DH has terrible excema --- any thoughts on how to manage it?

[OhBling]

It's on his body and his face. And it's consistent. He's got steroid creams but the moment he stops using it, it comes right back.

We think he must be allergic to something that's making it flare up and it must be something he eats/touches/uses every day as it's so consistent, but we don't know what. It's really getting him down so any thoughts gratefully appreciated.

[BonsoirAnna]

Go on holiday to Avène or to La Roche Posay to bathe in the waters.

[BonsoirAnna]

In the meantime, only use super hyperallergenic products for grooming and cleaning your house.

[TheDMshouldbeRivened]

I took ds1 too a homeapath as by the time he was 2 he was one giant scab. It was awful. We also cut out all dairy.
Worked and within a month he was clear.

[OhBling]

We keep wondering about diary. it's so freaking elusive though. DH cut right back on diary but not completely and there was some improvement. Maybe I should convince him to stop again.

Holiday noted BonsoirAnna - for medicinal purposes only. Clearly.

[neversaydie]

We found that eating citrus fruit of any kind made ds much worse. Sea salt in his bath water has pretty much eradicated it (his was fairly mild though).

[BrigitBigKnickers]

Both of my nephews had awful excema when they were babies. When DN1 was 3 SIL took him to be allergy tested. He was allergic to all sorts of things including apples, citrus fruits, beef, dairy etc.

She cut them all out and the difference was amazing. The list showed which that some foods were worse than others. So after a period of about 6 months she was slowly able to introduce some of the less problematic intolerances. He's now 15 and can eat and drink most things.

[essanel]

I have psorisas and I have found that going for a sauna and steam room regularly and then lash on the moisturiser this keeps my skin soft and stops bad flare ups. I don't know about excema but mine gets bad when I'm stressed or tired - just thinking about as i chill out in the sauna etc no kids then that probably does more than the actual steam!

[OhBling]

Thanks everyone. I'm hoping the dermatologist will do a full allergy test and we're trying a few things in the meantime. I like the sauna idea as well actually - for relaxation as much as for the heat and might suggest he use a few of my freebie gym passes for that!

[deepbreaths]

Make sure you wean him off steroids. If you stop using them abruptly it flares back up because even if the skin looks calm and eczema free the layers underneath may still be inflamed. If you're using say hydrocortisone twice a day for example for a week.. once it looks better use it for once a day for a few days.. then once every 2 days and so on. If you stop and it flares again then go back to using it more frequently. It should be like a going up and down a ladder but don't just stop abruptly as it will almost always flare right up again.
Good luck with allergy testing. We're waiting for our DS2's appointment.

[deepbreaths]

Epaderm emollient used twice a day on affected areas works well too.. you can buy it at chemist if GP won't prescribe it. Very greasy but we find it's the only thing that helps keep DS's skin moist.

[MaggieVirgoOn]

You know that body shop hemp cream that comes in a tube???

It's not cheap and it whiffs of MOULD. BUT..... I use it on my four year old and to my surprise, his eczema has not got worse since I stopped using the cortopin (1% hydrocortisone cream) I expceted it to flare up again very badly, but it hasn't.

Soembody recommended that hemp cream to me. It's like vaseline in its consistencey. I put it on him mornign and evening and then in the middle of the day, I put on a bit of ordinary e45 cream, just to really, really moisturise it.

If you said to me two months ago we could stop using hydrocortisone cream and that it would get if anything a bit better i would have been very sceptical.

[MaggieVirgoOn]

I was worried that the body shop hemp in a tube might be too expensive a solution but bonsoir anna suggests going to spa in france to bathe in waters, Anna, tu es trop francais

[LongStory]

had a discussion with my friend the other day, our kids both have bad eczema ... we worked out (with shame) that we hadn't been giving them baths very frequently over the summer. And linked it, possibly, with massive improvement in both of their eczema.

Worth a try?

[MaggieVirgoOn]

I only do baths twice a week, with no soap obviously and a tiny bit of oilatum. I say a tiny bit because that stuff aint cheap!!

Is the aveeno bath lotion cheaper Teamedward?

[Quattrocento]

DD has excema. Only use hyperallergenic cleaning products. Wash his clothes separately just using hot water. Ditto towels and sheets. Be careful with products for cleaning the bath. Cut down on dairy products. Homeopath helped a bit.

The other thing is that I would watch out for is asthma. I know this sounds a bit neurotic but the doctors explained to us that there is quite a link between the two, and sure enough DD developed asthma.

[rolledhedgehog]

My DH's excema is sensitive to dairy so he cut that from his diet years ago. He is also allergic to egg (although that has severe reaction).

He rarely uses steriod creams but uses oilatum bath oil, special shampoo, and ultrabase to keep mosturised which he says is the most important thing - twice daily if not more. Trick is finding the cream that works for him and use it loads.

Only wears cotton next to his skin, baths rather than showers, no swimming in the sea, careful washing after swimming in a swimming pool.

[rolledhedgehog]

Oh and as Quattrocentro says, there is a link to asthma and DH has that too, and also allergies to animal dander and some nuts!

[MaggieVirgoOn]

Quattrocentro, definitely, the defect that causes asthma and eczema is carried on the same gene.

One of my children has asthma and the other eczema. I have asthma so they got it from me....

[TAFKAtheUrbanDryad]

Ds had bad eczema on his back, I was very keen for him not to have steroid creams as I had them as a child and always found it very painful.

I cut out raw dairy from his diet (so no cow's milk, basically - he has goat's milk instead) and used a homeopathic remedy of sulphur 3 times a day, and put calendula cream on first thing in the morning, and last thing at night.

Apologies if homeopathy isn't your thing - I was extremely sceptical about it, but figured if it didn't work, at least it wouldn't do any harm (unlike steroid creams) and the eczema cleared up within a week. If I had to pinpoint the one thing that made the most difference it was cutting out cow's milk. He can still have cheese, yoghurt and small amounts of ice cream without a reaction but if he has too much dairy it flares up again.

Would it be worth it for your dh to try cutting out cow's milk from his diet - maybe use soy milk instead - and see if that made a difference?

[MaggieVirgoOn]

that's interesting about the popsock in the bath! will try that. My kids would love that. SLOPPING and messing, but allowed!

[TAFKAtheUrbanDryad]

Oh - and MIL swears by rubbing banana skin into eczema . It's never worked for ds, but she knows people it has worked for (apparently) and again, i figure if it doesn't work it isn't going to do any harm. And you get to eat a yummy banana too.

[MaggieVirgoOn]

That's interesting, I may try that on the back of ONE knee for a while. If my son letsme! he'll give me an odd look I think.

[TAFKAtheUrbanDryad]

I used to have to bathe in porridge oats - my older brother says it was like having a bath in a paddy field! We used to chuck it at each other.