Yeast infection. Ugh.

Little man has had quite the rash for the last two weeks and until recently it was getting worse and worse. Not knowing exactly what it was or how to treat it we thought for sure we were going to have a Lance Armstrong on our hands (Lance had an orchiectomy—surgical removal of his testicle). That said we went through a variety of topical treatments and multiple pediatrician visits before we seemed to have finally hit the sweet spot.

As we have been trying different ointments, creams, and even browned 'white' flour we've had some horrifying experiences. The worst of them (in my book, Michelle may or may not agree) was our first pediatrician visit. I knew it was going to be a bad visit from the start, when it took longer than an hour for us to be seen. Then the doctor walked in and Michelle gave me the bug eyes that said, "this is the kook (crazy person) I talked to on the phone the other night" so that was fun. Apparently they had given us an incorrect name so we ended up asking for the very doctor we had hoped to avoid. He was a bit older and probably due for retirement (I have no problem with age or the experience that it typically engenders but this fella was well past his prime, doing a job that requires a little gusto and a steady hand and mind). The real problem was that he walked in and hopped straight on his computer, then proceeded to touch our son's undiagnosed genital rash with his unwashed, bare hands and then went straight back to typing on his computer. Don't worry, it gets better. He told us it was likely a yeast infection rather than a typical irritation rash and then stuck the still unwashed hand that he had fondled our yeasty kid with into his mouth and was sucking on his finger. While I was disgusted for him I couldn't help but think, where else has that hand been, who else has he been touching and what might he be passing to our kid?

We called a family member who works in a pediatricians office and got a second opinion and then saw another pediatrician in the office. They both recommended the same treatment and it was not what this first doctor proscribed. Suffice it to say, we won't be requesting that guy again.

Anyways we finally figured out a combination of nystatin, browned flour, lanalin, frequent washing and air out time seemed to do the trick and he's looking normal again. It turned out to be a pretty common, non-threatening problem but it's still nice to look down and not see a red, swollen penis looking back up at you. Big stress reliever. Have we mentioned babies are stressful.