We're learning new tricks everyday. I think by the time this is all over and they are ready to take off the cast, we will have it just about figured out. Diapering is the hardest, but I think we finally have a routine down that works. It's tricky getting a diaper inside a spica cast, you only have so much room. Thankfully, Riddick's seems to have a larger hole than most.

To prevent leaks, we use a Poise heavy long pad. We don't take the sticky off the back, and we tuck it in just as we would a diaper. We push it as far up the front as we can, and then we roll him over and push it as far up the back as we can. Then we tear the velcro sides off of a size 4 diaper - one size higher than he wears - and I push it up through the bottom diagonally in each direction. Then we roll him to his stomach and do the same with the back. I usually check from the top to make sure it is up high in the back and in the front, and not pulled too far in one direction. This has gotten easier as most of the lining has fallen out. The lining being missing is a big concern of mine, but it's helped a lot with getting the diaper high enough.

He's got diaper straps, too. They are annoying and hard to use and they always get dirty if we are changing an explosion. All diapers have been explosions up to this point. First he had issues because of the morphine, and then he had issues because he caught a virus while at the hospital. It hasn't been normal since.

I've learned where to place wipes before taking the diaper off to prevent mass smearing. This has helped tremendously at keeping areas of the cast clean. Since we have a cast cooler, we decided today to use a barely damp paper towel to blot out the entire cast. We only did this because we were 100% positive we could dry the cast afterwards, and because we didn't use very much water at all. It's helped a lot with the smell and the rash we noticed yesterday is almost gone.

It's a tricky problem, as Jack would say. But we're learning, and I feel more confident as each day goes by.