Alternative therapy for eczema- going through hell at the moment

[pixiefish]

My dd has eczema on her face and has had it since about 4 months- she's now 9 months. Have been to see a dermatologist and the gp and they keep prescribing steroid cream of increasing strength for every flare up. have got some cream now that is reputed to work with eczema and I started it last Wednesday. Using this cream does mean abandoning the conventional therapies for a while.
Her face is all bloated this morning and I'm feeling like crap because of it. I was told it would get worse before it got better but I've been up a lot in the night with her and we're both tired. her little eyes are swollen and I don't know what to do- give up on this cream and go back to the steroid cream or give this cream a fair trial- today will be day 5. There's nothing in the cream that can harm her but I'm worried that by not putting the steroids on I'm harming her in some way. I am also starting today on a dairy free diet so that no dairy goes in my bm to her

[misdee]

what is the cream?

[pixiefish]

essential oils, lavender, wheatgerm, lime blossom, callendula- have had it checked out properly before I put it on her face

[misdee]

lavender can sometimes cause allergic reactions. is she blotchy at all? its hard with ezcema kids as they can react to anything. i understand about trying to keep steroid use to a minimum, what emoillants as the gp perscribed as well?

i think ezcema on the face is the worst, i always had people looking in disgust at my dd when she had facial ezcema (fortunatly her face cleared up at 18months, but still has it everywhere else)

[pixiefish]

yes she's blotchy and her eyes are swollen, she looks as if she's been burnt and I know that everyone will stare again today and I know that I'll feel like crap, every time I look at her I feel like crap- but I'm scared of stopping incase this is the eczema 'coming out' of her

[misdee]

how long do they recommend you use the cream for till you see an improvement? is her skin weeping at all? is it making her skin sting when you put in on (i know she is only 9months but does she look uncomfortable at all?)

can you give anti hisimines with the cream? sorry lots of questions, but have been through most of this with my own dd1, and know how frustrating it can be. hope you do see some improvment soon.

[pixiefish]

i'm not meant to use anything else with the cream. I don't think she's uncomfortable which is a blessing. she's not herself tho and is off her food

[misdee]

its good she isnt uncomfortable. how is the dairy free diet going btw?

[pixiefish]

Only started it yesterday- I'm eating shall we say although at the moment it's very restricted as most of the things I ate had dairy in them. Thanks for your help misdee

[minkmama]

poor you pixiefish - big hugs.

we went through exactly this with ds1 and whilst he has improved tenfold, it still flares up and i still vividly remember what it used to be like - looking sunburnt, swollen eyes, scabs the lot!

i tried to stay away from steroid cream but eventually when it reached the stage your dd is at, i had to fold and tbh the comfort it provides for your child and the more rest you end up getting during the night far outweighs the principle of only using natural remedies.

i can only suggest a combination of the two. luckily we have found a good homeopath who is a med doctor too and advocates the use of steroids as long as ds1 uses a remedy to 'counteract' it so that it doesn't affect his main one.

are you talking about sos cream? i've used every natural cream known to man!!! the ones i'm using now are cetraben on prescription and a really rich cream from the organic pharmacy by Beauty and the Bees 'Leatherwood Honey and Coconut Body Cream with marigold'. both are unscented....homeopath banned us from using any essential oil, and tbh it seems to have done the trick!

HTH

[Caron]

Hi Pixiefish,
Sorry you're going thru a rough time... just posted some info for another mum about eczema under the health heading.
Have you had any improvement at all with the new cream?

[Chandra]

Pixiefish, we went for the natural path (calendula) and DS ended up with one of the worst weeks in his life. Sometimes eczema is so bad that you need to rely on traditional medicine or at least combine it. But one thing is true and every dermatologist can tell you about it: the permanent damage eczema can cause in the skin if left unthreated is worse than the one that HC can do. If you use HC correctly and in the right dose, there should not be any problems but if your DD has gone through months of hell and HC don't seem to help at all, ask your dermatologist for protopic or elidel, they are stronger than HC but they don't damage the skin, and you just need to use them so little that the tube of protopic we got a year ago is still half full.

[misdee]

is protopic now liscenced for younger children now?

how is your dd this evening pixie? hope she is better.

[Beatrice]

It's not called something like "Skin Salvation" is it? I tried that on DD's face when I got worried about using steroids, but it made her so red i couldn't bear to carry on with it, even though I was told the usual thing about the eczema "coming out". Bizarrely enough, what did finally work was using baby wipes on her face. I'd avoided them because I was worried they'd make her flare up, and I faffed about for ages trying to clean her face with boiled filtered water, cotton wool and aqueous cream. Then we went on holiday and I had nothing to clean her with but wipes, and her face cleared up within days. I guess the wipes are just more effective at removing bacteria from food etc. I'd love to put only natural stuff on her skin, but I'm at the point now where I'll use pretty much anything that works.

[bunny2]

Protopic is prescribed here for babies in its weaker strength. The stronger one is prescribed for over-2s. pixiefish, I second the suggestion to ask for Protopic (tacrolimus is the active ingredient if your gp doesnt know of the name). It is non-steroidal and excellent for eczema. The only problem is it is expensive so we found our gp reluctant to prescribe it at first. Howeverr, it is available on prescription so dont let them fob you off.

