My son has some sort of skin condition and i *hate* my GP!

[kutilputil]

If there is anyone who has the patience to read this i applaud you, if not dont worry, i wont take to heart, i just need to tell someone, even if it is the laptop, and let off some steam at the same time!!I've been on the net since 11pm and it is now 3.30am.ive read through a few other sites on eczema and ended up on mumsnet where i have spent most of the time reading other peoples messages on eczema.You mothers are amazing, your so resilient!As a new member of the 'mother' club im not doing well at all.My son has been scratching himself silly since i put him to bed and each time i attended to him i cried my eyes out.i just cant bear his pain and frustration.To try and make a very long story slightly short...he is 12 weeks, since about five to six weeks he developed small spots on both side of his face, above the sideburns. Took him to GP, she said all kids have skin problems it will clear, it didn't, i went back and was told its infant eczema, it will clear 'moisturise' was the key word.I did, it didnt clear, went back and was given aqueous cream and no advice what to do with it. I have friends and family who use it so upon their advice i stopped all other bath products and started using aqueous in the bath and liquid parrafin and olive oil to moisturise.Six weeks on my baby's condition is bad and getting worse!He has spots on his neck and back of neck, his head is covered in scabby, yellow chunks of God knows what, his patches above the sideburns are now red and bumpy (this is where he is scratching, though if his hand coordination was good, he would do the rest of him) and he has developed a very dry and dark patch on his arm, shoulder and right calf.Now pls tell me what is going on?!It looks like he has four different skin conditions and the GP just gives me one pathetic aqueous cream and shoves me off home!I am going tomorrow to the doc's and throwing all the names of products people have recommended on mumsnet, in his face and ordering him to pescribe them for my son!And he better do so, i paid my taxes and so does my husband...i have a right to the best treatment!And i want to see a dermatologist to get the low down on eczema...I had it(or something like it)a good 15 years ago and it cleared up about six years ago...have no clue how but I did move from a carpetted parents home with two cats to my laminated pet free home.But why my son, just to avoid these troubles on my son i stopped smoking from 32 days fo pregnancy, have been exclusively breastfeeding him and keeping everything cotton and non biological and not overheating him etc!But this happens, and now i read from other mothers that eczema is closely related and may be followed by athsma.My friend's son has both and have seen them both go through hell!and apparently a cough may be sign of breathing problems to come and my son has had a niggling cough from the day he was born. I know all this is a bit too much for a message board but if you have come to the end, congratulations and if there is anyway you can help with miracle remedies i thank you beforehand, and if you have a crap GP then im sorry, i know how frustrating they can be!I have had more help from books, magazines, internet sites and leaflets on childcare issues than any of the GP/Health Visitor visits and they are meant to be our first port of call!!!!!!have i said enough, i may say some later, i'll give others chance to coment!!i pause at 4.28am.lol:)

Okay - firstly don't worry about asthma at this stage - there is some good evidence that if you give cetirizine (zyrtec) between 1 and 2.5 daily, it will cut the incidence of asthma. So stop even thinking about it until you can do something concrete.

Secondly - my biggest mistake was putting my hand in the aqueous cream - I should have been using a clean spoon. Also you need to put these creams on a totally wet baby, you have 3 minutes once you get them out of the bath.

Thirdly - give him some probiotics, or take some yourself whilst breastfeeding. Make sure you have enough Omega in either your diet or take a supplement - both help enormously, but take a while.

Fourth - keep your chin up, I've been in your shoes and it's horrible. It was the worst time of my life. But I now have a wonderful 3 year old, and we are so into the routine that I only notice it when people mention it.

just a quick reply as its time to get the older ones up!
Did you say your baby was 12 weeks? well dont worry about asthma, as far as I am aware he is too young to actually have asthma.
When my son had scabby exema I used sudacrem worked wonders! :)
good luck!

I know you said you used non-bio washing powder. But it might be worth washing his bedding and clothing in something like 'Surcare' which is available from most supermarkets. So that the sheets and clothes aren't agrivating his poor sore bits.

Sorry I can't advise you more, but others will.

Just a quick post re Aqueous cream. This is the first thing a GP will prescribe because it's cheap but it doesn't suit everyone. My dd's excema was made much worse by it.

Agree with you about aqueous cream and E45. My DS seems to benefit most from vaseline. Luckily huge pots of vaseline, aqueous, sudocream etc are cheap enough to try them all to find which one suits.

