One of the challenges that toddlers and their parents navigate as they grow is potty learning. A couple of months ago, Dylan decided that it was his time to graduate to big boy underwear. He did great for a few weeks, even on a six hour long car ride to Maine. For some reason, he then decided to abandon his undies and go back to diapers.
When Dylan changed direction and went back to wearing diapers it confused me, so I did a little research on potty learning and regression. I learned that sometimes, toddlers will master using the potty, only to get bored with it and return to diapers for a while before starting to use the potty again. It makes sense, I mean, there are plenty of things (like playing) that toddlers would rather do than take a break to pee on the potty.
Unfortunately, it seems as though Dylan’s skin would prefer that he use the potty instead of diapers. For the past few weeks, he has had a nasty diaper rash. I have tried a few creams and they work a little bit but they do not get rid of the rash completely. This evening, I did my Mommy research on the topic of toddler diaper rashes, in hopes of finding some fresh ideas for getting rid of the rash.
Apparently, toddlers’ urine is more intense than that of their younger counterparts, and is more irritating to their skin. This could explain why Dylan never had a diaper rash until he was over two years old. There are also a few home remedy type treatments for diaper rash that I have not yet tried. One is adding baking soda to his bath water. Another is feeding him yogurt as well as applying plain, unsweetened yogurt instead of diaper rash cream. The Acidophilus cultures in yogurt have been shown to get rid of diaper rashes that are caused by yeast. Of course, naked time is also recommended so I just might have to fight my fear that my house will become a potty and let him run around diaper free. Hopefully with these new tricks up my sleeve, the diaper rash will soon be gone for good.
Photo by greyerbaby on morguefile.com.