Diaper Rash and Teething: Coincidence or Connection?

I wasn’t sure I believed it – what did TEETHING have to do with a diaper rash? Apparently, more than I realized.

The first time my son got a diaper rash while teething I didn’t really take note of it. It was true that he didn’t normally get diaper rashes, but he was a baby after all, they had to happen sometimes, right? The second time he got a diaper rash while teething I thought it was odd but still didn’t assume there was a relationship between the two. That was until I mentioned it in conversation with another mom and she told me that the two occurrences could be related. I wasn’t sure I believed it – what did TEETHING have to do with a rashy bottom? Apparently, more than I realized.

Does teething cause a diaper rash?

As it turns out, teething does not exactly cause a diaper rash, but some studies suggest that it can contribute to it. The link between the two lies in increased drooling. When a baby has a new tooth erupting through their gums, they generally experience an increased production of saliva. This helps the teething process by providing lubrication for the new teeth breaking through the gumline. In addition, your baby may be gnawing on items more than typical as pressure can help relieve irritation from teething, and simply the act of chewing itself contributes to the generation of extra saliva.

Of course all of this extra saliva has to go somewhere, so your baby likely ends up swallowing lots more saliva than normal. This extra saliva can disrupt your baby’s digestive system, in turn having an adverse effect on their stools, resulting in diarrhea which is a risk factor for developing diaper rash. In addition, the extra saliva can also aggravate the skin on your baby’s face causing it to become dry and reddened as well, so it’s a good idea to wipe away any drool when you see it.

How do you know if teething is contributing to your baby’s diaper rash?

It’s hard to truly know if teething on its own is contributing to your child’s diaper rash, but it’s important not to simply write off diaper rashes that occur in teething babies as a symptom of gaining some new choppers. In fact, teething can occur simultaneously as many other new life events that may disrupt your child’s digestive system. For instance, teething often takes place in tandem with the expansion of a child’s solid food palate which doesn’t always sit well with little tummies. In addition, the exposure to new viruses or bacteria on a young immune system may contribute to a brief increase in diarrhea which in turn irritates baby bottoms.

How to Prevent and Prevent Diaper Rashes when Teething

As you may have picked up, loose stools are a prevailing risk factor for developing diaper rash. Any wet diaper though – from pee or poop – can cause an uncomfortable friction between your child’s skin and their diaper, which manifests as a rash and contributes to the skin becoming overly dried out. Therefore, the true key to diaper rash prevention is keeping your child’s skin dry.

You can do this by regularly changing their diaper, as often as every two hours and immediately if they’ve had bowel movement. Use a mild, fragrance-free baby wipe or warm water and a soft cloth to clean the area and pat the skin dry with a towel before putting on a new diaper. My child’s pediatrician also recommended giving my babies some diaper-free tummy time on a towel to allow the skin to breathe a bit before replacing a new diaper. Finally, applying a barrier of diaper cream can provide a protective layer to the skin and prevent over drying of the skin and chafing.

How to Treat Diaper Rashes when Teething

So, what if you follow the preventative measures above and your baby still ends up with a diaper rash? As many parents know, a diaper rash can be difficult to stop once it’s in motion. Fortunately, there are additional steps you can take to treat diaper rash. My children’s pediatrician recommended keeping a constant layer of diaper cream on their bottom and not to wipe the affected area that is covered in cream as you are changing the diaper. Instead, he suggested that I simply pat it and then add more cream. The action of wiping can aggravate the already inflamed skin and cause it to become more irritated so if at all possible, resort to gently patting it. Also, increasing the amount of diaper-free time your child has is one of the quickest ways to eradicate diaper rashes – just make sure to put towels down or be ready to clean up some messes!

Finally, if you feel that you are not able to improve your child’s diaper rash be sure to take them to the pediatrician for additional guidance. The last thing you want is for your baby to be suffering from an uncomfortable diaper rash AND a painful teething episode! Always err on the side of caution and seek medical consul when in doubt.

