OT please help with 4 DS's Excema

[hthrbells]

Hey guys, My almost 5 year old has some pretty nasty excema. We have done the dermatologist route...not a fan I feel like they were trying to patch the problem and not solve it. We went to our allergist last month and we were told to hold off on tomatoes and citrus. We would have done a skin and blood test but his system was so inflamed due to the end of pneumonia. I have an appointment tomorrow, laying off the citrus and tomatoes did not help. I am sure we will do blood work and skin tests, I am just afraid we are going to be told he is allergic to egg or dairy again. Has anyone had issues with this? Thanks so much!!

 

[rluey29]

I'm sorry for your problem!!

My DS was diagnosed with eczema when he was 6 months old. I was so sad because all I could think about was him having to live with big itchy patchy places all over him and being miserable forever. It was worse in the winter, but he mainly got it behind his ears, his inner elbows, where the tops of his feet met his legs, and sporadic spots that popped up sometimes in random places.

I immediately stopped using any bubble bath, fabric softeners, cheap soap and shampoos, pretty much anything with dyes and detergents.

I bought only Aveeno or eczema specific soap (and poured oatmeal in his baths sometimes), good organic shampoos, laundry detergents that are free of dyes and scents, the Equate tubs of Eucerin at walmart for lotion, all cotton clothing, and we stayed away from peanut butter. I breastfed him constantly and prayed that he be spared from having a severe case.

Lo and Behold, he's now 21 months old and I have not seen seen any sign of that eczema in months! Not even in the cold months. Try some of the things I've mentioned and I hope he gets better!!!

 

[toesmom]

my ds has had it since he was 10 months old. terrible memories, i could not live through another infant/toddler and sleepless nights and itching and ugh i hate the memories.

his eczema is much better, but still comes around now at 5.

we always give baths with sea salt, that seems to have a great impact on the skin. Follow that by melaleuca cream Renew.

someone at work is giving me some information this week about a natural cream you prepare at home and put on the skin. i'll post the details, it is supposed to work amazing.

i feel your (his) pain

 

[Octoberbabiesrus]

I feel the pain. My 15 almost 16 month old has it SEVERE. I mean it keeps him all night. ALL night. Last night til 4:40 am.

Heres what our dermatologist has us using/doing

*No Milk, No Egg, No Peanut
*We use Aveno Excema Soap
*We use a over the counter product that is called Dermarest (similar to Sarna) you may have to have your pharmacist order it if its not available.

At bath we use the soap from Aveno in the last 2 minutes so no unecessary sitting in the soap. When he gets out...blot dry, dermarest or eucerin him, and then a thin coat of vaseline.

It REALLY helps.

 

[princessmom29]

DD5 had pretty bad excema as a baby and toddler and we figured out that her trigger was fragrence. We by fragrence free dye free everything. My mom once put some body spray on her while playing dress up and you could literally see an excema patch matching the spray pattern. We love eucerin products around our house. I use the calming creme for slight flair ups ad we used the thick cream in the tub when she had it bad. We have been able to cut it down to next to no flair ups by bathing only in dove sensitive skin and using nutragena shampoo. We couldn't use the aveno. She reacted to something in it. Our ped. not the dermo is the one who had us try the dove and it has been a godsend.

 

[hthrbells]

Thanks guys, we have been going the route of "free" things with no luck. I am interested in the sea salt bath and the creams. I use aveeno oatmeal bath for him and lather him up in the aveeno oatmeal lotion. I use a fair amount of vaseline on his face. Were you guys prescribed pro-topic or any steroid creams. I am not a fan... I have had to use them just to get everything under control. I would love to eliminate any prescriptions. How long does it take if you do remove a food to see a difference?

 

[daisyduck123]

My DS10 was diagnosed w/ eczema at 5 or 6 months old. He had an awful case (open, oozing sores on this shoulders & arms). They did the allergy skin testing on him that day & it turned out he was allergic to milk, which was NOT the cause of the eczema because he'd been on soy formula since birth.

He outgrew his allergy & eczema at around 3yo. & the eczema NEVER appeared again until last summer.

The only thing that ever helped was a steroid cream we used, but it was sparingly.

