To go private for baby's eczema? Recommendations needed

[soontobeamum1982]

I am London based and my baby has developed terrible eczema. We are on a waiting list for allergy testing as it began with weaning and we are dairy free, but there's a strong family history on the dad's side and it's getting worse by the day.

I want to go private. DP not so sure.

Has anyone done this, and with good results? Can you be referred back into the NHS after the first couple of consultations?

How did you choose your consultant for a private appointment? Should we go with the head of the service at the Evelina, which is where we'll be referred through the NHS?

How long have you been waiting? We had a 4 month wait for our allergy clinic, and in that time it was awful not knowing what caused ds’s constant reactions. I thought he was allergic to everything! Any longer and I’d have gone private. If you can’t go private I would tbh.

If you did want to be seen by nhs you’d be at the back of the waiting list I’d imagine.

Can go private, not can’t

Not what you asked sorry, but Google news just brought up an article on how a child with horrendous eczema is so much better having used Children's Farm Baby Lotion and it's being hailed as a wonder cure. Hope you get the answers you need.

Microbirthing?

My dd2 had awful excema as a baby and was finally diagnosed with cmpa but the only thing that helped her ( and us) to sleep was full wet wrapping have you tried that ?
She’s 9 now and carries an epipen for various allergies but grew out of cmp aged 3.5.
We go to the Evelina

Haven't got much useful advice other than I second childs farm moisturizing cream from boots. We tried many other creams to no avail including steroids etc.
Hope your child gets well soon.

Yes I did, my son had infected ecczema. He was in a mess. I tried to get referred but was sent to a gp with special interest.
He ended up having weekly appointments with him had him on two courses of antibiotic bur it still wasn’t clearing. And the antibiotics he was on were making him so ill.I found an amazing dermatologist in Salford (Tim Clayton -prob a bit far for you) he sorted him within a month and then referred us to his nhs clinic. Best Thing I ever did! Still under his care x

Hi, no helpful advice I'm afraid but following as I have the same dilemma. My baby has also had severe eczema since we started weaning and it really gets me down. I had a little cry today as it hasn't been too bad in the last few days but at lunchtime I did a nappy change and it has flared up again. I just don't think our cycle of flare-up followed by hydrocortisone and antibiotics is sustainable.

I'd go private and did when my newborn (DC3) had a potentially very serious problem and the NHS waiting list was three months. I still kept the NHS appointments and was very open about seeing the private consultant, they understood and I don't think I was treated any worse.

One of my friends is an NHS consultant dermatologist and I know from going to baby massage groups with her that she thinks baby eczema is chronically under treated by the NHS and that most health visitors and GPs don't fully understand how to effectively treat it or how serious it can be. If you can afford it then go for it.

I tried Child's Farm for a couple of days but it seemed to make it worse. @Fondentfancypant How long did it take to see improvements for you?

We've also been dairy free for four weeks with no improvements so I no longer think CMPA is the cause.

@Bodicea How many private appointments did you have before going into the NHS clinic? We could probably only afford a couple.

To answer your questions:

Get a GP referral to the NHS service and the private consultant. They should do this no problem. Then just keep both appointments. You should tell each doctor about the other though otherwise they'll think you're trying to play them off against each other. I understand that it's quite common to do this, especially for children.

We enter through BUPA (private healthcare provided by my work). They gave me a list of paediatric consultants they worked with who specialised in the issue we had. I researched them online and asked a friend who is an NHS paediatrician. I went with the one she knew slightly.

@Hazlulu So sorry to hear you're in the same situation. We had a reasonably good week last week but since Saturday it's been terrible. I haven't even been given hydrocortisone yet - the GP refuses. I'm going back tomorrow to demand an NHS derm referral (it's just the allergy list we're on now) and am also thinking v seriously about a private appointment.

How old is your baby? Have you isolated any triggers? We're keeping a food diary but nothing is illuminated.

What are you using to wash clothes/bathroom etc? My daughter has horrible eczema (her allergy appointment is next month after a 7 month wait). I’ve used Enjo to clean the house since before she was born but since switching to their laundry liquid from another brand her skin cleared up in hours. It’s not completely gone but the difference has been incredible.

If you’re pinning your hopes on allergy testing it may not be the answer if the allergy is non ige. Sorry that may not be what you want to hear but just wanted to be realistic for you.
My DD has been allergy tested at 8 months against about 7 things that gave her reactions and they were all negative with skin prick tests.
However we know what to avoid by having kept a diary of what foods she had and what her reactions were. Its taken an age to wean her as on the advice from a dietician we basically gave her one new food every three days. Could you try eliminating foods and see if skin gets worse/better with certain foods?

