Eczema Support Thread

[Pobblebonk]

:wave: How are you?

Well, I got our Paediatrician (sp?) to give me a second opinion on the rash-type thing on Mr Chicken, and also, Mr Chicken has been scratching at his hair quite badly of late (no, it's not lice!).

Diagnosis: Could be eczema.

So... I'd like to hear how other people are managing this with their bubbas. Mr Chicken is coming up to his 14 month anniversary.

GP prescribed Cortic-DS 1% cream, which contains a steroid.
Paediatrician prescribed Elidel cream, which he said did not contain steroids. He said that prolonged use of steroid based creams tend to thin the skin.

While at the Chemist, I talked to the girl about what I can use to help Mr Chicken, particularly with the scratching in his hair. She gave me samples (God bless her) for DermaVeen brand Oatmeal Shampoo and Soap-Free Wash.

I'm also going to start massaging him after baths with baby lotion (which I had stopped during these hot Qld months, because who wants to go to sleep all oily and gross?).

I'd greatly appreciate hearing anyone's experiences, treatment and management plans, etc.

[MCNmummyof2]

My son has extremely dry skin, I think it may be eczema. I've started to use aloe vera gel. I have eczema myself mainly on my hands, and I find this to be really nice, its soothing and it moisturises really well without being sticky. Might be worth a try. Its not too cheap though, but I feel the results are worth it.

[Ana Gram]

My advice is before going through the process of spending thousands (and yes it can be thousands) on every "miracle" cream under the sun, find the trigger. Once you find the trigger, you can control the exposure to the trigger and control the eczema.

Last year Ruby had quite bad eczema covering around 70% of her body while we persisted with creams, lotions and everybody's suggestions of what worked for them. People would stop me in the street to tell me what to use.

A trip to the emergency room at the Children's hospital is where we discovered her triggers are dust mites, pet fur and wool. Well that we know of. We have now managed to control the eczema down to her thumbs, which she sucks so the eczema persists.

We had to move house at great expense, kick the cats outside and toss out all her woolen clothing. But it was all worth it as it is now very manageable.

I could kick myself to think that we let her go through 2 1/2 years of bad eczema when if we had known her triggers, we could have mangaed it long ago.

[oleander]

My DD has had eczema from about 2 months old. I took her to have an allergy test which they took a sample of her blood. They tested for milk, cheese, nuts, soy and eggs. Turns out she has a nut allergy. All the others were negative although a low reaction to milk.

I cut nuts out of my diet as she's still on the boob full time and the eczema has cleared. She still has a bit in her skin folds like behind her knees and elbows and it can get worse in hot weather. I need to get the scratch test done before she starts solids to see if there is any other allergies.

The advice I got from the dermatologist was to keep it moist with sorbolene, Dermeze or plain moisturiser of some sort. Don't use soap. I use Hamilton Bath Oil which is sot really like an oil but more like a skin moisturiser. Or wash with sorbolene or dermaveen or keri, one of those chemist brands. Moisturise all over after bathing.

I also use sigmacort 1% ointment and Antroquoril 0.02% cream. These were both on prescription from the dermatologist. I only use them on the bad bits and very sparingly. Sometimes she goes a few days without it.

[Ana Gram]

Yep, we have the "use sparingly" cortizon creams and only have to use it maybe once a week on one or two spots. Once you find the allergy, it makes life much easier.

[Oscar's mum]

I just thought I would mention there are over 100 different types of eczema so what may work for some may not work for others;)

[Pobblebonk]

:wave: WOW! Thank you guys for your advice! The only thing I changed in Mr Chicken's diet was a switch from the lactose free milk to full cream milk (under suggestion from GP, who we see monthly for monitoring of Mr Chickens weight problem because he's not even ON the growth chart).

This can be the only thing I can think of as he's never had this problem before, when he was on lactose free formula or lactose free milk. So now I've changed his milk back to lactose free. It hasn't even been a day yet so I'm eagerly waiting out the week to see if there's any improvement.

Chellegoth >> I found your first post to be particularly helpful, especially in regards to the 'triggers'. Thank you.

