Urgent excema advice needed

[naturopath]

Hi, my 4-month old ds has woken up screaming because the excema on his neck/chest area has suddenly flared up and he has scratched it to shreds.

I had already put hydrocotisone on before he went to bed, and have gen used hydrcortisone / cetraben all over his body.

Question is - what can I do with the area that is bleeding? I have just put scratch mitts on his hands so he shouldn't do any more damage, but can I put anything on the bleeding area to ease the pain/itching? Obvouslt don't want to irritate it further.

(am picking up presciption for various other creams etc. from dr. tomorrow)

Thanks!

Thanks - this all looks like really good advice. Where do I look into buying/looking after an aloe vera plant??

DD has a new patch of dry skin that may or may not be eczema - she's 4 months - was v red and angry. Neals Yard recommended shea nut butter. we've been using it for a couple of days and the redness has gone although still feels very dry. Has also been the best thing yet for DD's cradle cap...

ECZEMA -- What works for one won't work for another e.g Aloe Vera irritates my eczema but others I know find it fantastic.

When DS was little he had horrendous eczema ( In hosp/ wet wrapping/ the works). We tried everything but when he was as little as your wee one I found the only thing to stop him scratching was to sleep with him and physically hold him. I wouldn't recommend this unless you are desperate as you will get very little sleep.

Avoiding bathing proved to be a important step for us to take. There are a lot of irritants in tap water and I find with my own eczema it is a big irritant. DS still only has 1 bath a week unless he get particularly dirty. I found tea tree oil good for infected eczema but here again be careful. I personally find it soothing but some I know find it stings. What ever you try be cautious. we were always told to patch test everthing and wait 24 hrs before using it. DS was so bad someimes there was no clear skin to test on.

It is terrible I do feel for you. Brings back horrible memories File nails is a good tip too.

Be careful of creams with nut oils. Atopic children will often be highly allergic. DS turned out ot have severe allergies to a host of foods.

The Weleda stuff has sweet almond oil in

Just asked a dr about the nut oils thing- said it was ok... but who knows? It looks like it's all trial and error where eczema and allergies are concerned..

And now in all my trying not to let him get too hot so he won't gt too irritated and itchy he has caught a horrible cold!

nut allergy is higher is those children who had had skin creams with peanut oil

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2003%2F03%2F11%2Fnut11.xml&secureRefres h=true&_requestid=15648

This may simply be because such children come from atopic families and have a higher genetic risk. However the bit below suggests it isn't just a genetic link. I would not personally use such creams on a child.

"Most of the children with peanut allergy, 84 per cent, had been treated with creams containing peanut oil in their first six months, compared with 53 per cent of children with eczema but no peanut allergy."

By the way, the Evelina Children's Hospital at Guy's and St. Thomas's are doing a study into peanut allergy and are looking for babies aged between 4 months and 11 months who have been diagnosed with eczema or egg allergy to participate:

www.leapstudy.co.uk/

I wanted to add my vote for Surcare. Even my eczema is better!

Only bath when absolutely necessary and don't use any wipes etc at all.

The biodegradible/real nappies are also better as they do not contain chlorine.

It sounds like you are doing all you can. Please don't feel bad - you are a fantastic Mum and your LO is very lucky that you are so determined!

Personally we find a good slaver of aqueous cream every night helps DD with a dot of HQ if she gets a flare up. Be careful of steroids as some of them have Chlorocetal acid which some people can be allergic to.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this but you can buy what I call mitten tops, a long sleeve top with hands in that they can't get off. I used them for my ds for ages when he was little and they were great.

Could find you the link if you like?

Oh yes and aqueous cream all over before bath really helped, and Oilatum in bathwater can get on prescription. Didn't find Aveeno worked for mine although I know a lot of people on here reccomended it to me x

www.healthy-house.co.uk/products/cotton_clothing_for_eczema.php

Wow, sunshinegirl, thanks for the link - they look great - might order some. (In the meantime, just bought 3 packs of scratch mitts from Mothercare!)

callmeovercautious - thanks, you're very sweet. As it happens, I went and bought Surcare a couple of days ago - too soon I think to see any difference, but at least I feel pretty confident that it won't irritate his skin further.

Saw the dermatologist today, who wants to treat the eczema quite (moderately) aggresively in the short term, before going back to the old aqueous cream etc. on an ongoing basis.

Meanwhile, have noticed all the towels etc. are really hard now that I haven't used fabric conditioner in a long time. Does anyone know whether those 'dryer balls' work to soften clothes, and where I can get them? Saw them in Homebase once, but don't think I'm going there in the near future...I think it would be kinder on his skin if he had lovely soft(ish) towels to pat him dry after a bath.

(by the way, to answer other questions, have already been using oilatum, aqueous etc. ...
also, current advice is to bath once or twice a day - it's apparently better than not bathing..hmm, now I feel like a neglectful mother again for the great lack of baths over the last couple of months...)

naturopath, my 6 month old has just started getting bad eczema too, went to the dr yesterday, and sat crying, because she told me that if I had b'fed (gave up early with lots and lots of problems)then she would probably have avoided having it (I have mild eczema, and dh has asthma), I know that she is probably right (which is why i was desperate to b'feed), but could have done without hearing it now it is a bit too late!

We had some great sleepsuits from Next and John Lewis which have fold over bits on the ends of the arms, so they don't come off.

Dr also told us to bath more regularly, apparantly the advice has changed in the
last few weeks.

We have been using Dermol, in the bath and as a cream, and it is a little better.

Our Dd1 had some eczema patches which got really bad, but after trying just about every cream out there, we found that coconut oil keeps her skin soft, and her skin has been completely clear for months now, so hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel!

hazeyjane, don't listen to you dr. - my ds is exclusively bf and still has the eczema - so stop feeling guilty! Thanks for the advice - also just started using Dermol (and frequent baths). Will def. have to get some better sleepsuits - his nose is scratched and bleeding today.

my ds was like this as a baby

I'll second the oats,but I did use hydrocortisone cream and tbh that helped the most.

He is 5 now and has improved sooo much,actually he had by the time he was three.Only really on his legs and arms now.

It is awful and you have my full sympathies.I used antihistamines at times as well.Night times always seems worse.I used to keep his room quite cold at night which helps

I also put him in a grobag so he couldn't get to his torso and legs,didn't help the face and arms thogh

Thanks Naturopath, I'm very good at worrying and feeling guilty, I guess its part of the job!
We find socks better than sctatch mitts, they go longer up the arm, and seem to have more wriggle room, it looks a bit odd though!

haven't read the whole thread, but just wanted to add that ds1 had v bad eczema. He is 2.6yrs now, and only has it on the inside of his elbows, and behind his knees. We use a combination of antihistamines and chickweed ointment. Been using this combination for 2 mths, and can honestly say its dramatically improved.

The chickweed ointment I get from here, and they don't charge postage here

Adams.co.uk do the sleepsuits with foldover mitts, 3 for £10 so much cheaper than specialist ones.

I only have one more thing to add, my dd has had success with chinese medicine, accupressure we are practically free of it now. I can recommend Udo's acidophilus combination, it helps larger intestine, not just lower intestine.

HazeyJane, I exclusively breast fed DS until he was 8 months old. He has had eczema from birth and still looks a fright, still breastfeeding a lot, at 13 months. Honestly, your GP was talking rubbish and he had no right to upset you like that.