How well does/did your baby sleep if they were very allergic, eczemary, itchy and all that comes with it.

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Just out of interest? This is very much not a woe is me thread. It just took me 2 hours to get my baby to sleep, Im really rather okay with the mission that is my childs sleep, simply because I see his suffering in front of my eyes while we try and battle it. I can only sympathise with him, than anything else.

Tonight for example, and most nights his ears were giving him grief, his ear drum and throat are constantly "red and inflamed" theyve been looked at probably 15 different times, loads of different doctors. Part of his allergies they expect. They itch too, his skin itches, it probably hurts at times too. He claws at his face, head, wrists (wrists where his eczema is bad). This is when his eczema is at his best, its almost gone at the moment and his skin is still irritated. Ive been putting socks on his hands.

Anyway, the above was just an explanation of why his sleep is disturbed. But it isnt just getting him to sleep, its all night. He wakes between 8 and 20+ times a night. Last night I went to bed at 9.15, was asleep by 9.45. He woke 8-9 times, I looked at the clock thinking it would be 3-4am. It said 11.04pm. The night continued that way and I got no sleep at all from that point onwards. This is a fairly regular occurance.

I have to admit if this was any other baby Id have resorted to CC by now, but then, an average baby probably wouldnt wake to this extent.

I dont believe theres anything more that can help, or that we havent tried. Its just the way it is for now.

I just wondered if anyone out there could relate? Or could tell me when it got better for them?

This is not a negative help me thread, just an inquisitive one.

there was another thread about a toddler with eczema and i recomended the cotton clothing with silver in it you can get, it has built in scratch mittens, no seams to irriate etc, its meant to be very good.

also get in touch with the national eczema society they may be able to offer more tips!

how old is he?

www.eczemaclothing.com/

here you go :)

How old is he?

Have you been referred to a consultant about his eczema and for allergy testing?

Ds1 has eczema (severe as a baby) and allergies and his sleep was atrocious as a baby. We did end up doing CC when he was 9mo BUT his skin was getting a bit more under control by that point.

Hes 11 months. To be honest, he scratches but its not what keeps him awake most nights, its his ears. I think they hurt him pretty much constantly.

But thank you for the link to the clothes, his skin is continuously improving I really would like to hope we'd not need them. But I will save that in my favorites because you just never know unfortunately!

if he is 11mths i would think about getting something like piriton to help with the itching and also are you giving calpol etc if his ears are inflamed?

def get a referral to consultant.

Oh yes, I forgot to answer that one. Im seeing a consultant mid May. Thank God, its taken ages. Is it worth mentioning his ears then? Ive always assumed its 'just the way it is'. The regular doctors just say hes probably got small tubes. I have no doubt its related to allergies. It wasnt a problem before his allergies kicked off.

Piriton no, we havent used just for ithching. The reason is, we're a little reluctant to use it that regularly in case he builds up a resistance to it. We're worried that if we need it when he comes into contact with an offending food, it might not work to its full potential and we'd need the epi/jext pen.

With regards to pain relief, because he is in pain every night I dont want to give it to him that often but when things get really, really bad we use it. We probably use it on average once a week Id have thought. We get to a point where all of us need the sleep.

If I gave it to him every time his ears hurt he'd be on the full whack of it everyday for the last 6 months. We kind of have to pick and choose when (example teething hurts and increases his ear pain).

DD3 has eczema and an allergy to wheat (though 'mild' apparently - just like her eczema). She wakes a few times between her bedtime and DH's & my bedtime when she wakes about 8 times a night. Very occasionally she will only wake once or twice after we have gone to bed. Every time she wakes she has to be creamed (sometimes just on her arms or legs and sometimes all over).

She is 2y 6m btw.

Afaik you don't build resistance to Piriton. So definitely worth using. I would also use Calpol/Nurofen to relieve the pain, you could use it every other night if you don't want him to have it every day?

