Did your child ever outgrow their eczema?

[Hope54321]

Posting here for traffic and looking for some hope.

My 15 month old has eczema all over the except for his hands.

We are currently managing the eczema with protopic and steroids. We also use oilatum bath additive and aveeno dermexa and hydromol for moisturising.

He has a long list of allergies which I have also excluded from my own diet as I am breastfeeding.

We have a food diary and his eczema seems to flare when he consumes fruits.

He wears 100% cotton and scratch sleeves at night.

We wash with surecare and on 60 to kill any dust mites.

He has antihistamine when the itching is too bad.

We are doing everything we can to manage his severe eczema.

DS was covered in head to to eczema as a baby, triggered by CMPA and other food allergies. At 3, we managed to wean him back onto a pretty normal diet and he's had no eczema since. Occasionally a patch of dry skin that's easily dealt with.

My ds had terrible eczema when he was a baby. I had to wet wrap him. They told me it would probably be under control by the time he started school. I never believed them, but it was true.

he is 19 years old now, and he only ever gets dry areas on his hands, but the rest of him is fine.

I had bad eczema when I was a child and I grew out of it but I did end up getting adult asthma which is common in people that had eczema as a child

My sister had it worse than me which resulted in multiple hospital visits and while she has grown out of it to an extent it doesn’t disturb her life, she still has very dry skin that needs cream

My daughter grew out of it. She had very little after about 7 years old.

Yes. We did what you did almost to the letter (try not to use steroids though unless absolutely necessary). By the time she was 2 it had slowly (very slowly) but surely got better and we pulled back on the treatments little by little. She’s now nearly 9 and it’s been about 6 years since we had to treat her eczema. DS is 5 and gets the odd patch but petroleum jelly works a treat on him. It’s hard, but keep at it OP!

Yes, two of my children had it mostly legs& arms.
Lots of creams... Trying remember which ones when ect was never good at them. But over years all cleared up.
Think improves around age 3.5/4 also think wearing shorts helped not sure why...
Do notice small outbreaks on eldest arms time to time but no action required.
My third child never had any thankfully.

My Brothers was really bad as a child, it improved massively in his late teens/early twenties. He's nearly 30 now and he gets dry skin but not to the same extent. He does however have CMPA but likes cereal too much to give up milk apparently. My 3 DC all have eczema (all have been diagnosed with CMPA) and I’m hoping they grow out of it as well. DD1s is the worst, the only thing that gets rid of hers is a thick layer of sudocrem but as she’s gotten older she refuses to have it on.

One did, one didn't although it got better. Have you tried the oat trick for the bath, that seemed to cure one of mine, though admittedly he didn't have it as badly as his brother. Put some in a sock and run the water through it. I know it sounds weird but stopped my youngest scratching his legs in his sleep til they bled. Weirdly I got eczema as an adult 🤷

Its a complicated from me and my children. My eczema was never chronic deserving hospital treatment but I didn't outgrow it till after having children. Both my DC had it at a medium level, again never requiring serious interventions, and appeared to outgrow it for a while but now are still suffering it more severely at 21 and 19. I think we happen to have a particular level - not hyper critical but we didn't outgrow it. Sorry - I know this is probably not v helpful.

Try cocoa oat soak from so luxury - it’s the only thing that worked for mine!

It’s often related to dairy proteins. Goats milk products are sometimes better.

Try giving up cow milk products

Yes - my daughter suffered every summer. Was absolutely terrible and nothing helped. I have photos from going to see In the Night
garden in June 2016 and 2017 and she looks like she has chicken pox both times! Then we went to Dubai in December 2017 and I thought it would be hideous and took loads of lotion etc. and nothing! She was fine! She hasn't suffered since.

DS16 was like yours, DH used to have to sleep next to the city to hold his hands to scratching him scratching.