Adjusting To Life With Two Kids Under Two: 21 Months Apart

Adjusting to life with two kids under two takes time but you can find a routine where your family thrives!

I’ll be honest, deciding to have two children under two years old made me nervous. I felt that I already had my hands VERY full with a young toddler. However, my husband and I ultimately knew that we wanted two kids and the clock was ticking with poignant intensity. We were both getting older, and I had dealt with infertility prior to having our first child, so I knew that getting pregnant again could potentially be a lengthy process. As luck would have it though, four days after my first IVF transfer, I found myself pregnant and on track to have two young children under two years old.

My son was 21 months old when my daughter was born. Just as I’d remembered with my son when he was a newborn, for me the first several months with two little ones was the hardest. As I soon learned, juggling two very young children is a juggling act, a skill like any other that improves with practice, but is never mastered. What I wish I could have told myself looking back only 9 months now is that caring for two children under two gets MUCH EASIER as a routine becomes established. Everyone in our household from my husband and I, the kids, and (even the dogs!) seemed to settle down once we found a rhythm as a family of four. That process though was easier said than done. For me finding that routine and helping both children to recognize it was the biggest struggle.

Challenges of Two Under Two

For quite a while, caring for my son was much more challenging than caring for my newborn daughter. My son was not very communicative nor terribly independent, so he very much needed mommy! If you are in this place though – know that six months makes a world of difference! Following my daughter’s birth, I was physically and mentally depleted. I was revering from a c-section as well as postpartum preeclampsia and on top of all of that the baby blues hit me H-A-R-D. It took about six weeks before I began to feel myself again mentally and find the rhythm of my new and increasingly chaotic life!

At times in the beginning, I felt completely overwhelmed by the responsibility of two little frequently wailing children, and their tears weighed on me like a personal failure. I came to realize later that this thinking was heavily influenced by my baby blues, and not my true ineptitude, but the feelings at the time were very real. I recall one evening about three weeks after my daughter was born when I had encouraged my husband, who is a musician, to go enjoy band practice with his friends. This was something that he’d put on hold for the last month but I knew at some point we had to get back to our personal hobbies and so I figured I’d rip the band aid off.

The evening ended up being a complete disaster. The children spent most of the night crying in tandem and I had absolutely no clue how to do a bedtime routine with two kids, not to mention a newborn that had no semblance of a sleep schedule. By about 7:30pm we were all in tears and I was wondering if I’d bit off more than I could chew as a mom of two.

It Gets Easier

What I did discover after that night though is that through trial and error I learned to create a routine. So every Wednesday night when my husband went to band practice and I had to take care of both kids on my own I got a little bit better at it.

I practiced bathing my son while entertaining the baby on a blanket next to the tub. I tried rocking her in a little chair with my foot while reading bedtime stories to my toddler, and then I finally decided on making her bedtime just before my son’s to give myself and him some one-on-one time. Of course “bedtime” for a newborn is a loose term and they will wake up anywhere from 60 to 120 minutes after being put down “to bed”, but creating this window of time for my toddler’s nighttime routine felt like a small success.

In addition, this one-on-one time was crucial because I could see some sibling jealousy starting to creep into my toddler. When I held the baby he would often start crying and asking to be held, or try to push my daughter out of my lap if we were all reading a book together. Clearly, even at 21 months, for a toddler learning to share Mama is an adjustment!

Returning to a “normal” sleep schedule was perhaps the biggest and most rewarding hurdle to overcome with two children under two. Toddlers take A LOT of energy and so having a newborn and a toddler is not at all like simply having a newborn. You are constantly in motion and working to meet the needs a of a very tiny, and very active human. With our second child we were fortunate to have the help of a night nanny several nights a week for the first six weeks, so I was able to get some much-needed long nights of rest. This helped me to not only overcome my postpartum preeclampsia, but to return to a healthy mental state and be the best mom I could be for my toddler. I realize that we are incredibly lucky to have had the luxury of a night nanny, but if you are considering it, I cannot recommend the experience enough. It will give you back your sanity!

