What is your child's Eczema trigger?

[Butterflies&Hurricanes]

Just wondering what it is that sets off your child's (or your) eczema? I'm trying to figure out what it is that is set off my son but so far my only thoughts are grass. Paed thought it dust mites but we have NO carpet in the house and I vaccum daily and bedding is washed regularly so I am at a loss at how it can be dust mites.
I assume its grass as he loves being outside and it seems to have gone mad since hubby mowed the grass.
I've just started using MooGoo on him but am yet to see any results. Poor thing is scratching so much and making it worse. It's ALL over his body too.

[Tweak]

Milk

and

Winter :)

[Tweak]

Try mannuca honey! It's awesome
we also wash and moisturise with alpha kerri oil and moisteriser

[FiveInTheBed]

Winter definitely!! [ie, heaters, blankets, fleecy clothes, overly warm water]

We have also cut out cows milk and gone rice for him.
He flares up after doing somersaults on the grass and acrylic carpet ---and also after a great big meltdowny tantrum (so stress).

I have just returned from the doctors with a big tub of emulsifying ointment and a mega tube of cortisone to get it under control. :(
Also a referral for a blood test to try and pin point the (any other) triggers.

[Amara]

Banana and most fruit juices except apple.

[Mrs Molly Coddle]

Grass, carpet, dust, animal hair, acidic food, chlorine, most beauty products like shampoo and body wash. And yep, winter! Heating, hot water. Bah!

[FearlessLeader]

heating, hot water- basically overheating and dry air.

We dress him in far far less clothes than other babies wear. eg on a 16 degree day in melbourne he will wear a thick-ish cotton singlet and a long sleeve t-shirt with fairly thin long pants outside, and just the singlet and pants inside and that is plenty for him. I get sooo many comments about how i don't dress him properly :rolleyes: and i have to say "right well are you my GP, paed, MCHN or naturopath? No? OK well they all recommended this is all he needs to wear"

I also find that a vapourizer helps at night to keep the air moist.

And lots of moo goo, and cortisone when it really flares up. Any other products trigger it.

Pear is the only food I've discovered that triggers it so far, but I'm beginning to suspect tomato

[H&AsMum]

So far its the heating, wool, carpet, and as for the foods that he has reacted to- pumpkin, carrot and zucchini (with skin on). We apply ointment throughout day and a gentle soap free wash in the bath, and a tiny amount of cortisone when needed.

[Von Zipper]

Soap and winter!

[laja]

soaps, winter and wind

[cub]

cows milk and egg

[p3nguin]

Egg, blueberries, grapes, milk, synthetic fabrics, chemically washing powders and detergents, mould ,eyculptus oil, moo goo, summer (heat), dust mites, grass pollens, eucalyptus pollen, sand that's our worst offenders here. you can never get rid of dust mites you can only ever lessen them so vacuuming everyday and having carpets floors is usually not enough if they have a allergy to them. It's in all quilts, couchs, chairs, toys, mattresses , clothes, etc.

[cindye]

My DD's eczema is triggered by both food and dustmites - food gives her eczema around her mouth and dustmites give her rashy eczema over her body.

We have full anti-dustmite measure in place. We vacuum 2-3 times a week, wash her bed linen in 60 degree water once a week, hot wash the pram and car seat liner once a month, put her soft fluffy toys in the freezer overnight once a month and then wash in 60 degree water, and we have got rid of all throw rugs, pillows, etc. We also have dust mite covers for her cot mattress, for her mattress, doona, and pillows for her new bed and also on our bed. These also have to be washed every 8-12 weeks in a hot wash, and they were quite expensive, but honestly, I think they have made the most difference to her skin than anything else we've done. The ones we have for her are Allergend brand, but we got cheaper ones for our bed which are Mitey Fresh brand. I've even had an improvement in my hayfever since we've had them on our bed. Interestingly, the allergist we saw said that if every Australian household had anti dustmite measures in place then childhood asthma rates would drop by 40%.

As far as skin care goes, she has baths only every second day, she's in for a max of 2mins in luke warm water with Alpha Keri bath oil. We use either sorbolene in a pump pack or alpha keri wash. We use pump pack sorbolene and tissues instead of wipes too. Within a few minutes of being out of the bath, we have her smothered in thick sorbolene from a tub / jar as the heat locks in the moisture. When the sorbolene has soaked in we apply her cortisone creams to any spots that need it and as little as possible. We use the creams for a maximum of 10 days or until the skin is under control, and then we have a 4 day break. We apply sorbolene twice a day regardless of whether it's an "on" or "off" cycle and the cortisone up to twice day for the 10 day "on" cycle, but when her skin is really good we can cut back and use the cortisone only once every second day to keep her skin under control. We tried just about every cream you could buy over the counter from the chemist and nothing worked to help clear up her skin, in fact some made it worse. So as much as we don't like using the cortisone creams, they do they job and as long as we're vigilant with everything else, we don't need to use them too much.

Other stuff we do
Launder her clothes separately in Amolin laundry liquid
We don't put singlets on her as the ribbing aggravates her skin
We dress her in soft t-shirting type clothes most of the time and when she was crawling we made sure she had long pants on as he carpet aggravated her skin. No wool clothes / blankets, etc
Apparently sandpits are really bad, but beach sand is ok, but we haven't tested out either yet
We keep her as cool as possible - heat really makes her skin flare up
We cut her nails regularly and put mittens on if she scratches a lot - over winter we had to put mittens on her before she went to bed as she was scratching in her sleep.