the return of the chapped goatee

Every winter, SJ "grows" his chapped goatee. He has an unconscious habit of licking his dry lips and then he drags his arm across his face. We have been seeing him do this painful habit for at least 8 years. My husband and I try to remind him not to lick his lips and to not wipe his mouth with his arm, but he continues to do it. The result is a raw, red skin that resembles a goatee.

When people tell me about SJ's face, I always say that he must be trying to grow his goatee again. Last year, we were able to convince him to use Blistex. It took a lot of prodding. He was convinced that it was "lipstick". We decided not to refer to it as chap stick, since that too closely sounds like "lipstick". We just call it his lip medicine.

When the goatee started to appear this year, we found that the Blistex wasn't as effective as it was last year. My husband found a new chap stick brand. It is Carmex. SJ seems to like it and it does a slightly better job than Blistex. (Of course, SJ has to remember to apply it or even that won't be effective.)

So, if you see your child "growing" his own chapped goatee, try Carmex. Or the best solution would be to get your kid to stop licking and wiping his lips. If you have any tricks on that, I could use them. I am all out of ideas to get SJ to stop doing this (we have tried everything short of tying his arms down!).