More often than not, my daughter will say “no want to put on sunscreen” when she knows I’m about to come at her with some sunscreen before going outside in the morning. I usually have to wrestle with her a bit before she finally gives in to my persistent efforts to smear some on her. Since I don’t always feel too confident about how evenly I’ve applied her sunscreen, I’ve started relying on a sunscreen stick as an extra layer of insurance after we go outdoors.…

Before I had a baby, I imagined that babies had perfect skin. Isn’t that why there’s that expression, “smooth as a baby’s bottom?” But it turns out that babies deal with a ton of skin issues. Some of them are mostly cosmetic (like baby acne and cradle cap), but others require treatment (like eczema).

I never quite know what’s going to trigger an eczema flareup, but I do know that treating the early signs of a flareup makes a huge difference for me. Whenever I start getting small cracks in my hands, I know I can’t just follow my regular regimen (slathering on Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion at night and rarely moisturizing throughout the day) and expect things to miraculously get better. I need to up my game so that my skin doesn’t start to freak out.