eczema

[Lilia]

HI!

My DD is 4.5 months old and has eczema on her face. Sometimes it gets really bad. She itches it all the time sometimes until it starts bleeding. We tried using Sudocrem & Infaderm, have room temperature on the lowest and she wears only cotton. Our Health Visitor said to use Sudocrem and wash the face regularly, but it does not do anything (apart from relieves itching a little bit). Have you got any tips on how to make it better and what else we shoud try.

Thank you very much

Another thought - we have a minature shetland collie - so there is a wee bit of dog hair flying around - someone told me that we should get rid of the dog and that would help the girls skin. We couldn't possibly imagine life without our wee dog - he's part of the family too.

We did get rid of our carpets and put wooden flooring down - that's helped . And we try to keep the house as dog hair free as we possibly can.

Is there tests available to see if the girls are allergic to dog hair?

Susiebabes, I know exactly what you are going through, they need to refer you and ask them to make it an urgent one. My doctor did this and we were at the hospital within a week. They did blood tests that showed ds was sensitive to our dogs, our ponies and house dust mites. Obviously he was probably more sensitive at the time because his skin was compromised. We too couldnt be without our pets so we try to limit the contact, smother him with cream as much as possible, especially if he is having a flare up. Hoover etc as much as possible and wet dust everything, not forgetting to hoover your bed and their bed. If you can get some of those sheets that go on your beds and pillows to stop the dust mites, horrible little buggers.

I am pleased to say that ds hasnt had a flare up for a couple of weeks now, he has been swimming with no effect and I have started to cut down on the stuff that I put in his bath and he can now have some bubble bath in there, I use the body shop stuff with no reaction. He is abit itch today as he as a horrible cold, but not the same as before.

Good luck tomorrow and hope I have helped a little bit.

Thanks for that Joe1. Will let you know how we get on tomorrow...

Susiebabes, I am someone who has excema and asthma all my life. We had pets when I was a child but developed an allergy to the animals (cat and dog) when I left home. I can now tell whether a household has animals in it as soon as I walk in - no matter how clean it is. If I put my hand on an animal or anything that has had animal fur on it, the skin on my hand flares up into big red blotches and, if I happen to scratch another area of skin with that same hand, that area gets inflamed too. I love animals but have to avoid stroking them or I wash my hands immediately afterwards. I have two young children and would dearly love them to have cats and dogs but I would be permanantly wheezing and scratching.

susebabes yet again I am appalled to hear how your GP is treating you ( or not as the case my be ) I bet you feel like your banging head against a brick wall !. havent they sorted out the referral yet?. If the infection is that bad piriton probably wont help anyway. sounds like she needs oral antibiotics as well as fucidin H I read somewhere once that people with eczema have been found to have high levels of staphilococcus aureus on their skin do you use a bath emoillient such as emulsiderm it contains antibacterial agents . I hope they sort this out soon you can complain to your local family health services authority or community health council if your not happy.

Did that sound angry ?its my time of the month!

Hi Susiebabes

Sorry to take so long to reply, been on holiday. GP yet again gave me a prescription for steriod cream, used it for a week, all settled down, stopped using it and all has flared up again! Not as bad this time around.

Just going to try and stick to natural remedies now.

Going to order some trinity soap and day cream from Elena who was recommended on this site as I have used the samples on ds's hair and he doesn't sratch at all which is a good sign. He is sleeping better now as well, although the last couple of nights have been disturbed.

We also have a dog, a Golden Retreiver, and my hubbie suffers with asthma, all linked apparently. Also Matthew is sensitive to peanut butter, and various other things bring him out in rashes and all sorts, so I think he is going to be one of these kiddies that is allergic to this and that. However, I can't get rid of my poor old dog - Matthew's case isn't that severe at the moment so will have to judge over the next few months.

Anyway, sorry for the ramble, and I will definately be hanging around - loads of useful advice.

Sal

Susiebabes, how did you get on at the docs?