We booked a private consultation after our NHS appointment kept getting postponed. However we didn’t end up using it, I called the children’s department where the NHS appointment was after getting yet another postponement letter and they told me they had a cancellation the next day.
This was at homerton hospital, and my little girl went from red raw skin for the first nine months of her life to clear in about a week after we were seen. She’s now two and aside from an odd patch here and there her skin has been fine. They also referred for testing within about a month.

I’d spoken to the NHS consultant about seeing him privately and he advised against it as the cost of the blood test and allergy testing soon adds up.

Helene menages on Harley street. Excellent for eczema. Sorted my DD totally. I got a referral letter from my GP but paid privately (have health insurance but that’s not necessary).

Also, do not leave the GP without a derm referral. They work through a Iist of very mild creams and are very hesitant to prescribe anything that will actually work on eczema prone skin. We had eliminated soy and dairy from her diet very early on but nothing sorted the skin out until we had a skincare routine from the paediatric dermatologist.

Yes we went private to a paeds dermatologist as the GP refused to treat my baby’s eczema. After we saw the dermatologist we got a referral to the evelina for nhs treatment. His skin was different within days.

Allergy testing doesn’t always come back positive btw.

I don't know about going private, but my ds gets eczema so I can give you pointers for dealing with it. First off, do you have a steroid cream prescribed? They'll give you hydrocortisone to start with, but if that doesn't cut it ask for something stronger, my ds has emulate, which clears his patches up in days. Also, you need a good moisturizer - we get aveeno on prescription, this is brilliant, I smother him in it morning and bedtime. If little one scratches a lot (and who could blame them) I've found scratchsleeves to be brilliant (I'll post a link after this post) - they have silk mittens to limit any damage done by scratching. Another thing to think about is things like laundry detergent - I switched to using an ecoegg (again, I'll post a link for you), which doesn't use any detergent but ionises the water in the machine to clean clothes. It sounds so weird, but works brilliantly (even washes cloth nappies well). Things like bubblebath can make it worse, you can ask for a bath wash on prescription - we get oilatum, which cleans ds and helps keep his skin hydrated. My ds has a lot of allergies, so has a very restricted diet (but is allowed baked milk now, after passing a food challenge in the hospital).

www.scratchsleeves.co.uk/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwv73VBRCdARIsAOnG8u3vKvOC6Yxl_ln7vZi5cRl4R82jOHg27ffhAHiLli6A9hYskTmBMQ0aAvitEALw_wcB

www.ecoegg.com/product/laundry-egg/

Eumovate. Fucking autocorrect!

Our daughter had appalling eczema (steroids, epiderm, moisturiser, the lot, and still uncontrolled),. We went through the rigmarole of NHS appointments, allergy checks, private consultants and they all did the same: steroids and creams. Nothing worked, the only thing seemed to be every time we went to my parents it improved. I reasoned the only difference was hard and soft water so we got a water softener and it has made a big difference.

I then researched this after the fact (because it seemed to me prima facie that hard water would affect skin) and was very surprised to find all reliable research disagrees with the hypothesis that hard water affects eczema. So maybe it's just a coincidence that her eczema has calmed down but it's an extraordinary coincidence if it is.

We still use aveeno cream and oil in the bath. She gets some flare ups but mostly nothing now. Best £1,000 I ever spent.

You poor thing, I so relate. My DS1 had horrible eczema as a baby and was so unhappy and uncomfortable for months on end. We eventually went private and my only regret is that I didn’t insist on it sooner. We saw Dr David atherton at great ormond street who prescribed a specially made steroid cream for babies, we paid for the first batch and then he wrote to our gp saying our son needed it and we got an nhs repeat prescription. Eczema can be very specific to the individual and there are different types so what works for one child may not work for yours but our regimes was daily bathing and then covering DS in an oily moisturiser called 50/50 which you can get in boots for £5 (ask the pharmacist)

Is baby covered? or is it just patches in certain areas? Worth buying hydrocortisone to try you can buy it over the counter, you will see a difference. Obviously I wouldn’t advise that if they absolutely covered just in small areas apply it thinly spread.
Also pharmacist would be best to advise on some emmoliants and moisturisers. Aveeno is very good. You will find it can be a bit of trial and error finding something that works, unless of course you discover their is underlying issue - allergy etc.
Also I found with my dd in the spring/summer when we didn’t have the heating on she was much better, dry heat in the winter makes it worse.