Baby eczema - need a homeopathy recommendation asap pls

[RaaraaTheLioness]

This has also been posted under 'childrens health'
My dd is 5 months old and has mild-moderate eczema. Her skin is kept moist after having tried various creams, oils, emollients. I am now using hydromol and hydrocortisone and have just ordered Bria Balm after reading reviews on it. The main issue is that she does not sleep for more than
hour or two at night and then wakes thrashing in her sleep and trying to rub her head on anything/anyone if she is being held. This carries on for up to an hour at a time and at first I thought she may have some cranial discomfort but having had 4 sessions with a cranial osteopath this does not seem to be the cause of her discomfort.

I am certain it is her eczema that is causing her severe itching and irritation at night times. Her hands are kept mitted at night so she does not make her skin too saw, but she still attacks her face and head a lot and moves quite vigorously throughout the night. I have seen GP every other week and he does not seem to think it is anything serious and of course she is happy and contented everytime we visit with her eczema hardly visible. At last visit he prescribed some anti-histamine at night to relieve the itchiness but this made little difference.

Night times are awful and I am at my wits end as the lack of sleep combined with seeing her in discomfort is soul destroying. Please does anyone know of a good homeopathy person in Birmingham/West Mids area as this is now my next step to trying to get dd some relief. Apologies this post is longer than anticipated!

Poor love. And poor you! We went through all this with DS1 so I know how tough it is. My advice:

1. Homeopathy does not work. At best it may have a placebo effect but not on a baby so save your time and money.

1. Get a referral to a consultant. GPs are useless on eczema ime. Is she BF or FF - food allergies may be making things worse so get tested.

1. Wet wrapping can really help at nighttime - you can Google for more info or get advice from your consultant.

1. Consultant may prescribe a mild sedative such as Phenergan to help baby sleep and break the itch/scratch cycle.

1. Make sure all clothes and bedding are 100% cotton, washed in non bio powder and no fabric conditioner.

1. Current advice is to bathe at least once a day with a bath oil such as Oilatum to prevent infection.

1. Make sure you are using enough steroid cream, for long enough, to get on top of flare-ups.

1. Hang in there. It is tough but will get better - most babies grow out of the worst of it.

Also re: sleep, are you co-sleeping, this will lessen the effect of her waking on your own sleep and she will feel comforted by being near you.

can i 2nd getting allergy tested? and all advice listed apart from phenagen one as i dont think thats available these days.

also can i mention possiblity of dustmite allergy? common cause of eczema, perhaps you can buy some dustmite covers for babies bed?

my son has terrible dustmite allergy, and the first night we put covers on his bed and damp dusted , he slept for longer than he had ever done before.

worth a try and can do no harm.

Forget homeopathy! Get allergy tested inc for dust mites. Purchase proper covers for mattresses pillows duvets from allergybestbuys.com. My DS had appalling eczema and cleared up within 1 week never to be seen again when we discovered the dust mite allergy. We did years of steroid creams. GPs are not experts in this area so make a fuss and get referred. Good luck.

Agree with everyone else - you need to get her seen and treated properly, sugar pills aren't going to help.

Our DD has eczema on her upper arms, upper legs and a little near her ears. Oilatum in the bath really helps, as does lots of diprobase if it flares up.

I'd also second forgetting the woo nonsense, including the osteopath - you want a real doctor's help if you want real long term results.

Try Hope's Relief. Worked for us!

relief

Sorry...rubbish link

Relief

Oh I feel your pain as this was me and my dd in the summer. We too went through a variety of emollients, steroid creams etc but the one thing that worked was betnovate (or eumovate whichever is stronger)(a much stronger steroid cream not recommended in under 1's). It was prescribed by the consultant after months of fruitless visits to loads of GP's at my local health centre.
The betnovate properly cleared the skin and stopped her itching, we then used balneum cream and bath oil (anti itch) and her skin was much better almost immediately.
We used tubifast leggings and stretchy vests with mitts which also helped and I bought some scratch sleeves (google them) which I never got to use as she got so much better.
If you'd like them (3 pairs) just pm me and I'll dig them out and send to you.
Good luck, it is hellish but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
I have no experience of homeopathy and know how I'd have tried anything if it gave me more sleep/relieved dd's frustration but the route I took did work (and was all on the NHS).

Thank you all for your support and advice, so reassuring to a first time mumsnet mummy. I have to say since posting I have read a lot of threads about negative stuff on homeopathy. Think I will postpone that idea and go down the referral route. We have a referral to see Dermatologist after numerous visits to GP who seem to think dd will 'grow out of it' and he has seen cases a lot worse. Admittedly during the day she looks and seems a lot better but by night her head and face seem to be what is causing her most discomfort as she constantly tries to rub it on me or bed or with her hands. I was about to go private when he referred me.

As suggested by MegBusset I have always co-slept with her as she was so restless in the cot. Never did with my ds who is now 2 but with ds skin it was the only was to get any sleep at all.

