Tips to stop scratching and to potty train an itchy child...

[GrrrArghZzzzYaayforall8nights]

My DD2 has severe eczema. It's not as severe as it used to be -- it's mostly just her lower legs, ankles, elbows, and face, red and dry but uninfected compared to last year when it was almost all of her, bright red and regularly infected green.

However, as she's had it from days old and is now 3, scratching has become a habit for her. When bored, upset, overtired, the first thing she does it rub and scratch if she can get her mitts off (and she can do a lot of damage very fast, she can be bleeding within five minutes). She even does it in her sleep (her mattress is quite bad, we intend to replace it after she's potty trained). A major part of the improvement has been keeping her skin covered -- she pretty much lives in coveralls and scratchsleeves.

Our concern over her skin and her instant scratching when having any skin access has meant we have delayed potty training. We tried it a while ago and it was going well but then she got infected again so it had to be put on hold. She is well past ready mentally, I think it may be harder now than if we had been able to continue as she is far more stubborn and now less likely to tell us when she's gone as she hates changes [which is doing her skin no good], but the extra complications and worries - her coveralls are purposefully hard to get out of, she'll need her mitts off to wipe and obviously skin uncovered to go, but it needs to be done and soon (as her sensitive skin means she's getting nappy rash now that's refusing to tell us when she needs change...because it hurts to clean, the viscous cycle needs broken).

I would really appreciate some insight and tips into helping her stop scratching and potty training with these problems! I'm hoping to get started during the winter break.

Instead of putting her in coveralls, how about trying to put her in a skirt and tights instead? They're easier to get down when your DD needs to go to the toilet, but also good at keeping little hands from bare skin.

What creams has the doctor prescribed for her? You might need to try her on a different cream which may suit her better.

She's now on Epaderm, and 3 types of steroids of differing strength, plus bath stuff and antihistamines. The cream has done amazingly well. Her skin is getting better and better - as l long as she doesn't have access to it. Her scratching isn't always connected to eczema - not even most of the time these days.

She scratches most when upset (when she has a tantrum, the first thing she does is rub her legs against the floor/sofa/bed and rubbing her face and ears which is where her eczema first showed up), she rubs at her elbows when she is bored, if she gets overtired she just goes to town on anything. When we were late getting home on Monday, and she was in a dress and tights, she tore up her arms to bleeding in the space of a meal - her arms were clear beforehand when her gloves came off.

It's become a self-soothing reflex for her - something's not right so I'll scratch/rub until it's better. Her scratchsleeves have saved her skin, as long as she wears a good shirt over the top so she can't get them off, but to use the toilet she's going to need to take them off to learn to wipe so I need her to help her get out of the habit of scratching to soothe. I'll try different clothes but it is her hands/nails that I'm most concerned about.

I can totally relate to your story Grrr as my DS is exactly the same. His eczema is pretty much under control these days but scratching is a habit for him. He also scratches when he's tired, grumpy, unwell or upset and even in his sleep like your DD. It is so difficult because, as you say, as soon as any of their skin is exposed they start scratching it. I don't really know what to say other than we always try distraction techniques and giving DS something else to do with his hands so that he can't scratch eg toy, crayon, biscuit etc in each hand. We also taught him to rub instead of scratching by rubbing his skin gently for him and encouraging him to do the same. He mainly scratches his head these days but thankfully not the rest of his body so much.

Hi Grrr! My 4 year old DD's eczema is nowhere near as bad as it used to be but she'll still scratch whenever skin is exposed, to the extent that she still wears scratchsleeves at night and doesn't own a single pair of trousers but rather always dresses/pinafores which make it harder to get to her skin. We toilet trained her quite late (close to 3) and I would either sit and hold her hands or put her in cotton gloves so that when she did scratch she did less damage. But to be honest it was only a problem when she was spending long periods ok the potty waiting for something to happen. Now that she goes to the toilet only when she needs to and not for long it's not a big problem. Good luck!

Hi there.

I can also relate to your situation, although my DD's eczema has never been that bad as far as it appears but she has always been a very itchy thing. I remember she was able to get her hand free of her swaddle blanket at a few days old and would scratch her neck and face.

In terms of potty training, I used to always put my dd into trousers. She's only recently started to wear dresses and skirts as if she could touch her skin she would scratch herself raw. Trousers and trainer pants were very easy to get off so made training easier. But as soon as she was on the loo on her trainer seat, she would scratch her legs, bottom or wherever she could reach. It was as if the air to her skin somehow made her more itchy. The only thing we could do was to keep her well moisturised. The GP said the only thing to do was to moisturise her as often as necessary.

We also used to keep a stash of board books near the loo and some toys that she could play with to keep her distracted.

DD still scratches now, esp in her sleep and on the loo, so as well as moisturising her, we have to keep her nails short ( which I'm subbing at as they seem to grow so so quickly). She was told by her allergy nurse to pat the area that's itchy and she does this when she remembers.

Good luck with the potty training. Take care.