Poor Mr Chicken was up for hours last night (he is usually asleep from 6:30pm to 6am) scratching away at his head. I put more cream on him but it seemed to make him worse. I dragged my spare mattress out of the garage and into the lounge room, sheeted it and turned the air-con on, to see if that would help him as it was warm last night, and he kept scratching and scratching and in the end I ended up giving him another bath, using again the DermaVeen shampoo the chemist had given me, and sitting in the rocking chair with him for ages.

I really HATE to see my kid suffer. It's the worst kind of torture.

I'm actually quite disgusted with the GP though, she tried to give me a script for something that I know knocks you out, not going to post the name of it here, to give him at night time! I told her that I'm sure there are more appropriate ways of managing the scratching in his hair that giving him a drug to put him to sleep at night!!!!!!

[aardvark]

Try calling Dartnells Pharmacy in Surrey Hills in Melbourne, and getting their Eczema Mixture (a formulated mineral solution) and their eczema cream. They make it themselves. No steroids.

DS had severe numular/discoid/coin eczema, and was miserable with it. I started him on the Dartnell's preparations and it is entirely gone.

They will post to anywhere.

[youngones]

Pobblebonk - don't mean to frighten you, but Elidel in the USA now has to carry a 'black box' warning that its use might increase the risk of developing cancer.

I always google anything that anyone suggests as a treatment for my bub's eczema and make sure it is a world wide google, not just Australia.

Cheers,

[Bibs]

DD's rashes appeared around winter when she was about 4 months. The GP gave us a referral straightaway and we saw a Paediatric Dermatalogist when she was 6 months. He gave us some excellent prevention advice and told us to get allergy skin prik tests done.

From the tests we found DD was allergic to some things and they are omitted from her diet. She has had Nan Ha formula from 5 months onwards, before that she was breastfed. We also follow the prevention methods recommended by the Dermatalogist.

We have used steroid creams but not that often. We use David Hoskings hypoallergenic soothing face and body balm and that clears up any initial redness. We also use Alpha Kerri bath oil, Dermaveen shampoo and conditioner and hydraderm sorbolene cream.

Fortunately DD is pretty much eczema free at the moment, has been for a few months now. Sometimes she gets a bit red around the cheeks and we put the balm on straightaway. I'm dreading winter though with the heating and all.

A note on the specialists. Our waiting time to see the Dermatalogist was 2 months, then 3 more months for the skin allergy tests. We are seeing an Allergy Specialist in April which we booked in December. So be prepared for the waiting.

Good luck :fingerscrossed:

[youngones]

Has anyone heard of or tried using antihistamines? I've just been looking at the New Zealand derm net site (those guys have a great health system and excellent antenatal care too) and it seems that Zyrtec liquid can be used in infants from 6mths and it is non drowsy. Benadryl is suggested for overnight because it has a slight sedating effect. From what I can tell, antihistamines have a much better long term safety profile than steroids.

I only ask this because my hayfever was terrible a couple of days ago and I was really worried about taking anything as I am BF, but in desperation, I took 1/2 a 2mg polaramine (not recom in BF as it can dry up supply) and the next day, bubs skin was 80% better than her usualy red, itchy, flaky, weepy horror that we get when we stop using the dermaid 1%.

I won't use it again and we have an allergist apt next week so I will ask about it then, but I was wondering if anyone else had used antihistamines?

[Ana Gram]

We have only ever used them if the eczema was severe. Some caused terrible diarrhea, which went on to cause horrendous nappy rash. Some caused hyperactivity. I would be very hesitant to use it regularly.

[mummynat]

Hi there

My DD has severe eczema on her face a couple of months ago. She was waking up every 2nd hour at night. I used several ointment and creams but it didn't help with the itching. I spoke to a pharmacist who suggested polaramine for infants (which causes drowsiness). It worked very well for DD. She got some sleep at night (and so did I!) which meant her little face had time to heal since she was scratching it. I wouldn't recommend long-term use but I think it is worth giving it a go. If you go to the royal childrens hospital website (sorry I don't have the link), you will see that they actually say use antihistamine at night. It is a very informative website as there contains various suggestions re dressing the eczema area, infections etc etc. If you are interested, I can try to find the link for you - just pm me.

