Chinese Medicine for my toddler? Really?

The past two weeks have been rough for our 3 year old. Naps and bedtimes have rendered her a killer diaper rash. You know the kind I’m talking about: you put them to bed or down for a nap with a soft little peachy bum and they wake with raging red blisters and you feel like Mother of the Year. The poor thing has had moments where it’s tough to walk because she’s so sore.

What We Have Done

I’ve been around the block a few times when it comes to raising babies, so a diaper rash isn’t something that gets me down, but this is ridiculous. I have gone through rash creams, we have done muscle testing and eliminated foods giving her difficulty (corn, wheat, dairy, chocolate, brown and white rice). We know there is no yeast issue, nor is there an infection, parasite, or bug present in her gut, which is simply down right inflamed. I have bathed her twice daily, let her run around naked and even attempted to extract breast milk while hand pumping to pat on her behind. Once I eliminated offending foods, she cleared up after one week. Then, because I am human and allowed myself to get frazzled, I mistakenly gave her a piece of sprouted wheat toast instead of gluten free toast and within two days the raging rash was back again. Now, experience tells me it will take up to a week to clear up, and the peanut will hardly let me wipe her tush.

My Light Bulb Moment-Yesterday

This morning, in between seeing clients, I thought to ask the acupuncturist at the studio I work out of what she thought of diaper rashes. Her feedback was fascinating. She gave me a list of foods that would be cooling to her system as the heat in her body is trying to escape and through wee ones it comes through their mouths or behinds. We talked about the foods I have eliminated and why that’s important on the level of eastern medicine and decided to use acupressure beads to help alleviate the rash by balancing out the heat in her body. I have had experience with these beads and they are just little tiny beads that stick to your skin…ears are the typical location for these as they correlate with different places on your body, and they work really well. Now, I’ll step away from this and report back tomorrow.

My Light Bulb Moment-Today

WOW. Not only is she more grounded and happy today, but her little hind end has gone from raging red to dark pink with no use of any rash cream since the acupressure beads. Where her skin was “open” there is now dry skin peeling away and her hot red hives have decreased in size. She is completely excited about her “buttons”, the little moxa seeds that are used for the acupressure beads, and happily shows off and “pushes my buttons” as told to do by our acupuncturist. All in all, what an awesome experience. I would never have guessed that my three year old would have sat patiently for the three minutes it took to place each bead, but it didn’t take long for her to excitedly remove her thick wool socks to let us see her sweaty pink toes for proper placement of the beads on her feet. With just a handful of tiny beads on her feet, legs, tummy and ears, I am seeing a little one way more at peace than she was yesterday…and that equals one happy mama!