Eczema mamas please help :(

[hopeblue]

I literally just don’t even know what to do about my little boys eczema anymore, I don’t know what else I can try to help him. I’m currently sat on the floor next to his bed trying to help him sleep & ease his itching as much as I can. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t spend half the night comforting him with his itching.

He’s 2 years old and has always struggled with it in the usual places, wrists, ankles, behind knees, fingers, back on the neck & lately his back and belly too. It seems to be getting worse the older he gets. I’m at the doctors every other week it feels like & they’ve basically stopped giving me creams to help. He’s had blood tests to rule out allergies, they came back fine but I don’t know how accurate the blood test for allergies are? We’ve finally been referred to a dermatologist but the appointment isn’t till April & I don’t know how I’m supposed to get there functioning the way we are. I hate seeing him like this & I don’t know how else I can help him, feel like I’m letting him down!
Feel like I’ve tried every cream recommended & nothing seems to help. Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated. From a very tired mama :(

Although allergy test came back, the only thing that helped me when I was a child with bad eczema was removing dairy from my diet. My son who is 2.5yrs old had a small bout of eczema when he was 1 and it cleared up when changing to soya milk and limiting dairy in other items.
I know doctors may push to have you use steroid creams but it makes it worse in the long run.
Removing dairy and even if it's possible to have wood/laminate flooring in the home as opposed to carpets which hold onto dust can make a world a difference. Hope this helps x

This may sound weird but put oats in an old sock and run his bathwater through it before bed, it's very soothing and stopped one of mine scratching his legs til they bled in his sleep.

I had eczema as a child and grew out of it approx 9.

I remember I was most comfortable
in pure cotton - pjs, bedding and always long sleeve shirts for school and T-shirts. Absolutely nothing synthetic.

keeping cool too, can he have a fan in the room? I remember how much worse it went when I was a bit sweaty / clammy.

can you afford to pay for a private consultation and tests?

sounds awful xx

I’ve just seen this on another thread, thank you, going to give this a try! x

I have been debating about the whole dairy thing, seen that it’s been recommended to do this. I asked the GP if I should & he just didn’t really know what to say. Do you think that’s possibly what the dermatologist appointment will say to me anyway. Think I will give it a try & hope it helps. Thank you x

Yes I’m really hoping he grows out of it.
Can’t afford to go private which is heartbreaking. A consultation alone is a couple of 100!
Thank you for your advice though! xx

Our baby has ezcema, which is mostly under control now. We discovered he has allergies which I believe caused his skin to be so bad. He has non-ige allergies to milk, soya, eggs etc and multiple symptoms with ezcema just being one. Since we eliminated the allergens (along with using creams and using happyskin sleepsuits, worth looking at if you dont use already) we saw an improvement with his skin, it did take a while.
I have been told that non-ige allergies cannot be tested, the only way to tell is by completely removing from the diet and reintroducing. Might be worth looking at if you haven't tried eliminating already?

Continuing with the oat theme, I used Aveeno bath when my DC had nighttime eczema.
Check this out! amzn.eu/d/i3r5Rfe

Definitely oats under running water for the bath and cotton clothing. Oilatum or similar to keep moisturised, don't let it dry and crack.

DS had eczema when he was tiny, felt like we must have tried almost every cream going. Then the GP prescribed an anti fungal athletes foot type cream. I was sceptical but willing to try anything at that point - worked a treat!

Try eliminating the major allergens, I can't have gluten or dairy otherwise my skin is terrible. The dermatologists wanted to out me in immune therapy, however I cut them out and now it's managed with steriod cream s and anti histamines.

I think, suffers can identify their triggers much better than drs. They seem keener to perscibe something, rather then look for the cause of the problem.

Our baby has eczema, it’s mostly under control. We really struggled with it until she was put under dermatology. She was wrapped up in bandages and the difference since has been amazing, there’s a lot of other stuff involved in looking after her skin and I’m happy to talk if you want to PM me.

Aveeno cream was the only thing that relieved my son. I used a 500 ml every week used to slather him in cream and put full sleeve T-shirts and trousers. Tried various creams given by GP none worked but with aveeno I could see improvement in weeks.

