Friends Daughter has TERRIBLE Excema, age 4

[Mojomummy]

I saw a friend yesterday whose daughter has terrible excema. She has tried cutting out dairy (for 6 weeks) & she didn't notice any difference (was this long enough ?)

Her DD is on very high steriods at the moment & when they reduce them, the excema gets worse.

Her DD looks terrible (sometimes like she has been dragged back & through a blackberry bush) & her mum is so frustrated that no-one can seem to do anything. Hence me asking the mumsnet pros !

My dd has eczema on her face and I am trying goats milk and a cream called Aveeno as recommnded on MN. There has been lots on eczema on MN. I suggest you do a search on it. Hope this helps,

6 weeks is more than enough if done properly but you do have to be careful to eliminate all trace of casein, whey and skimmed milk powder. You sometimes hear people saying they are on "dairy free" diets and having goats milk or milk chocolate. It's very easy to overlook milk traces.

Asuuming she's done it properly then I'm afraid the child will be one of those not helped by being dairy free. There is a lot of other advice on mumsnet, though - about wet wrapping, cotton clothing and special soap powder, aveeno cream, oats in the bath and so on. It's also worth trying more omega 3 fatty acids (fish or linseed oil) in the child's diet. Good luck.

My ds had mild eczema - I cut out all 'red' foods as advised by friend - strawberries, beetroot, tomatoes etc. Really helped keep it under control. Shame, as ds loves all 'berry' fruits.

Don't know much about homeopathy, but we gave it a go and then the eczema seemed to clear up significantly. Really worth a try - works very well on children apparently. Go to a qualified homeopath, though. I wouldn't recommend doing it yourself.

thanks - I've recommended she try homeopathy. I will suggest it to her again.

I have to say, I've never seen it like this before. (I also recommended aveeno).

Hi
My son has eczema and I have been using Elenas Nature Collection on him - it is marvellous - he only gets it now on backs of knees. www.elenascollection.co.uk

There is also a cream available from america that works really well called freederm. Its on special offer at the mo, and they say they will give u yr money back if it does not work. It's worked for over 100,000 people. I am using it at the moment and its clearing my eczema up on my hand. I was booked in to have patch tests done,but may well postpone that as its clearing up.

My DS had excema until I discovered his intolerance to BANANAs. Was excema-free in a two weeks. Might be worth a go.

evening primrose oil all but 'cured' me of lifelong eczema. do use it - the quantities prescribed seemed HUGE but they worked like a miracle for me.
now i only suffer bits and bats. poor thing hope something works for her

Does she see a consultant? Has she tried wet wraps?

My son had severe eczema for about 18mths as a baby. Over 90% of his body was covered. When we had to patch test anything we could only use the skin on his feet. Strangely enough the other area unaffected was the nappy area. We later discovered he has several severe food allergies.

DS was wet wrapped (wouldn't do it again) and we used Elena creams (wouldn't do that again as they have almond oil -nut allergy- and when asked she wouldn't disclose the 'herbal extract'), used Aveno (ok but no miracle cure), used homeopathy (spent a fortune and little improvement), tried Chinese medicine (got scared when I read about the potential effects on the liver so stopped but there was an improvement) and switched to goats milk (this turned out to be a good move as he later displayed severe reaction to cows milk but it did not improve his eczema).

SO you see I tried a lot and the only thing that seemed to really help was:

Tea tree oil for his infected or wet eczema.
Reducing significantly his contact with water - this came about as I have eczema on my hands and water really irritates it. To this day (he is 7) he only has one bath a week and sometimes a quick shower. He doesn't have any eczema now and still his skin is irritated after a bath regardless of what I put in the water. I know some people swear by water softeners.

I hope your friend finds something but each child will have different triggers so it is very hard to identify what will help.

A friend's son was involved in a trial for this \link{http://www.medicinenet.com/tacrolimus_ointment/article.htm\here) and he said it was amazing. His son had severe eczema too. I'm not sure if it ever got licenced here but I will try and find out. It is licenced in the states.

try again here

Yes it is available in the UK on prescription see here