Moving Beyond Two Under Two

Just as we were wrapping up the newborn stage my son turned two years old. From that point on, my infant daughter began to get easier and less fussy, and my toddler son became more communicative and independent. Now that my daughter is 9 months old and my son is 2.5 years old, I can confidently say that life is MUCH easier than it was 7 or 8 months ago. Even though my daughter is crawling and very much on the go, we can do things with both children that fill our cups and allow us to feel, if only temporarily, that we have things under control! For starters, everybody sleeps through the night, they can go to the park together – (the baby loves the infant swings!), we can go out to dinner as a family and everyone generally acts respectably in public so long as we don’t push it more than an hour. We also do regular trips out to the zoo and both children enjoy it.

What is most special about the time we spend together now are the moments where I begin to see my kids interact. My son enjoys making faces that cause the baby to laugh, and my daughter squeals with delight when her brother rolls around on the floor with her. These simple snapshots in time remind me why I’m so glad that we have two children close together in age, and at times the cuteness even makes me wonder if a third child would just make my heart explode… Hmmm?

Tips for Surviving Two Under Two

Adjusting to having two kids under two is about finding a routine that meets you and your children’s needs and allows you to maintain some semblance of balance in everyone’s life – physically, emotionally, and socially. For me that meant getting to a place where I didn’t feel constantly overwhelmed (it’s inevitable that you will occasionally be overwhelmed) and participating again in things that are important to me as an individual – spending time with friends and enjoying hobbies.

Here are my tips for helping you get ‘back on track’ following the birth of your second child. Take these to heart and remember that your two under two adjustment period will take time, but soon enough you and your little ones will be thriving!

1. Get Sleep – There’s only so much you can do on this front, but working on a routine that you can split with your partner if applicable, enlisting the help of family, or utilizing a night nanny is CRUCIAL to making you a functioning human being again. Until you are getting reasonable sleep it will feel impossible to keep up with a newborn, let alone the energy of a toddler!

2. Use Baby Gear to Your Advantage! – Need to go grocery shopping? Baby wear your infant and place your toddler in a shopping cart. Want to visit the park? Bring some exciting new sand toys and a Tush Baby carrier so that you can easily hold your infant and keep your toddler relatively contained in the sandbox. Need to get out of the house? Put the double stroller to use! It can be intimidating to leave the house with both children – especially on your own – but your sanity will be glad you braved the outing.

3. Accept What You Can’t Control – There will be times when both children are crying and screaming. You won’t be able to make them happy no matter how hard you try or how well you planned. Know that this is just part of life and try to let it go. Remember, demonstrating how to regulate emotions will (eventually!) teach your children to do it themselves as they learn by example.

My Stay-At-Home Mom Schedule with an Infant and Toddler

My stay-at-home mom schedule for life with an infant and toddler

I’m going to just say it. The stay-at-home mom gig looks a lot more glamorous on paper than it does in real life. Before I had kids, I remember thinking that being a stay-at-home mom schedule was the ultimate luxury. Dressing up little girls like dolls, going out for leisurely mid-morning strolls, and filling spare time with quaint hobbies like gardening.

I HAD NO CLUE.

When I finally did have children in my mid-thirties, the haze of my daydream parted and I realized that parenting was fulfilling in the ways that I’d imagined, but definitely no walk in the park. That’s why I continued to thrive in a full-time job where I nourished my identity outside of children, by pursuing a career and adult relationships, while balancing mom-ing in between. Admittedly, the juggling act wasn’t perfect, but it worked for me. I was the mom proving that you could keep all balls in the air at once. But there was definitely a sacrifice to be paid. Note that you can have it all – but note that if you do, you will be dead tired.

As fate would have it though shortly after my second child, a daughter, was born I found myself gaining a new identity as a stay-at-home mom.

