Last week I got my first pot of Thirsties Booty Love in the mail.  I was eager to try it out, though I have to admit, diaper rash hasn’t been a big problem for Cooper in his Thirsties.  Little did I know that the very next day we’d have a nasty run-in with Rota-virus to put Booty Love to the ultimate test.

On Thursday afternoon, I left Cooper with my sister for a couple of hours  while I took Lauren, age 6, to the dentist.  She said he was crabby and clingy the entire time I was gone.  Later that evening this uncharacteristic mood-change made sense.  No matter what I tried, Cooper would not settle down that night. I finally gave up and brought him downstairs to snuggle in front of the T.V.  Minutes later he was scrunching his legs up and crying in pain.  Soon after he was passing gas and then had some very stinky diarrhea.  I quickly changed his diaper.  But it happened two more time in the next 20 minutes.  At this point I thought he might have eaten something that didn’t agree with him.  At each diaper change I smoothed some more Booty Love on his bottom.  I only needed about one fingertip’s worth to cover both of his cheeks because when I rubbed it on his skin, it thinned out into a smooth, soft, melty texture.  It even felt good on my dry hands.

Cooper thrashed, fussed and nursed all night and woke up the next morning with a temperature of 101.  “Hmmmm,” I thought, “this was not caused by something he ate!”  I  immediately got online and started searching “infant fever diarrhea.”  Rota-virus immediately popped up.  Rota-virus is extremely contagious and most children get it at least once before they turn 5, the first case being the worst.  Where could he have contracted it? Endless places: The gym daycare, from the grubby hands of his two school aged-sisters, or from sucking on the handle of the shopping cart.  Each of the possibilities seemed as likely as the next and more important that figuring out how he acquired it was helping him get through it.

As luck would have it, Cooper was very sick all weekend when the doctor’s office was closed. His temperature got at high as 103 and he continued to have diarrhea several times a day and even vomited once.  The poor guy.  I was so thankful that the Booty Love kept the acidic diarrhea from irritating his skin–even when he pooped at night without me knowing.  He slept in his dirty diaper for at least a couple of hours before I woke up and changed him, poor baby.  But thanks to the Booty Love, his skin wasn’t even mildly irritated.

After being fever-free for a full twenty-four hours, Cooper broke out in a rash that covered both the back and front of his torso. Concerned that this was unrelated to the rota-virus and a new problem altogether, I called our pediatrician.  The nurse informed me that a rash is often the last trace of a virus exiting the body and that is signaled he was no longer contagious.  Phew. We had survived a full four days of the nasty rota-virus and thanks to Booty Love, without a sore bum to boot.