Desperate plea for advice

[welcometothenuttyhouse]

How do you stop a child from itching?! We've tried the gloves and the rewards but I'm out of ideas!!

Help please.... from a desperate mother!!!

How old is the child? Have you seen a GP? Are there allergies? Is it emotional/stress?
Hard to advise without a little more detail...

He's 5 years old. Currently being tested for allergies with the dermatology (this has been ongoing since feb and somehow they have to keep retesting!) we've been told he has eczema, psoriasis and impetigo. He's on so much cream/ steroid cream but nothing seems to ease the itch (also takes anti histamines daily.) every time he goes to bed, he tears more lumps out of his skin and is constantly on antibiotics for it.

Wasn't sure if any mums had any experience or techniques to help stop

Calamine lotion. It's used to cool the skin. It's very chalky but give it a go. Good luck. Aloe Vera as well cools skin.
Cotton fabric on the bed and clothing and gentle washing stuff in the bath and washing machine

My son has had this issue since he was born, almost six and seems to be decreasing.

He too used to scratch mainly at night until he broke the skin.

I find it gets worse with a change of weather and even more so when we visit family in the UK. The water is too hard. Have you considered a water softener?

The only products which worked for us were the Weleda range. From memory you can buy it in mothercare.

Aww poor little guy! That’s so painful and difficult to manage. Have you tried wet dressings? That always helped me when I was a kid with eczema.

Otherwise I have found Andalou Naturals Kukui Cocoa Nourishing Body Butter applied directly after a bath (no toweling off at all just apply to the dripping wet skin) was the best lotion for my eczema (and I tried them ALL as well as years of cortisone creams). It’s very cheap in the US and I’m sure you can find it somewhere in the UK.

I hope the allergy testing helps and your little boy gets some relief.

I’m sure you’ve researched everything endlessly but if you haven’t come across ‘the anti-eczema diet’ from Karen Fischer, that book really changed my skin for the better.

You can get calamine lotion and aqueous cream - I.e. all together in 1 product. It comes in a tube and my pharmacist recommended it for ds2’s (very minor in comparison) itchy patches

Thank you for the replies... I'm not getting notifications so I didn't realise that you had all responded. I will give the creams a try! We've tried the Aqueous cream and calamine lotion, which didn't seem to have any effect.

We had the dermatology today who was very blazè about the whole thing. Rather frustrating, feels like no professionals want to help!

It's affecting his sleep and he's changing in his behaviour now also. Think I need to crack out the wine

What washing powder do you use?
My daughter washes her little ones clothes in Surcare as he gets an itchy rash with anything else
May be worth having a look there too

For temporary relief whizz up some cheap porridge oats with water in the blender and pour into a bath...all the time you’re sat in it it really takes itchiness away

We use fairy, it's the only one that seems not to aggravate his skin and it has to be the powder and not the liquid tabs!

I'll give the porridge oats a try! Thank you!

The best antihistamine I could get. Try the GP. You may need to get steroid cream.

Does he drink plenty of water? How is his diet? Have you tried cutting out sugar? Sorry, you've probably tried all of these obvious things. Some people on the MN low carb threads reported improvements in their eczema and psorisis since starting that way of eating.
I hope you get good advice on here. I can't imagine how hard that is for him.

Not the same issue but when I get itchy rashes from allergies, I take an anti histamine and it really helps. You could try some piriton? Or hayfever tablet with loraterdine in it?

Hope it gets sorted quick for you, OP!

Oh bless him. My DD was the same when she was younger and it was horrible. She had a dairy allergy, and even now she is aggravated by changes of toiletries etc.

We use surcare to wash all clothes, oilatum in the bath, and do our best to dress her in cotton all the time. Her bedroom is kept as cool as possible.

We were about to try these pyjamas, but she grew out of the worst of it.

everything-for-eczema.myshopify.com/collections/children/products/soothe-eczema-pyjamas?variant=21977125127

La Roche Posay Lipikar lotion. Recommended by our dermatologist in Belgium. There are a few in the range - one is specifically anti-itch. It is really good, both for moisturising and stopping the itch.

A dermatologist would shoot me for this, but the only immediate relief DD1 and I ever got was from applying Anthisan antihistamine cream directly to the eczema. I asked if it was dangerous or if there was any serious reason not to use it, and was told that there wasn’t, but to be aware that it was treating the symptoms, not the cause.

It does seem that the my are treating the symptoms and not trying to find hot what the cause is. They have taken him of dairy and tomato due to his food diary reflecting peaks then. He's got quite a good diet and is quite good with his water intake.
I was wondering whether his vitamin intake was low, as they haven't referred us or even discussed other ways of getting calcium or any other vitamins he could be missing...

We use fairy which seems to be good on his skin and cause no reaction.

He does take piriton and Benedryl daily (please excuse my spelling!!)

He currently is suffering from a viral rash from being on antibiotics which he's suffering with now aswell...

Thanks for the help and sorry for the length 😂

Also can you get it under the nails?? He seems to have something under there but not sure what?!

We had the dermatology today who was very blazè about the whole thing. Rather frustrating, feels like no professionals want to help!

Yep. True. Because they don't have a fucking inkling what causes it or what will cure it.

Please DO NOT use cortisone. It is no good and fucks up your body's natural system. They are hormones.

I have had it for years. Best use natural treatments. Maybe I have it for life, but will not fill my body with unnatural treatments.

Try anything, even coconut oil on his skin. Just see what will work.

Even Homeopathy, which gets rubbished on here by people who don't have a clue can help.

I hear the Royal Family use it and looking at the Queen at 92 makes me wonder why she looks so amazing for her age.....

Hopefully he will "grow out of it" as he gets older.

So sorry you are going through this, it's a bitch....

I was told to use antihistamines for my daughter and it does help, she gets hay fever so takes them anyway atm. I also make sure nails aww short and put Vaseline on the ends of her fingers if it's bad so it's not easy to scratch.

Thank you :) I hope he will grow out of it but it seems to be getting worse and not calming down...
we are planning on seeing a homeopath to see if they can offer any alternative help. The dermatologists answers is steroid cream but as you said it doesn't actually help the cause it just hides the symptoms.

I haven't tried the Vaseline on the fingers so I'll give that a try!

Most of the damage is done at night and he's not aware so fingers crossed that works !!

Sounds gross but stop bathing him for at least a week. Seriously. Keep him clean by washing his face and hands morning and night but not a bath or shower. Water is the worst thing for eczema and all the aqueous creams do not make a difference. I did this years ago for 2 DC and it worked miracles - people told me it was disgusting but it really wasn’t, children don’t need to bathe so much. Having been told how wrong I was by family members ( despite my experience ) and that it was better to bathe using specialist creams and lotions, about two weeks ago a report came out saying that all of the creams used for eczema when bathing were totally ineffectual. Please try it just for a week and if it works then just drastically cut down the amount of time your DC spends in water.

One thing I found helpful when mine had excema flare ups was to double rinse their clothes and bedding, so at the end of a wash cycle run another rinse cycle. Washing powder is so harsh on your skin no matter how "mild" they say it is. I use Aerial powder now, if I change it or sleep in sheets at someone else's house, we end up with sore skin, worth a try, good luck xx

He's showing about twice a week at the moment because it's too painful at the moment, but I will try not giving him a shower for a week 😁 thank you!
I've got into the habit of rinsing twice, and like you we struggle when going elsewhere! I make sure my mum has our waning powder which is the only place he stays now! Xx