Archer is Seven Months!

Archer Cade Washburn, 7 Months
He's tired in this pic :)

January is over?! Spring is knocking on the door and this "winter," if you can call it that, has been mild to say the least. I suppose that's good in that we haven't had too many colds, but if this summer was like last summer, it's going to be even worse with the mosquitoes in full force. Grrr...Ahggg...Blah. We'll be visiting Lowe's or Home Depot for some sweet basil to help keep those darn mosquitoes at bay!

On January 1st, Archer tried pears for the 1st time, and I think he fell in LOVE! Pears are the new favorite food in our house. He also tried more apples, sweet ones this time, and he had chicken for the first time on Sunday, January 8th! We also started giving Archer Cheerios! He was quite intrigued by the little O's.

Archer trying to eat Cheerios by himself...not quite yet!

Cheerios...you will be mine!

 
On Thursday, January 12th, Archer said, "mama" for the 1st time! Of course, I was just overflowing with joy! Every time he says mama, my heart just fills with that much more love. Such a wonderful milestone to experience. I can't wait for Archer to say, "dada!"

Things in the food department were humming along great until we noticed that Archer seemed to have a little rash - red little bumps, mostly on his trunk. We had just taken him to the doctor right before the rash appeared so we waited to take him back for about a week or so. We watched him closely and in the mean time, we used Aveeno lotion on him because it looked like red, dry skin. The rash wasn't too bad, but it wasn't going away so back to the doctor we went. When our doctor saw him, she said it looked like contact dermatitis. Basically, he was having a mild allergic reaction to something in his environment.

Mmmm...Pears!!! Yum, yum!

We racked our brains, trying to figure out what, if anything, had changed, but we couldn't think of anything! Instead of Aveeno, our doctor recommended we start using OTC hydro-cortisone cream on Archer's rash. It seemed to help for a while, but over the next couple of weeks it gradually started getting worse. Archer's rash was spreading, looking more red and inflamed, and it was even worse during and after bath time. Since I was about to go out of town, Aaron took Archer back to the doctor. Turns out the rash wasn't contact dermatitis, it was atopic dermatitis or eczema, which is an inherited skin sensitivity to any number of things, but since we hadn't changed anything in our home, it left us scratching our heads.

Interestingly enough, the doctor mentioned that in some infants an eczema flare up can be caused by certain foods. Ah ha! Aaron has a citric fruit allergy, and when I was a child, I was allergic to all kinds of things, including strawberries! I knew we weren't going to feed Archer berries or too many foods with citric acid, but I hadn't really connected his skin rash to food! So we started over with food.

There were a number of things we knew 100% that is wasn't because when we started feeding Archer solids, we waited 7-10 days before trying something new. So we went back to those basic foods:  peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, etc. We also used a prescription strength hydro-cortisone cream, and Archer was back to normal (and enjoying bath time again) in no time! We still don't know for sure what caused the eczema flare up, but we have a sneaking suspicion that it might have been apples. (I made several different foods in January that included apples.) We haven't given him apples since and he hasn't had any issues.

Play time with Dad and Marianne!

It almost looks like Archer's sipping broth out of a bowl in this pic!

By the end of January, Archer was eating Cheerios like they were going out of style, saying mama and making all kinds of interesting noises, and he was also developing attachments to the toys he favored. Amazing how much they grow, change and develop; quite a miracle to witness really. I'm so thankful to be a Archer's mommy!