Attack of the Neck Cheese

Imagine this:

You are sitting on the couch with your sweet little baby. You take in the moment, enjoying the fact that he isn't screaming. You close your eyes, and think about how truly amazing it is that you created this beautiful child. You go to bring him in closer and then it hits you...

Bam!

The smell smacks you in the face like a brick wall. It makes its way through your nasal passages, and you instantly want to vomit. It smells like rotting fish carcasses. Definitely one of the more putrid smells I have ever smelled. Then I wonder, how could something so sweet, and so cute as my little baby put off an odor like this?!

It is called, "neck cheese," or "intertrigo." It is a huge deal in my world. You see these adorable babies, and you imagine how good they smell, but that is not always the case....

I blame Okinawa for the neck cheese.

Neck cheese, or infant neck rash, occurs in the creases of the baby's neck. Neck cheese is defined as:

The accumulation of breast milk, formula, perspiration, shed skin cells, spit up, and saliva that gets caught in the neck creases of an infant, and creates a powerful odor. May precede or accompany intertrigo or a yeast infection.

I feel Kyle and I are good about changing Liam's clothes if he spits up, or if milk leaks onto the collar of his onesie, so it has got to be the humidity.

Liam...and Kyle and I...are constantly perspiring. The humidity on this island is insane. This time of year it is about 90 degrees, with 90% humidity.

Anyway, I noticed the other day that the little chubby creases in Liam's neck had white discharge-y stuff in it. I researched it and discovered that it is indeed "neck cheese."

How do you defeat neck cheese you might ask?

The best way is air. Air it out as much as possible. When I am feeding Liam, I try to pull the creases apart to let air get inside. It is difficult to allow air to get to it at all times of the day because as you know, they can't hold their heads up on their own, so the folds stay dark and moist in there....a breading ground for bacteria. It is extremely important to keep it dry as well.

I have started to put baby powder in the creases. When bathing your baby, get your fingers soapy and rub it between and along the creases in your baby's neck. You may feel the "cheese" rolling off, along with the other nasty things the creases have collected.

Should a rash or temperature occur, take your baby to the pediatrician. They may suggest you apply Vagisil to the baby's neck. That's right, that stuff isn't just for gineys.

We have a pediatrician appointment next week, so I will definitely be talking to his doctor about it. The smell is just too horrid to ignore.

Stupid humidity...