A Natural Daily Solution For Relief of Severely Dry, Itchy, Irritated Skin
Name: Brenna Westlake
Birth Date: December 2011
Hometown: Sherman, FL
Use: Management of Ichthyosis Symptoms
Quality of Life Improvement
Brenna was born at 36 weeks after a typical pregnancy with no complications. She was diagnosed almost immediately with Harlequin Ichthyosis, a very severe and life-threatening skin disorder. For 37 days, Brenna battled through a few critical points in the NICU, including an aggressive blood infection on Christmas Eve and eye surgery at 3 weeks. Brenna’s first year of life was extremely challenging as we dealt with hospitalizations, skin infections, dehydration and feeding issues that ultimately resulted in having a feeding tube placed in her stomach to help her gain weight. Brenna’s body makes skin about 10 times faster than the average person, and she can’t shed it quickly enough, so it is very important to exfoliate her excess skin so that it doesn’t build up. If her skin builds up, it gets very thick and tight, restricting her movement, and causes fissures to form, which can promote infection. Her daily bath, in addition to applications of Aquaphor multiple times a day, is crucial to maintaining her health.
Experiencing MicroSilk®
We first heard of MicroSilk through other families in our ichthyosis community. When we decided to buy a new home in summer 2014, we wanted to install a MicroSilk tub for Brenna. We had done a lot of research about it and we felt it had the potential to make a big difference for her skin. Brenna’s first bath in her MicroSilk tub was the very first time she didn’t cry once during her bath time. Brenna needs one long bath each day to help exfoliate the extra skin as well as soak up extra moisture because her skin doesn’t provide a barrier to hold moisture in. Typically, in her standard baby tub, bath time is a huge struggle and it wears on all of us, but MicroSilk has changed that in our lives and put ease and enjoyment into our bath routine.
Life with MicroSilk®
If you ask Brenna where she wants to take a bath, she will always head straight to her MicroSilk tub and begin excitedly pointing out the jet and how to turn the bubbles on. Bath time in her tub has become a source of play and bonding for us that we didn’t have before during bath time. And a big reason for that is that it makes her skin feel so good. With the microbubble technology, exfoliation almost happens on its own, as her extra skin gently peels right off with very little rubbing needed. The bubbles also provide a constant temperature in the tub, which is essential because Brenna’s skin doesn’t regulate her body temperature very well.