 

[Wendybird55]

DS had excema during his first year plus a bit more as well. Mostly on his legs. We went to 2 different dermatologists and their $100 creams didn't work. Anything with hydrocortosine in it seemed to make it worse.

We did as others - stuck to baby detergent only on everything he wore and touched (towels, sheets, etc.) Did not use fabric softeners or fabic sheets and such as well. Cetaphyl and Aquaphor were the soaps we used. We used Aveeno shampoo and would rub him down with Eucerin body cream twice a day (used Aquaphor on his face).

One dermatologist said not to bathe him every day as baths can dry out the skin. So we tried an every-other-day bathing schedule and didn't keep him in the bath too long. There are times you need to bathe him every day so we just kept the baths short.

Also our Dr. said to rub vaseline on him right out of the tub when he was still wet.

Basically sticking with the Eucerin, Acquaphor and Aveeno and the shorter baths did the trick. His skin is 100% better now. We still use Eucerin. We added DOVE (I buy the body wash) soap and regualr baby shampoo now and he is doing great.

It took time and at times when it looked like it was getting better, it got worse. We had him tested for allergies and none came up. With some kids it's just a phase they go thru.

Good Luck

 

[albertamommyof4]

well this is coming from a soon to be 32 year old that was diagnosed at about 4 months of age.
My body has gone through some awful stuff. I have had it so severe that my skin on my fingers cracks open so bad that almost requires stitches. I have eczema from top to bottom. I have gone through many doctors, specialists etc and no help . I know exactly what your kids are going through and i hope that it is short lived.
I am deathly allergic to mint. I am also allergic to pet dander, mold, dust. But as far as tests to see what else i am allergic to they would never do them they said my skin was always to bad and teh tests would agrevate it more.
Through the trials and mishapps i also found out that i cant use dove soap , i break out , i also can't use another so called great for skin soap. I also can not use almost anything that is spf , i am trying to find a sunscreen taht i can use.
I have been on many creams, pills and most don't work. Vaseline is a no no for me if i use it alone it makes me itchy . I have used prednisone ( i know bad) but that is the only thing that got it under control( for a while) i do not use it anymore but if i have a to bad of a flare up i do use it . I right now is on topicort cream and it works, i do use aveeno cream and love it.
What makes your childs eczema flare now may or may not make it flare later, so it is all about trial and error.
I am a mother of 4 and yes 2 of my kids have eczema but only behind the knees right now , i am honestly hoping that is all they get but i am prepared for the worst.
If you have any questions or need to chat, you can pm me
sorry for the long post , i just truly understand all those long nights itching and the soreness of the open wounds , as i speak right now i have eczema flare up on my scalp and that is a pain .

 

[AustinTink]

My son is 10 and has had eczema since he was five months old. We don't use ANYTHING with fragrance in our house. Laundry detergents, cetaphil lotion, aveeno soap all fragrance free. Perfumes are all out. All cotton clothing is a must. And, rather than doing the oatmeal baths, etc. we opted to forgo baths for showers from the time he was four. Quick in quick out. It seem to help quite a bit.

He is symptom free most of the year. Winter is his worst time. We use Protopic. It's the ONLY thing that has ever worked for a flare up. And we have tried them all.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

You have to find out what is causing the eczema. Eczema is a reaction to something. For us it is dairy. Aquaphor slathered on at bedtime in large amounts helps immensely, but you are going to have to fugure out what is causing it or it will only be a temporary fix. Good luck!

 

[kellyg403]

My dd is 21 now, but has suffered with skin conditions since about 4 months. As the others have done, we changed everything. We noticed that we had to be careful not only with her clothing and washing but ours. My dd would break out the worst on her face and when I stopped putting fabric softeners and wearing perfumes and hair spray it helped her a lot. She would rub her face on my clothes when she was tired or if I was holding her.

As for the food thing, we were told back 20 years ago to remove one food item at a time for 7 days. If it is something she is allergic to we would see improvement sometime around that mark. If not, we could add the food back if we wanted to and take some thing else away. She was allergy tested at 5 and low and behold most of her problems stemmed from wheat, egg and some outside allergens like mold and mildew. The only advice I can offer in this area is start with the blandest diet possible, and then add one thing and see how it goes. We never had a problem with tomato or citrus either. As a matter of fact my dd to this day can eat lemons and tomatos like an apple with no problems. It was easier for us to start from scratch with her diet and add things rather than remove them one by one. Beware of any foods with food dyes and too much processed food.

