Excema - how should I treat it?

[AngieL]

My 15 mo daughter has got quite a lot of excema at the moment. She has got a large patch on the side of her face near her eye and it has become infected. She has an immune deficiency and the doctor has now given her oral antibiotics.

He hasn't really told me how I should be treating the excema though and it is weeping and bleeding. Do I put any cream or anything on - I can't use the hydrocortisone at the moment. Should I cover it up, to stop dd scratching it?

Any advice would be great. TIA.

[robinw]

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[Eowyn]

I had a look at the anaphylaxis website yesterday, their product warnings are interesting, particularly as I had always wondered why I sometimes got a reaction to cadbury's chocolate (not bad enough to put me off).
They seem to be local to me so will try them if Dr no good.

[anniethenannie]

interested in a natural alternative for eczema?
Email [email protected] and mention mumsnet and get a FREE sample and info pack.

[JJ]

Bunny2, my son tested positive for loads of stuff also. Knowing his previous reactions was what confirmed the couple of things to which he is actually allergic (peanuts and milk). Not to say that your food challenges weren't valid. Could you keep a constant food diary? (I ask that and know for a fact that I couldn't -- it'd have to be every ingredient of everything eaten.)

Eowyn, the allergy tests do bring up a lot of false positives, esp for a little baby. According to them, my son should die if he eats wheat. He's Mr Bread and is fine with it. There are about 10 other things that showed positive. The last time he even reacted to the control. He's fine, just has a bit of sensitive skin. (He's had RASTs too; same basic thing.)

Having said all that: epipens are good. You are not going to hurt your child by using one on them. Not using one when they need it is bad. As a previous allergist told me, "Overreact and he'll be fine. Underreact and he dies." I've underreacted before and it's bad (no, he didn't die, but I got to watch his O2sat level drop and drop and drop while the incompetent hospital got their act in gear). A friend of mine's son (ok linguistoorians, what's the correct punctuation there?) gave himself the epipen his first day "on his own". (He's 5.) No problem.. she had a slightly hyper child (it is adrenaline) and a sheepish trip to the ER where they assured her and this is the key better safe than sorry.

Anyway, anniethenannie here's a link for you . (Know you guys like it, but do a search with her name as author and see..)

[lisalisa]

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[SamboM]

Just found this board - it's great!

Don't know if this is any help but I had really terrible eczema and had chinese herbal medicine about 10 years ago which cured me completely.

My daughter is 6 months old and is starting to get small patches of eczema, I have so far treated it by not bathing her every night but only 2 or 3 times a week and covering her in oilatum cream afterwards (I use Balneum Plus in the bath). If the skin is broken or she is really scratching badly I put a little 1% hydrocortisone on it.

Also, I swaddle her at night which means that she doesn't scratch herself raw during the night - I find if I don't swaddle her she will wake up covered in scratches.

If it gets really bad I am going to look into chinese herbs, though I don't think they would be suitable for babies, though I am not sure.

Sam

[bundle]

I'd be very wary of using Chinese herbal remedies - because they contain powerful compounds which are present in variable quantities. Also those who want to avoid steroid use should be aware that Chinese remedies may actually contain them (see Chinese herbal remedies may contain steroids - R A C Graham-Brown, J F Bourke, and G Bumphrey BMJ 1994; 308: 473)

[wiltshirelass]

HEBE - so sorry not to have replied to your message of 14/2, I've been away.
Cetomacrogol is not prescription - you can just get if from your chemist. Dead cheap too, about a fiver for a huge tub.
The bath emollient we use is called Diprobase,which also is available without prescription and also pretty cheap. If you swap to that you'll probably find a difference in her skin as well - a lot of people find Oilatum very drying (wierdly enough, considering it is meant to have the opposite effect!)

Good luck

[wiltshirelass]

HEBE - so sorry not to have replied to your message of 14/2, I've been away.
Cetomacrogol is not prescription - you can just get if from your chemist. Dead cheap too, about a fiver for a huge tub.
The bath emollient we use is called Diprobase,which also is available without prescription and also pretty cheap. If you swap to that you'll probably find a difference in her skin as well - a lot of people find Oilatum very drying (wierdly enough, considering it is meant to have the opposite effect!)

Good luck

[bunny2]

SamboM We tried chinese herbal medicine when ds was 155 months. It didnt work for us but it worked very well for a friends son of the same age. If you are interested, there is a practitioner in South West London (Chiswick) who workes with referrals from Great Ormond St and has worked with David Atherton (eczema in children guru and my hero). I can give you her details.