[lottiesmum]

i hate eczema...i have eczema and its awful. so far my kids have been ok :fingerscrossed: . if your babies get the kind of eczema associated with dry skin (not all are...) i've found with myself over the last few weeks that putting on heaps of cream (whatever kind works for you - sorbalene, alpha kerri, personally i like cetaphil cream) so that you can see the white covering then pop bubba in a grosuit so the cream gets absorbed - and do this 2-3 times a day but always first thing in the morning and before bed. to give you an idea i use 500g tub of moisturiser a week....before i was just rubbing it in to skin so it dissolved - and the dose wasnt thick enough. also - if i dont do it religiously 3 times a day i get a skin flare up. thought this may be of help with someones baby - because you have my complete sympathy with this condition.....the cream is a pain to do, but it might be worth a try.

[Pobblebonk]

Hi. Well I've switched Mr Chicken's milk back to lactose-free and it's been about 2 weeks now but nothing has changed, so out of luck with that one for the 'trigger'.

My Dad's gf was giving Mr Chicken very watered down juice to drink, and I've asked her to cut that out of his diet to, and we're going to only give him milk and water, and see if that makes a difference.

He has dermatitis all though his hair. The DermaVeen Shampoo seems to help, but isn't getting rid of it. Just helps with the itchyness.

His eczema isn't itchy, it's just... there.

Does anyone else notice that it 'migrates' around the body? Mr Chicken seems to only have eczema in one place at a time.

So it's been on his arms, moved to his legs, moved to his neck, moved to his chest and torso, now it's gone from everywhere else but it's on his face!

[Ana Gram]

Strange that it moves around.

With the shampoo, is that the one made out of oats? Ruby had a bad reaction to oats, it made he eczema worse!!

[Pinkmad]

i hate eczema...i have eczema and its awful. so far my kids have been ok :fingerscrossed: . if your babies get the kind of eczema associated with dry skin (not all are...) i've found with myself over the last few weeks that putting on heaps of cream (whatever kind works for you - sorbalene, alpha kerri, personally i like cetaphil cream) so that you can see the white covering then pop bubba in a grosuit so the cream gets absorbed - and do this 2-3 times a day but always first thing in the morning and before bed. to give you an idea i use 500g tub of moisturiser a week....before i was just rubbing it in to skin so it dissolved - and the dose wasnt thick enough. also - if i dont do it religiously 3 times a day i get a skin flare up. thought this may be of help with someones baby - because you have my complete sympathy with this condition.....the cream is a pain to do, but it might be worth a try.

Hi, it sounds like you have pretty severe eczema. I used to have severe eczema, and tried everything under the sun and have found Cetaphil the best also (sorbelene made my skin even worse:thumbsdown: ). I use it every day now. But before finding Cetaphil I had UV treatment when I was living in Sydney, which was absolutely fantastic, it cleared up my skin so well, and now I hardly ever get it that bad (in fact I haven't had a bad breakout since I had the treatment, which was about 4 years ago)! Although some people may not agree with it, it was a god-sent for someone like me who suffered for years and years of my skin looking and feeling like cr@p!
Here's hoping your skin gets better soon, I know how you feel:thumbsup:

[Hector]

DD is 18 months and has always had amazing skin - lots of comments, even right from birth - it was lovely and brown and never any blotchiness etc...so imagine my horror when we moved to the NT and she turned into lizard-girl!!! GP confirmed it was ezcema :(

GP prescribed the steroid cream and QV bath oil and also suggested Claratyne (or other anthehisamene to fight allery). Prior to that we had tried every chemist-bought creme under the sun and had no luck. Paw Paw (in the wee red tub) had always solved any nappy rash probs etc within hours in the past but this time couldn't help.

I started doing the 'soaking' in the bath (QV oil) and used steroid cream really sparingly and only about 5 or 6 times before the rash started clearing. Also cover her from top to toe i sorbolene, especially after bath. Put on wee bit of steroid creme or Paw Paw (or both!!).

It did seem to get a little worse before it started clearing up and DD's rash also moved about her body. Started as nappy rash then spread to back, then neck, but eventually it was a full body thing! Horrible, horrible horrible.

It's cleared up but it will flare up occasionally and as soon as I see it I use the QV bath again and apply more sorbolene (not too keen on steriod though - isn't that what the Germans used at the Olympics to make their women's teams more like men??? And here I am putting it near her girly bits!! :eek: )

[SweetDreams]

I can't really help... for 26 years I thought I had eczema (broke out soon after birth) and when my daughter was born blistered they ended up assuming she had eczema too (looked rather like she had chicken pox) after doing a viral swab and it came back negative.

