1) Best book to get right now (run to the bookstore that is!) – “Caring for your Baby and Yound Child” the complete and authoritative guide by the American Academy of Pediatrics by Shelov. It’s got the most updated info on what to do with craddle cap, eczema, seborreah, etc. It’s what your ped should go by. My son had cc too and based on this book I abstained from oil and just brushed it off during bath.

2) Aveeno is very good for his skin. Use then one with almost no perfume. Once he gets older, use Cetaphil -it’s great! You could even buy it now and alternate to see how you like it.

3) Based on your “end of the quarter story” and based on my own experience (my oldest is 3 and a half and the second one is 7 months), I truly think that your son suffers from Eczema rather that seborreah and that he is allergic to the Formula. This same description of symptoms and behaviors happened with my two kids!! The scratching, the crying and with the first one it was even harder because I had never done it before so I didn’t really now what he wanted or needed. Don’t worry, by the second one it gets easier!! Solution? Very expensive formula like Similac’s Alimentum or Enfamil’s Nutramigen at $23 p/can that lasts about 3 to 4 days depending on what he eats. Both my kids have been on Nutramigen since they were 4 months until they turned 1 y.o. This expensive formula is hypoallergenic and will help with the eczema which is his body’s way of rejecting the formula -if he had seborreah and too much oil, he wouldn’t be scratching or oozing!

4) Based on your last recount of your night watching your son, I am about 99% positive that your son had a bad case of acid reflux!! I just went through it last night with my baby but because I gave my son some LoMein noodles which probably I shouldn’t have given him at this age! Anyway, was he stretching his neck -as if to make longer- while you held him? He was probably aching in his throat from the reflux…. and if this has been happening lately you may want to take him to his ped to look at his throat. Sometimes it gets burned by the acidity of the reflux. NOTHING TO FEAR!! Now they have infant Zantac and even Prevacid so it can be fixed! Four months is around the time most infants show signs of reflux and they outgrow it by around 10 months so I’m still crossing my fingers to be out of the woods by then! All babies have reflux at birth because their digestive system is so immature but if it persists by four months it should be checked with the pediatrician to see if it’s worth prescribing something… and by your story, that may be the case! When he was pushing the bottle away is because it bothers him to drink. What worked for me last night and per doctor’s advice, was to give him some Tylenol to help him go back to sleep (I had already given him his Zantac dose for the night but the noodles were killing him b/c too salty and seasoned).
Also, if you end up changing him to the hypoallergenic formula, you’ll see an improvement on him wanting to eat, sleeping the full night, etc. If he’s in regular formula right now, it may be too thick for him to digest and process in his stomach and this is what’s causing the reflux. The hypoallergenic formula is already broken down so that is easier on his stomach and thus on his throat.

Believe me, when a child is hungry, it will take the bottle even from your hands. And soon, you’ll see that the moment he even spots the bottle with his eyes, he’ll go crazy! If I were you, I wouldn’t even bother with warming it. I used to do it with my oldest son and then I realized he liked it better at room temperature. If he is on Formula, take to your room the bottle with water only and when he wakes up mix it on the spot. If its breastmilk, put it on a baby cooler with an ice or just plain so when he wakes up it’ll be room temperature. It’s exhausting having to warm up and you risk warming it too much and burning him…. you’re tired and asleep so you can make mistakes.

Another thing to do for acid reflux and simply because is to incline your son’s mattress. Babies R Us sells a wedge for that. Even a thin pillow underneath it works.

4) If the diaper was not full, try not to change him on a night waking at this age. It would only make him more awake and harder to fall back to sleep. You may even want to put him on a diaper one number up for bedtime… just as long as he is already borderline with the next size available.

Lastly, I’d like to recommend to you the web site of my own pediatrician, whom I love and adore and is a god to us. His web site is very complete with advice and monographies that condense all the important lit about specific subjects to help you learn as much as possible about anything and act on it. The site is http://www.drsenders.com. I hope you enjoy it.

We had a really tough time learning to care and understand my oldest son’s queus (sp?) and we couldn’t believe it when our baby was showing many of the same signs of reflux, allergy, etc. as the first one, but fortunately we reacted more quickly this time and help him feel better faster. I saw your blog and felt compelled to help you. I hope this note is ok with you and helpful too! I hope your son feels better today. Feel free to contact me for more advice, I feel like I have a PhD on fuzzyness, reflux, eczema, bottle nipples, etc!