I wish you luck, I remember the days when it never seemed like we were going to ever get it under control. I do remember one of our dermotologists telling us that when she was done in the bath and still in the water, put some baby oil on her, then pat it in her skin, never rubbing. Its something they use for people with cirrihosis (sp) and helped quite a bit with the itching and dry skin. I started using this myself and still do. Not as often as I should but during the winter when my skin seems to be more dried out, and I don't have any skin problems.

Good Luck
Kelly

 

[hthrbells]

You guys are awesome, thanks for all the support!!! We have our Dr's appointment at 10:30.... I am sure I will have a few more questions. Thank you so much!!!!

 

[lesleyd75]

Hi, my DS is 28 months and he`s had excema practically from birth! His is really bad on his cheeks, but gets patches on his back and legs. We use the Aveeno cream on his body and it really helps. We bath him in Spectrogel, but HATED the new Spectro Excema cream - it stank and stung (I tried it too and it hurt me!) and made no difference and its really expensive! I have also found that since we recently moved to a new house that has a water softener his skin has drastically improved. We don`t have to put as much cream on him now and there are less patches on his skin!

 

[mombare]

My dd (6) has been dealing with excema for her entire life also...her legs are covered in red splotches for the entire winter, but pretty much go away during the summer. I am a terrible mother and don't keep up with keeping lotions and such on her. Her excema doesn't seem to bother her as much as you describe, though. It does itch sometimes, and that's when we really buckle down on the regime of prescription cortisone cream (no more than 7 days) that is applied in a very thin layer only on the bad spots, followed with Vanicream over the top. If it has been a while, the vanicream tends to burn or sting, so we hop around and sings songs to distract her until it goes away - which is only a few minutes. When she was a baby, the doctors gave us some kind of steroid cream to put on her but it made her skin bright red and puffy so we stopped using it right away. They didn't believe me when I told them, so we changed doctors. It is so hard to tell at a young age, but psoriasis (very bad cases) run in my husband's family and I wonder if that is more of the cause.
Good luck - it is just so hard to see them suffer, and try so many different things with no answer. And I would love to hear what your doctor says today! Besides the Vanicream, we have heard good things about Eucerin, Aquaphore and Lubriderm.

 

[Shannalee724]

I didn't have a chance to read through all of the replies, but I have a cute little red headed, fair skinned boy who suffers from excema. I found the BEST stuff ever from another friend. I have been using it for almost 2 years and it is all natural!

It is called Everything Balm and is handmade by a lady in Oklahoma. It is very reasonably priced. The large jar is $20 and lasted me almost a year. I even use it on myself or my daughter any time we have a skin ailment of any kind.

http://www.goodiesunlimited.com/balm.html

 

[hthrbells]

OK so we went and have been told to stop eating egg for now. He had blood work sent out to check for wheat, chicken, whole egg, egg white,and egg yolk so hopefully we will get a handle on it. Thanks for everything guys!!!

 

[kittycat9]

We use hydrocortisone 1% cream (not the petro type) to get the inflamation and itching under control. Then after a bath, I use Aquaphor on the really scaley areas, then cover in Nivea Cream (in the white tub). I used to Eucerin, until we found that the Nivea actually worked better, and softened their skin without a residue. My DH and two boys are serious sufferers, food allergies, and asthmatics (DS2 isn't diagnosed yet, but the older boy is, and takes nebs fairly regularly - as does DH).

 

[kittycat9]

OK so we went and have been told to stop eating egg for now. He had blood work sent out to check for wheat, chicken, whole egg, egg white,and egg yolk so hopefully we will get a handle on it. Thanks for everything guys!!!

My youngest is allergic to corn and citrus, the older boy eggs and gluten. DH has peanut allergies in his family as well - so we just stay away from that for now. So far we have a negative on peanuts for the older boy though.

 

[hthrbells]

He has been just diagnosed with Asthma too. How were your kids with the croup cough?