Moms-- advice, please?
 

I have some pretty bad stretch marks after having my son. They're already fading some, but do any of you have ideas or anything that worked for you to make them fade/go away/whatever they can do faster?

Also, I have extra skin on my stomach now as well. Enough that it makes pants fit weird. This is pretty gross, because I can actually grab it (it's probably not as bad as I'm making it sound.. I can't grab like, a handful...) and pull it away from the body. It's making me incredibly self conscious, and as I'm trying to lose more weight and get back into a happy body, I'm afraid it'll just get worse.

Is there anything any of you (or husbands, anything your wives, etc) have used that can help this? Is my only hope firming cream? Or am I stuck with it forever? :(

4 years after the fact, I have lots of stretch marks and some extra skin; the only surefire cure is plastic surgery. I lost all of my baby weight within a year and still wore a size larger in my pants because of the extra skin.

The marks take a long time to fade, and they will become much less noticeable, but they never do go away completely.

I had tons of stretch marks in puberty (yeah, yeah, different time, but the principle is the same) because my chest grew so fast, and so did my hips. I recommend using a good moisturizer on them every day. It helped a lot. They'll fade to white lines instead of purple/red ones, but like Medusa said, they'll never go away. Mine are still there, 12 years later, dammit.

Oh, and don't waste your money on something like Mederma--everything I've read says it doesn't work. Given that the active ingredient is onion extract, I have a hard time believing it does, especially for over $20.

Vitamin E oil or creme work well too, mostly because they're so moisturizing. So keep the marks moisturized and they'll fade faster. Some people also recommend cocoa butter--just depends on what kind of moisturizer you prefer. I like Nivea creme myself.

For some reason I had a feeling this is what you guys would say. I've mostly been concerned about the skin. I'm already at pre-pregnancy weight and I'm just terrified that if I continue losing it'll just get worse.

Snowy, thanks for the tip about Mederma. One of my friends had recommended it and said that it had worked wonders for her, but I agree with you on the onion extract.

I have heard really great things about just using Aveeno - keeping the skin moisturized as much as is feasible and all that. Skin is pretty darned elastic - maybe it'll improve, if not go away entirely.

Stretch marks are caused by the elastin(sp) in the skin breaking. They are scars and won't totally disappear.
Loose skin is another dreaded 'stuck with' real possibilty, but the younger you are when you had your kid, the better your chances of it shrinking down more.
Mine, unfortunately, did not and only surgery will get rid of it.
The cocoa butter and Nivea should have been used during pregnancy; after, it doesn't do much.
Remember, it took nine months to get OUT of shape, it'll take at least that long to get back into it. You'd have to work out about two-three hours a day every day to see results after about 6 weeks.:eek:
One thing I would NOT recommend is sit-ups or crunches; if the ab muscles became stretched or torn during pregnancy(which happened to me and others), work outs that specify that area only make those muscles larger, resulting in a more pronounced belly. Work out the areas around the abs-butt, hips, thighs, etc.to pull those muscles tighter.