Eczema clinic at GOSH

[hazel1975]

Am hoping someone here is familiar with the eczema or dermatology clinic at Great Ormand Street?
DS is almost 3 and has had eczema since 1 month old. Have tried most creams & oils available, wet wraps and am fed up with being told he will grow out of it. Local eczema clinic dont really know what else to suggest and GP just hands out more antibiotics for the infections.
His hands are raw at the moment, so much blood on his sheets at night and skin sticking to his clothes. They given me fudicin again and said if not better in a week that would refer us to GOSH.

anyone got any experience of them? Are they more interested in treating whats causing the eczema or still just in patching up his skin?
many thanks
Hazel
x

DS had an episode like that which lasted for a couple of months, we were so fed up with being told he will outgrow it, that we forgot about the NHS and booked an emergency appointment with a dermatologist. He was prescribed antibiotics in syrup, another corticoid (though it does the same as HC), some tar bath oil impossible to find in Britain and Eucerin 10% Urea), after months and months of misery the skin was baby like in 4 days.

I believe the GPs had been trying to clear a very bad infection with fucidin and that was obviously not enough. So my only advise is not to wait for the NHS and referals anymore, organise a private appointment with a REAL dermatologist (not a paed or GP with interests in that). It will be a bit expensive but worth every penny. Take photographs of the skin otherwise if it subsides a bit in the way to the appointment they may think you are exagerating.

I did not apply cream in the morning of the appointment and took the the pillowcase from the night before to the dermatologist with me, when she said that it didn't seem so bad, I showed her the pillowcase and got a year pass (to bypass GPs)for the dermatology department of my local hospital

BEst of luck.

Thanks Chandra - sounds very similar.
Had booked to go to a homeopath this friday as am so fed up with conventional medicine.
was thinking of taking photos of his skin as its typical for it to clear up by the time to get there. Eucerin is probably the only one we have not tried so it might be worth mentioning that.

How did you find the dermatologist? Via the hospital?

many thanks
Hazel

you have my sympathy hazel1975, dd ( now 3.5) had terrible eczema and we found the GOGH a real Godsend. Wet wrapping did work for us, but it was also the fact that the specialists there really do know what they are talking about and will hopefully make you feel you are being taken seriously. We saw Dr David Atherton who has been mentioned many times by MNers on past eczema threads - if you do a search you will find lots of discussions in the archives.I really hope some good comes out of it. As Chandra says it is pricey but I would pay the money again in a second if I needed to. Good luck.

should read GOSH!

Thanks Donnie - did you pay to see Dr Atherton privately then? I read on the GOSH website you can ask your GP to send a report and you can then pay to see them. Is that what you did?

We did the wet wrapping for 6 weeks and the clinic told us to stop as there was no improvement. What makes this frustrating is that he had a clear spell for about 8 months from Sept 2003 onwards - no change to diet or anything so we are still none the wiser as to whats causing the flare ups. maybe we will never know.

xx

HAzel, we took DS to Spain as we were more familiar with the Spanish way to see a specialist, and somebody had also recomended that dermatologist a lot(and the holidays, of course ). Anyways, we paid for the appointment and the medicines and creams but as they worked we kept buying them. At the same time DS was having revisions with a NHS paed after an operation, and once she mentioned that his skin had really improved I just said: Oh yes! it's unbelievable,we are spending a fortune in creams but it's worth every penny...-and I got the creams precribed. So, even if you go private, it doesn't mean that you will need to go private forever

we did pay Hazel, after our GP wrote a referral on our request ( nice GP who agreed he and the rest of the docs at the local practice weren't really very clued up on skin conditions).We then heard back from GOSH after a week or so but had to pay - it was about £260 all in for the forst appy plus wrappings, creams etc but Dr Atherton wrote to the GP to ask him to prescribe all of these things from then on, which he did . Like I said, I'd pay the money again in a flash if I had to and dd was so much happier.I really hope you get some joy from gt ormond st - it' s got to be worth a try. As for flare-ups....who knows, it is beyond me. DD still gets sudden discs of eczema appearing from nowhere for a few weeks and they fade again after a while. Hydrocortizone doesn't seem to make much difference one way or the other. She did get soem infected eczema last year ( she kept scratching so it got all wet and weepy ) and we were prescribed fucibet which did the trick, but otherwise we still get aveeno cream on prescription which is an emollient and pretty effective as a general moisturiser, quite pricey so ask for some on presription.

Hazel, we were referred to Dr Atherton when ds was 18 months old, his eczema was horrific and eventually our local hospital admitted defeat. Dr A had a waitong lsit fo 6 months so we paid to see him on a private basis and saw him a week later. He took one look at ds and said the eczema was so bad that topical steroids, no matter how strong, wouldnt be enough to cure it. He prescribed prednisolone to be taken orally for a year (!!!) and there was a dramatic improvement in ds' skin 2 days after starting this treatment. 3 years on he still has eczema but it is nowhere near as bad as before. Dr A was worth every penny IMO. Have you read his book "Eczema in childhood"? Our library has several copies, you should def read it, he covers everything.

good luck

Have just been to see Dr Atherton privately at GOSH. What a wonderful man. We spent nearly an hour with him. Has prescribed wet wraps which we have started tonight. Although just started treatment we are so happy that have been seen and are very confident in his abilities. DD gave him a hug before we left - and her dolly too!

On your last post you said you were looking at going to a homeopath. Was that successful for you?

I took my 3 year old to a homeopath for his asthma and excema and we have not used a cream or inhaler for nearly 6 months now.

I do wonder if there was the element of "growing out of it", because it seems too good to be true. So if anyone else has experience of homeopathy and excema/asthma do post!

Bunny2 would love to chat about how DS is doing now, my son is going through the same. We have seen dr Atherton and Z is on prednisolone . As DS it started clearing up within 2 days. We started treatment in December and have started decreasing dose. I guess I need some reassurance from someone who's been through similar experience. Z is 3 and a half years old. I must add that I am very happy with Dr Atherton's treatment and more important the time he spent with us and even more the fact that we can call and email when and as needed.