A maize.

October 22, Leavenworth.

It's the maize, stupid.
Sheyla puts Maizena, or corn starch, on her son's diaper rashes and it works wonders. How come I haven't heard about this in two years I don't know, but exit diaper rash ointments brought all the way from France, an expensive option to say the least, adios talc made of who-knows what chemical substance, and enter maize from the corner market, all-natural and a dollar fifty a box, and it goes in the soup too (just not from the same box hopefully.)
Related chemical news: last month I realized that the wipes I was using contained multi versions of paraben, a chemical used in everything from cosmetics to food whose safety has increasingly come under scrutiny. I had started avoiding it long ago, preferring all-natural baby lotions and sunscreens but somehow didn't think of checking the most obvious, the most ubiquitous - the wipes. The ones I buy now have organic cotton and no parabens, and they're cheap, too, and that's important for this circus family.
Corn and cotton, my abCs.