Our consultant prescribed Vallergan to help with DS1's sleep, it's like Piriton but more sleep-inducing IYKWIM.

if he is in pain with his ears then it needs sorting and tbh i would be giving calpol, even if just the lower dose to take the edge off, ear pain is AWFUL my ds1 who is 12 was up the othernight with earache adn he was in tears.

i get that you dont want to dose him up all the time but ear ache is awful :(

have you tried those wheat bags you can heat up in the microwave? he may get comfort from laying his head on one of those ,if his ears are hurting? the warmth sometimes helps.

it may be worth asking for a referral to an ENT as well, it could be his allergies making his ears sore but i would want a thorough check, i also have narrow ear tubes and they do get a bit sore sometimes, esp with colds and when my allergies are playing up and its really not nice.

You have my sympathies having gone through it with DS although he was a bit older. I got the eczema pyjamas and they really helped with the not scratching the skin to bits which seemed to reduce the itch.
We got prescribed an anti histamine that was also a mild sedative and that really helped with getting DS to sleep. It only worked for around 4 hours but it seemed to help DS with learning how to fall asleep again, if that makes sense.

Agree with the referral to a consultant.

What emollients/creams are you using on his skin?

TruthSweet have you heard of dry wapping? You cream up your DC and then dress them in tubifast garments which prevent the skin from drying out during the night. Might be worth looking into and afaik you can get the garments on prescription.

We were using Epaderm. But I ran out a week ago and went for the Oilatum which I havent used since before all this occurred and there seems to be a remarkable improvement since then. He still scratches his head though, head, behind ears, forehead. His skin is, and always has been totally clear there. Can anyone shed any light on that?

I did go and see a particular GP in the next town who specialised in ENT, I wanted a referral then but he said it would be his tubes and theres nothing they would do about it until he was far older. Im assuming he meant grommets or something? So it was left at that.

Im very, very pleased to hear that you may not build up a resistance to piriton, I will have to look that up because that really would make a difference.

Also, I wondered if there was any link between sedative effects of them and SIDS as we have SIDs in the family.

I know my mum used to use phenargan on my little brother and theres a major link between that and SIDS, I read a study on it years ago, scared the shit out of me so been very wary of sedatives for sleep ever since.

We have tubifast garments, they're amazing. We only used them a few times, made such a difference. Quite recently too.

crunchbag - we have the compression garments (leggings and a polo neck type top) and use hydramol and cetraban (cetraban twice a day as it stings like buggery, hydramol as required [approx 10-15 times a day]).

Trouble is she keeps getting infections in the open bits of her eczema and you can't use the compression garments when infected (or indeed when they are wheezy - which she is on occasion as she is asthmatic).

Thanks for the suggestion though .

DD1 had major hypers when given salbutamol (dragging herself down the children's ward corridors at 5am as she was too tired to run at 15m) and was given ketotifen to knock her out.

This hyper behaviour was making the asthma attack last longer as she was using more and more oxygen to be hyper (so breathing faster and faster) than if she was laying down sleeping. She had about 3 nebs then was on 2 hourly 10 puffs of salbutamol so was wired for sound .

Paed cons. prescribed it and we got a tiny bottle to take home with the instructions to only give it after inhalers at night and not to mix it with Medi-Sed or similar (this was when 6m old babies could have it now it's 6ys!)

I can have 2 puffs and my heart races so I dread to think how her body felt!

I know that one TruthSweet, theres a big age gap between me and my little brother. He had very bad asthma and had a nebuliser regularly, and steroids to control it. When he was 2 I remember a time when he was so hyped up on it he would literally back up and run into walls, laugh, get up again, back up and repeat.

I dont think my parents used anything to bring him down, so to speak.... unless thats why they used the phenargan..... which would make sense!

It was horrible to be honest - she was so out of it with tiredness yet so wired she just couldn't stop (I was knackered to as I was pg with DD2 at the time). The ketotifen really helped though it didn't totally make her unconscious just sleepy enough to sleep and not crawl IYSWIM?

