To be worrying so much about DD's eczema and going to nursery soon

[GalaxyGirl24]

So, my DD is due to start nursery when she turns 1 soon, and I am really anxious and upset at the prospect of her going to nursery with her skin reacting as it does currently,

She had moderate to severe eczema on her neck, behind knees, feet and arms. We have prescription emollients and a soap substitute. I also buy other types of creams to try find that perfect one (if it exists), scratchsleeves pjs, happyskin pjs, mitts, long socks, etc.

If left to her own devices or if hot/angry she will scratch uncontrollably and very slyly until she bleeds and is literally raw. She has diagnosed food allergies that impact her skin also.

My AIBU is am I worrying unduly - will the nursery be able to manage her needs? I know I need to speak to them still but just any advice from those who've had similar situations with their children so I can go armed with info, as I know some nurseries can be funny re special creams, keeping children away from certain activities. I am just so so worried and I find myself working up into a panic about her poor skin.

Just another random thought! I found out I’m horribly allergic to MI. Methylisothiazolinone (spelling??) I was told it was originally meant to preserve paint. It’s in washing up liquid. Shower gels and shampoos. Washing liquids and softeners. It’s in so much. Worth avoiding??

@Wolfiefan thank you, we use soap nuts and hot water only, but do use fairy liquid for dishes so maybe can find alternative

I use ecover. I’ve found MI really difficult to avoid but it’s made such a difference.

I know exactly how you feel as I felt the same. Make sure you dress her well and have a meeting about her specific needs beforehand including diet, how to clean her if she's dirty (no wet wipes) and the creaming routine. Our nursery were great in the baby and early toddler rooms; things get more difficult when the ratio drops dramatically in upper toddler/around potty training. Luckily my DD's started to improve at age 3.

How are you doing on isolating the cause of the problem and treatment? Have you had skin prick testing to check for food allergies? Are you under a good dermatologist? Honestly things improved for us when we went up to the strongest steorid (elecon - rate to use it under age 2, but when we did it knocked it out in a week and it's barely been back since; we only had to do one month of "weekend treatment"). The other thing that helped was I stopped bf ay 2.5 and I hadn't been eliminating eggs on the advice of her dietician but clearly it was making a huge difference. She's nearly 4 now and still dairy and egg free but her skin is 95 per cent clear with tiny flare ups 5 per cent or the time that are managed easily.

Hang in there. It does get easier. Both my children have severe allergies and carry epi pens and asthma too but I found eczema the hardest bit to live with by far

Re steroids - you need to wean off, every day, then every other day, the every three days, the weekend treatment fir as long as it takes. We were on weekend treatment for a year. It's ok; her skin is fine

@galaxyGirl24 how is DD getting on? My 1 year old suffered badly with eczema on his stomach, back and under his neck which was the hardest to heal as he could reach that area to scratch. After trying numerous creams, including steroid cream from the doctors, about 3 weeks ago we started using Cerave Moisturiser and I honestly cannot believe the difference, his stomach and back are now completely clear and his neck is almost clear and his scratching haa lessened so much! I just though I would recommend as something you could try. I think it was 20% off in Boots

@YukoandHiro I have definitely noticed an improvement since I've not had eggs for a long time (still bf) so I wonder if that was impacting too. We've got nursery visits booked in soon so can discuss her needs and allergies.

@wegoagain She's actually doing a fair bit better. She will now mainly scratch behind her knees if she gets a chance to (after bath time for example otherwise they're covered), or when she's tired. Her skin had cleared a lot with the steroid course and we are using MooGoo creams which have been great! And Aproben oat cream which is good. I do like cerave though I use it myself.

Also have a referral to the dermatologist which is good and allergy testing was positive for eggs and peanuts.

If prescribed the nursery shouldnt have an issue with it

If medicated but not prescribed then they may not be able to apply it

Dietary needs will be covered in any good nursery setting

Hi @GalaxyGirl24 yes definitely try eliminating eggs from your diet - usually it's ok to leave baked eggs in (eg in a cake) but not anything that resembles an egg in any way (eg no scrambled egg, quiche etc)

You have mentioned food allergies. Have a look here www.fedup.com.au/factsheets/symptom-factsheets/eczema and go further into the site for further information.

A good dietitian trained in food allergies will help immensely. Plenty of Australian dietitians are au fait with Skype consultations so that may be useful.

Joining here may be of help www.facebook.com/groups/380347182034474

My dd had horrific eczema as a baby. Started at 3 months. We were told it was “just eczema” and that she’d have a rocky road ahead but that we could manage her skin with the usual steroids and emollients. What we didn’t realise until she was almost 1 is that all those creams were aggravating her skin! The ones with high liquid paraffin content were the worst. Blood tests at 6 months told us she was severely allergic to dairy and egg , but even after weeks of cutting them out of my diet she was still tearing at her skin all the time. I was looking at a photo of her face one day and realised that there was a clear demarcation between affected skin and normal skin and it dawn on me that the only places she had inflamed skin were the same places we put cream. It was a viscous cycle. Our allergy consultant didn’t believe the cream was an issue but he humoured me and tested her in hospital, putting a different cream on each limb and leaving one with none. Lo and behold the limbs with cream flared up and she scratched them like mad but the cream-free leg looked so much better. We weaned her off all emollients and steroids and in conjunction with a dairy, egg and nut-free diet you would never know she ever had eczema. Occasionally she will eat a new food and have a mild flare up but I’d say at most twice a year. She’s nearly 7.
It’s worth trialling different creams on different limbs as a start, as some are incredibly irritating rather than soothing.
I had eczema in all my creases all my life until I gave up dairy and egg (in order to continue breastfeeding my baby) at which point my eczema disappeared. So in our case it was food and emollient creams causing the problem.