Don't be fooled into thinking that just because something (eg johnsons or Fairy washing powder etc) has a picture of a sleeping baby on the front means that it is suitable for children!

I also agree about the e45. We use epaderm which is like athick lard to spread on their skin. I often get a perscription for this from my health visitor at the baby clinic. They can perscribe epaderm, e45 etc

my ds used to scream when we put aqueous cream on him.as has been said it's not the best thing to use.
e45 should be avoided too as it contains lanolin.
a big pot of vaseline would do more good.

if you are this unhappy with your gp then i would reall advise you to change because if your son does have eczema-you're going to be seeing a lot of them!

It will pass and it won't always be like this. As he gets older his skin will improve. In the meantime change your GP or book an appointment withj somebody else in the practice. This seems to be giving you the most grief and yet you need to be the strong one (sleeping/eating well and not on mumsnet at 4.30am!!) to be able to get both of you through this. If you find a GP who can empathise with you about the situation (or who has been through it too) you will feel a lot better.

I had the same with our DS and DD. They still both get cradle cap/eczema even at their age (3 and 7) but you'll find a routine and way of controlling it before long - one that suits your baby and you.
I wish you all the best and hope that there is some improvement soon for you both.

The yellow stuff opn his head is cradle cap - most babies get it to some extent. You can buy products to deal with it from the chemist, but if you rub a bit of olive oil in last thing at night you should be able to gently pull the yellow stuff off in the morning (or a plastic nit comb works well, but guess you've not got to that stage yet ) Does make a mess of the sheets though.
Re: the eczema, it can be a bit of trial and error to get a product which works. We found diprobase ointment was the best one for our dd. Check whether the products you are using contain lanolin, as that can cause problems as well.
Dr suggested putting dd in overlarge baby grow at night, with the sleeves sewn up so she couldn't scratch - she was older though.
Try and be calm when you see the GP, you want him on your side after all, but accept the fact that if you have a child with a problem like this you will probably end up knowing more about it than the gp anyway. Our gp just kept prescribing stronger & stronger steroid creams (for an 18 mth old) but I asked for a referral as I know the damage the steroid creams can do if nt used correctly.
Good luck, it's a horrible thing to have to sort out, but dd is now 8 and apart from dry skin has no problems at all now.

I am going to throw in a couple of more things to bear in mind.

Consider going to boots and buy some anti dustmite bedding.
Dont warm any clothes on a radiator before putting them on your baby.
Boil wash all bedding.

These steps alone helped my son, when he was younger. Dustmite allergy is very common.
The cough you mention may be linked to this, ie rhinitus, and if you remove a the high rate of dustmites in his cot/bedroom and this improves, well, its worth a try!!

GP's are jack of all trades, but are often not expert in many conditions.
As for any allergy related help in the NHS, its all pityful, patchy and sometimes a GP is wrong.
It's not always their fault, they cant help it, bless them!!
Find a recently qualifed GP, they will be more knowledgeble about allergic conditions.

Carry one researching all you can about ezcema.
If your child shows any of these other signs, poor to slow weigh gain,
and a terrible sleep pattern,
as well as ezcema, take care when introducing soilds, as all these are pointers, esp for a breastfed baby under three months, to food allergy.

Asthma in infants is difficult to diagnose, and often docs will wait until a year to do this.
You are right to keep the baby away from ciggaretes.

My son didnt sleep for five soild hours until he was 9 months old. His sleep pattern( HA!) was two or three seperate hours a night, and 20 min cat nap during the day.

His ezcema started at day 10 after birth.
His weight gain was very slow to poor, and even now at 10 ( this friday) he is still underweight.

He was fully breastfed for 18 months and this worked well, his older brothers were completely opposite to our allergic boy. Top of the charts for height and weight, and health wise robust in the extreme.
My second son was so big that the health visitors kept asking if I was over feeding him on formula , but none of my children ever had formula!! ( but thats a different story).

But I have been where you are now, and know how it feels.

I use Sudocreme (available in all supermarkets, you might have a small pot in your gift bag from hospital).

I agree with the others that you needen't panic at this stage about asthma, although obviously keep an eye on his cough.

you can get sudacrem on perscription.
My eldest had excema and a few allergies about grown out of them all, and slept well and was not under weight, but i s'pose thats not common!
I have never been given aqueous cream either!