The Transition To Stay-At-Home Mom

For some, the transition might be the realization of a dream, but to be honest, for me it was a bit of a struggle. There were things I loved about my new role, and yet things I feared. I relished in the absence of work stress and the ability to more fully contribute to the formative years of my children’s lives, but I grappled with the inability to design a daily schedule that fulfilled both my children, and myself. Not to mention one that left all of us with our sanity relatively intact.

Quite often I found myself in the routine of what I considered “holding down the fort”. I moved the children through all of the day’s necessary routines – teeth brushing, dressing, eating, diaper changing, and so forth, but I arrived at a feeling of stalemate, where I knew I was accomplishing tasks, but I wasn’t convinced that my routine was enriching the lives of my children, or myself. In fact, quite often I was wearily mitigating tantrums and operating in a reactive rather than proactive position.

Buried under the burden of responsibility, I was beginning to forget about the moments that initially inspired me to become a parent. I had an epiphany one day though when I left my six-month-old with my parents and took my toddler for a ride on a children’s train in a local park. My son and I had so much fun together and I reveled in the opportunity to show him something new. I loved feeding his passion for all things vehicular and strengthening our bond. I realized I needed to find a way to escape the feeling of crushing responsibility of being “on” all the time as a stay-at-home mom in order to appreciate special moments with my children. Part of that I found too was to pay mind to my own identity in order to share the best version of myself with my kids.

To do this, I set out to design a stay-at-home mom schedule that gave me back the spark I’d been missing in my parenting. This came from devoting set times to tackling chores and responsibilities, as well as setting aside moments for fun adventures, and personal pursuits that fuel my own interests. I found that getting out of the house for me daily is H-U-G-E and so I worked on building the courage to tackle outings with my infant and 2-year-old in tow.

While I start most mornings now with a game plan, albeit a flexible one, my children and I now relish the structure of a routine that meets all of our needs. Below is a peek at what our daily routine looks like.

The Stay At Home Mom Schedule

6:45 – The baby wakes up. Sometimes it’s 15 minutes earlier, sometimes it’s 15 minutes later. I let her babble for a few minutes in bed before her chatter starts to take a more demanding tone and I know that I need to get her bottle ready ASAP.

7:15 – Once I start to hear my toddler son start to make noise in his room, I pop my head in and say good morning. We get up, change his diaper, and then head downstairs for breakfast. He eats and I feed the baby some solid foods after she’s crawled around for a bit. At this time my husband still hasn’t left for work yet and I will step away from the kids while he supervises for a few minutes so that I can get in a quick shower before he leaves.

8:15 – This is when we start to wrap up breakfast. I change the kids out of their pajamas and into their clothes for the day. Depending on what I’m feeling like we may hop in the car and head to Starbucks, or we might just play in our family room. I like to engage my son by playing trains and building tracks with him or offering to build with blocks. By doing these activities together it strengthens our bond, and I can tell he really likes it as he regularly asks me “Mama, play? At the same time, I keep an eye on the baby who is now actively cruising around and pulling herself up on furniture. Note that because my son is still young and he does a morning preschool session three times a week, I don’t worry about creating a set “learning time” with my son. Instead, I integrate learning into our play by asking him questions that promote problem solving or work on his pre-math skills by counting the wheels on the trains whose track we are assembling. This way he gets in some practice for school and he doesn’t even realize it!

9:30 – The baby goes down for what is generally a short nap around this time. Usually, the sound of my son shouting or playing wakes her up after about 30 – 40 minutes. While the baby is down, I usually let my son do some independent play while I take care of “chores”. I’ll set out things like art supplies for him and then work on cleaning up the kitchen, paying bills, or pop up to the bedroom to do my makeup.

10:10 – When the baby gets up, I usually have a bottle ready to go and I change her diaper, give her a quick feed and off we go for an outing. Typically, our outings are to local parks which I visit on a rotation so that they don’t get too boring for my toddler. I’ll bring his toy dump truck which he loves and some other sand toys. My son will mostly play independently at the park while I supervise him and I’m able to expose the baby to new sensory experiences like sitting in the sand or feeling the grass. She also loves the change of scenery and sitting in the infant swings while her brother runs around. I love that both children benefit from this outing.

