ID's - diaper rash/skin reactions

MamaCrystal

For some reason, Mary gets diaper rash pretty often, and Grace never does (maybe a very mild case once or twice total).  When Mary does get it, it comes on pretty strong right away and she's in pain when I wipe her : (  Using Balmex throughout that day clears it up, though.

They eat the exact same foods and get diaper changes at the same time (usually, because quite often they also #2 at the same time!).  This has been happening for months, through 3 different brands of diapers, so I know it's nothing about a particular brand.

Mary also seems to have more sensitive skin on her face... the sides of her nose are usually red and she gets blotchy more easily.

Anyone else with ID's who seem to have different skin reactions to things??  Makes me wonder what ended up "different" between them.

GiGi1221

If mine are indeed ID than yes- we totally have that.  Oliver has very sensitive skin- he always had diaper rash and we cloth diaper.  What worked for me is a spray bottle with a bit of witch hazel, lavender essential oil and baby soap- than fill the rest with water.

I spray it on him with every change and no rash since.

It also makes me wonder- if they have the same DNA why the difference?

amanda31H

I'm still confused on what should be the same for them.......

B seems to be allergic to wool...she got small bumps all over her belly when my sister was holding her one day.  She had a wool sweater on so we think that may have been it.  It took 2 weeks to go away.  A never had the reaction.

A's left eye all of a sudden will get really red, by the eyelid.  It's usually when I vacuum, so I wonder if it's dog hair?  We have a dog but he doesn't get close to them (he's feeling them out now that they are making noises and moving, etc.  they scare him!).  B doesn't get that.

They both do have eczema behind their ears.

And the diaper rashes never match up.

Are they supposed to have the same allergies if they are ID?  All this stuff confuses me.

MamaCrystal

GiGi1221:

What worked for me is a spray bottle with a bit of witch hazel, lavender essential oil and baby soap- than fill the rest with water.

I spray it on him with every change and no rash since.

It also makes me wonder- if they have the same DNA why the difference?

That spray sounds great!

It is so interesting.  I seem to recall hearing that ID's have the same DNA from their dad, but can have varying DNA from mom (don't quote me on that, though! ; ) ).  I have somewhat sensitive skin, so maybe Mary got more of that from me than Grace?  I feel bad that she has to deal with it : (

ETA: Looked it up: Identicals can have different mitochondrial DNA (from mom), but have the same amounts of nuclear DNA from both mom and dad.

MamaCrystal

amanda31H:

Are they supposed to have the same allergies if they are ID?  All this stuff confuses me.

I had no idea, so did a quick Google search and found this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/25/science/q-a-twins-and-allergies.html

It is very confusing.  It seems allergies can either be genetic or environmental... but our ID's also have the same environment!  They've only been apart for maybe 2 hours of their lives (when Grace needed blood work done as a newborn). We have a dog and a cat.  So I still wonder how they already have different reactions to things.

pea-kay

yep. miles gets eczema (however you spell it) and the others don't. linus got a rash from amoxcilllin, the others didn't. they'll get diaper rash at different times.

it is kinda weird!

sfshawna

I think (don't quote me on this either!) that twins have the same genes, but those genes can be expressed differently. So, same genotype, but different phenotype. I think this explains most differences between IDs. My sister and I are identical, and our vision is completely different. She needed glasses in the 3rd grade, and was practically legally blind (without glasses or contacts) by the time we graduated college, while I got my first pair of glasses in college. That's the biggest difference between us, and it always made me wonder how we could be that different.

MamaCrystal

Sometimes I think the MoMs on here could be better at examining the differences between ID's than all those doctors trying to ; )

Shawna - I've wondered about eyesight differences between identicals! You're such a great resource, being an identical twin yourself and a mom to them : )

MrsAmyB

So weird.  I need to read up on ID twin differences/similarities.  One of my girls was born with a club foot and the other without.  It is supposed to be genetic and the Orthopedic Dr asked who in our family has club feet.  No one that we know of!

amanda31H

MamaCrystal:

Sometimes I think the MoMs on here could be better at examining the differences between ID's than all those doctors trying to ; )

The doctors we've seen don't know jack about ID twins.  They heard a heart murmmur on A in the NICU, so they gave her an Echo.  DH asked the Neonatologist if he was going to order one for B as well because they were ID....the Neo, Cardio guy, and our Pedi all went "hmmmmm...."  In the end they decided to, but no one could tell us if that was likely b/c they were ID or not.  At the time, B did not have one, but she developed one later on.

I don't get it! 

MamaCrystal

amanda31H:

MamaCrystal:

Sometimes I think the MoMs on here could be better at examining the differences between ID's than all those doctors trying to ; )

The doctors we've seen don't know jack about ID twins.  They heard a heart murmmur on A in the NICU, so they gave her an Echo.  DH asked the Neonatologist if he was going to order one for B as well because they were ID....the Neo, Cardio guy, and our Pedi all went "hmmmmm...."  In the end they decided to, but no one could tell us if that was likely b/c they were ID or not.  At the time, B did not have one, but she developed one later on.

I don't get it! 

We haven't had as much of a problem with doctors knowledge of ID's, but we were upset that the hospital apparently mixed up our girls' records...

At one of our newborn check-ups, our doctor told us that Grace's newborn screen was positive for an extremely rare metabolic disease (no reported cases in MI!).  We went through the whole appt. worried about her, then when they gave us the paperwork, we saw that it said "Baby A"... which is MARY!  We then figured out that the girls' records had their birth weights switched also.  SO, here we are not knowing what the heck to think, worried about both girls now. 

They both ended up needing a series of blood and urine samples (nearly impossible to get a clean sample for a baby girl) rushed to Mayo.  Since they're ID, it made sense to test them both anyway, and never made sense that only one had the positive screen.  We had to work with the Detroit Children's Hospital and Mayo Clinic to slowly figure out the results coming in for BOTH girls on their testing.  In the end, thank God they were both fine (the screen was a false-positive).

Anyway, in the midst of all that stress and confusion, it was annoying that even the hospital couldn't keep them straight!

royalcrown1

My twins are identical and both have different sensitive skin.  Twin A is sensitive to tegaderm and bandaids.  Twin B is very allergic to pampers - he got chemical burns on his bottom from them.  Twin A stills wears pampers and it does not bother him.  If I ever try Twin B in pampers, he gets red immediately!