1 Mother 2 Another

We recently had a couple of excruciatingly hot days here in New York City. And believe me, I know from hot; I’m a Texas girl. The difference between Texas heat and New York heat? Everything in Texas is air-conditioned, and the power company assumes you’ll actually use it.

In New York, however, you’ve got mass transit with its stiflingly hot subway platforms, a preponderance of small stores and homes without air-conditioning, and a power company that seems so surprised when power usage goes up during a heat wave that you almost feel sorry for them.

We spent several days in a brownout, making being out and about actually attractive in comparison to the sweaty, still air of our home. So we hit the park several times a day, and came up with lots of reasons to run stroller errands.

Even with the park being cooler than our home, Maddie still worked up a sweat running around. She’s always been a bit prone to heat rash, especially on her neck and back of her shoulders from snuggling while nursing. I’ve always thought it’d be something we simply lived with, but I recently found a product that’s helped us out a lot.

A couple weeks ago I got a compact of Pure Me  a pressed “powder” for keeping babies dry. It’s pediatrician-tested and contains no talc; in fact, it’s only got natural stuff in it like avocado oil and jojoba oil and vitamin E. I was a bit skeptical; it seems the baby industry is full of over-perfumed, over-priced baby toiletries that are indistinguishable from adult toiletries except for the fact that the baby version costs more. And every time I try a baby skin product I pretend I’m my girlfriend Abby; she’s got a house full of people with allergies and all those natural products that are heavily laced with lavender and eucalyptus and the like get short shrift in her home. This compact, I’m happy to report, is completely scent-free.

I carry it in Maddie’s diaper bag and give her neck a discreet wipe every once in a while. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now and can really see a difference. Yes, I feel a bit funny primping my child in the middle of the playground, but she seems more comfortable so I get over it.

And the playground use is great, but I’ll confess I’ve been using the compact even more on another area of Maddie’s body – her butt.

This is the best stuff for drying up a baby’s butt. Rather than standing there and blowing on her hiney for several minutes, I simply use the powder and she’s ready to go. I’ve seen a huge change in her hiney – it’s much softer and less pruney than it used to be. And she clearly loves having the powder stroked on; she lifts her legs and holds still while I use it.

Let me say here again the powder’s advertised as being for baby’s whole body, not just the hiney – I use it on her neck, but I’ve really latched on to the butt part. The compact comes with two puffs, for which I am very grateful. One washable puff lives at her diaper station and is used only for diaper changes. The other puff lives in the compact and goes with us to the park.

I’ll also confess that I tried the powder (sacrificial mommy that I am) on myself before trying on her. It’s surprisingly soft, but not too dry – I wish my butt had such a nice treatment several times a day.

So if you’ve been looking for a baby-safe powder, give this mommy-invented product a try. I contacted the owner to tell her I was writing this piece, and she kindly said that if you put in the order notes that you heard about it at 1M2A, she'd throw in some extra puffs free of charge. So give the website a look! Or you can come over and ask me about it on the playground; I’m the mommy who looks like she’s getting her kid ready for her closeup.