1. Heat rash can spread like wildfire, even hours after sun exposure has ended.
2. Sleeping with a toddler with heat rash is a lot like sleeping next to a landed trout.
3. In addition to being annoyingly itchy, heat rash can cause a pins and needles sensation that has your toddler kicking his or her legs every 20-30 seconds.
4. Corn starch doesn't get enough credit for being the best fix-it ever for rashes - it works better than anything I've ever seen and even takes away redness.
5. Target employs judgmental jerk pharmacists that chew you out in front of other customers at the mere suggestion of using an anti-itch topical on your toddler. (I was desperate and had the unmitigated gall to politely ask someone trained in pharmacy if there was anything I could use. Then I was subjected to a delightful diatribe on my parenting skills. Thanks, jackass. I really needed that after waking next to a scratched up, slightly blood-spotted little boy looking to me to make things better, particularly when I was running on an hour and a half of sleep. No, really.)
6. When I'm tired and get chewed out by a pharmacist in public, I get mad. Really mad. And so do other parents around me who've been in a similar situation. Thanks, strangers - your reassurances and genuinely helpful suggestions after being yelled at by the bad man was exactly what I needed.
If you haven't guessed, Ragsy had heat rash. All freaking weekend. He had insisted on wearing his jeans to the zoo when he went with his dad. Having trekked all over Bombay in long pants (shorts are generally not worn, not even by toddlers), my husband understandably assumed that Ragsy would be fine. After all, Bombay is much more humid and just as hot as here, so he had no reason to think otherwise. Until he arrived at our meeting place for lunch. Ragsy was already starting to develop a rash, but the redness was starting to go away when he got into the cool air. So we decided not to worry and to see what happened. And boy did the crap hit the fan.
Ragsy was having trouble sitting still - he was tired, he had been sweaty, so we fed him and I took off for home while my husband chatted with a friend. After a mere 45-minute nap, Ragsy woke up exhausted and sweaty and ticked off. He wanted up. He wanted down. He didn't know exactly what he wanted, only that he wanted...something. He's a pretty cheerful kid, so the crying and screaming that followed let me know that we were missing something. He's not the type to scream just to hear the sound of his own voice. So my husband stripped him and there was a rash on his thighs, right where it would rub against me if I picked him up.
Over a period of about 8 hours, it developed not just on his thigh chub and a spot on his arm, it covered his legs, spread to his butt, his back, his tummy, arms, cheeks. So we turned on the AC full blast and started rubbing him with cool water. He was understandably annoyed - if someone pulled off my clothes and turned me into an ice cube, I'd be mad, too. After a very rough night, he woke up cheerful but still spotty, so I dredged him in corn starch, all day. Finally, he managed to sleep for more than an hour for a nap, then only woke 3 times in the night. Then yesterday, he woke up after an hour's nap, wobbled into our bedroom and collapsed next to me and stayed put for three hours. He also slept through the night. Score!
We obviously didn't do much this weekend, though I was hoping to hang out with friends or at least go to a park or something. Still, it was worth it to stay in. The kid still has a patch just under his rear end, but he's happy, comfortable and almost bump free. I, on the other hand, am drained, draggy and desperately in need of caffeination, though I'm more relieved that I can say.
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