying out in his sleep. Screams waking me up, causing me to fly out of bed. Picking him up and finding him inconsolable. He was not only having nightmares, he escalated to night terrors. We went through those with Tyler. It was a phase for him and I couldn’t help make it better.  I was not about to put Cater through that too. Especially not if I could stop it.

Our medicine choices are becoming more and more limited. They seem to be causing more harm than good. Where do we go from here?