Feeling so sad about DD's eczema

[Schulte]

It started when she was 4mo with a massive skin infection on top. Then we got it under control and it was manageable all of last year, confined to her legs, and nearly gone during the winter months, where all we needed to use was a bit of Diprobase twice a day. She's now 2yo and with the start of the hayfever season, has had a massive flare-up which we can't get on top of. She's covered in angry red patches and pimples all over, her fingers and wrists are scratched raw and sometimes she can't sleep. I am so sad because I thought it was getting better and now it's the worst it's ever been. She also coughs a lot, which makes me worry about her developing asthma too. There is a whole selection of creams on her changing table at the moment which we are trying out in desperation but nothing seems to make an obvious difference.

Please someone cheer me up and tell me that children do grow out of eczema? And that they don't all end up with asthma to boot?

My DD had awful eczema as a baby and her skin would bleed and become infected. We did 2 things which had a dramatic impact - one was a switch from cows to goats milk (which she still has aged 9years) and the other (slightly weirder, but worked!) was to rub the flowers of marigolds on her skin. We had tried natural remedies (including those with marigold oil in) before and they had not worked, but a friend of my mums suggested the heads of the flowers and they definitely reduced the redness and dry skin.

She has had absolutely no skin problems since she was 9 months old. My DS has been raised on goats milk and has no skin problems...

There are some stories here to cheer me up - Whelk sounds like your DD1 is going in the right direction in terms of growing out of her problems too. I often think how much easier life would be without these allergies and skin problems but fretting doesn't help much does it

Please please try to keep your spirits up. My dd had chronic eczema from 8months. It dominated our lives. I had to give up work. One of her first phrases was 'more cream', our doctor used to look up pictures in a book when we visited and only ever prescribed hydrocortisone 1%. She bled copiously every night. We couldn't go anywhere by car more than 1 hour. We tried EVERYTHING. food, pure cotton, homeopathy. In the end it was a health visitor who said 'you can't live like this any more' We were referred toAlder Hey children's hospital where a wonderful consultant took us in hand. Please ask for a referral. GPs are hit and miss as with anything in life!

Our DD had strong steroids but only in the short term to get under control. we were taught how to bandage her in paste bandages. Piriton was vital but you must also be taught to recognise when atopic eczema gets infected. Then you need antibiotics. cream won't help. DD went on a trial for a very effective cream (based on chinese remedy) It is called Protopic. Ask about it. It was very helpful.

We joined the Eczema society - they had a local group. also very useful although that was pre internet !!!

We had things under control by the time she went to school although she didn't go swimming until she was 8/9. By this time it was in patches - hands, back of knees.

dd is 15 now. she is beautiful. You would never guess how bad she was. She has the odd tube of cream which she puts in her hands in the summer months when it's hot but she lives a perfectly normal life. My thoughts really go out to you but with the right support it DOES get easier.

Totally agree with cejay, get a referral and learn how to manage DD's eczema
We got referred by our GP when we seemed to get stuck in this circle of DS eczema getting infected, being put on antibiotics, all cleared up for a while, itch came back, infection etc. We had an eczema nurse visiting us at home and giving us advice on what we could do without having to going overboard and for example take out all the soft furnishings. She was a god send :)

Keep her skin creamed up, the more the better, don't let it dry out. You could ask about 'dry wrapping' You use lots of cream and then cover the body with tubifast garments. This keeps the skin moist and is great for night times.
Also have a look for eczema pyjamas, they have mittens which prevents them from scratching their skin to bleeding.

There were definately certain foods that "triggered" bad bouts of scratching for our DS, these were mainly oranges and orange juice, fresh tomatoes but not cooked, strawberries but not raspberries, rhubarb, pineapple and other citric foods.

Funnily enough though he can now eat strawberries without any problem but orange juice and fresh tomatoes are still no go.

I have found that what works for one does not necessarily work for another. You need proper advice from a dermatoligist and allergy testing.

The allergens that cause sneezing in hayfever can also cause itchy skin and wheezing - what you might be seeing with the coughing. Can be caused by nasal "drip" - when it drips down the throat causing itchy throat and a cough.

Personally I have eczema - never grown out of but improved with age, and occasional allergy related asthma. DD has inherited it

One key thing I found to help is to bath them only rarely - maybe 1 or 2 times a week and then use porridge oats tied in a muslin and soaked in the bath with them. Nothing else! No shampoo or anything.