Thanks for sharing that @FiveToedSloth - I do find they are sceptical of any criticism about the paraffin creams they give. We have moved onto MooGoo and Weleda which seem to be working nicely.

@TheSandgroper thank you for that info! It was really helpful

I will definitely be continuing to eliminate eggs from my diet while I'm breastfeeding - I think she will flare with change of season also as when it started to get hotter she had a flare and now has settled (which I know is very common, I too get that)

Yes to add we dropped paraffin creams and moved to aveeno baby dermexa and it helped a lot. My second has good skin but I fried cetraben on a small dry patch and it definitely made things worse

We have season change flares too. We had cold urticaria last autumn too

I just can't understand why doctors haven't considered adding less paraffin based creams onto prescription lists! Or why they're so sceptical that certain ingredients will cause flares.

I just can't understand why doctors haven't considered adding less paraffin based creams onto prescription lists! Or why they're so sceptical that certain ingredients will cause flares.

It seems like they follow an invisible flow chart and they have to follow the script. They never take a holistic approach. They treat symptoms and tick boxes.
My daughter didn’t have stomach issues and therefore her consultant was adamant she didn’t have allergies and had “eczema” as an entity in itself. Turns out she is anaphylactic to dairy and egg. He did make some sort of apology saying “We don’t always get it right” after months and months of my daughter suffering.

That's horribly familiar @FiveToedSloth - I ended up with PNA over it all

A lot of prescription creams are shit tbh. When you find a cream that works a bit, put it on and then go over it with a thick cream. I used to use the SOS cream from lidl on my son. It just seals the cream especially at night and you see a difference in the morning. X

I had eczema as a child and youngest has severe eczema. Dermatologist told me to be careful not to approach her care the same way I would have been treated 30 years ago. Treatment of eczema has moved on a lot.

Sorry all checking in on this thread. We've had ups and downs, she's been great for a couple of weeks with one flare up due to allergic reaction to banana.

However today I made the daft mistake of just leaving her with mittens for 2 mins and came back to her having pulled them off with her new teeth and scratching her neck - made it bleed 😢 literally 2 mins.

Nursery time is fast approaching and find myself more and more anxious. My parents get it as I had eczema too as a baby (although no allergies until much older) incredibly lucky that parents are doing 2 days childcare so they can manage her skin well, it's just the other 2 days a lot of damage could happen.

@FiveToedSloth that's horrific, I really hope your DD is okay?! I hate when they won't acknowledge the role skin plays in allergies. They did the same to me, my dermatologist even told me it was all in my head, literally those words!!!! Lo and behold when my allergy tests came back with all sorts !

It's so difficult getting DHs family to understand it all as well, they keep saying, 'Oh she will grow out of it, don't worry' , or 'it's just a little rash' NO ITS NOT! Stresses me out!

@ILoveYouILoveYouIDo

Please try and avoid creams the doctors give you. They have so much crap in them including paraffin, that its likely making your child's skin worse. Try and go for natural products. Moogoo is absolutely amazing. I've lived with eczema all my life, from severe to mild. Now my child has it but I used moogoo products, shampoo, body wash and cream and it just disappears. Like magic. Its not cheap but you can't put a price on a child's skin.

Please don't worry about nursery. They'll give you a medical form to fill out. You can tell them all they need to know. Nurseries are good at applying creams regularly.

My DCs nursery will only apply prescription creams (apart from for nappy rash where they allow OTC ones) so I'd check with nursery sooner rather than later on what their policy is

Re weaning - if you look online you should find allergen food groups ie certain foods which will probably all trigger allergies if one does. They are not always as straightforward as you’d expect

DD1 did food diary and this and found triggers - she grew out the them.

DS never found all the triggers - scatch mits, short nails and sanding down bailks and cream and oats in bath all helped natrual fibers - found some washing powders were an issue, certain ingredientsin cream - his nursery were very good and understanding about our concerns.

He always had a bad flare up same time of year - suspected pollen - we moved for work it stopped and his skin been fine since.

I think find the triggers is key but it was impossible for DS.

I'd push for dermatologist appointment and see if they'll let you access any allergy services.

Our son is 2.5 now and eczema free for many months (some rough skin on his upper arms still but nothing of concern). We have cut out all cows milk and all eggs. We give him goats milk cheese for calcium and l also make him bone broth and unfreeze him a few bowls every fortnight (hopefully helps with the continued strengthening of his stomach as he had a lot of "baby diarrhoea"). We also only use coconut oil as a moisturiser it is completely natural and contains no additives, works great and is cheap by volume. Lastly we only bath him once a week! Realistically he does smell a bit towards the end of the week but I would rather that than have the eczema back. Just saying what has worked for us. Good luck!!

We found lanolin in many creams perscribed actualy caused flare ups - he had a very poor latch which we never got support for - though he bf for 18 months -and I did use Lanolin based nipple creams.

He was bf and I was constantly told be "people" it must be milk or eggs come through bm- I cut them out comepletely made no difference to him - DD1 never had an issue with milk though she had reactions to other foods which family could be very unbelieving about.

@ISaidDontLickTheBin Yeah I think our nursery is the same, so I've managed to get the GPS to prescribe Epimax oat cream instead of her paraffin based creams as I feel they were making it worse. At least this is a less harsh and chemically cream than that...

@randomlyLostInWales @Mtbdadder thank you for your advice and your experiences of it, helps a lot x