Methotrexate for Eczema

[EEFG]

Has anyone taken methotrexate for eczema. Would be interested to hear good/ bad experiences. I am meant to be starting this in a couple of weeks and am nervous to say the least.

Thanks so much NotBadConsidering. I am tying myself in knows because I’m on an emergency dose of oral steroids which has helped the flare, which has made me doubt If I really need the methotrexate! But then I need to remember what I feel like when I flare I suppose. I have used all the ointments out there from hydrocortisone up to dermovate which has left my skin quite thin and damaged. UV has helped my body but not my face and I have this permanently burnt look and feel on my face (has this before UV). I feel a bit of a fraud as redness aside it doesn’t look too bad, but I cannot sleep and as a result I am not getting the best out of life.

I too had that permanently burnt look. It wasn’t what I considered the classic look of eczema. But it was so inflamed and sore and burning and I really couldn’t sleep. The strongest steroid cream used constantly made it just about tolerable. Almost.
On the methotrexate (and not a massively high dose) I haven’t used steroid cream in weeks. It’s clear and not burning or inflamed. I’m having regular blood tests but so far so good. It wasn’t a drug I started lightly but it has allowed me to sleep and I’m so much better on it.

Poor you. I would absolutely give it a try in your position.

NotBadConsidering my child was hospitalised due to eczema and had every steroid cream thrown at her in her first year of life with every doctor telling us it was not a food allergy..muntil they did blood tests and discovered she was severely allergic to dairy and egg. She now has no eczema. Explain that.

What's this if not eczema NotBadConsidering?

Triangled - I am so glad to hear you daughter has no eczema now. I hope that continues. 💞

My eczema is very much food related too - wheat, milk, oats, berries to name a few flare my eczema up severely.

Wolf organ- sounds like you and I are in similar positions. Just wondering- have you heard of topical steroid withdrawal? A couple of people have mentioned it, especially with the burnt fiery feeling. Don’t know if I have it or not, but just wondered if you had heard of it as you sound like you have similar symptoms. I hope I get on as well with the methotrexate as you have.

Sorry Wolfiefan not Wolf Organ, damn autocorrect! 😂😂😂

That photo looks like seborrhoeic dermatitis which improves naturally with age, but hard to tell from a photo. Either way, eczema or inflamed skin causes food allergy. If skin is inflamed long enough, food exposure on those inflamed areas leads the body to sensitise to those foods and develop an abnormal response. Your child developed dairy and egg allergy as a result of their inflamed skin, not the other way round. The fact it took a few months to improve shows that it was likely going to naturally improve with time anyway. Eczema waxes and wanes and often improves with age in infants. A blood test for allergy demonstrates an IgE-mediated response, which is a different arm of the immune system and not generally involved in eczema.

And this is not my theory: I have recently had this presented to me at a conference at Sydney Children’s Hospital by their head of dermatology and separately by the professor of immunology. The dermatologist in particular wants a ban on skin products that are food based: coconut, milk, etc.

Besides, regardless of the facts about food and eczema, it’s very patronising to the OP whose eczema is severe enough to require immunosuppressive therapy to suggest it could all just magically improve by removing dairy and lentils from their diet.

Buttons4me , Triangled - yes dairy isn’t great for me. It gives me IBS and does make my skin even worse but even eliminating it for 11 years hasn’t resolved my skin, in fact I’m worse. I’ve had all the tests, elimination diets, blood tests, coeliac tests. I’ve shown a moderate intolerance to dairy which I had guessed due to the IBS. Cutting out dairy has done wonders for my stomach issues.

Thanks EEFG. It only flares up if she accidentally eats something she's allergic to but this is rare. She's 4 now and has perfect skin most of the time. She reacted severely to most of her prescribed oinments so everything aggravated her eczema when she was a baby. I was moisturising her skin every 2 hours day and night but she would scream constantly and claw at her skin. It was horrible. I also had severe eczema as a child, with swollen, raw backs of knees so bad I couldn't bend them, and often had blood running down my legs at school from scratching. I resorted to scratching with scissors sometimes (which only people with severe eczema can really understand, I guess). I have nut, dust and animal fur allergies (all severe) but didn't know I was allergic to dairy until I gave it up when we learned about my daughter's allergies. My own eczema (though no longer severe at the time) disappeared. I still get very bad dyshidrotic eczema on my hands from contact with raw veg/fruit but no longer have it behind knees/elbows or on my legs/arms generally.
I would exhaust all possible avenues before resorting to chemotherapeutic drugs to control eczema. Could it be possible that you have been reacting to the steroid creams you've been using? My daughter reacted to paraffin based ones, though her consultant didn't believe me until he trialled some on different areas of her body and saw them flare up red and angry before his eyes!

