Calling Eczema mums.

[Afromumma]

Morning All.

I need to help, suggestions please.

I have 16 month old who suffers from eczema, we've had some success with her skin. Through the use of aveeno, eucerine intensive and the odd prescription of steroid cream, bentovate, fuscisdin and xenacort, antihistamines.

She no longer suffers with dry skin, but her flare ups on the hands won't go away!!! And she often get flare ups on the knees and feet.

I cannot for the life of me stop her itching nothing stops the itching, she can't where mitts all day as it stops her playing and they are on for all of a minute because she can take them off. Everyone we get a flare up under control she itches and it comes back.
I don't leave her skin uncovered as she will sit there and scratch.

I'm wondering if she's even itchy or just a bad habit now as I notice she scratches more when she gets irritated, tired, or frustrated.

Has anybody had this? How do I stop her itching?

Is there anything to see on her hands when it's itchy now, or do they look normal?
What are you washing her hands with?

on knees and top of feet? as she crawls?

With my DS, controlling the skin from the outside didn't work as even though it looked good, he was insanely itchy. We had to work from within..

There is flare ups on the hands that have never gone. But the itching is what is making her 'normal' skin break out.

Try cutting out dairy

She's walking now. She has been for a while but, it's itching that's seems to make the flare ups worse.

We've done this it's not working. At my wits end. I've demanded an allergy test now, hoping for some results that means she won't be itchy.

So we've tried cutting out dairy, and now we are trying cutting out soy. She doesn't seem to have flare ups after eating certain things. Over the last few months her skin condition and generally improved (execpt hands), but she itches something awful.

I can’t help with the hands, but we used to put DC2 in tights all year round, even in summer under shorts. I bought light pure cotton ones. It was much harder to get to his legs and feet for scratching that way. Same with onesies with feet to stop him in bed. It helped in breaking some of the habit of scratching.

Hi OP out of interest when you say she itches awfully do you mean she scratches? As a lifelong sufferer I couldn't abide gloves as they drove me insane - it's like torture not to be able to scratch. Sorry, I'm not answering your question just wanted to understand better. I've never had it on my hands - nearly everywhere else though!

@bedunkalilt

I am going to be doing the tights thing for dd. What tights did you buy? Also what do they look like? Most tights I see look really warm.
And I've looked into wet wrapping so might ask the doctor for help with that we have an appointment on Thursday.

We go away in June and usually the heat and sea water helps her. So hoping it won't have an opposite effect this year.

@Boulezvous she scratches. She won't wear mitts either. Also I was told by Dr and health its bad for developmental progress and it makes doing things harder. So we haven't used them for a while only in the cold outside.

I have eczema on my hands and I do wonder how children cope. It stings constantly and takes so much willpower not to scratch it. I sometimes fail miserably. I was vegan for a few months and it went away completely, however it returned soon after I went back to milk. I also get very itchy and damp feeling in between my fingers, but no obvious weeping. I'm constantly wiggling and rubbing between my fingers trying to alleviate the feeling. Your poor ds. I've cut dairy milk out again and it is slowly getting better.

@Binting sorry you're suffering too. I can only hope my dd grows out of it like her big sister did. In the mean time I can just try to help make it easier.

@Afromumma I found John Lewis quite good, they do a variety of tights (aimed at girls) for all seasons, so they do white cotton type tights - sometimes they were near the uniform section. A bit like these and these. Description says 85% cotton on the blue ones so it must have been those rather than 100%, thinking about it now they do need a blend with something for the stretch! I found 2-3 years fine for my 18mo, but he was a tall boy. They do baby tights as well if you find 2-3yo too big, I haven’t tried those but they look similar.

He was surprisingly fine with them even in hot weather, didn’t get a rash or anything from the heat.

I would ask for some environmental allergy tests, rather than quickly jump on to food as a major cause.

much of eczema is caused by dust mites, pollen and animals.

moisturising is the key, so frequent, means from 5 to 8 times a day during flare ups.

YYYYYY to moisturising. I would use emollient about every half an hour during the day when DD was at her worst. Can also take a while to find the right emollient. I use diprobase but kids use Dermol which has an anti microbial element designed to kill the itch.
A major trigger for eczema is MI in washing liquid and shower gel and washing up liquid. Also avoid too regular bathing.

What canteatcustard said. So many people jump on the dairy thing when usually it is triggered by environmental triggers. Pin prick tests can be useful. Emollient needs to be applied thickly in the direction of the hair growth ie down the legs and arms. So thick you can write your name in it. Frequently throughout the day. Cotton clothing. Cool infrequent baths with a suitable bath emollient, dermol 600 worked well for us. We found epaderm brilliant as emollient but there are loads out there and it's trial and error what suits the individual. Aveeno made my DS bleed but I know it works well for lots of people. Good luck

Have you tried Pure Potions Skin Salvation Ointment? Or there was a review thread on here, if you do a search, for a range by La Roche Posey that included an anti itch balm.

The animal thing could definitely be a trigger, we went to families a week ago who had dogs and that made her flare up. I think I need to figure out the triggers.

I agree everyone goes straight to food allergies but I was at my wits end because the drs said they didn't think she needs an allergy test. Now I've insisted on it.

In terms of creams we have got our combination down to a tee, she used to suffer with eczema all over, now its just hands knees and feet. We use aveeno, then eucerin intensive. She needs bathing often even though the Dr said once a week, we found it made her more itchy. I also stay away from paraffin based creams as a sole cream they don't Moisturise they work as a barrier instead but aveeno is water based which moisturises and eucerin locks it in.
She gets creamed often during flare ups often hourly and she is still moist when I do, she doesn't suffer with dry skin anymore. She is just itchy and hands won't go down.

Just noticed I missed the links I attempted to put in

I was referring to these blue tights.

How often are you using steroids and what strength? We found using it enough to clear itchiness then trying to keep it away worked. You maybe arent using enough or a high enough strength?

Hi ! I have quite bad eczema when it flares and my daughter is also developing patches behind her knees. Hydromol ointment is amazing, melt into bath water and it helps skin to stay hydrated whilst bathing. E45 cream twice a day or more on very dry areas, I find aveeno too much for my skin to be honest ! Nothing scented and the gentlest shampoos because if they touch my skin it itches. Also little cotton gloves and file babies nails down ! Cotton gloves were what I had to use to help my eczema to heal. I felt absolutely ridiculous but stopped me from scratching and consequently reopening old wounds x