Can anyone recommend a mattress cover for children with eczema? And has anyone found they make any difference? We are also thinking of getting rid of ds' duvet and replacing it with sheets and cotton blankets, has anyone tried this?

[Podmog]

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[bunny2]

Hi Pogmog, I was looking at the mattress covers today. They were around £15, on the internet I have seen them for £50. DO you know how they might differ? I want to buy the best ones and assume the more expensive ones are best, dh disagrees. Any ideas?

[hmb]

Whatever one you buy, make sure that you can machine wash and dry it. I made this mistake tha first time round, and had to hand scrub the thing after ds had been sick on it. Then the next day, when we were waiting for the cover to dry, he was sick on the mattress, which also had to be scrubbed. The washable ones are a bit more, but woth every penny of the extra.

[Podmog]

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[janh]

Have a look in La Redoute, they have a huge range of mattress covers (must be a big thing in France) and most of them seem to be washable at 95 degrees.

[janh]

Have a look here:

www.redoute.co.uk/redouteuk/sBoutique/1,1170,,00.html

£27:

They also do one with a zip which completely encloses the mattress, otherwise the same I think, £39.

Smallest size is bunk though - no cots.

[sis]

There is also 15% off the full price if you order via the website and quote the order code:3093 for La Redoute.

[bunny2]

Thanks for the recommendation - LA Redoute has a wide choice. Dh keeps bleating on about mattress covers being sweaty tro sleep on, has anyone tried any of the La Redoute covers and, if so, are they sweaty??

[janh]

I wondered about that, bunny - polyurethane and polyester jersey does sound a bit squelchy - but it says "micro-breathable"???

Haven't tried these, but we have used both plain plastic, and coated nylon, waterproof sheets on our mattresses and I have always put a cotton blanket on top, under the bedsheet - of course that makes extra laundry when there's an accident but it does seem more comfortable - but when the cotton layer has been left off for some reason the kids don't notice. I think being younger, smaller and less sweaty in general than adults makes a difference!

[SJL]

I am currently trying the Elena collection on my daughter, who has severe eczema top to toe and we have previously tried everything. This is the first week of the routine and I have found that all her skin seems to be peeling off everyday...has anyone else had this type of reaction?

[CER]

Ds has just had really bad nappy rash and I do find that his skin peels there as it heals with the cream.

When I started using Elena's collection on my ds his eczema got really red and inflamed and I almost stopped using it. I was just using it on one arm so that I could compare it's results to the cream I had on prescription (double base). I decided to persevere for a bit longer and after about 10 days the result was fantastic. His skin was a lot less red and much smoother than it had ever been before.

My dh was very sceptical, but when I asked people who didn't know which cream I was using on which arm to feel them and compare the two everyone said the arm with Elena's cream on was much softer. At that point we were still using moderate steroids all over, but after a couple of months we managed to cut them out completely after 11months of continuous use.



Elena's creams have been fantastic for us but I think it has worked in conjunction with ds's spa treatment and dietary changes. Don't know if it would have been so successful without these measures as well.

Like I have said before everyone's eczema is so individual and it may not be the right thing for your daughter but I would think that it is worth persevering for a bit longer. Perhaps you could cut down to using just on a part of her body so that you can compare the results with your normal cream?

HTH

[Joe1]

I too have just started using elenas collection and have found my ds skin has peeled in some places. I have just ordered some more as it seems to be working, alot less itching, no head itching. I have slight patches on my face and have used the eureka cream today and the redness has gone so I am very pleased.

I am going to keep going as, although it has seemed to get worse before it getting better, I can now start seeing an improvement.

[donnie]

a very good place to find clothing, bedding etc is www.purecottoncomfort.co.uk ( or .com, can't remember which !). They are specially designed by eczema sufferers.

[SJL]

Thanks for your comments and I am definately going to keep going with this. We are also doing the dairy and egg free diet as well. We have an appt in 2 weeks time to see the consultant (a monthly thing!) and he now wants to perscribe cyclosprin(?)! something I really don't want to do. But I do think that Elenas creams have definately helped on the scalp as she had such a dry scalp and nothing was clearing it, but after using it 3 x so far it seems to have improved. We are also not waking up as much just 2 x in the night compared to 3-4 times she used to do. I was just concerned about the about of flaking on the skin as I have to hoover the bed every morning. When you have experienced this is the flaking coming of in large amounts?

[robinw]

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