Four Reasons Why Diaper Rash Cream Is Worse Than Human Feces
In no particular order
1) It smells worse than poop
I may have written a post or two about the horrendous alchemy that occurs in the intestines of a child, converting innocent things like blueberries and apples into something that Satan himself must have concocted. My daughters give off odors from their posterior ends that would cause those who work with raw sewage to weep for their mothers. During the diaper changing process, I attempt to bring some light to the awkward situation of wiping the anus of another human being, by saying things like "Ew stinky! Let's get a fresh diaper and we'll be aaaaaaaaall clean!" I know, someone nominate me for creative dad of the year. What is usually said, however, sounds more like "Ew stink...BLECH!! DEAR GOD GIRL! What did you eat?!?!?"
With this said, I use baby powder when the girls have rashes because the smell of the diaper rash cream is worse than the worst diaper I have yet to change. It smells of depressing retirement homes where the relatives never visit and the nurses would rather watch One Life To Live than find out why Mrs. Elderson is moaning. It smells of people who have been living at the hospital because they don't have the strength to leave and besides, where would they go? There's no one waiting for them at home.
2) Harper will not eat her own poop
I type this while knocking on wood. So far, she has shown no interest in writing her name on the wall in poop, as is shown in every comedy that has toddlers. She has actually demonstrated an aversion to her own waste, wanting to get the diaper off and away from her as soon as possible. She is clearly my daughter in this respect as, once I soil myself, I too need those clothes as far away from me as I can get them. The diaper rash cream, however, seems to hold some strange fascination for her. She loves to pry the lid open and squeeze 15-20 butts-worth of cream onto her fingers, most of which goes into her mouth. Once there, she realizes that this was a terrible idea, but for reasons I will lay out in number 3, it's too late. This does not, however, stop her from doing it again the next time she gets her hands on a tube.
3) Poop is not grease-based...
...at least until they start eating more buffalo wings and faire-food. Parents who are reading this will know that, in the course of parenting, occasionally, you get poop on your hands. It happens. In my case, there is lots of crying involved, but once I settle down, I wash my hands and I'm alright. Soap and water remove all traces of texture and odor of whatever the girls had for breakfast.
Diaper rash cream is made with a mixture of skunk vomit, super glue, and sun screen. In this particular case, it is the latter that concerns me. What this means for me is that even the slightest trace of the stuff on my skin and my pores open up, as though they have stumbled upon an oasis after wandering in the desert for weeks, drinking in as much as possible, pulling it deep into the dermis.
Now, we watch Sesame Street fairly often, as I did when I was a child. The only segment of Ernie and Bert that I remember from my childhood was one in which Bert painted his hand purple. The paint wouldn't wash off and he had to wait for it to wear off on its own. The cream is the same way. No amount of hot water, soap, steel wool, borax, hydrochloric acid, etc. will remove the goo and therefore the smell. I feel as though for the good of humanity, I should lock myself in quarantine.
"Why can't you come to work? Are you sick? ... DIAPER RASH CREAM?!? Jesus Christ, son! We'll be praying for you. Take as much time as you need. We don't need that spreading through the office."
4) Harper gets it EVERYWHERE
As though my previous items were not conclusive enough, my biggest issue is when Harper manages to combine all three into one super-happy-fun time. She puts it on everything. This evening, after getting a liberal dose from Sara, Harper managed to get a hold of the tube. By the time I found her (read: 3 seconds later) she was using it to finger paint on her sister. When I grabbed the tube from her hand, she flung herself away from me, leaving a diaper rash hand print on the couch and a line of cream along the carpet. Since it is grease-based, as previously mentioned, it will be there, smelling and being unsightly, forever. In hurling the tube out of her grasp, the cap came off, leaving more drops on the wall and floor. While I was trying to clean up those spots as best I could, she somehow managed to find another tube, opened it with her teeth and started giving herself tribal tattoos. When I went to clean her, she ran away and buried her (cream-covered) face in the upholstery of a chair. If you're wondering how long it will remain there, please allow Squints to tell you.
As I've said before, Harper does not like to play with her poop. If, however, she decided tomorrow that she wanted to finger-paint the walls with her own excrement, it would be easier to clean up and would smell better than the current medium of choice.
I feel like my house may reach a tipping point. Sometime soon, there may be so much diaper rash cream spread of various surfaces that I will cease to attempt to clean it. I will simply let it pile up until, in an effort to escape the smell of itself, the house opens a portal to hell and sucks itself in.
I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate diaper rash cream.
I can't wait to grow up and find other things you hate!
