Appearance of excema greatly improved but still SO itchy. HELP!

[girlsyearapart]

Dd2 is 11 months now and has had awful excema since a few weeks old. With diet restrictions, various creams and wet wrapping at night she has improved a lot. Sometimes you can hardly see the excema. However she is still constantly itchy. She claws at her arms and face and can make herself bleed. This even happens on days when her skin is clear (once or twice ever). She rubs her feet together and basically uses anything she can to scratch herself. We give her Allerief (piriton) every day more or less but nothing helps. The dermatologist has not been very helpful as the appearance has improved dramatically. We have an apt there Friday so any suggestions on what to ask for gratefully received! She can get out of any 'anti itch' clothing combo even specialised excema clothes apart from wet wraps. Can't bear to see her like this help!

I don't know. Does it appear as though the eczema is food allergy related or allergy related (only because your post implies the diet restrictions worked)?

tbh, I would think if it was that itchy, that she is still being exposed to whatever it is she's allergic to. If it's not allergy related, then perhaps you need to carry on wet wrapping till her extreme itchiness stops.

also, I think with eczema, appearances can be v deceiving. My skin is at its most itchy when it looks really good and often when it looks horrific, is actually feeling less itchy iyswim.

Yes definitely food related shes on Nutramigen AA now and no wheat, dairy, soya, egg, tomato, banana or plum. She has always been itchy but I think currently excema bad on forearms and legs because she is down on the floor a lot. She is RAST 2 for dog dander but we were advised to keep our dog as he is 8 already and apparently either she will 'grow out of it' or he will go to the kennel in the sky before we can totally rid house of dog. No carpet downstairs dog not allowed upstairs hoover all the time. Think allergy to pollen too and maybe dust mites??

yes, I would imagine so if related to crawling. Also, because she is constantly on that skin, it's probably just irritating it anyway (even without the allergies).

what washing powder do you use?

Thanks. Just so upsetting particularly as she seems to scratch more when she's tired which stops her from sleeping. Can't wait till she walks- though then you'll see posts from me saying 'argh help she walked over to a plate of eggy wheaty tomato milk biscuits or whatever'!

Tesco non bio no fabric conditioner. Have bought surcare but haven't used yet. It seems to be the bare skin that she scratches though.

could be related to her getting itchy while sleeping though (just a thought - though we have always been ok with the non bios - when dd's skin was v bad we swapped to Filetti for a bit but not sure it made much difference).

It is AWFUL seeing them scratch like that , I really feel for you.

There are other antih the doctor's can prescribe for that itching but they will all make her tired (so better to give at night). When my itching is like that, i use Phernergan and it is the only thing that stops it so I can sleep. They can prescribe that for little ones but I'm not sure from what age. Maybe ask the derms because I find Piriton just doesn't always cut it when the itching is that bad. I also agree with you and think tiredness makes it worse so if they could give her something to help her at night, it would probably have longer benefits too!

it's phenergan, sorry bad spelling. They may not give her that one but ask them to suggest another if you feel the Piriton isn't doing the trick at night.

thanks will do. Someone else said something like valeran? but only after she's 1 I think.

my DD1 has eczema and best advise we was given from doctor is to remove all carpets from the house - she itching because of dust.
also for bath time Oilatum was great help, makes skin nice and soft.

We only have carpet upstairs which is hoovered constantly only got the carpet laid a year and half ago.
Saw dermatologist yesterday was a new one. Seemed quite good but still can't prescribe stronger anti histamines until the next apt when she'll be over 1.
Have now got stronger steroid cream to try to clear her forearms up ready for skin prick tests.
We did use Oilatum for a long time but found that started to make her itch as did Epaderm. Now back to Johnsons Top to Toe which strangely seems to do the trick followed by Diprobase.