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.

Interesting to hear the difference the diet made and I am glad he is so much better now.

I was under the impression that if you remove a regularly eaten food from your diet, you can become extra sensitive to it when you eat it again if you have an allergy to it (kind of your body can't deal with so much allergen so gives up but a little bet sends it into overdrive). I have probably got this wrong!

I get wheezy just being around cucumber & melon (and gerkins though I didn't realise gerkins were little pickled cucumbers so wondered why I wheezed when I refilled the gerkin tubs at MacDs [I was a teenager and needed the money!]) and have contact reactions to kiwi (as does DD1).

I have never eaten cucumber as I dread to think what would happen if only smelling it makes me wheeze. I have eaten melon once and wheezed but it was about as bad as smelling cucumber so I guess I am less allergic (very scientific I know but I can't see a GP funding testing for me when I already avoid them and it's not difficult tbh).

My mum vomits and feels faint if she eats cucumber - which she did a few years back as she didn't want to make a fuss in a restaurant and the salad looked so nice . Being sick in the toilets probably wasn't so nice...

I always wonder about just calling 'it' dairy as cow's milk protein is slightly different to goat's and sheep's but often similar enough to cause a reaction. But are they similar enough to be tested as one thing?

Our dietician said that children often outgrow allergies as their immune system repairs itself (or something like that) With the eczema getting better my sons immune system became stronger as it didn't have to fight off the infections.

We really didn't expect that food would be such a big factor when we asked for the test. Without DH's experience we probably wouldn't have asked for it as the consultant was so dismissive when we mentioned it.

I don't know how they test for different kind of dairy. We only ever did the blood test and the results seemed to shock the consultant enough to refer us to a dietician. It was a long list with possible allergies, not just food, so I guess we were 'lucky' with that.

I know someone who gets a reaction from touching cucumbers, I don't think he has ever tried eating them. I didn't know cucumber and melon are from the same family.

DS is 10 months, going through a good stage (just a few wake ups), when eczema is bad it's almost hourly.
He has recently started going for his ears, I think there might be eczema in the ear canal...made them bleed in the car today when he got stressed.
We used to use socks on his hands but I think lycra can irritate- we now use George (asda) sleepsuits (integral mits but cheap :-)) & Scratch sleeves-these are great! We're going over to organic cotton where we can - I think the sheets have made a difference. We are trying to go detergent free- his clothes are all washed with Eco balls, ours with surcare.
We try to apply full body emolliant with each nappy change, dermol in the bath-& no shampoo.
If he is scratching a lot at bed time we use piriton, we use calpol if he is in pain that we can't identify.

I really feel for you, because it is horrible seeing them in distress!!

Google tells me (and I always believe Google) that cucumber, melons and gourds (squash/pumpkins type things) are in the same family - Cucurbitaceae.

I always get odd looks from people (esp HCP) when I say I can't have. cucumber/melon. I once was given salmon and cucumber sandwiches in hospital and they looked in askance when I said I can't eat it - look at my notes and my order form and my red band. I got told it was the only low fat option available (in with pancreatitis) - I was so glad I had a box of cuppa soups on my trolley.

I had a look at an allergy chart in the children's ward once and it didn't mention cucumbers/melons at all - just about every other blinking thing on the planet but not those!

I get the feeling it was a money/time issue for not testing a wide spectrum as they had to send the blood to another trust for testing and it took about 8 weeks to get the result.

Our cons. was dismissive of the result after the test - I do know it's no where near as bad as others but it's a reaction so I can't just forget it and hope it goes away if it's making her eczema worse! Why do they always treat the parents (esp. the mum) as neurotic time wasters who have no idea about anything and are just spouting crap they read from some wacky website??

I should really go to bed now as I am just getting het up.

toffeeflapjack, if you do need to use detergent just put on an extra rinse (or two) at the end that should get rid of most of the residue.
Also be careful with line drying if your son reacts to pollen.

TruthSweet, I had a look on google too :) Lots of references to cucumber/melon allergies came up too.

If you google eczema, wheat and dairy you get even more hits. I think you should trust your instincts, as you said you have seen your DD's reaction and you can't just brush that aside. Is she on a wheat free diet now?

Thanks crunch, we can't line dry at the moment (in a flat) but hadn't thought about that (so many things to consider). We were doing the extra rinse but thought we'd go a step further.... Not sure if it's working yet!
DS having a bad night, won't settle after piriton & co-sleeping....time for more milk!

A mostly wheat free diet - she does steal the occasional bite of something she shouldn't (say once a fortnight/month) but the rest of the time she is wheat free. I have noticed her flare if she eats wheat free but not gluten free foods in excess e.g. one day she had two rice crispie squares and some cereal all with barley & malt in the ingredients but no wheat and she had a small flare and was very irritable. She has wheat free alternatives for bread, crackers, biscuits, cereals (only gluten free now), sausages, etc, etc.

Cons. dismissed the possibility of celiac as she would have had failure to thrive. DD3 was 8lb 10 at birth and 12lb 9 1/2 at 21w (gain of 4lb in 21w = 3oz a week 6-8oz is considered normal) and went from 91st%ile to 2nd%ile. This was put down to her repeated episodes of bronchiolitis (10 admittances in 12m including week long stays). If that is not failure to thrive I don't know what is!

Well I spoke too soon about his eczema clearing up.

Hes woken up head to toe in urticaria. Tiny hives everywhere, massive hives all over his arms and legs. No idea why. But I do know it'll leave eczema behind when it goes.