As for the alternative therapies, we tried them all with varying degrees of disaster, traditional Chinese medicine was the worst though I have heard some children respond really well to it.

[misdee]

thats good bunny2. if dd2 skin doesnt respond well (atm its not responding at all) then i will ask fer referral and protopic. doesnt it cause sun sensitivity tho? but very rarely if i remember correctly. its fairly new and is being hailed as a wonder treatment for eczema. i know a couple of years ago they were trying to stop it being available on perscription as it is very very expensive.

[NatureDoc]

I would definitely find a good naturopath or homeopath in your area as it is relativley easy to get rid of eczema in a baby and more difficult as they get older. It will take time for the DF diet to filter through to her skin - are you taking supplements? Fish oil, flax seed oil etc in your diet are all very good for their skin.

[cab]

pixie is it possible with all the oils in the cream that it is effectively burning her skin when she goes outside into the light?
As an eczema sufferer I would say dump it, keep her as calm and as cool as possible, don't use any shampoo on her either just now, nor soap, unless you want to use emulsifying ointment (but would then only use at night cos once again as during the day it could burn her skin).
Think I would have a long hard look at her diet - you say it started about 4 months which could be connected to teething or to weaning?
Ask for a referral to a dietician and to a dermatologist but meanwhile persist with say fucidin H or preferably a low dose (1 per cent) hydrocortisone until it clears up. Would use diprobase during the day and use the hc after bath for say a week.
Best of luck.
p.s. The Eczema Society will give you better advice than me or most doctors.

[bunny2]

misdee, yes, protopic does cause sun-sensitivity but we have not had a problem with it. In the summer ds wore long cotton trousers which kept him cool and provided some sun-protection on his legs where we had used the cream. That was sufficient to avoid any sensitivity. When we first got a prescription we had to go private and it was £90 a tube! Now we get it on the NHS thank God, one tube lasts for ages as you only need a tiny bit and it is much more effective than steroid cream so we have only needed to use it for very brief periods. With steroids on the other hand, we used buckets of the damned stuff and ds was still no better.

[sivvy]

My son had all in one sleepsuits, including mittens to help stop him scratching. We were taught by a nurse how to wet wrap him. We also found that if we scratched for him it was soothing for him and we weren't so vigorous as him.
He is v. allergic to soya (was prescribed soya milk from 3 months until he was 5). A locum GP referred us to Addenbrookes who do have an allergy clinic. He is allergic to all nuts, milk, eggs, soya, pollen grass, house dust mites and pet fur. At least we know what we're dealing with. Tom is 13 now and his eczema is really good. His asthma is another story.

[pixiefish]

thanks all. i dumped the oils on sunday and have been putting aqueous cream and bach's rescue cream on her to moisturise her skin.

left the steroid cream alone until tonight but have put some modrasone on after her oilatum plus bath tonight.

Have booked to go and see a homeopath on Monday night after work- am a bit worried an wary to tell you the truth. A bit worried because this woman said she wanted the history of the pg, birth etc and am worried incase it's something I've inadvertently done that's caused this. A bit wary as well- she asked if I'd had her immunised as that can sometimes cause it. I'm not going to not immunise her on this woman's say so. Hope she's one of these that works alonside western medicine.

I've been trying to put a date on this eczema starting and i can't. she had a rash when she was a few days old and the mw and hv told me it was a milk rash- that developed into a 'dribble rash' that was later diagnosed as eczema- so i don't know if this dribble rash was eczema from the beginning- if that's the case then she had that at her 10 week or was it 14 week jab- have tried looking at pics so that i can pinpoint the date exactly.
anyway- i had a crap night last night- dd was awake every 20 minutes- just didn't know what to do with herself so i think i'd better go and catch some zzz's now while i can incase i have another bad night tonight with her- work tomorrow as well

[bunny2]

pixiefish, I found aqueous cream made things worse for ds. For us, things improved when we switched from a cream-based emmolient to an ointment-based one (diprobase ointment works best for us). Also, oilatum makes ds worse, we use plain bath water now and he scratches much less when in the bath. Good luck.

[pixiefish]

it seems to be clearing now but it'll take time. her skin is very dry now so may try that diprobase bunny- can i get it over the counter or do i need to see the doc? she does scratch after the aqueous cream but it's less than without it so it's the lesser of two evils.

will keep you posted- thanks all for your advice- am going to print this thread out and take it with me when i go to see the dermatologist

[handbagaddiction]

You can buy Diprobase over the counter - we got some from Boots having had it prescribed first time around. It's not cheap though - £11 for a large tub but it lasts for ages....our last lot lasted about 6 months!

[pixiefish]

do you think it's better then handbag?

[handbagaddiction]

It was certainly better for us than aqueaous (sp?) cream which we used religiously for ages before realising that it was actually making dd's skin a lot worse! We also reduced baths to ever other day and have never used soap on her.

dd is now 14 months old and appears to have 'grown out' of her problem - although we do still use the diprobase after her baths and on her face...as her skin is still quite sensitive.

I do recommend investigating the homeopathic option though - can't see what harm it could do - you can always choose to ignore the advice if you're not comfortable with it.