Dry Skin for babies

I’ve noticed over the past month, maybe, that my baby girl has a few dry patches on her skin.  They’ve showed up on her thighs, forearms, and belly.  Poor girl but they don’t seem to be bothering her, in other words she’s not scratching them, but, of course, I want to get rid of them in hopes to prevent further problems. 

I’ve tried bathing her every three (3) days instead of every two (2) days and there was no change.  Than I thought maybe it was the scented bath wash. 

I’ve used Aveeno in the past for myself when I was younger for a skin irritation and it worked for me so decided to try it for my daughter.  Found a bath and shampoo wash for babies that was unscented, this seemed to help a little bit but the dry patches were still there.  Next I switched to an unscented lotion, since the Aveeno wash helped a bit I decided to try their lotion.  It seemed to help but, again, only a bit. 

Was using lotion on her every day and always after a bath.  I never rubbed her dry just patted her down and than applied the lotion.  Like I said this did seem to help but not entirely. 

I had an appointment for her four (4) month immunization at the local Health Care Centre.  Like the previous appointment the nurse asked me questions about baby and checked her over.  Thought it would be a great time to get some questions of my own out, I mean who better to ask than the local health centre and nurses that deal with babies on a daily basis.  She did notice the dry patches and said that it is possible that it could be eczema.  Mentioned to talk to her doctor if it gets worse but also told me to try Vaseline brand lotion.  Really I had nothing to lose at this point and I’m thankful that the patches weren’t getting worse.

I had some unscented Vaseline lotion at home.  Since I had some of this Vaseline lotion at home I might as well try it, plus it was unscented.  Nothing like scented lotion to make a skin irritation worse or more irritated.  Have been using this Vaseline since and from the first day I’ve noticed improvement also every day since there has been more improvement.  Her skin is starting to feel baby soft again and I’m so happy the nurse suggested something as simple as Vaseline.  I really didn’t want to use a medicated lotion that would have steroids in it.  Not the ideal stuff to use for a baby in my humble opinion, but if it was necessary I would have. 

The nurse also mentioned that most lotions are “Glaxal” based and if the Vaseline didn’t work that I could purchase a pure Glaxal base to use on the patches.  So something to keep in mind but at least the Vaseline is working and her skin is becoming that baby bottom soft again!

What steps did you do to eliminate such a skin irritation? What lotion worked best for your little one?