I'd stop using the aqueous cream cos some kids (about 50%) don't react well to it

bathe in water only .. no soaps at all

ask doctor to prescribe aveeno cream

make sure all clothes washed in non-bio with an extra rinse

unfortunately dermatologists are like gold dust and you probably won't get to see one unless you can afford to pay privately

HTH

my dd developed "eczema" at this age, and has gone on to develop asthma, but it's far more manageable than the eczema was! the eczema has largely settled, and others have given good advice. What worked for us was :

NOTHING in the bath water. Keep it on the cool side and get him out quick.

We wash in Surcare- no perfume at all.

We use day and night cream by Elena Schalburg- I think she claims an 80-90% success rate with her treatment, and hasn't been hounded by trading standards, so there may be something in it. Her website is \link{http://www.elenascollection.co.uk/indexjs.html\here}

Just something else to consider my baby ds also had this same type of spotty itchy rash in exactly the same places as you mention and it turned out not to be excema at all but a fungal infection, it cleared up all most immediatley with canestan cream - the one that contains only 2 per cent clotramiozal. The scabs on his head are cradle cap and this can be treated with olive oil or specialist shampoos. If i were you i'd see another gp and get a second opinion just to make sure.

I have to add that my son had severe excema at 8 weeks old and was referred to the hospital.He was put on steroid cream.I know people will be aghast but it was the only thing that helped .

He was on 0.5% at first then 1 %.

He is 3.5yrs now and it has virually disappeared,although I must say it was sheer hell at the time.

I guess my point is don't be afraid of using steroid cream.There are guidelines on how much to use and ds's skin is undamaged from using it.It's often the only thing that helps severe cases.

We used dermol 600 in the bath,dermol 500 to wash and epaderm to moisturize.

Ds reacted to e45

I echo ggirl's comments about steroid cream. I used it on my son sparingly but it healed his skin and then I could manage the problem with moisturising with Diprobase cream.

I was on the internet all night too looking for a cure and I found it. I share it with everyone as it might be your child's cure too. My son has a reaction to BANANAs. As soon as I stopped eating them (I was breastfeeding) and using them as a weaning food, his excema cleared up in a matter of weeks.

Good luck.

Hi there am going to put my penny worths in. I started suffering eczema from age 15 am now 23. It never goes away as i had it later in life. Many children do grow out of it but looks like i'mstuck with it. Best advice is yes use steroid cream they an't as bad as some think. Also moisturise all the time every few hours. Use oilatum in bath only. Try also to think about changing milk he is on. Also a cause of eczema is caused by being allergic to nickel i.e - press studs on vests - metal on shoes etc. Hope some of this helps. Try also logging onto the eczema society web page

Our DS (7 months) has had two bouts of what sounds pretty similar - scabby, yellow skin, much scratching etc. Our GP diagnosed it as seborrheic dermatitis and prescribed Daktacort which is an anti-fungal and also contains hydrocortisone to help with the itching. It's worked a treat on him, hopefully he will "grow out of it" later on so that we don't get the repeats.

If your GP won't prescribe it then you can buy it over the counter.

our baby had eczema all over her face at her six week check...when the GP prescribed a steroid cream I balked...but she said that the dermatologist at GOSH had just published a paper saying that short sharp bursts were the best treatment. We used it for a week...the eczema disappeared and has been under control for the past year with aqueous cream.

Cradle cap is unsightly but to be honest just leave ti alone and it disappears by itself in the same time frame as if you put anything on it

Lifelong eczema sufferer i would agree - nothing clears it like a steroid and so long as it is not prolonged it will not harm baby.
I was prescribed it for my dd and she quickley outgrew it.

Hi Kutilputil

You seem to be going through a rough time. Aqueous cream should only be used used as a soap subsititute when bathing.It should not be used as a leave on emollient.With emollient therapy you have 3 groups.Lotions,creams and ointments.Lotions have a low oil content and are absorbed quickly.They are not that good if you have really dry skin.Ask your Gp for some bath emollient for your ds bath.Then you will also need a cream or ointment for applying after the bath.A very good ointment is 50/50.You will need to apply the emollients at least twice a day and more frequently if possible.Coconut oil is very good for cradle cap.f your son is having difficulty sleeping it might be worth asking GP about prescribing antihistamine.Hope this helps.

hi, im sorry i have been away for so long but i have read each and everyones message and id like to thank you all for your advice. its a real comfort to know im not alone and to get clear, simple and caring advice. thank you all again