Went to docs on Friday. Asked for a referral. The doc told me that she wasn't happy with the way we were being treated (ie every visit to doc's resulted in more cream/more mixture etc etc). This time she has suggested that we use a strong steroid cream (Elecon) for 10 days along with antibiotic mixture and she changed the emolient cream to an aqueous cream. If, after the 10 days dd's skin hadn't cleared up then she would refer us straight away. Maybe because it was a different doc (or maybe because she told me her kids suffered from this too - so she knows all about it) but I think she actually listened to what I had to say and she was very helpful. Amazingly, the aqueous cream seems to be doing wonders - dd has almost stopped scratching by at least 60%. Still early days for the steriod + antibiotics though..... have made an appointment for 21st June, so we will go back then regardless if she's better or not. Is this a horrible thing to say - but I was kind of hoping that dd's skin doesn't clear up before then so that we will get the referral that we need. I don't want dd to be suffering but I feel that if we go to the doc's in 2 wks and her skin has cleared up then we won't get referred.
Anyway, hopefully we're heading in the right direction as bloomin last!

On another note - what can anyone tell me about hand, foot + mouth disease. We had friends over at the weekend and the mother phoned me last night to tell me that her dd has got the disease and she was concerned that she may have passed it onto my 2 dd's. I've never heard of it...........(and it sounds horrible)

Can anyone please advise?

sorry! forgot to say - Sal - glad to hear your ds is sleeping better. Did you have a good holiday? I know what you mean - we couldn't get rid of our dog either. At the moment we are trying to keep dd away from the dog as much as poss. It's not easy though - she loves the dog to bits and is forever chasing him round the house......

Susiebabes, glad you are happier with the treatment they have given your dd. This is a smiliar routine the hospital put ds on but instead of aquauous cream, he reacted to it, they used 50/50 cream. Together with the antibiotics and elecon (same as ds) he was clear in two days. He had some flare ups but they became more spread out and now he hasnt had one for a good few weeks. 50/50 cream is something to keep in mind instead of the aquauous cream. Good luck.

been away for a while so this is a late reply to alison222. I have been ordering foor through goodnessdirect.co.uk. My daughter has all of those plus more (altho not wheat) allegies and they are quite good for some things, although they don't have any diary free foods. But good for wheat free pizza and cake mixes. Sainsbury's have a few things too. They also have diary+ wheat free chocolate called whizzers that look like smarties or easter eggs (mini) which have proved successful. Fresh and wild also do them. Also goodness direct deliver within 2 days, so no big wait. It is all listed as to what the food contains. Other than that, on the whole finding and sourcing food is a constant problem and very time consuming...I also have the added problem of nuts and tomato, so that rules out even more food!!! Will pass on any more info I get along the way and products. Would also recommend contacting allergy foundation if you haven't already. they have some helpful tips. good luck

alison222 Inside Story is a useful magazine/support group for people with multiple food allergies. www.inside-story.com The subscription is quite a lot but you do get a monthly newsletter/magazine, fact sheets and advice whenever you need it. HTH

Hi
I've just discovered this website & am really hoping that you are still reading it so I can ask your advice about eczema. My little boy had it from birth, but it disappeared at 6 months. Came back with a vengence at 1 year, which I thought could possibly be a lactose intolerance as had introduced cows milk, etc. Took him to Ctr for Complementary Medicine in London when they do Vegar (sp?) testing - diagnose a lactose intolerance. Hooray I thought, it should clear up very quickly. He has had no dairy for 4 months & there is no improvement. I have just spoken to a homeopath who says it should have started to clear up within a matter of days, so that isn't the cause. We had an appointment to see her in a couple of weeks. He always slept well, despite the itching, but over the last few weeks is waking every night & scratching himself raw, particularly on legs & feet. Won't go back to sleep unless on me in bed, so no sleep for me! Creams I am using are Diprobase, Double Bass, Alpha-Keri bath oil & Dead Sea salts. I've kept over steroids altogether, but sometimes in the night almost reach for the tube. GP has given me Piriton to help with his sleeping, but doesn't always work. The sleeping problem is really getting me down. Does anyone have any ideas of what I should do next??
Thanks!!

Tati - not sure if it's something you will already have tried, but, as others on this thread have mentioned below, we too found that although switching from normal formula to soya didn't help my DS's excema, changing to goats milk seems to be helping him.

Tati - lactose intolerance usually manifests itself as digestive difficulties eg pain, excessive wind, diarrhoea or constipation. In your case it sounds like this is unlikely (the testing you had done unfortunately is not accurate or to be relied upon).

In your position I would ask my GP to refer to a dietician who can offer lots of help and guidance in trial elimination of suspect foods whilst ensuring adequate nutrition is maintained.