HTH x

Have you tried ScratchSleeves? They are brilliant at reducing the skin damage from scratching and helping to break the itch/scratch cycle. They really helped DD (and us) to get some sleep. We also found lots of useful advice from other parents on their website/FB page.

Another recommendation here for Aveeno, plus oats in muslin in the bath to reduce the itching - once you've got the right regime & cream from the GP or dermatologist. Hope things improve for you soon.

Sympathy from me too. DS has just flared up again after months of being clear .

I'd second Scratchsleeves, I could have kissed the people that make those when we discovered them.

Oh yes, oats in muslin in the bath. It didn't really work with DS but he still has a liking for porridge :o

Aveeno made DS eczema worse sadly as I really liked it for my hands.

Poor children - there are some very sad stories here. My DS (now 3) had bad eczema as a baby (starting from about 2m), and scratched himself bloody on his wrists and ankles (scratching his ankles with his toenails!), causing infections. He has also been admitted to hospital for bronchiolitis, which last year we had diagnosed as tending toward asthma.

His skin got better last year (2-ish) as we cut his baths to once a week (baths are incredibly drying, even with all the Oilatum crap) and started using Aveeno (oat based - really nice stuff). They seem to do quite frequent 1/3 off deals in sainsbury's, so we stock up whenever we see it, and now could bathe in it ourselves, we have that much!

HOWEVER, I really want to stress that some things seem to work for some children, and irritate others. It seems quite evident that eczema is a symptom, not a unified condition caused by one thing, and so please don't be discouraged if something someone swears by does not work for you. Keep trying different things, and remember that the most important thing with eczema is for the skin to be moisturised - however you do that, with whatever doesn't irritate the skin.

Although the eczema was getting better, we are still concerned about asthma, so managed to get an allergy test (not in the UK - the referral never came through), and milk products showed up. We have cut out dairy for 6 months, and having seen the specialist again, are looking at reintroducing it again soon - fingers crossed.

My former boss has a daughter who has had a terrible combination of allergies, and only outgrew her eczema at around 10yo. That is a long wait, but should give everyone hope for longer!

Good luck to everyone going through this!

For a slightly different perspective, I had very bad eczema as a child which started when I was a baby. I remember having some really bad infections, having time off school, going to the skin hospital. We had a load of different creams and the hospital sometimes suggested different bizarre diets which didn't help a bit, I never had any noticeable change in symptoms with a change of diet. I remember they said I would grow out of when I was 7 (I didn't), then 14 (more or less).
But I don't remember ever being upset or distressed by it, it was annoying but nothing more than that. I enjoyed the odd bit of time off school and visits to the skin hospital. I think children (beyond the first couple of years at least) can be much more accepting of these things. I'm sure it was much more of a big deal for my mother than for me. It was the baby /toddler years which she found hardest with eczema.
I'm sure it's really tough for you but you may find your DD is remarkably resilient.

For what it's worth, I don't know what the data shows about asthma but I have never had asthma, except for on a couple of occasions when I slept in a house where a cat had been sleeping on the bed.

Thank you ThursdayNext - hearing that does help. I worry about how much of my dd's lives are dominated by the foods they can't have (particularly milk) and the creams and the endless ridding of dust/ washing of teddies etc etc.

I don't know if they still do them, but wetwraps are fantastic. The idea is that you apply the treatments (whatever you've been given from doc) and put them on at night. They're bandages soaked in moisturizer and really help keep all the treatment in and not rub off on clothes/bedding etc. Another good method I've used several times is to put damp socks on feet and hands after applying lots of moisturizer. That way they can't scratch and it'll soothe any itching on those areas.

Wonder what you all make of this... took DD2 back to the docs on Friday, who said this was a skin infection and put her on ABs. Now I had been to the GP two weeks previously precisely to make sure this wasn't an infection, and that other GP had insisted it wasn't... how often would you expect your eczema child's skin to get infected?

In my experience, skin with eczema is prone to infection, esp in warmer conditions, which is why an effective managment program is important. Did the GP say what kind of infection it is or take a swab? - Staph A seems to be the most common one for flaring eczema. I suppose it's possible the skin has become infected since your first visit, as bugs find it easier to attack skin that is already damaged by scratching etc. The Eczema Society has a fact sheet on infections in eczema.
Hope the ABs help and things calm down for DD.