Poor thing - have you got anti-histamines for him? Urticaria is horrible, we found aqueous calamine lotion worked well to soothe the itching (also good for chicken pox). We got ours in Savers (it's a cheapy version of Superdrug) for about a pound.

DD1 had arthritic urticaria (or is it rheumatiod urticaria I can never remember) where her face swelled and all her joints swelled up too. That was to Nystatin thrush medication.

The hives will probably go down and then reappear else where repeatedly before they go away totally.

Thanks. Ive hunted for, and never found calamine cream. Maybe I should look online.

The hives have been coming up and down all day. The piriton is taking the edge off. We've decided its because of his virus, since it hes been getting hives on and off, this is the worst its beem but hes in good spirits.

Really weirdly, I dreamt I fed him creamed mushroom soup, I woke thinking thank God I didnt, he'd obviously react. Then I noticed his skin. For a second I had to stop and think whether it was actually a dream!

Lloyds pharmacies do it but prob best to do a test patch before slathering him in it and don't put it on any open bits!

Check the recycling for mushroom soup cans just to be on the safe side (you may be a sleep feeder not a sleep eater!)

I am sure there are other suppliers it was just one I have found and I think they are a national chain? I'm not advertising them I promise!

my chemist sells the calomine cream do be careful tho as its in aqeous cream and that can make a lot of suffers react :( its now not recomneded by the skin foundation etc as it was origionally only designed as a soap subsitute nto a moisturiser. i am allergic to it.

just do a small patch test, i wonder if you can get calomine in any other cream forms, i have only ever seen it in aqeous cream ,fab for kids with chickenpox but not necessarily good if they have eczema :)

I think the problem with Aqueous Cream is that it contains Sodium Lauryl Sulphate but A. Calamine cream doesn't. They both contain liquid paraffin, cetostearyl alcohol, phenoxyethanol and purified water so if any of those are an issue def. avoid!

As far as I can tell the Aqueous bit in both refers to the purified water.

I am willing to be hideously wrong and misguided though. I am a mere beginner in the world of eczema!

You could also try Aveeno, an oat based cream. I have heard many positive stories about it. Always patch test first! DS had reactions with aqueous cream, calamine and aveeno but every skin is different. It really is a case of trial and error with eczema creams.
There is oil based calamine but that is best avoided as it contains lanolin and something else.

TruthSweet, are you keeping a food diary?

No, should I be? I dread to think what it would contain....

No you don't have to, don't worry :) It might just help you to see a connection between flare ups and certain food.
Saying that your dd's reaction to gluten seems very obvious.

ohhh I really feel for you. DS had atrocious eczema from about 10 weeks - 5 months old and it was really really tough. 45 minutes sleep at a time was a good sleep! (day or night!). I get so upset when I see the pictures from that time, we were trying everything but getting no where. In my opinion GPs just don't know enough and you really do need to see a specialist.

the main thing that made him better (and very rapidly made his sleep so good he was just waking once, then sleeping through the night), was finding out about his allergies (multiple, and severe).

However, a couple of other things really helped:

• stopping the Epaderm! I know different things work for different babies but I would never touch this again, ds had multiple infections while we used this, we were having to use antibiotics about once a month, it was awful. We moved on to cetraben instead and had no more infections, then were advised to switch back to epaderm for the winter months but he immediately got an infection again

• scratchsleeves (www.scratchsleeves.co.uk) - we used these (over or under normal clothes) day and night until he stopped scratching. Much cheaper than the specialist eczema clothing and it really did save his skin.

We used piriton occasionally when he was really poorly, although like you I was uneasy about it, but with hindsight I wish the gp's had been less keen to push the piriton and had referred us earlier to specialists, as there we got the testing and treatment (e.g. steriods) and advice (e.g. on how and when etc to apply the creams, what to use in the bath etc ) that turned everything around.

sorry for the long advice, I really feel for you, I remember how tough it was and how tired I was. I hope the specialists can turn things around for you too and you can finally get some sleep

Thank you. Funnily enough, I ran out of Epaderm and its since then his eczema improved. Doubly, we are assuming his urticaria is because of his virus (makes sense, hes had hives for days) but its also cone up since I smothered him head to toe inAveeno. We're not using that again in case its to blame.

Patch test in future thats for sure!

tiredfeet - we are using cetraben as a pre-treatment twice a day to minimise infections then creaming with hydromol. DD3 screams when it hits her skin (even on the places that don't appear open/broken!). She did this with Dermol (big pump of a lotion type stuff rather than a cream) but still got an infection (though we were creaming her with a mix of hydromol & dermol) and the GP switched her to cetraben.

I am at a loss now!

can i mention DUSTMITE allergy? it does cause eczema and ear eczema.
get some decent anti dustmite bedding and start thinking about reducing the rate of dustmite around your child.

this really did have a impact on my multiple allergic child, who sounds very similar to your childs sleep pattern.

am happy to give more help with this allergy and other enviromental alleriges.

good luck. can well remember those days.

OP I feel for you, and poor little baby.

DD3 has had eczema since 5-6 mo and hasn't really slept through the night since then. We did manage to cut her back from waking every hour at around 8mo to her current 2x night by being tough and consistent and me not feeding her in the night, but whenever she has a flare-up we're pretty much back to square one, even now at 2.7 yo. She recently had hand foot and mouth disease which in her case ought to be called chin, leg and arm disease- it made her eczema flare up massively and we didn't sleep at night for 3 nights. Luckily as soon as the itching stopped she went back to "only" waking at 1am and 5 am.

It is difficult to work out what requires active management and what is due to itching and disturbed sleep. I'd say that active management is worth a try as well but it's really hard on the parents as you wonder whether you're being cruel or kind.