Turns out she has a rare genetic disorder and so do I! :( Really sucks but explains a lot. Well, what sucks is that it took 9mths and her losing sight in one eye for the correct diagnosis to be made. Can't really complain though - there are a lot worse cases than ours.

Anyways in regards to her "eczema" the hospital had her on nilstat, mycostatin and some other gunk and we had hydrozole prescribed.

Susan

[Ana Gram]

Another thing I would recommend is Dermeze whic was developed by the Childrens Hospital in Melbourne. It is a bit like grease, we would make a game of it and say it was time to "grease the monkey".

[Aprilsmum]

Another thing I would recommend is Dermeze whic was developed by the Childrens Hospital in Melbourne. ".


Thats what our paed has just told us to use on DS. He is 7 weeks old and has it on his face, but no where else. We thought it was heat rash up until 1 week ago. It is so frustrating to see him in obvious discomfort. I am in the process of making a food journal of all I eat, to see if we can find a trigger. :fingerscrossed: I hope that we all find sucess soon.

[Ana Gram]

You just have to be careful as it makes them VERY slippery!

[kristi001]

Ok well i Guess i belong here now!

Just got Told My son Has ezcema Today.. :(

My Poor bubbi :(

he has it all over his back and on his elbows and A little under his ears! :crying:

It looks Terrible.... Really Rough...

We have some Cream for it and the doctor says it should go away within 7 - 9 days but he will most likely have it for the rest of his life...

We will see How it Goes!

[rollercoastermum]

My 3yr old son has bad eczema.
His legs, bottom , back arms and feet are affected.

We had him allergy tested and no allergies showed up.

We have thought maybe it is an intolerance to something but not sure what. At one stage I was thinking salicilates and amines.

We dont give him strawberry or kiwi fruit as these are two of the fruits that can cause severe reactions.
And my son LOVES his fruit.

I have found that tomato paste that is used on pizza bases make his worse.

The scratching is quite bad atm and he does it in his sleep.

I try and use a moisturising cream for him up to 4 times a day when he lets me.

We once used DERMAVEEN on him when he was a baby and he actually reacted to it and the same with sorbolene. Although sorbolene seems ok now.

Eczema is such a hard thing to deal with as one other poster said everyone is different.

There is an eczema foundation.

Found these links:

http://www.eczema.org.au/index2.html

http://www.eczemacontrol.com.au/

http://www.eczema.com.au/

http://www.rch.org.au/derm/eczema.cfm?doc_id=4596

All Aussie and may be of some help.

(Oh my DS also has asthma).

[Pobblebonk]

I just thought I'd update on how Mr Chicken's eczema is going.

After asking again, and again, that they don't give Mr Chicken a bath during the day at childcare, his eczema is all gone.

So I'm not sure if it was the stuff they were using, or the fact that it was drying out his skin too much, but since they've stopped the bathing, there's been no more eczema.

[kailebsmummy]

From hearing about the bath thing sounds like he may have a problem with SOAP! A few things that helped Kaileb was to get rid of those singlets! Any tight clothing made it worse. We use Curash wipes as they have no soap or alcohol. We used to only bath him about every 3rd day(top n tail inbetween), as I was told water dries out their skin more. We now bath him every 2nd day if I can hold it out that long as he is into everything now, we bath him using rolled oats(a stocking with rolled oats in it, used like a washer). We were prescribed Elidel and was only using it when it was really bad which could happen in a few hrs. But have just changed a few things ie. the above. And havent had to use the cream for months now.

Oh and we were told that it wasnt an allergy reaction that caused it(did all the tests). I have had excema when I was a kid and grew out of it around 10. Kaileb is a very hot sweaty bub and they thought that all his sweating and the moisturisers and stuff was blocking his pores and inturn creating a reaction. So the allergy was himself. We just keep him cool and clean and his excema is no where near as bad as it was.

I have no idea if this has helped at all, but I just thought I would let you know what works for us.

