The challenges so far and action taken:
- Sore Skin: last night his skin was very sore and red under one arm and round his middle. He's also been walking round with his arms held up slightly (elbows high) so that they don't rub.
- I added extra felt to the cast - fortunately I'd asked for some (it wasn't offered). It needed 2 adults to hold J down to apply it and we still found it partly stuck to his already sore skin as we tried to turn it over the edges. Poor thing.
- Next time I'll ask for felt to be put under both arms and round the middle - they'd only put it under one arm.
- I put sudocream (antiseptic healing cream) on the red patches. He thought I was going to tickle him and was ready to laugh, but then looked confused - I feared getting cream everywhere, so couldn't make it a game at the time
- I've started picking him up differently and the nursery are doing this too. My natural way of picking him up is under both arms, but if you do that the cast moves - plus those are the areas where the skin is tender. Now I put one arm through between his legs so he sits on my arm and put the other one under one arm and round his back to support him. Otherwise the cast moves as you pick him up. It feels more tiring for my back and it was tricky with the car seat, but I'm sure we'll get used to it!
- Result: his skin looks less red now
- Loss of flexibility and mobility
- I've noticed that if J loses his balance, he's slightly more likely to fall over now because he can't bend to get upright again. He used to look like a surfer at times as he went back and forth, but managed to stay upright - with the cast he just sits down. It's great that he had already mastered walking so he has the confidence and muscles. Now he just needs to learn to adjust to the effects of the cast. I would imagine he'll get better at keeping upright over time.
- He can't roll over as well as he could. This was very helpful when I was changing his nappy - I'm fed up with playing "catch the baby" and hanging on to a foot while trying desperately to open the nappy/stick the tabs down with the other hand. I would imagine he'll get better at rolling too and we'll be back to normal very soon.
- Keeping clean and dry
- Not having a bath last night was HARD. He's had one every day since he came out of hospital age 3 days. It felt awful to go into the bathroom, run some water and then just use a damp flannel on him. We have a huge heap of bath toys (I'll have to take a photo to give you some idea of the scale- you name it we have it) and he adores pouring and splashing. We have lots of songs about ducks, splashing etc. He's also just been given a teaset and loves pouring and drinking "tea" (complete with lipsmacking - SO cute! It's made me aware that I go "ah that's nice" and smack my lips when I have a cuppa).
- I need to adapt our routine so we have a different "special time" like the bath was. You can't leave a baby in the bath on their own, so it's a very nice one-to-one time. What else can we do? We already read books, but he has to be in the mood for that. Something active we can both join in with would be good.
- Cuddles
- I've lost my squishy baby and I miss that squishiness already! Of course we're having lots of cuddles and tickles and everything, but he feels very different. I'm sure I will dare to do some rough and tumble games as we used to the cast, but I'm very wary about the friction of the cast on his skin and daren't be too rough at the moment. I need to get used to this quickly - we have another 3 years of being in casts/braces. I will definitely be making the most of the evening before re-casting when I get to peel off the cast and he can have a bath.
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