11:45 - Around this time, we head home from the park. It’s only about a 10 minute drive but there is a risk that my toddler will fall asleep in the back seat and throw the whole day’s nap schedule off so I allow a little screen time on the drive home to keep him awake.

12:00 – I start to make lunch for everyone, and we spend about 30 minutes prepping and then eating. I let my toddler plan after, and I give the baby another topper from her bottle. We then do diaper changes and everyone goes down for nap around 1.

1:00 – Both kids go down for nap and I get a few hours to myself! No matter how many chores I have on my list I always make sure to set aside some time for myself to recharge my battery. I will work on my blog, get in a stationary bike workout, or sometimes even take a nap myself! I find that feeling productive during this period really allows me to feel refreshed when the kids get up and not like the day has gotten away from me. That being said, a good nap can be a powerful mood booster as well!

3:30 - My son normally gets up around this time, followed by the baby. We like to do free play activities in the afternoon and if possible, head into the backyard to get some sunshine! My son absolutely loves exploring on a hill behind our house. So I’ll watch him as he works on his gross motor skills climbing up and down the hill. The baby likes crawling around on our deck too even if that means she needs a change of clothes afterwards. I’ve come to accept that children and fun often equate to a messy experience and I don’t mind if I have to do a midday wardrobe change for the kids if they are enjoying themselves.

5:00 – This is when I start making dinner. I’ll allow my son 30 or so minutes of screen time and if the baby gets fussy while I cook I’ll place her in her Bumbo seat on the counter with some cheerios to keep her entertained.

5:30/5:45 – We eat dinner. My husband normally gets home around this time but if he’s going to be late we have to eat without him because a hungry toddler is not a happy toddler! Dinner is usually pretty uneventful (no news is good news at mealtimes with kids!). Afterwards we settle down for some family time with Daddy. This generally means sitting together in the family room and often dividing and conquering so each child gets some one-on-one time with a parent.

6:30 – Following after dinner play is bath time. I bathe both kids together – the baby in her bath insert inside the tub next to her brother. They love bath time. Sometimes I’ll add bubbles into the mix which is always a crowd pleaser! The baby usually tires of bath first and I’ll have her towel, new diaper, and jammies ready in the bathroom so I can get her dried off and clothed while still supervising her brother. He follows shortly after and then it’s not long until bedtime!

7:15 – Our bedtime routine begins at about 7:15 with the baby and 7:30 with the toddler. My husband and I switch off who puts each child to bed so that they both get used to each parent handling their nighttime routine. We brush teeth, read books for 10 minutes or so, and then it’s lights off by 8!

8:00 – By the time we reach 8pm both kids are down and I’m now free to finish dishes, chat with my husband and just generally unwind. Often, we’ll have a glass of wine and talk or just sit and watch some TV. Most importantly it’s our time to connect and decompress before we head to bed to start all over!

Final Thoughts On The Stay At Home Mom Schedule

This is snippet from what our “general” routine looks like but keep in mind that there are parts of my weekly “Stay at Home Mom Regimen” that help me to maintain my sanity as well as my pre-mom identity (something that I struggled with postpartum). Once a week my mom watches the kids while I walk dogs at a local shelter. Volunteering for animal rescue organizations is something that I’ve always been passionate about. Recently, when a dog that I walked found a home through someone we met on our stroll I was on cloud nine. The high from volunteering in this capacity keeps me going on hard days!

In addition, I’m fortunate to enlist the help of a babysitter one day a week for a few hours in the late afternoon so that I can run some child-free errands and meet up with a friend. For me these little bits of personal time replenish me and allow me to be the best version of myself for my children. Finding a routine that nourishes my children mentally and physically, as well as myself, has truly been the key to maintaining a meaningful, if not often chaotic life as a stay-at-home mom.