Has anyone's DC had allergy-sensitive eczema but NOT eczema all over their body?

[AngelDog]

22 m.o. DS has had eczema on his face since about 7 m.o. It's been pretty severe for the last 6-12 months now and we see the dermatologist about it.

She thinks it's not allergy-related because "it's only on his face - if it were allergy-related it would be all over his body". I just wondered if that was definitely the case, or only likely to be the case.

He has dry skin on the rest of his body and has some occasional small patches of eczema, but nothing bad.

I've tried temporarily excluding dairy, egg, nuts & soya with no change. I'm thinking about trying 2 or 3 weeks off gluten to see if it makes any difference. DH says I shouldn't because the dermatologist said there's unlikely to be a link, but I think it's worth ruling out.

The GP we saw about DS's eczema before we went to the dermatologist said she thought it was unlikely to be allergy-related but she was happy with me excluding foods as long as it was for no more than a month a time.

I originally tried excluding foods because of the timing of when his eczema started - he started solids at 6 m.o. He was exclusively bf before that.

I've seen no change in his eczema when using different types of washing detergent. We don't use any washing products on him unless they've been prescribed for him. There doesn't seem to be a seasonal element in his eczema.

The dermatologist has said nothing to us about checking things like washing detergents, pets, toiletries with SLS in them, so I don't think she's covered every possibility which might aggravate it.

Yes, my DS had eczema which seemed to be completely related to his allergies. It was mostly (but not exclusively) on his face, and tended to come up in the same 'patches' (mouth, temples, hairline, above eyes, tummy, backs of knees etc.). It started when he was 3 weeks old (turns out he was reacting to traces of foods in my breastmilk).

DS was referred to a dermatologist for his awful, weeping eczema when he was about 4 months old. This dermatologist (like yours!) said that DS's eczema was unlikely to be related to allergies - but I had been keeping a food diary and I knew otherwise, so I simply thanked him for his time and left!

I recommend keeping a food diary - it's a hassle, but well worth it.

Fortunately, DS's cleared up completely when we finally managed to identify and eliminate all the relevant foods (we were 'lucky' that his allergies all seem to be to food, rather than to dustmites, pollen, washing powders etc.)

Obviously, it's a bad idea to be excluding major food groups from a child's diet without proper medical support, and I am not recommending that you do anything crazy - but at the same time, I also understand that it can be hard to get the right support (especially when you have a dermatologist who will not admit the role of allergy in causing eczema!!) You do have to follow your instincts to some extent.

There is plenty of information on the internet (and on these boards) about how to balance your child's diet if you are avoiding certain foods.

Eczema can be so very horrible... Good luck with this.

Whilst it is true that eczema can often be allergy related or at least made worse by certain foods, the sad fact is that there is all too often no obvious reason for it. I know how hard this is to accept because I too was on a mission for a very long time to find the cause and therefore eliminate it thus leaving my lovely little boy free from this horrible affliction. Sadly, it just wasn't to be. DS is indeed allergic to a number of foods which have been eliminated from his diet for a long time now and yes, there was some improvement in his eczema but the not the miracle I was hoping for. He still gets horrible major flare ups for no apparent reason but with the help of the skin nurse we've learnt how to deal with them and how to try to prevent them as much as possible. Part of me still keeps hoping that one day I'll finally be able to say goodbye to the steriod ointments but I know deep down that that day might never come. Sorry to sound really pessimistic but I'm just trying to be realistic and not give you false hope because there are millions of eczema sufferers out there who simply never find out the 'cause' but who have to get on with living with it as best they can.

freefrommum is absolutely right - I didn't mean to give you false hope with my post earlier. We were so lucky that DS's eczema was related only to foods... but DS is probably quite rare in that being the case.

I still think it's worth keeping a food diary. Again, good luck.

Wasn't accusing you of giving false hope greenbananas and totally agree about the food diary - definitely worth a try. Just wish that somebody had said to me 4 yrs ago 'you know you might never find the reason for it don't you?'. Although, I'm not sure I would've believed them anyway, hope can be a difficult habit to break...

DS1 has had this all his life. He's 20 now!

He only gets it on his upper lip, around his right thumb/wrist & behind his left knee.

He suffers from Asthma & hayfever ( which has got alot better over the years)

The eczema flares up when he's ill/coming down with a bug,polish on tables and strong washing powder/liquid/conditioners! Also, for no reason at all!!

Over the years we put it down to his milk/wheat allergy. Even stopping these food stuffs didn't make alot of difference to his eczema.
I know he doesn't like being hot & sweaty as he says it gets itchy. So he likes his room like the polar ice cap. ( I'm glad he lives away in his own digs!)

It still flares up on it's own accord with no reason.
I know one of the consultants said it could be stress related. As he had a flare up when he did his A levels. Although, not while he's doing his degree!!

DS2 uses a very strong eczema cream from the GP when it flares which sorts it out in about a week, until the next time.