[Pobblebonk]

Hi Kim. Thanks for your reply. Yeah, you see the days he was going to childcare (Mon-Wed), he was getting TWO baths a day, as having a bath is part of our getting ready for bed routine. So I think it was overkill drying his skin out.

I'm still washing him with DermaVeen soap-free wash and oatmeal shampoo. All the dermatitis in his hair is all gone also.

[budapest28]

Sorry everyone I am in a rsh as usual but wanted to let you all knwo who has babies and kids with any skin condition that there is a FANTASTIC clinic in Melbourne - Frankston and they treat kids, babies, adults withh all sort of skin condition with netural products. No creams with steroid etc!
They helped my now 8 montsh old son within a week!!!
The details:Psoriaris & Skin clinic, 374 Frankston
Nepean Hwy, tel:9770 5337 or Melbourne 4th flr 517. St Kilda rd
website:www.psoriaris.com.au
I hope it helps to you all and good luck!:yelclap:

[kymmy]

My big boy suffered from severe eczema from 12 months. It was awful - enough to make you cry and it did me. :crying: And we had everyone (cept medical :no:) giving us advice on what to use what to eat and what to do.
It has been up and down but has been great for the past few months. He is now 4 years old. You wouldn't know he has eczema at all now - mildly on the inside of the elbows.
I think its better to leave the skin alone rather than spend a small fortune on creams that may not work and even aggravate the condition.
He had a blood test (finally :rolleyes:) and found his sensitivites so now he has on the improve.

[petal80]

hi I just wanted to post here
I just found out today that my little 5 week old girl has ezcema on her face - its awful !
it looks so painful and red
she is fully BF so when I have my follow up appt on thursday with my GP im going to ask to have an allergy test done (are they allowed to have them that early?)
im really upset by it (is that normal?)
ive been blaming myself - I hope what Im eating isnt triggering this terrible rash.

[mum to the blondes]

Hi to all,
My 4yo has had eczema since the age of 1. We have been to numerous doctors all who have not given much information and just prescribed steroid creams of varying strengths. None of these creams has had any inpact on my sons condition. Through his constant scratching he developed quite bad infections which made the situation quite bad. His legs were covered in weeping sores that we couldnt get rid of. Finally we found a doctor who sugested we apply the steroid cream at night then wrap his legs with glad wrap, then wrap him with bandages. The first night he pulled the bandages off so we used packing tape to secure them. We did this for about a week and a half and has worked brilliantly. The infections have gone and even the eczema is minimal now. I have not used the steroid cream since. I do apply Ego QV moisturiser to his affected areas 2-3 days a day and keep his nails short and scrub his fingers with a nail brush at least once a day. I know some areas of the body cant be bandaged but those that can I highly recommend trying this approach. I would love to hear from anyone who tries this and it works for. Hope I have been of some help

[bwx30]

Hi

The thing with Steroid creams is that they build up in the system and eventually are ineffective. My mum used them for years and had to go to stronger and stronger types, and eventually realised the futility of using them.

So when my son had eczema we used and elimination diet and a variety of natural products. We were fortunate to be able to easily figure out his food sensitivities, as they made him vomit bile.- The first time he had rice cereal in a decent quantity he vomited every 10mins for an hour, til there was only bile. Once we eliminated everything we worked with a homeopath to adress the sensitivities within his system, and he was covered in manuka honey and banadages each night to allow his skin to heal. He had a flare up a year later, after a change of clothes detergent, but otherwise he is able to eat all the foods he was once sensitive to and has not had eczema again since that last time 3yrs ago.

Hope this helps anyone looking for an alternative.

[Unsure]

Hi all, I just found out DD has eczema (she's 4 1/2 mnths). We will see what works for her, and may ask questions if what MCH suggested doesn't work. Thanks to those who posted links too - they may be helpful in the future...

[youngones]

Petal80 - if your DD is only 5wks, it is only on her face and you are BF, it may just be a 'milk rash'. My DD had a terrible milk rash from about 3wks to about 6 or 7wks, but when it started coming up on her arms and trunk, we realised it was something more and she was eventually diagnosed with severe eczema, all over her little bod.

Dermeze helps to keep the skin sealed from irritants and I found it great for the milk rash. Apparently, it is just a washout of the hormones in your system and is quite normal in BF babies. I guess what isn't normal is for it to go on for longer than about 3mths, or for it to be appearing anywhere other than the face, head and neck.

