Do children with eczema always have other allergies?

[Knackeredmum13]

My five month old has bad eczema and I've been reading up a lot about it. A lot of what I'm reading suggests that babies or children with eczema are very likely to have other allergies or asthma.

I just wondered whether other mumsnetters had found this to be true?

Yes, trying to convince an 18 year old that actually opening the window will be good for him is erm difficult. Its not quite so bad now that hes been there a while but the accommodation was all empty for the summer so was quite bad when he first moved in. He also has had hay fever for a few years..forgot about that.

I have asthma, allergic to penicillin and get hay fever but have never had eczema although psoriasis is prevelent in my family.

My sister has eczema, but she's now 12 with no allergies or asthma that we're aware of, not even hayfever... I'm allergic to hazelnuts but have never had eczema :)

I have 4 kids,

1st child had mild eczema that started at 1yr, and outgrown by 5ys

2nd child no eczema,mild hay fever.

3rd. showed 3 signs of food allergy in a breast fed baby before three months of age, eczema day 10 after birth, poor sleep pattern and poor weight gain despite feeding well.
food allergy connection and environmental allergies showed up from 1 yr onwards. has life long allergies.

4th child, eczema , very mild, easy to control at 2yrs, occasional flare ups connected to soaps/shampoos and conditioners. fast forward to teens, food intolerence and food and environmental allergies. controllable, under investigation with medical peeps.

genetic link in our family, eczema, environmental and animal allergies, asthma.
all my side of extended family have some form of allergic disease, I have eczema, my partner has adult onset asthma and hay fever.

if it happens you deal with it, allergies can happen at any stage of life if its genetic.

We are awaiting a dermatology referral. March is the earliest he can be seen.

With him being only five months its hard to stop him from scratching and making his face worse.

He is breastfed and I've just started omega 3 supplements to see if they help at all.

On drs advice we give him Piriton twice a day. I've not noticed that it makes a difference so that is making me think its perhaps not a cat allergy?

more common would be dust mite if you suspect environmental allergies.

DS1 was diagnosed with eczema at 4 months (after being told it couldn't possibly be eczema as he was exclusively bf )

He grew out of it by the age of 11. He has no allergies at all, although eczema on his legs were always worse in the autumn term, getting better after Christmas. I have wondered if something in the school trousers was irritating him, then wore out with washing. I'm just wildly guessing, though.

mould allergy ? esp if seasonal.

not asthmatic?

Will have to check again but I don't think we have any mould at home. I've no idea if its seasonal as he hasn't been around for all of the seasons yet ;)

Hi - DS is 2.4 and was diagnosed with eczema around 5 months. It's in the family so we thought he might get it and it started with a patch that he itched a lot getting infected which then resulted in folliculitis. Have been managing it all with dermol cream and a stronger cream with steroid to combat potential flare ups.

He's been a lot better since turning two and we don't even have to dermol all the time. Only when his skin starts to feel rough/ patchy. We also haven't had any other allergies come up and are exposing him to all sorts of stuff .

Hope your little one is okay... It's tough when they the itching is bad and it disrupts everything. DS slept with scratch mitts for about the first 12 months and I used to slip them on oce he'd fallen asleep. I am also a bit over the top with trimming his nails....

DD1 had awful eczema, and was breastfed. Only cleared up at around age 1 when she moved onto hypo-allergenic formula (she'd been diagnosed with milk and egg allergy in the meantime). Doh. Seems blindingly obvious in retrospect, but my GP insisted (quite wrongly) that she wouldn't be reacting to allergens in the BM, so I didn't cut milk and egg out of my own diet.

She has now (age 6) grown out of the food allergies, eczema hasn't been a problem since she stopped the breastmilk at age 1, and - although she came up very strongly on the skin prick tests as allergic to cats and dustmites - doesn't react to our own cat.

So even though cats in general might be a problem, there is a lot of evidence that you 'get used' to your own pet. So don't panic!

Definitely worth checking out his diet though - and don't rule out elements in your own diet if she is breastfed.