NotBadConsidering you are spouting nonsense. I believe I have encountered you on another thread about a similar topic. If I feed my child dairy and she comes out in hives and severe eczema I don't then feed her dairy. Simples.

I wish you all the best op with the methotrexate. I have an appt in a few weeks time to let the dermatologist know if I want to start methotrexate but for me I don't want to risk my hair falling out. I have used Betnovate ointment for so long and it had made my condition worse I could not bare it on my skin anymore from the burning. I know that many things do flare the inflammation up as I said in my other post and I know how bad oats and tomatos are. I love my mum's flapjack but the oats flare my skin up. Eczema is food related for me.

I agree with you Triangled. My Eczema flare ups are food related.

Some people, like you NotBadConsidering, don't make the connection between diet and eczema therefore how is it patronising to suggest it to someone who has severe eczema and may not know it can be a trigger? Clearly EEFG does know but it isn't the main trigger for her. Cutting out dairy and egg not only "magically" improved my daughter's eczema but cleared it completely after a year of suffering. It didn't just disapear on its own and she is still allergic to dairy and egg and is under the care of an allergy consultant who won't even let her start the milk ladder as her reactions are so severe.

I possibly am reacting to the topical steroids- not as in an allergy but as if I have build up a tolerance, or even, an addiction. I am hearing more and more about red skin syndrome which doesn’t seem to be well understood by NHS yet. Not really sure what to believe regarding it, as there isn’t much medical info on it and really only personal anecdotes. It does concern me though.

I am not saying that giving dairy does not provoke a reaction in your child. I’m saying the allergy came second, as a result of the eczema. If your child had never had eczema, she would never have developed dairy allergy. She likely develops eczema at the same time because the allergy response causes itch, then scratch, which causes breakdown of the barrier again. Of course you should continue to avoid giving your child dairy, but it didn’t cause the eczema in the first place. This is the accepted model in international immunology and dermatology circles. It makes sense: our bodies’ immune system is designed to take in foreign proteins in the gut and not recognise them as a problem, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to eat anything. If skin is inflamed and microdroplets of food, like milk, get onto that skin, the body sees an area of inflammation and a foreign protein (milk) and puts the two together and develops an immune response to that protein. Subsequent ingestion of that food then produces a clinical response.

You can choose to believe me or not, I don’t really care, in your situation your child still needs to avoid dairy, but I’m telling the truth, the dairy allergy cake second. I can PM you the pdf of the presentation if you like.

I started reacting badly to betnovate ointment. It came to the point I could not use it anymore the burning was so intense and inflammation worse. The Dermatologist gave me another ointment and the same could happen but so far so good. But I have so many trigger foods worst being oats, strawberrys, Blackcurrant and sticking a spoon in the kids Nutella..... and I know my skin will flare severely.

NotBadConsidering she wasn't able to scratch at 3 months old.

Firstly, 3 month old babies scratch themselves by wriggling, rubbing, twisting etc, I’ve seen them do it. But are you saying your daughter was tested for food allergy with a blood test at 3 months old?

Haha at Wolf Organ!!!
I’ve never heard of red skin syndrome. I’ve had steroids only about three times for my skin so I don’t think it’s an issue with withdrawal for me. They sorted it the first time but the second and third it came back as soon as I stopped.
I have also been diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Seems like my body is just hugely overreacting to things that haven’t bothered it before. Developed allergy to cats (some!) and horses that I never had before.
I’d post a pic of my skin when it was bad but as it’s my face it’s a teeny bit outing.

NotBadConsidering it does not matter whether the eczema exists as an entity or not prior to allergic reactions to food. If the skin is only inflamed after consuming a certain food then avoid the food. What are you suggesting? There's a cure for eczema that allows people to eat their allergens that you say are "caused by eczema"?

No NotBadConsidering I said that's when her eczema first appeared, all over. We were told it was "just eczema but very severe" and she'd have it for life and we had "a rocky road ahead". She had blood tests whilst hospitalised at 6 months old. She was "off the scale" allergic to dairy. She has had skin prick tests every year with no reduction in sensitivity.

Yes, that’s typical. But the off the chart dairy allergy was a result of 3 months of eczema with micro exposure to dairy on that skin. Her skin was inflamed and itchy because of the breakdown of the filaggrin barrier.