Sending love and solidarity. Eczema is so shit 😭

I started a thread about six weeks ago and got lots of great advice and support (I'm not sure how to link it but if you search 'eczema mums
Please help' you should find it!)

We saw a dermatologist this week and she advised that it's best to use a higher potency steroid in a short 'burst' rather than using a milder one continuously/being constantly on and off it and therefore never getting fully on top of it. He's been on a higher potency steroid for two days and today is the first day I've not had to practically pin him down when creaming him in order to stop him itching! She also recommended an anti-histamine, skinnies clothing and moisturising as much as possible which we've already been doing (six times a day). As a result of eczema being in the family she believes that baby's skin isn't allergy related, although his skin has improved slightly since moving on to a prescription milk and we keep a food/skin/poo diary to try and establish any other potential triggers!

There's lots of stuff that's perfectly safe to use on little ones that GPs are too cautious (rightly so I guess!) to prescribe so when you're under dermatology that will change everything.

There's some really helpful information on the national eczema society website if you've not checked it out already. Reassuring info on steroid use as well as newer lines of treatment which don't risk thinning the skin xx sending love and luck OP-eczema really is so difficult and I've had days where I've just cried and cried feeling so hopeless! X

It's well worth cutting out dairy. My poor dd really suffered until we stopped it

We've thankfully almost outgrown eczema with DS2, he did have a milk allergy.

Anti-histamines can help.

Get an air purifier for bedroom to help with dust particles.

We found child's farm products to be a godsend.

Also, cut down on the baths. They only dry out the skin. We bathed every other night sometimes went 2 nights without. It does help.

Promise you things will get better in time.

Lots of good advice from eczemamummy. If your watching him scratch at night you need to give him a cool bath in the evening and moisturise before he goes to bed every night, only way to stop the itch is to take the heat out so I've at times got the kids back out of bed and ran a very cold shower over the offending itch. Skins a nightmare to work out what the cause of an outbreak is, I've had Eczema for 50 years and didn't find out until I was in my 30's I was allergic to hydrocortisone!

Try a watersoftener. It was the miracle cure for my little girl and boy. I have tried all the nice advice here on the threads (oat baths, creams, etc)

The only thing that worked for my son's eczema. Changed our lives.

Dr Miles Boyden
The Hill Medical Centre Northfield House, Northfield Road ,rear of 117 Stamford Hill, London, N16 5RS (020) 8800 5066

[email protected]

Another lactose intolerance here, also oat baths increased the itch and made it flare up even more.

I second the higher strength steroids for a shorter period advice, we had this from a dermatologist too.

This is exactly right. ^^^

We did all this bullshit… oats, aveeno, soya milk, non bio powder, wet wrapping, E-sodding-useless-45 etc. We could’ve set up a stall with them all. The GP will fob you off over time with the next useless cream but what you actually need are strong steroids.

We insisted that the Gp refer us to a dermatologist and she wasn’t happy about it ‘they’ll only say the same thing as me…’ but they didn’t. They gave us strong steroid which cleared up my dd’s eczema in 2 weeks. She then had a milder steroid to deal with any flare ups. It was transformational.

Don’t mess about - try and get a referral to someone who knows what they’re talking about.

I think everyone is different but just in case any of this can help:
ds seemed to get his worse when he had a lot of bread or milk (he was a milk fiend!!)
using non bio, once we used bio by accident and he broke out
For wash we used lrp lipikar
cream moogoo irritable skin balm, which was an absolute godsend!!
Unfortunately it is trial and error, my son screamed when we used e45 and it irritated him so badly but my friend swears by it for her dd, acerbic dermexa did nothing. Best of luck op

I have horrendous eczema. Sadly my treatments aren't suitable for children - which was torture to me as a child as nothing bloody worked.

But try:

Oat baths.

ZeroDerm - the ointment not the cream moisturisers do nothing for me. Has to be an oily ointment. Coat him in it especially at night.

Antihistamines if suitable for his age. They say it's not allergies but antihist always helps me anyway.

Teach him to smack not scratch. Hit the itchy bits.

If they'll give you it protopic is an immunosuppressive ointment. It got rid of the eczema on my lip as a 14yo that had plagued me for years.

Sorry didn't spit this was from February