Re allergy tests - my concern is that the consultant wont consider dd skin bad enough to go down this route but at night time she is really unsettled... will they typically suggest more creams/ointments to start with.
I have a list of 14 odd that i have already tried.

I am using oilatum in the bath and have recently started with aveeno bath oil. I was concerned that bathing her everyday was possibly making her more irritated but she is definitely more relaxed post bath before bedtime.
Her body is ok at the moment and not too many flare ups thank god. We have some scratchsleeves for night (Will pm you Salvadory - thx).

Have also ordered Bria balm a 100% natural balm for excema and have noted Hopes relief and also Lushs' dream cream as options too. thank you.

I am just hoping that it doesn't get a lot worse but she is only 5 months and I'm worried this is the calm before the storm as most cases I have heard about tend to get worse from 6 months on.... :-(
Thank you all for your words of wisdom, so lovely to know there is hope out there especially in the middle of the night when everything seems at its worst including my abilty to cope with dds pain!

oh and she is formula fed and has been since 2 months out of having little choice (bf complications galore). Did try changing formula from Aptamil to Hipp Organic but she seemed more agitated and skin seemed worse.
Have started weaning her from 4 months and it seems to have little impact on her sleep either way.

Bedding is 100% cotton and washed only in non bio as are most of my clothes now as she rubs her head on me a lot.
Will definitely ask for dust mites allergy test too if possible.
Not easy to respond with toddler tugging at my leg wanting mummy to read books! and dd on lap :-)
Once again thanks all

There are NICE guidelines on treatment of atopic eczema in children 0-12, which include indications for referral. They might help support your request for a referral. Indications include:
"...Children with moderate or severe atopic eczema and suspected food allergy should be referred for specialist investigation and management of the atopic eczema and allergy. ..."

good luck with it, eczema can be utterly miserable.

Thank you ClaireOB I will take a look.

Meant to say I used Surcare detergent to wash her clothes in, it's an unscented liquid that you can buy in sainsbo's etc.

Second (third?) all the advice so far including washing clothes with surcare and doing an extra rinse which seems to help my little one.

Our dermatologist said there are two schools of thought re daily baths and she recommended not bathing as often due to the moisture stripping effect of water even with bath oil... I guess it's always going to be a combination of things and there won't be a single 'bullet' that gets rid if it but changing the bathing routine is another factor to play with... our DD is better on less washing (oink!) As you're seeing a specialist now see what they recommend here too.

Good luck
X

Thank you all so much I will take heed of all the advice and see what works best for dd. Will be seeing Dermatologist 9 Jan, hope I get a good one!

Hi raaraa, I know this thread is a couple of weeks old but I was wondering how the dermatologist went? Did s/he add anything to the (great!) suggestions on here? I could have written your post and it's all new to me, so I'm busy information gathering as I have a very red, itchy baby

feel for you, op, and you koolforcats, have been there and between 3 - 5 months with ds was sheer hell. GP's would not take me seriously at all, most he slept at any time (day or night) was 45 minutes , I couldn't leave him for a moment or he would scratch till he bled, and then it got infected...

my tips: definitely push for a referral, you need allergy testing and decent advice from a dermatologist.
in the meantime - get your hands on some scratchsleeves www.scratchsleeves.co.uk/
they seriously saved my sanity!! ds couldn't remove them but could still play etc.

oh, and ask for help. I wish now I had realised how hard it had all got, and asked for help and just got a decent bit of sleep or rest. I think then I would have been able to think more clearly and ask the gp's for a referral more articulately instead of letting them be so dismissive (ds turned out to have multiple severe food allergies - he was breastfed but the cows milk and soya I was consuming could still affect him)

I've had great benefit of the woo. Homeopathy turned out to be the only thing which cleared my excema and allergies, and I was absolutely tormented by allergies - so much so I couldn't go out because of tree and grass pollen, and also animal dander. Now I'm absolutely fine, and we have a cat!

Don't dismiss the placebo effect.
Who cares really about homeopathy being woo: if it works, it works, and it does work.

Thanks feelinggreen, that's really useful info

Hi RaaraaTheLioness - you can ask the Society of Homeopaths or the Alliance of Registered Homeopaths for names of qualified homeopaths in your area. Homeopathy treats the person together with their symptoms, so one person's eczema might well need a different remedy to another's, as it's important to understand the person who has the complaint as well as their particular type of eczema. Good luck I hope you find a solution.

apis mel?

id go to a proper homeopath though as homeopathy is holistic and the treatment varies from person to person

Definitely agree with Branleuse in that you need to see a qualified homeopath in person - I'd suggest you don't take advice for remedies over the internet or from anyone who isn't registered. I'm a registered homeopath and wouldn't prescribe a remedy without seeing your daughter and taking a full history (and am not suggesting you see me !!)