Good luck.

[Unsure]

I have read through all the posts here, but to be sure, I was wondering if someone can recommend what to but on their face? I'm just using sorbaline (spelling??) at the moment on the rest of her bod, but wasn't sure what you should put on their faces...?

[Josh]

Hi everyone, we have been told that my 2yr old son has severe eczema, we have tried i think everything,all the creams ,solutions that i can find including cortizone, has anyone got some type of magic cream that they would like to share with me.thanks:wave:

jodie 37, husband 42
Rhiannah18, biankah 16
Dane 11, Alisha 6
Azminah 5 , Zahid 3
Zhakri 2, Khalid 15mths
Azhar 11 wks.:sleeping:

[kymmy]

Hi everyone, we have been told that my 2yr old son has severe eczema, we have tried i think everything,all the creams ,solutions that i can find including cortizone, has anyone got some type of magic cream that they would like to share with me.thanks:wave:

jodie 37, husband 42
Rhiannah18, biankah 16
Dane 11, Alisha 6
Azminah 5 , Zahid 3
Zhakri 2, Khalid 15mths
Azhar 11 wks.:sleeping:
In my own experience there is no magic cream. We have tried almost everything.
What we did in the ned was leave the skin alone. My boy has been suffereing from severe eczema since he was 12 months and had the needles.
He is now 4 and has mild eczema now. I know what his triggers are so that helps to keep it under control.
We don't use soap just pinetarsol in the bath (10 minute limit) and he is so much better. I don't use sorbolene as he reacts to that too. :(
So I prefer au naturale.

[Josh]

In my own experience there is no magic cream. We have tried almost everything.
What we did in the ned was leave the skin alone. My boy has been suffereing from severe eczema since he was 12 months and had the needles.
He is now 4 and has mild eczema now. I know what his triggers are so that helps to keep it under control.
We don't use soap just pinetarsol in the bath (10 minute limit) and he is so much better. I don't use sorbolene as he reacts to that too. :(
So I prefer au naturale.

I agree with this 100% kymmy, my son's eczema is a lot better if i leave it alone, i also dont use any soap or detergent, (i do use organic ones), but i found pinetarsol flares his up and so does qv oil.

[youngones]

We use elidel (prescription only) on Lily's face only and only very sparingly (maybe once a week), but it works really well. The rest of her body - she is covered head to toe in eczema - we use dermaid soft 1% cortisone at night only. It is the only thing that works. Our allergist has assured me that such a low dose won't adversely affect her skin thickness long term and I've got to believe him, as I would rather use it and have baby happy than not and have her miserable, itchy and scratching all the time.

In my experience, none of the 'miracle' eczema creams work and we have tried many. There are so many different triggers for eczema, it would be hard for any one natural product to work. I also take evening primrose and fish oil each day (I'm BF).

[Coffee]

I went with Nathan, my 6 month old, to the doc today, cause he has, for a few days, lots of red marks on his arm and this morning, when I changed him, I saw, that he has them spread all over his body, belly, chest, back and on the back of the neck.

And the doc said, it's eczema.

I'm in kind of shock, I don't know much about that but I think, it's not something, I have to be worried about, do I?

He prescribed me a cream, Aristocort, and said, that this will help, so the rash kind of look, will go away but it most likely will appear again later on but by the time he's 18 months old, it will be gone for good.

He seems to get on with it very well, not to itchy at all.
He's a bit restless the last few days and didn't sleep as well as usual but besides that, he's ok.

I keep thinking, I did something wrong, using a wrong product or something, that caused him get the eczema.
It really freaked me out, when I saw that this morning.

[Ana Gram]

I can't say this enough times, find out the trigger! Creams can only do so much. If you find out the trigger, you can do your best to avoid it as much as possible and it will ease the eczema.

