Babyhood

Last week Pauline had another attack of impetigo and this time it was on her scalp, just above her forehead. It was really difficult to clean and treat, because her hair was so long. And as we hadn't noticed it early on, the wound was really big, a huge open sore. I had to clean it with Betadine, which needs to be rinsed off the skin with lots of water, so this was very difficult, as you can imagine. She wouldn' t sit still, and of course the water went in her face, etc., so in desperation I chopped her fringe right off at the roots. Of course it didn't look very pretty, plus the ointment made the rest of her hair incredibly greasy, but my priority was to get her healed up. It took over 10 days of twice-daily treatments.

Well P. was absolutely furious when he saw what I'd done. He thought the haircut was a disaster and made her look like the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I was furious that he made such a fuss over it, especially as I was the one doing all the hard work. I told him it would grow back within a few weeks and that a bad haircut on a little girl her age didn't matter (I wouldn't have done it if she'd been much older and obsessed with her appearance). I also told him that if a doctor was treating her he would have shaved the hair around the wound off completely! Anyway, it's all healed now thank goodness, and it took about 5 shampoos before the greasy ointment came out. What a saga!