I hope you get it sorted for your DC.

My son was allergic to washing powder. used to use Ariel non Bio or Fairy, but had to convert to Ecover as he had red marks on his ribs/sides as a baby from where used to pick him up, but not anywhere else. Sice then have realised he is also allergic to all chemical cleaning products or bath foams etc. So now use method or ecover for cleaning and Weleda calendula bath products. I have eczema myself and have found mine has improved since cutting out the chemicals.Hope this helps ! PS Weleda do a weather protection cream which helps if its dry and itchy !

Thanks for the replies - really interesting.

I think I'm being realistic - I doubt there's a 'miracle cure', but I'd like to rule out anything which might be contributing to the problem.

We used Weleda products before he got emollients etc from the doctor, but now we use Dermol to wash him. I use non-SLS products on myself (bar the occasional handwash) and do most of our cleaning with washing up liquid or microfibre cloths. I've seen no difference with using bio / non-bio / soapnuts / ecoballs for the washing.

We're struggling to manage his eczema at the moment. Plain hydrocortisone doesn't touch it, Eumovate was working but only for as long as we kept on using it. At the moment, it's not really bringing down the inflammation and he's been on it nearly a fortnight. He's had Protopic and Elidel creams - both improved things slightly at first, but then it flared up again (despite continuing to use the creams), and then we had to stop because his face got infected (again). I'm not sure what the next step will be, although we're having weekly appointments with the dermatologist & eczema nurse at the moment.

His face is getting more and more itchy and he rubs his arm/sleeve across his face till it gets really irritated - at night he rubs it till his chin bleeds. We have DermaTherapy sheets for him as he lies on his front and rubs his face on the sheet, and scratchsleeves (though they don't make much difference as he rubs with the back of his arm/wrist rather than with his fingernails).

Every mealtime involves stopping every 2 minutes to wipe him down with cream (often at his request!) to prevent him rubbing his face, as virtually everything irritates it now. Before it got so bad, citrus, tomatoes and spices irritated the skin but now he can't even eat cucumber without going 'owie-owie' because the juice on his skin hurts.

Stress definitely affects it, as it is always worse when he's teething. He's just finishing off cutting his last molar so it'll be a relief when that's over.

I feel like I want to at least rule out anything which might effect it, so that I'm not thinking 'what if' and can knuckle down to just getting on with the treatment.

Yes DD gets it on backs of knees, eyelids, groin, underams etc NEVER all over, + though medically termed exzema, its actually urticaria+ is intollerance rather than true allergy. Thankfully our hospital has. Come on over the years + its now medically recognised for what it really is, originally I had the same problem as you,

DDs problem is artificial food additives, everything from colours to sweeteners, some affect her stomach too. It fist showed up when tiny + was being, passed to her via BF - She wasnt born with it, but startedafter she needed anti Bs at 10wks, + has become more sensitive, to more things each time she has needed them, now also includes Lactose - easy enough to avoid the additives though, once you know why, DD rarely has flare UPS now :)

Ps. DD was also afected by tomatoes, they are a high histamine food, thankfully she grew out of it by 5, you might want to Google "Histamine Rich Food" loooking into that might help

Ds had it on his face. He scratched more after eating certain things.
My GP fobbed me off for a while but I argued with him that it was food related so he referred me to the hospital. I kept a food diary. Turns out he did have allergies ( that have worsened with time and one which he outgrew) once all these foods were eliminated from his diet the exzema more or less went.
The one that it finally disappeared with was soya - I hadn't realised that I should check bread for soya flour but once I realised this his face cleared up.
It is possible it could be food. My advice would be to keep a diary of what is eaten and when the flare ups occur - esp if it is very soon after the food in quesiton - there could be a pattern then go to see the GP again.

My son's story very similar to others on here. Eczema started at a few weeks old, very severe all over but particularly on his face. The dermatologist said it definitely wasn't allergy related. I went with my instincts and excluding food from my diet. He was reacting to CMP, nuts, soya, wheat etc through my milk.

The eczema is all gone now, but I remember how heartbreaking it was and how much it impacted the whole family. I really feel for you and your DS.

Thank you - from reading your stories I suspect more strongly that it's not (primarily) an allergy issue as he had no eczema for the first 6 or 7 months - if he was strongly allergic to a type of food I expect he would have had symptoms through my milk.

But I'll do a food diary and do a short gluten-free trial to see if there's any difference.

dustmite is a huge cause of ezcema in our son, and its very common.

eczema started day 10 after birth, and is now just all over dry skin, esp on his legs.

his skin improved as we worked out the food allergy aspect and then more dramtically when we used anti allergy bedding and worked with lots of £££ to control levels of dustmite.
has all enviromental allergies , so his body is constantly fighting something!

because of the food thing, once i stopped breastfeeding him at 15 months, his skin improved.....however this window was short as the protection from infection stopped, and he fell ill with everything going , for months and months. living on antibiotics, for chest, ear and skin infections!