Excema or something else?

[MrsCLH]

My son suffers with excema, has done since he was about 3 months old, he's 13 months now. At the moment its pretty much under control, flares up sometimes but mostly there's just a bit on his shoulders and behind his knees.

In the past its been accompanied by a speckly rash, like little red dots. Doctor told me its all part of the excema.

Now, in the past couple of days, he's developed what I can only describe as pimples on his face and a couple on his wrists. Put it this way, if they were on my face I'd just think I was having a spotty outbreak! He's got maybe 3 or 4 on his face, 2 on one of his wrists and one at the bottom of one of his fingers.

I spotted a couple on his wrist when we were in Portugal a couple of weeks ago and thought they were bites, they were gone by the time we got home so thought nothing more of it.

Got him weighed today and asked HV about them. She said he's obviously okay but suggested I just get the GP to check them out.

So have rung GP but can't get an appointment until 2nd Nov. I can ring any morning and get an appointment on the day if its an emergency but is it?

I had a look online and I know you can get like spotty blisters with excema so it could just be that.

Anyone had anything like this?

Thanks.

could be a staph infection. I would have the gp look at it, it might need antibiotics if it is.

yes. spotty blisters sounds like hives. which is an allergic reaction. also looks like nettle rash.
red dots, small ones can be part of ezcema as it flares up in an area.

if you dont suspect food allergies, then environmental ones may be the cause.

a common cause of ezcema is dustmites. please look at the allergy threads in the health section of this site and ask questions about enviromental allergies.

other environmental allergies are linked to the time of year, obviously dustmite is all year round, but is higher in home with centrol heating on.
others; tree pollen= spring.
hay fever = summer
mold = autumn

just so you know, ezcema before the age of 3 months, poor sleep pattern (inabilty to sleep for a soild amount of time) and poor weight gain are signs of an allergic child.

other than ezcema how is your babys general health?

sorry, stopped reading at the symptoms.

try to get him seen earlier. my dc1 had a staph infection at 6m old and it was very scary. it was just spots (we thought) for about a week and then got nasty and spread to the whole body quickly + fever.

Also, have you considered he could have a cow's milk allergy? This is a really common cause of eczema.

there would be other symptoms if it was cows milk allergy.

it is not necessarily true that there would definitely be other symptoms if it were cow's milk allergy, especially if it is a non - IgA allergy.

Often there are other symptoms present. Examples would be feeding refusal and/ or excessive posseting in infants, constipation or diarrhea.

Best friend's daughter had milk allergy induced eczema with few other symptoms save for a bit of a snuffle.

let me clarify,

cows milk intolerence in infants, (upper end!) the posseting, acid reflux, this is due to the protien irritating the valve that sits at the top of the stomach, which then releases the food. This also releases the stomach acid, which causes the reflux. Also means the ratio of stomach acid needed to digest food is not also there, and so food passes through body undigested. Hence the mucas stools etc. And a baby in pain, as they feed etc. As time passes other food will not be digested as well, due to inflamed gut. Also baby screams in pain often when laid down flat on back in cot, as flat legs stretch the tummy and cause gut pain. Hence babies not sleeping well , GPs look for misrable ill looking babies with bags under eyes and slow weight gain if they are well clued up.

lower down, the milk protien can irritate the lining of the bowel, so food has passed through digested well, so poo is totally normal but is passed in great pain. Esp as bowel has more nerve endings than the brain, so its VERY painful. So baby will hold on to stools and be in great pain as passing.

For many, milk from any animal will cause a problems,( such as my DD) goats milk is often hailed as being good for cows milk intolerence, but this only works for mild intolerence, and its because protien stucture only slightly different.
Camel milk has been considered a new milk to try, but again, its a mammal, so its milk will soon cause the same problems as other milk.

I am aware of milk being connected to glue ear, but often wonder if its the milk that causes the damage or the method of feeding. Ie too many bottles taken while baby is lying flat on back causing pressure on ears etc.
But thats the sort of thing I find interesting....(am a bit sad really)

IgE milk allergy is all the general symptoms of all food allergy.
Hives,
v & D
skin flushing
wheezing
facial swelling,
throat swelling (talking in a sudden husky voice or being unable to speak for example = severe end of reaction)
signs of lowering blood pressure
collapse, etc and death for severe reaction.

Often those atopic people often theres more than one allergy, so i being 'snuffly' on its own would also lead me to consider the other common cause of eczema such as dustmite allergy, and other environmental allergies, rather than food as a main cause.

So medical advice is required here.

out of my kids, one has milk and soya intolerence which appeared at 13yrs.
another child IgE allergies from birth. severe, epi pen etc. multiple allergic person, both food and all environmental allergies.
eczema from day 10 after birth, poor weight gain, poor sleep pattern.
link between food after 1st year,
time passed and other alllergies added to list with medical help.
eczema improved after removing food allergies from diet, taking multiple steps to reduce contact with environmental allergies, and of course he followed the 'allergic march'. which means he grew out of his ezcema and added to higher and full list of environmental allergies. etc.

is this helpful? have i waffled on too much?