Mama Byrd

Phillip had his 6-month check-up on Wednesday, with mixed results. He checks out well on height and weight (27 1/2 inches long, 19 lbs. 6 oz., 75th percentile on both). He had his 6-month shots and didn’t seem to notice until the third shot, when he promptly chewed the nurse out in baby babble (I think “yah, yah, yah, YAH!” might be some sort of swearing, but I didn’t correct him because I wasn’t sure).

When the doctor walked in and saw him, however, she informed me that he has the worst case of ezcema she’s ever seen. I think I was supposed to be shamed by that comment, as if maybe I hadn’t noticed that he has a flesh-eating rash all over the lower half of his face and neck (this picture is of Phillip at the start of his ezcema rash– we didn’t torture him with pictures of the worst of it). I had noticed, and I’ve been through three different kidns of lotion to try to get rid of it. I was unprepared, however, for the $70 regimen of Eucerin lotion, hydrocortizone cream, and fragrance-free detergent that she prescribed for me (I think she must be in cohoots with Wal-Mart).

Her next question was, “Does anyone in your family have asthma?” Uh, yeah, like all of us except Lannie. Apparently, extreme ezcema in babies is an early indicator of asthma, so Phillip has now joined the ranks of daily Singulair kids in the Byrd family, or as Lannie calls it “the $20 a month club.” Caleb, always a cut above the others, is a member of the $60 a month club, due to his more severe asthma symptoms. Just when I had convinced myself that having three kids wasn’t that much more expensive than having two– BAM! Hit with another bill. Not that I’m complaining. I’ll pay as much as it takes for them to breathe. I just wish someone had warned me before I started having kids that all of them would have asthma. I would have starting stashing money away for their prescription drug plans when I was still in junior high school.

Filed under: Uncategorized on April 21st, 2006