In the meantime have you tried cutting out all dairy foods inc milks? Not sure of the brands available but there are lots of 'milks' and other products mentioned in various threads here that you could try. Hth, Mopsy xx

Tati - lactose intolerance usually manifests itself as digestive difficulties eg pain, excessive wind, diarrhoea or constipation. In your case it sounds like this is unlikely (the testing you had done unfortunately is not accurate or to be relied upon).

In your position I would ask my GP to refer to a dietician who can offer lots of help and guidance in trial elimination of suspect foods whilst ensuring adequate nutrition is maintained.

In the meantime have you tried cutting out all dairy foods inc milks? Not sure of the brands available but there are lots of 'milks' and other products mentioned in various threads here that you could try. Hth, Mopsy xx

Mopsy & GillW
Thanks very much for replying. We have cut out all dairy - no milk, butter, cheese, yogurts. He drinks rice milk with added calcium & soya marg & yogurts. As each day passes I become more & more convinced its not making the slightest difference, so am now contemplating slowly re-introducing a bit of dairy & monitoring the situation. Elsewhere on this site a mother recommends Vallergan - an antihistamine/sedative - do you know it & I wonder whether's its better than Piriton?
Thanks.

Tati - we too found that no dairy made no diffeence, but it looks now as if SOYA is just as much a culprit. Our GP had never heard of anyone being intolerant to cows milk and soya, but ok with goats milk, so we've now been refered. I suspect that this is because if milk and soya reactions are suspected then artificial formulas rather than goats milk are the standard prescription so few people actually go down this route to discover if it's ok.

Funilly enough my grandfather used to keep goats and we came to the decsion to try goats milk following my mother telling us that 50 years ago they often used to get people coming to them for goats milk for babies with precisely the kind of condition that DS has .... shows that there's something in the so called old wives tales!

There's quite an interesting piece here which says that "an estimated 20 to 50 percent of all infants with cow's milk protein intolerance will also react adversely to soy proteins".

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Only use non-biological washing powders. Have just had the weekend from hell with him - up from 1.30am until 4am last night, despite the fact that I gave him piriton at bedtime & the tiniest bit of 1% hydrocortisone (for the first time!) as his legs were so red & he could not stop scratching. It was driving him crazy. Not sure where to go/what to do next. Have emailed Elena Schalburg to find out about her creams. Quite a few people on this site recommend them. Any comments?

Tati, my dd had eczema on her face and arms from birth to 4 months or so. It got so bad that I had to stitch scratch mitts onto her babygros to stop her scratching! I tried a dairy free diet for a fortnight (b/feeding) and it made no difference at all. We tried the Elena Schalburg treatment and can only say that now she has only a couple of tiny patches of eczema behind her ears, and has spent the last two nights in all this heat without scratch mitts, and was fine- no scratching! I have to admit to initially being a little sceptical about Elena's treatment (her website photo is rather bizarre- she's shown apparently dressed up as Red Indian-oops!- native american!-with her arms in the air seeming to worship something!)but- dd is now pretty much eczema free, so there may be something in it. Or, maybe she just got better on her own!

I'd say give it a try. Its rather expensive - about £50 for the complete package, but the creams etc last ages, and you can use them too!

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DS has occasional bouts of ezcema - we use Elena's creams if it looks bad, and generally it seems to go away - could be a coincidence but found Diprobase, E45 etc not very helpful at all. Did not find the Eureka cream any better than the normal Day and Night creams so try those first before you splash out. Also found a company which sells T-shirts and pyjamas with mittens built in called Cotton Comfort - can't find my brochure at the moment, but you can buy their products here online. This at least stops DS disfiguring himself with constant scratching!

Lilia, I agree with Elena's creams they're great. I would like to ask a question now. My dd has had eczema since she was about 3 months. I haven't taken her off her formula but have excluded all other dairy. A couple of weeks ago she had a terrible tummy bug and I cut out all her milk. Her eczema on her face cleared up remarkably. I have since started her on Weysoy SMA milk because she seems better with no dairy. However I have been still giving her cows milk with her cereal. Should I cut that out too. If so, how and when should I introduce dairy ? I was hoping that by keeping her on milk she would eventually get used to it and the eczema would go rather than taking her off and possibly she would always have to be off dairy. I know that sounds funny I just wasn't sure how to go about reintroducing.

Also, another silly question, I assume Weysoy isn't GM soy, it doesn't say anything on the tin but i can't imagine GM soy for babies.