Job

Teo, who has mastered sitting up well before he's even six months old, is now standing on his own, too, while holding on to something. Today we were at a cloth diaper swap and he stood for a long time holding onto a toy wagon. He's pretty thrilled with himself, it's clear.

He was in a great mood today. Yesterday, Tina took him to a chiropractor who works solely with children. We're at the point where I'm ready to kill a chicken under the full moon if it will help him get over all of these nagging health issues.

It started with an ear infection that we gave him antibiotics for. The atibiotics cleared up the ear infection, but also killed off the good bacteria so he developed thrush and a terrible yeast diaper rash. We got his pediatrician to prescribe drops for his thrush and ointment for his bottom, but the drops made his excema flare up again. This after Tina has mostly got it in control by giving up all dairy, eggs, peanuts and soy products. So the kid has terrible cradle cap, excema, thrush and a diaper rash. My dad said he's like Job.

So Tina took him to the chiropractor, who explained that often babies who are delivered using the vacuum end up having problems getting a good latch on the breast, which can lead to more ear infections and other problems. She brought in their massage therapist who did craniosacral therapy and myofascial release on the little guy. She told Tina to stay off all the foods she's given up and also to go off wheat. I told Tina it might be easier, at this point, if we ask the doctor to give us a lit of the foods Teen CAN eat. She presecribed grapefruit seed extract and acidophilus powder for the thrush, and castor oil for the eczema. We're also continuing to use the prescription hydrocortizone and a lot of aquaphor on the excema. We've started using mostly cloth diapers for him because of the rashes, and Tina has bought all these really cool new combination cloth diapers/plastic covers with velcro closures. (These are not your grandmother's cloth diapers.) Of course, we've had to develop a system for dealing with the dirty cloth diapers now, too.

We really need a full-time nurse to keep up with all the treatments this kid is getting. It's a good thing he's cute and sweet and clearly thinks I'm the coolest person on the planet. Otherwise I might be tempted bring this one back to the hospital and exchange him.