He's now on immunotherapy for grass and tree pollen allergy and has many confirmed allergies including nuts, legumes and oral allergy to birch related foods. These include:
Pears, plums, apples, cherries, celery, carrots, peaches, green peppers, beans, peas, peppers, parsley, lettuce . . .

I give you this list in case any of them might ring bells.

He still has dry itchy skin but only gets eczema now when his stories are so bad that it 'spills over' into his skin. Normally that means he needs oral steroids.

Poor thing

I grew out of mine - used to flare up every time I had an exam or changed schools/jobs/went to uni, but the last flare I remember was when I was 28 (now 43) and was mild.

DS had moderate eczema as a baby and toddler, and aged 5 just gets patches on his knees and elbows in winter - completely clears in summer. Though we still use soap substitute instead of showergel.

So even if your daughter doesn’t completely grow out of it, it is likely to get much better as she gets older.

Yes my DS had it as a baby and toddler, though not as badly as yours. We always had to be very careful with what washing powder/bath products/suncream etc we used. However now at 8 he seems to have largely outgrown it. There is hope! He did come out in a reaction after a plaster on his knee this week but in general his skin is much better

I did. Improved in my teens. I still have eczema but nothing like when I was a dc. (I’m 40 now). My triggers are salicylates which are in loads of soaps, shampoos and creams. Learning that was life changing. Although I occasionally get caught out (soap in public toilets or shampoo changed ingredients- Aussie shampoo I’m looking at you) by reducing my usage my eczema really is minimal. Good luck but in the mean time it’s trial and error. I have steroid cream, let soak in for 15 minutes then generously cover in diprobase (ointment at night if pharmacy has stock) cream in the day and reapply every 4 hours during bad flair ups. Only bath every 3 days with oilatum. That’s my combo but others swear by a lush cream (can’t remember which but Google with tell you) - that is not a good one for me. Might work for you though. Log what creams you try and the response after 24 hours.

My son had eczema until he got chickenpox. When the latter started the former disappeared almost overnight & it’s never recurred. Probably coincidence but maybe the chickenpox ‘won’?

My daughter now 15 years had a very bad eczema from 12months until 11 years. Her eczema started when I gave her full fat cows milk. We used all the creams the GP could prescribe but nothing worked until she was 11 years that’s when I tried sanex for very sensitive skin for a bath and aveeno cream ( the one that says prone to eczema at the back) since we started using it all the eczema is gone .

If all else fails, try a homeopath. My friend did when all else failed her son. Within a couple of weeks the eczema had practically disappeared. He is a grown man now and all that's left of eczema is a very small patch on his elbow

I’ve noted you said the eczema flares up when he consumes fruits, so likely trigger is citric acid. The Aveeno Dermexa body wash has guess what in it, citric acid! I’d recommend you try a different gentle eczema friendly body wash with no citric acid in it.

Eczema is akin to asthma, there are common, uncommon and rare triggers but everyone’s combination of triggers is unique.

My sons eczema was so bad we were wet wrapping. He had one cream for day and a different one for night.
We went on holiday and forgot to take the day time cream, by the end of the week his eczema had gone.

I had very severe eczema as a child, tried every treatment including wet wrapping and tons of steroid cream, really awful, and it continued into my teenage years and early 20s then started to improve. Still have very dry and sensitive skin but nothing like it was. What changed was being very vigilant about my triggers, dust and pet hair etc (I don't go to houses with pets if I can possibly avoid, family members with pets keep pet hair-free clothes at my house to change into, I hoover every day etc) and lots of moisturising with Aveeno. I would say to try to avoid steroids as much as possible, they have thinned my skin and bleached all the pigment out in places. It's a balancing act as I know sometimes they are needed.

I had actually thought about this quite some time ago so tried several moisturisers, but nothing compares to the aveeno. The aveeno makes his skin so smooth whereas everything else just sits on top of his skin or makes it dry. Also, the fruits affect his skin only where they make contact with his skin. The only fruits he can have without a reaction are grapes and blueberries.

He is allergic to dairy so we’re both dairy free.