ezcema

[marie1979]

hi my childs 6 and has servere ezcema and i stop in bed with him when he has really bad nights scratching and screaming cause hes so itchy which is most nights he has all the creams,medicines,suits mittens but i still have to stay with he or he pulls them off and scratches himslef till he pours with blood he screams most of the time when i put him in the bath i can never tell with him some nights hes ok in the bath and sometimes not? i have to plaster him in creams most of the day and go into school in the day to give him medicine and creams anyway just wanted to know if anyone knows of good support groups or forums with little ones with ezcema??

What bath product do you put in the bath and which creams do you use on him. You will be surprised how many bubble baths and creams (even baby ones) that have loads of chemicals in, these will not help his ezcema at all.

i have tried loads of diffrent creams in the last 5 years his most recent ones frm the dermotolgist is dermol 500 for washing dermol 600 for bath hydromol for everyday and steriod cream and infaderm for washing his hair i do not use kids bubblebath or normail soap and use surcare to wash his clothers, suits and mittens

All of the creams and bath washes you mention do have preservatives in them, also they have liquid paraffin in which is a suspected carcinogen. This may be the reason that the ezcema isn't getting any better. It might help to wash him in just a natural soap, there aren't many out there but there is one called Three Oils Soap (threeoilssoap.co.uk) it is made with no preservatives or chemicals or even essential oils, it may help but it certainly won't do any harm.

my sons dermoltogist perscribed them for him have tried loads of creams and medicines im just at a dead end??

I use something called pure lotion on both my DC. It works wonders and can substantially improve DD's eczema in one application. I find that all the creams and potions recommended by GP do not help or makes things worse, as mentioned by the other posters above probably because of all the parabens/preservatives in them

I bet you know about these two things, but I think National Eczema Soc has some local support groups www.nationaleczema.org/home.html
and if you live in a hard water area, you could enquire about going on the water softener trial - looks like early results are interesting www.swet-trial.co.uk/

really sorry to hear about your LO and sorry not to be more helpful. The sleep deprivation sounds like the final straw - is the dermatologist prescribing things to help especially at night?

well yeh just creams and suits and mittens and she told me not to give him medicine but ive had to hes that bad and uncomfortable

Have you tried the allergies thread on MN? (www.mumsnet.com/Talk/allergies) Lots of good advice and support about eczema on there.

Doh - I've just checked and you've alreday been on the MN allergies forum of course! It still might be the best place for someone to point you towards other eczema forums / support etc though.

mind you im just looking for a answer to stop him going through this but dont think im going to find one im reading the same thing over and over again arghhhhhh

thankyou for all your help x

Have you had allergy skin prick testing at all? It's possible there is a dietary or environmental cause of his eczema. Sorry if you've had this suggested before.

yeh she lost the test and yeh ive cut out all the foods that they say make it bad

do you need to bath him everyday? i find bathing exacerbates mine. also if your bath is too hot than can make it worse.

dont know if this is suitable for a young child but when it was really bad i have been prescribed mild sedatives or antihistamine to make your drowsy so you scratch less.

so sorry for you , i suffered terribly as a child, its just an awful thing for them to go through, and GPs really dont take it seriously.

yeh hes got the medicines tried loads of different ones over the past 6 years, and yeh he wont get in a hot bath not even a warm one when i think its just warm he says its to hot so basically it has to be cold or else he wont get in! he wears the suits and mittens to bed if im not with him he just rolls them up and scratches himslef till his poor skin is red raw and pouring wiv blood and of course it makes him itch more im totally at a dead end i dont know what to do with him and on most days i have to go to his school to give medicines and apply cream

hi whenwillisleepagain ive had a look at the water thingy website u gave me and its not in my area and also im not sure if i have a hard water do u know where i can find out thanks.

this website shows hard and soft water areas: www.dwi.gov.uk/pubs/hardness/index.htm#4

thankyou

Marie a couple of thing you may want to try or have already tried:
I bathe dd once a week - makes a huge difference, she gets sponged down with aqueas cream twice daily and I use a .0025% cortisone also twice daily. I've been able to cut it back to one now.

In the bath I add a tea made from chickweed, callendula (marigold) and chamomile. The first for itching the latter 2 for sooting. YOu could also add some oats to a muslin and hold under the running bath water to sooth.

I wash her with aqueas cream and nothing else, even her hair.

Diet wise, i would suggest giving hime EFA (essential fatty acids) and GLA (evening primrose oil, starflower oil etc). I use Eskimo kids that you can buy from Nutri's website. Apparently sometimes children with eczema can break down foods to derive these from them so its good to supplement. It will take at least 40 days to see a difference however.

I would chase up re allergy tests or insist they are done again.

You have my sympaties, dd had bad bad excema for the first year, but we seem to have turned the corner the last 6, fingers crossed. Good luck.

thankyou i will try that cant make him any worsethats good to hear about your dd its awful i never relised how bad ezcema is till i had my little one well not that little anymore but hes still my baby

Hi Marie
I just got latest National Eczema magazine and there is a list of the places where they have support groups including some new ones, give me a shout if you want me to look for any in your area.

yes please whenwilli sleepagain im in birmingham

Marie, sorry, didn't have time to log on for ages! It says they have new Birmingham Childrens support group, set up by dermatology team at Birmingham Childrens hospital. group will meet every 3 months at the hospital's education centre 10-midday. dates set for Sat 9 May, 15 Aug and 21 SEpt. for info ring dermatology nurses Arleen Brown , Jo Coyne or Sheila Richards, 0121 333 8229. Not sure if that's the hospital you use, but hope it might be of interest.

Marie, can see you've had loads of suggestions but notice that most of the remedies you've tried are paraffin based. I've had eczema since several months old and can't bear these paraffin based products so I use Aveeno which is oat based (similar approach to above where someone suggested running hot tap over muslin bag containing oats) - they do creams and bath supplements and you can push your GP to get them on prescription. I also found taking Linatox Acid a help for me but this is an alternative remedy and not sure what the implications would be for children - I bought it off an internet health site. I find that eating/drinking anything acidic really sets mine off so avoid oranges and their juice in particular. Hope your little one finds some relief soon.