Eczema wet wraps

[WillowsTree]

Hi, looking for advice from anyone who has been through this before.

My dd is 16 months old and over the past 6 months steroids have stopped helping flare ups. Her eczema is everywhere except face and trunk. The dermatologist has recommended wet wraps that he says are like wet suits. I've to lather dd in ointment, soak the suit in warm water, ring it out and apply. Then I've been advised to put another on top to protect her clothes. They said the suit will go cold as its wet and to keep it damp.

I'm struggling as if it were me, I KNOW I would hate to go to bed wet and cold, but obviously I will try anything to help her. How effective are they? And how often do you need to do it for it to be effective?

Thanks

Hi I did this with DS when he was a similar age.. it really helped and his eczema improved dramatically. He hated me getting them on but settled fine and slept ok so guessing he wasnt cold. We did the wet one then dry one too.. think we did it every night for a week to start but it was 5 years ago so not certain.
Hope you get on ok

Hi, thanks for the reply. Glad to hear you had success with them. I pick them up Wednesday so fingers crossed for some results.

We did this with ds2 now 15. There were no wet suits in those days so we used tubi fast bandages. He wore a wet later, a dry layer and pyjamas and we had good results. He outgrew his eczema when he was about 6 and has only ever had an odd small patch since

Yes fingers crossed for you. Hope they help

I read the prescription and it seems to be a long sleeved vest, stockings and mittens, rather than an all in one, but still I'm hoping this makes it easier to apply. I know its something she is likely to grow out of so I really hope we get some results without resorting to steroid constantly for the next few years.

Thanks again

I found the dermatologist to be useless, it just seemed to be about suppressing the symptoms with a one size fits all approach e.g. when i told the registrar/nurse and examiner chap supervising the registrar that DD would turn red and start clawing herself when i applied dermol they just nodded - they weren't interested in finding out the triggers - it wasn't until LO started having urticaria type reactions that I hot footed it to a pediatric consultant who specialised in allergies. We went dairy free and were also prescribed citrizine - it' still a battle in the hot weather.

Couple of interesting reads on eczema is solveeczema.org and Jennifer Worth (who was the Call the midwife author) also wrote a book on eczema and allergies.

My ds kept infecting the eczema on his arms by chewing when when he was teething, about the same age as your dd. I used to put on loads of liquid paraffin/Neevo, wet bandages, then a dry layer, both day and night.

The wetness helped, although so did the barrier, and his eczema no longer became infected and - touch wood - he gets very little now that he's 4.

Thanks again for replies. I'm hoping the extra moisture and new ointment she has been prescribed (50/50) will make a noticeable improvement. Dd has been on cetirizine for about 6 months. It really helped during the hot weather.

SimLondon, what is urticarian reaction? Sorry I haven't heard this phrase before.

kidshealth.org/parent/infections/skin/hives.html

urticaria is basically hives - that settle down into a rough eczema rash, that was on top of the eczema she already had but the allergies consultant was helpful all round really.

In our case its caused by a high level of histamines triggering the hives rather than DD having any kind of immediate allergic trigger. There's also such a thing as delayed allergies. We haven't had the hives rash whilst on cetirizine but her eczema gets pretty bad in the hot weather especially if she's recently had a one off of dairy.

Allergies are complex :-(