[LilLaylasMummy]

hi all, i've found it so helpful reading all of your experiences and ideas about bubs with eczema. my little girl is 14 months and suffers from eczema as well as having an allergy to milk and eggs. while she's quite happy in the day, her eczema is really troubling her in the night. i could probably count the number of times she's slept through the night on my fingers. she's always waking scratching and frustrated and sometimes blood all over her sheets if her nails are a bit long or sharp. we've tried a heap of creams and have recently been advised to try antihistamines if she's having a really bad night. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. it seems that her skins is it's worst if she's been playing outside, especially if playing on the grass. someone also said that sandpits are bad for eczema, but my little girl loves being outside and i don't have the heart to keep her from playing in the sand. i also worry that perhaps she gets overheated in the night so we've stopped using her sleeping bag and just use her pj's and she starts the night with a light blanket, but wriggles out. that reminds me of another problem, she's gets so itchy that she wriggles herself to the end of the cot and once she's there start banging her head repeatedly in frustration...ahhh, the joys of it all.

anyway, that's our situation at the moment. we're all very tired and frustrated, so any thoughts/ideas are very much appriciated :flowerz:

[squiglet]

Great reading. I have been putting off having a blood test done for my baby as it seemed a bit harsh.
I'm going along to get it done tomorrow and put and end to our torture.

[kymmy]

I can't say this enough times, find out the trigger! Creams can only do so much. If you find out the trigger, you can do your best to avoid it as much as possible and it will ease the eczema.
Agree.
N still gets contact eczema though only around his mouth so we are certain its food. He had the allergy test and he is allergic and sensitive to almost everything. We don't use creams as they aggravate more than anything.

[kmommy]

hi all, i've found it so helpful reading all of your experiences and ideas about bubs with eczema. my little girl is 14 months and suffers from eczema as well as having an allergy to milk and eggs. while she's quite happy in the day, her eczema is really troubling her in the night. i could probably count the number of times she's slept through the night on my fingers. she's always waking scratching and frustrated and sometimes blood all over her sheets if her nails are a bit long or sharp. we've tried a heap of creams and have recently been advised to try antihistamines if she's having a really bad night. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. it seems that her skins is it's worst if she's been playing outside, especially if playing on the grass. someone also said that sandpits are bad for eczema, but my little girl loves being outside and i don't have the heart to keep her from playing in the sand. i also worry that perhaps she gets overheated in the night so we've stopped using her sleeping bag and just use her pj's and she starts the night with a light blanket, but wriggles out. that reminds me of another problem, she's gets so itchy that she wriggles herself to the end of the cot and once she's there start banging her head repeatedly in frustration...ahhh, the joys of it all.

anyway, that's our situation at the moment. we're all very tired and frustrated, so any thoughts/ideas are very much appreciated :flowerz:
My youngest son has eczema that is aggravated by playing out in the grass. I try to bath him in the evening in a bath that I add some olive oil to and while his skin is still damp I will add his moisturizer (a 'base' cream). My son overheats as well and this really seems to disrupt his sleep. He is also allergic to eggs and many other things as well, including tomatoes, citrus fruits, and other things.
We just shaved his head recently and since then he has kept his pajamas on at night. Before we shaved his head he would take his pajamas off because he was overheating.
We also discovered that the dry cold (like when it's snowing) aggravates his eczema as well. His skin get all dry and cracked. :(
It would be a great idea to keep track of all the food that she eats and all the reactions she is having... including how much she is scratching. It isn't always easy to do, but it may help.
Maybe going back to the basics may help you in finding out what is causing the reactions. Maybe you ca try feeding her things like rice, apples & juice, and maybe a couple of other things and see how she reacts. Do that for a while and as you gradually add more foods back into her diet you can keep track of what you are feeding her and what reactions she's having.
I understand the frustration. Both my youngest son and my husband have eczema. We are much closer to controlling my son's eczema than my husbands. My son's eczema is doing really well. He's still itchy, but not nearly as bad as he has been in the past.
I hope you are able to get her eczema under control so she can get a good nights sleep... and you can too.
Good luck!!! :thumbsup:

[MumNeedsCoffee]

DD has mild eczema.
We have an appointment with a dermatologist for a different issues, JXG and a large birthmark.
But we were also prescribed steroid cream for her eczema.
I knew it was itchy because she is covered in scratches and is often rubbing her arm on me.
But I didn't realise just how much it bothered her until I started using the cream and all of a sudden she's a happy happy little girl.
We were given this crazy list of things to follow, like removing all carpet from the house, only cotton clothing, no contact with sand, no fluffy toys etc.
But if it makes it better we'll give it a try.