Excema

[tantrumtown]

My 3 year old has really sore excema in patches all over. It comes and goes in severity and when its bad it really bothers him. The best treatment I have found is the steroid cream and emmollient mixed together and put on twice a day. I have seen doctors and homeopaths. I am told he will just grow out of it but in the mean time I dont want him to suffer if anyone had any other ideas to try I'd love to hear them.

Have you looked into his diet???

my DD was diagnosed as a baby with Excema, turned out not to be that at all, but Urticaria, caused by an intolerance to a lot of chemical food additives, especially Azo dyes & Benzoate preservatives,

my friend who works in alternative health, specialising in babies & children told me at the time this is FAR more common than excema & too often misdiagnosed

at the time I was breastfeeding, & it was MY craving for cheap jelly sweets that was affecting her ...also watch bubble bath & soaps

She's now 8, still has this intolerance, but its not so hard to avoid the additives, a lot easier than it was back then, her skin is beautiful, she rarely has flare ups, & when she does its pretty easy to pin point where it came from......usually her taking sweets she knows she shouldn't of kids at school

The other thing that might be worth looking into, is Dairy or Lactose intollerance, that can also be a culprit in true Excema

goos luck sorting it out

I have looked into diet. I have had him intolerance tested. The main culprit was washing powder which I have changed to persil non-bio. It did improve momentarily when I changed but it is just as bad as before the change. I am going to try fairy non-bio next. The result also showed it to be the e number for making yellow. But he hardly ever has sweets, so I dont see that could be causing it so constantly.
But thanks for your advice. I will totally ban sweets! Chocolates instead!

Was that a proper medical test??, or one of the health food shop type test where they hook you up to a computer???, I ask because if its the latter, I have to say from personal experience I don't have much faith in them at all,

& no need to ban sweets completely, thankfully its a lot easier these days, & you just need to make sure you stick to the natural colour ones.....though learn your e-numbers, as some firms are still a bit naughty, for example, cochineal IS a natural colour, but 1 that comes with side effects

got to say though, reading symptoms again, dairy or lactose intolerance sounds more than a possibility as that can effect skin & digestion

If it's really itchy at night you can give your DS piriton. Stopping the itching if you can helps break the cycle.

It's also best to avoid soap, stick to aqueous cream and or oilatum in the bath. I get excema on my hands and wash with Dermol lotion which is also really good.

Burt's Bees Burt's Bees Burt's Bees!!!

I use it on mine and my daughter's skin and it is just fab. They do a Baby Bee range, it's all natural stuff and will keep him lovely and moisturised (and he'll smell yummy)

It obviously might not clear the eczema up, but if it reduces the amount of times the steroids have to be used, so much the better.

HTH

The only thing that ever helped me was E45 bath oil. But I would also recommend seeing a specialist - push for a referral. There are proper hospital patch tests that can be done and lots of creams to try. Do be careful with the steroid cream - as it can thin the skin over time....

I can feel for him though - it's such an awfully affliction. Make sure too that his nails are very short so that he can't hurt himself scratching.

Good luck for the little fellow...

Thanks for all of those very good ideas I will look into it all.

The intolerence test was done by a homeopath. I held him and she pushed my arm while he held different samples on his tummy. I really dont understand how it works.

I have tried cutting out dairy and it has made NO difference.

I do hold back with the steroid cream as I am aware of the thinning skin possibility.

That is a very good point about short nails.

The best natural cream I have found is Skin Salvation by Pure Potions but that doesnt really do much it when its very sore.

I will continue my quest to find a way to cure it as I dont believe it is something he will just grow out of.

I meant I know he will grow out of it but in the mean time I will find the best way to alleviate it or get rid of it.

Funny after I posted that there was a thing about those not working on TV last night, watch Dog I think, saying they show up what you have recently eaten, & not what you are intolerant too , they also had a specialist confirm that there is no reliable test to show up intolerance, only allergies, & only exclusion diets & diaries will work for that.

& Ignore my dairy allergy bit sorry I'm getting muddled in who I'm replying to, you didn't mention stool problems

I should of added though ,,,have you tried adding Epsom Salts, Oats & Lavender oil to his bath, they can all really help with soothing sore skin, & helping relax him so that the stress of having it, doesn't add to the stress that makes it worse, if that makes sense .......the oats can be messy, but he'll probably really enjoy rubbing handfuls on his skin in the bath, & it is really soothing & healing.

Also there is a cream, Zambesie Botanicus (or something similar) also known as Sausage Tree, its a green tube, & you can get it from good herbalists & health food shops, it is a natural steroid cream, so still needs a bit of care, but as its natural it is better & I found it very effective for flare ups, more so than anything the GP gave, a friends Daughter has true Excema, & she swears by the stuff,

I don't have eczema, but just got this on FB this morning: Independent article about moisturisers

"The intolerence test was done by a homeopath. I held him and she pushed my arm while he held different samples on his tummy. I really dont understand how it works."

You don't need to understand how it works because it doesn't

bubble thanks for that link, I bloody knew it all along!!

which steroid cream are you using?

unless it's super strong you don't need to hold back

GP should be able to give you a leaflet on how much in finger tip measures to apply

DS had terrible eczema. It is less severe now. The main triggers we found were tomatoes and citrus fruits- it's the acid in the fruit that aggravates his skin.
Cutting out dairy didn't work with us. Changing wash powder helped a bit.

When it was very sore we use this manuka honey cream
www.manukahoney.co.uk/categoryexternal.html

We use the Skin Health cream.

The rest of the time we apply Aveeno cream 4 or 5 times a day. We get it on prescription.

WE use Infaderm bubble bath in his bath. It's not really bubbly and is very moisturising and is made for kids with eczema. It worked better than emollients for the bath, as they tended to make DS's skin too greasy as they didn't soak in quick enough and caused him to scratch.

HTH

Should add, he's now almost 6 and it has got much better- it could be because we are aware of the triggers, or that we've found the dream combination of products that work well together, but it is definitely the best it's ever been.

Oh and we found that steroid cream worked brilliantly, but as soon as we stopped using it, the eczema came back, so we decided to work on the causes and try and manage it without steroids wherever possible.