babies itching breaking my heart

[forevermore]

sorry this is long but bare with me.

dd 26 weeks has excema. moderate i would say after reading some of these threads, but major to our family. i cannot even change her nappy without her drawing blood behing her knees and play and sleep time is being interuppted with her itching and crying out in frustrtaion...its breaking my heart.
feel that her most precious early years are being plaqued by this horrible condition

i am trying tubifast to cover elbows abd knees at night but that seems to leave the skin dry and lots of skin left on it afterwards.

what is worrying me is when the hot / milder weather kicks in. i am secretly hoping she is one of the lucky ones and grows out it soon, but if not how will i keep her covered up. desperatly looking for sites that sell leggings, cos she is a skinny thing so most trousers can be drawn up and allow her to itch/scratch her skin.

anyone know where i can get leggings or similar for milder weather. any tips on what else i can do to minimise damage to skin?

not using steriods at the mo since the look of it is okay for me to deal with and not 'angry' looking often so going through a homeopath to find a natural cure at the mo. (just finished a course of sulphur tablets to no avail). 0.5% hydrocortisone clears skin but only for 2-3 days so not sure its worth the exposure and doesn't really stop her itching

using epaderm and trialing 'bachs rescue remedy' on a friends recommendation, been through avenoo/aqueous cream/vaseline/doublebase to date....

Any comments on any of the above welcome...thanks

use the steriod as it will ease the itching. my dd's dermatologist saids that steriods thinning the skin was more a problem in the days when the creams/ointments had higher percentage of medication.

she also recommended that when the itching was bad, to do the epaderm bath, then take baby out of the tub and with baby still wet, apply more epaderm like a thick cream to damp skin. wet a close fitting sleepsuit in warm water and hand wring dry and dress baby in it. then put a dry loosefitting sleepsuit on top. the wet sleepsuit will slowly dry, keeping baby's skin cool and hydrated, allowing the thick coat of epaderm to seep into the skin.

its like a wet wrap of sorts.

Use the steroid cream, it is the only thing that has actually been proved to work with bad eczema. It won't do any harm used for short periods when she needs it - 0.5% is really, really mild.

Apart from that, lots of other emollient creams - keep going back to your doctor until you get one that really helps as different people suit different things. Diprobase seems to work for ds. Apply as often as you can. We used to cream ds every nappy change. And make sure you use Oilatum or similar in the bath.

If she's too big for scratch mitts, I have heard of people using tights on the hands to stop babies scratching themselves while asleep.

Sympathy, it is distressing, I know. But thankfully most babies grow out of it, or at least have it much more mildly as they grow older.

Use the creams and taper them at the end so that you gradually use less and less, less frequently once the skin looks completely healed.

The rash is coming back because you stop when it looks healed.

Try oat baths for the itching, cheap and soothing. Also whatever cream you are using apply it to wet skin, just out of the bath (just lie on towel do not pat) and then put on clothes straight away. And use a spoon to get the cream out, or you are putting back the bacteria that hangs around the rash back into the tub.

Give probiotics and flax seed oil. A much better and well researched rate of improvement than homeopathy.

What is the chat on probiotics and flaxseed oil ? I've not read that before?
thanks

I agree use the steroid till its controlled and then good moisturiser - being a sufferer for many years i do treat my dd rather than her undergo the smae suffering i did.

look at National Eczema Society web site - helped me loads with mine - they do a booklet on children with eczema - also there are firms who advertise with them that do kids sleepsuits with the hands on (like the feet on sleepsuits) organic cotton too

I spoke to my Doc about my concerns about steroid cream as a cousin of my has paper thin skin now due to over use of steroid cream on her skin when she was young (in the 1970's).

The Doc said that 0.5% is a VERY mild dose and used sparingly won't do damage.

My DS's face used to bleed and crack as a baby and thankfully I realised that bananas were the trigger food and once I eliminated them his skin healed.

I would suggest you use the steroid cream mixed with diprobase cream to keep the moisture in.

I hope you find your cure soon.

My daughter has suffered behind her knees, hydrocortisone helps with flare ups- However I have found, epaderm made no difference at all - neither did oiltaum in her bath. However I have found a product called INFADERM, which is bubble bath and soap and is fantastic. Have only been able to get this from Boots. About £4.99. Also on prescription got a cream called Aveeno, ( described as a moisturing cream with colloidal oatmeal )which i put on the area when her skin is slightly damp, and the two products together have more or less cured it. The odd flare but nothing major. Hope this may help

Theory is that protein escape a babies leaky gut and cause a breakout. Probiotics help the gut the heal and seal and therefore the protein can't get through into the blood the same. Flax seed oil helps the probiotics work by increasing the fatty acids in the body (which tend to be low in atopic people).

Can't harm you, works for lots of people.

Hi i could be Kbears cousin except i don't have a cousin with a son.

But i have severe white patches due to overuse of steroids in my younger years (although i struggle to find a dermatologist who agrees that the steroids were the cause).

So i am cautious of steroid use, but also know the results the cream can give. As the others say, if you use it, you need to wean the skin off gradually and moisturise continuously (my skin hurts if i get it wet and don't apply moisturiser immediately and if i didn't apply moisturiser then i would go on to develop yet another knew patch of excema.)

My advice to you, if you're not already doing so is find a really greasy cream (not one as you describe that makes the skin dry.) for me i use aveeno. Apply constantly throughout the day, each time you nappy change apply this to backs of knees before your child itches and anywhere else she tries to itch.

