Hygiene

Before my kiddo was diagnosed and started his therapy he was a kid that always wanted to look and feel clean and well dressed. He focused a lot in his hair looking good. When he lost his hair little by little it hurt him mentally but the fact that we joined him in his new look helped make him see that its just hair.

What actually hurt him physically is taking showers. That sounds crazy but it was true. This is something that I found out that happens to people going thru chemo by talking to a friend of my husbands that was going thru chemo for leukemia in his 60’s. Most doctors don’t tell you but the skin gets so sensitive that even water that isn’t even hot or too cold will feel like knives on your skin. Our solution? We got kid of showers and switched to baths. Even those were hard so we switched to skipping baths for days. In between baths we gave him wet wipes and soft wet towels wipe downs. Its specially important to do this after they go to the bathroom, since what comes out is specially toxic and after they sweat. He would sweat a lot specially at night.

Not taking a shower everyday for him was hard because he was a very independent child. But we found a way that helped him still feel like himself and that he had some control over being clean. We used different methods in the same day to find what was most comfortable for him to keep him clean. He found out that he doesn’t need to take a shower everyday to be clean and Ok . Hand washing is another story though but that has to do with covid. I don’t mind it (even a little glad he has that habit in control now) only we went thru and still do go thru a lot of lotion so his skin doesn’t get too dry.

Its always important to keep clean but just remember that their skin is 100 times more sensitive than what a normal person has, so almost everything needs to be for sensitive skin and sometimes even that is too rough for some people.

This is the lotion that best worked for my sons skin after bathing or wiping down.