Advice from Eczema mums please

[Rubybees]

Hello there I'm working towards my NVQ3 in child care and please could some of you lovely ladies help!

I'm after how eczema effects children in being able to participate in everyday activities and any changes you may need to make to include the child.

Any useful info on eczema and this would be greatly taken thanksxx

Hi Ruby, my girls' eczema is marked mostly but nasty flare ups, particularly in spring and Autumn. When this happens I have to reduce bath times to 2 x weekly and keep them short, they cannot go swimming, they must not have skin to skin contact with grass. Not too much of a hassle though, I know there are children who have a really dreadful time.

Hello Ruby - our baby boy's eczema started suddenly at the end of May after he had been outside all day. It was all over his face and arms and legs. We found if we kept him inside, it disappeared mostly. I read that eczema can be due to 'leaky' skin ie could not protect itself from irritants, so I applied a barrier cream (dermaguard) and it cleared up like magic. We had to use it all over him all summer but have not had to over the winter. We may need to start soon now. Hope that helps a little.

Hi Rubybees. Yes, hopefully we can help you a little with this one. Generally it does cause a lot of problems with what children can normally participate in. With our dd, starting with playschool she needed so much help, I could only send her twice a week due to her problems and the damage she would do whilst there. She could become that itchy she would need antihistamine or cream. I dont think playschool/teachers are ment to cream children. But dd had too have it, she would become so distressed they would sometimes even have to phone me to collect her. Basically you need to be aware that they cannot stop the itching, therefore may need extra help to distract them or cool them down. So keeping there attention may be quite difficult. At home she wore protective leggings with enclosed feet but couldnt do this at playschool as required shoes. She found it hard to play outside in the summer because of the heat and pollen due to links with allergy. A hot room, by a window or near a heater could aggrevate the condition consederably. She required her own soap substitute and had to have gloves to paint, glue or chalk. Clay would be out of the question and would dry up her hands. Playing with water could sting if wounds were open or if she had just had a bout of itchyness. If water play was being done, no bubbles could be added. Maybe just her own soap substitute. My dd couldnt even wear dresses or short sleeves due to itching at this stage. Would bleed by itching so much. Could not apply suncream either to the skin so being outside was difficult because if you cant dress cool you get hot and being hot makes the eczema worse. Blowing bubbles like all children do is not possible. We tried with gloves but they just got wet and stung her hands more. Now she is at school and managing lots better. They still use her gloves and if being more technical/arty when the others finger paint, they give her something else to use. I had a mothers day card dotted with paint by an earbud instead of her fingers. I think she done a print of her foot once wearing a sock! They still cream her for me and dont sit her by the window/heater ect. The school has not being through a summer with her yet so i have yet to see how they cope! She has other allergy problems too so difficult to think now what else they do for the eczema. Yes swimming is a no no because of the chlorine but then some poors now are not chlorinated so finding a chlorine free pool would be another means of change you could make. Eczema children need to be emolliented well before and after swimming. Sorry, I think I have babbled on to much. Hope it gives you some insight and visit The National Exzema Society on line for more info. Have a section on eczema in schools

Another thing her school does is to routinely wash the dressing up clothes in her own unperfumed washing liquid as to not aggrevate her skin. As with alot of eczema sufferers my dd is allergic to the dustmite also. These sorts of changes help so much. I never thought she would manage so well at school.

We use Oilatum Plus in the bath (the plus is an antibacterial agent espectially good for "weepy" eczema)

Hydrocortisone 1% ointment (as opposed to cream which we found not as effective) on any flared-up patches (so actually rarely use it as it is well controlled now.)

And "baste"him daily (well twice daily) in Diprobase which suits him (DS2.. age 6..) best out of all the emollients we have tried.

My dd sounds v. similar to yours Chloesmumtoo. She's always had severe excema and now that she's 4.5 y o and an August baby she's at school full time.

Her hands are particularly affected by excema so we have to be really careful what activities she can do. The teachers at her school are v. good but adamant that they cannot put cream on her - so ten minutes before lunchtime she goes to the medical room on her own and creams herself. (She really hates doing this but does it anyway, good girl! )

Activities that cause problems are cooking, painting, clay, bubbles, anything wet and mesy really! At school the teachers give her cooking jobs to do that don't get her hnads too wet or messy. We do similar things to Chloesmumtoo to make it possible for her to do these things.

Also at the end of the school day when dd is getting tired that's when she's most likely to scratch (it's also when she's sitting listening to a story and not running around!) so the teacher gives her a lump of Blu-tack to play with the occupy her fingers instead of scratching.

We have just started taking her swimming this yr as until now it's been too painful for her. She loves it!

Hopefully she will grow out of it. IMO she's v. sensible and handles it with maturity way beyond her years. We always talk to her and explain excema to her so that she is working with us to manage it.

Thankyou girls this has been great infomation. Made me feel very humble though not having much knowledge on this .
So much to take in thankxxx