This won't cure it, but the greasiness of the skin will prevent her nails from breaking the skin anymore when she scratches. Hopefully allowing the skin to heal, and then with a regular moisturising you can have the excema 'under control'.

From this point, if you find it going 'out of control' you can catch it quick with a course of steroids, or just up the moisturiser.

HTH!

And hopefully your dd won't go on to have dd in later life as she has it so young now.

I know it can be a bit of a myth, but i had 'perfect skin' (according to my mum who may be slightly biased [sink]) until the age of three, when i developed excema and had it ever since.

forevermore- i don't know if it would be of any use to you but i have a drawer full of tubifast leggings and tops designed for wet wrapping. they are unused and still in their boxes. we were prescribed them for ds2 but never used them. they are size 6 months to 24 months. if you would like them i will post them to you.
stick with the homoeopathy- that was what worked for us. How often are you moisturising her ? just asking because paed.community nurse told us at least 6 times a day.Every nappy change is a good guide although it's hard work.
Our son's was very wet and so kept getting infected. Once it dried out we could get it under control.
We use emulsiderm liquid in the bath, emulsifying ointment instead of soap, and then lather him in epaderm. all in one sleepsuits are a boon.
trying to think what else.....
scoop ointment out of tub with a spoon to avoid contaminating the tub..

My DD suffered with eczema from the day she was born. She wasn't diagnosed until 11 weeks and I remember applying Hydrocortisone for a couple of days and then she finally smiled. She was so unhappy and uncomfortable. She is now 6 and still suffers with eczema and has flares ups every 2/3 weeks but I apply the steroid cream when needed and use Moisturisers (Diprobase Cream which is a brilliant cream as is a very greasy moisturiser and when skin is really dry I apply Diprobase Ointment over the top which is a thick grease) I also alternate what I put in the bath between Oilatum and Balneum. I find that alternating them every 2/3 weeks can make a difference. I know people are aware of thinning of the skin but I find thickening is also a problem on the areas she has constantly scratched. I have tried homeopaths, herbalists and chinese medicine for an answer to this horrendous thing but the only thing that has ever worked is the steroid cream and moisturising.

But the thickening shouldn't be permanent should it Clare? Once that patch of excema has gone will the skin not go back to normal.

thank-you all

i feel silly not having used the HC and putting her through uneccesary suffering. just thought if she had been diagnosed with ashtma she would be on steriods twice a day every day (like dh) and i wouldn't have hestitated to give it then, just got caught up in the skin thinning issue and not really thought about short term comfort for my baby.

today went to GP who thought that it now looks like its spreading due to fungal infection and said i should get it under control first with Canestin 1%HC then start again with epaderm and avenno...never really had it under control since tried to avoid HC so in her opinion wasting my time treating thickened skin with ointments that cannot penetrate it????????

alexsmum thanks for the offer but do not feel that wetwrapping is right stage for us, also feel that if i start to think of it then it will get that bad, still in a bit of denial i think....want to give this a go first and try and come to terms with not curing, but treating.

i'm going to contradict myslf now and ask you what remedy cleared your childs excema from the homeopath and how quickly, i have so far given her a plant extract and sulphur tablets....do not like the fact that my homeopath scared me into not using HC, he said that it would counteract his treatment working from inside out, in otherwords i would be pushing 'it' back in if i use HC...did your homeopath suggest the same?

anyone reccomend another homeopath in London (south of the Thames?)

Hi forevermore. When my ds was a baby he had this, I remember crying when I woke up one morning and his scalp was bleeding all over ( he was 3 months old). Luckily my sister was there and she had seen this before with one of hers, it was indeed eczema. We used the prescribed creams which eased it a bit, and followed the doctor's advice re such things as using non bio washing detergent. But the thing that made all the difference was Alphosyl shampoo. It's available over the counter at most chemists. We used it as a soap every day when we bathed him as well as as a shampoo, and the improvement was immediate and dramatic.

thr homeopathic treatment that worked for us was graphite. but keep in mind that his eczema was very wet, weeping and bleeding.
Our homeopath told me basically that everything i'd ever done was wrong; he shouldn't have had steroids,anti-biotics,immmunisations, yadah,yadah,yadah. I took it all with a big pinch of salt but have to say, despite my doubt, it cleared it up within days and it has never been wet like that again.
don't be scared to use the hc. dematologist told us , it's more damaging to the skin to be scratched and infected than it is to be treated with steroids. and don't stop when it seems to be clearing..keep using the the hc for a good week or so afterwards.Have you contacted the eczema society? they can send lots of useful info.
hth.

what is the advantage of using HC after it has cleared if the excema just comes back again anyway?

don't know forevermore.just going on instructions given to me by paedeatric community nurse who used to come and see ds. she said something along the lines of, when it starts to clear it's still not properly healed and if you stop using the cream then, then baby is more likely to start scratching and damage skin further before the layers underneath have a chance to heal completely.iyswim? if you keep using the cream, it will stop the itching long enough for the skin to recover.

makes sense, fingers crossed

i've got my fingers crossed for you too
i truly do know what you are going through,ds had a face like something off a butchers slab. he'slike a little peach now if that's any comfort!

isn't graphite another form of lead? how does the homeopath use graphite to treat eczema?

Thats right forever more. use the steroids to control it and then keep moisturised to keep that control.
Once it is cleared, reduce the amount of steroids slowly so the skin weans it off, i find if i just stop using it it immediately comes back no matter what i do, but weaning gently helps a bit!