I hate the effect salbutamol has one me so it must be horrible for babies/children. I have been told one neb. is equivalent to 25 puffs of salbutamol. My heart races just holding the child while they have nebs (2 out of 3 DDs have had to have nebs.) due to the 'overspill' into the air.

The most salbutamol I have ever had was at 16y when I had an asthma attack on the IoW while on holiday. That was 12 puffs and I spent the night hallucinating and unable to sleep as my heart was about to explode. Fun times

At least now you know your parents weren't knocking him out so they could have a good nights sleep but so they didn't have to take him to A&E with multiple head injuries

I too have had it on a nebulizer I think it used to be called Ventolin? Thats what I had and it made my heart race. I wasnt lucky enough to get hallucination though, they just come with lack of sleep

Dd is 2 and when she has a flare up I give her piriton. Ask your GP or pharmacist if you are concerned but it really helps without it during a flare up she could be awake pretty much on and off all night and would have to be creamed a couple of times through the night. Also worth discussing use of calpol/nurofen with your doc too. Ear ache is awful.

Ivreally feel for you, it's exhausting and upsetting.

Ventolin is the brand name of Salbutamol (the drug/generic name). It's a vasodilator apparently so it opens up the arteries and blood vessels which can make your heart pound. Some people are more sensitive to the effects than others too.

TruthSweet, the vicious circle of infections I remember them well :(

You say your dd has a mild wheat allergy, have you looked into other food related allergies? We got DS tested via a simple bloodtest (consultant deemed it unnecessary but we insisted) and that indicated that DS was potentially allergic to quite a lot of things. He was put on an exclusion diet and in the end we found out that he had reactions to wheat, tomatoes, peanuts and dairy. All mild but still enough to flare up his eczema.

crunchbag - she had skin prick tests for wheat, gluten and dairy (I presume that means cow's milk!) but no reactions at all. It was only because we did an exclusion diet (no wheat) for one week then gave her a hot cross bun and a sandwich (was told to go in heavily with the wheat and not mess about with a crumb of biscuit or something) that they tested her for wheat allergy with the RAST test.

The hot cross bun & sandwich had no initial reaction but was up screaming in the evening and on taking her out of her bedroom (she shares with her sisters) did we notice her lips were swollen - too swollen to bf even - and this swelling went down on giving Aller-eeze syrup. She eventually passed out at 3am after spending hours thrashing about and screaming.

The Paed. she is under for her asthma (originally for under her for repeat bronchiolitis and exceptionally poor weight gain) seems to not really think it's important 'just not give her wheat' was her reply to my question what do we do now? (I was thinking dietician, further testing to see if anything else was triggering her, etc). She did reluctantly agree to refer to a dietician but I have no idea when that will be.

Is there anything that broke your DS's infection cycle? Or is it just time and a couple of tonnes of emollient?

For DS it was tonnes of emollient and the exclusion diet. The consultant we saw was also very dismissive about food allergies but we insisted because DH's asthma is triggered by eggs and certain fish so we knew there could be a connection. The dietician we saw told us afterwards that when she first saw DS she didn't think she could do much but she could see we were desperate to try anything. He was put on a soya, egg, fish, peanut, tomato, wheat and dairy (yes that includes cow milk) diet and after about 6 weeks people who didn't see him daily started to notice a difference. He started to look less grey and hollow in his face and just looked healthier. After 6 months we started to put things back into his diet and after 2 years he can eat everything except for peanuts :)

He still gets some flare ups, mostly caused by pollen and chemicals, but they are easily manageable.

When I look back at photos it really upsets me to see how poorly he looked, so very pale, skinny and with bags under his eyes and I remember how useless I felt because I couldn't stop the itch for him :(

Forgot to add, we had to wait 6 months before we saw the dietician.

And lots of people have experienced a connection between dairy, wheat and eczema so I think it is definitively worth investigating.