Emma - posted on 01/27/2009 ( 16 moms have responded )
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My 7 yr old daugther has had eczema since she was a baby and has always been bothered with allergies, until recently these have all been quite mild. About 8 months ago her eczema started to get worse and worse until now it is awful. She spends her life itchy and sore and she has had one infection on her skin after another. We have tried so many different things, some have worked others dont. To be honest I am at my wits end, at times I feel useless and I hate the way it has taken over her life. She spends most of her time getting her skin bathed, creamed, dressed and wrapped. She goes to bed each night crying and itching. We have tried many things to stop her itching at night(she often does it in her sleep) the most recent being sowing socks to the end of her sleeve!!! Her skincare routine is never ending and of courseI am more than happy to do what it takes to help her I just wish we could find some sort of miracle cure which could give her a life free of all this. She hates it and is being teased at school because of her bandages etc!!! Some of the time her skin clears up well but if we stop her skincare regime or ease off at all it just comes back as bad as ever. Also any time she has a bug or sickness it makes her skin ten times worse has anyyone else found this?
Any advice would be appreciated as anything is worth a try, apart from the affect this has on her, I fear it is affecting my other daugther as so much of my time is taken up by this!! For anyone out there in the same boat as us here is her skincare regime in case there is something in there you have never heard of which might help your child.
Morning - Sponge skin with tepid water, do not rub - aloe vera gel, cortisone if needed, antibiotic cream if needed - thick layer of Cetraben emollient cream or oilatum emollient cream ( i find her skin grows accustomed to the same cream so we switch about every 3 weeks) - put on her tubifast body garment ( this keeps cream in and dirt /dust out) - bandage her wrist as she will scratch her arms at school otherwise, bandage goes on top of tubifast as it stays in place better - she wears a polo neck on top of this as it protects her neck ( if her skin is exposed to the cold air and dust it really flares up)
Through out school - emollient cream to her face and neck as these areas are not protected by her tubifast garments and without them her skin gets very dry and red, the teacher keeps and eye for her skin getting dry and she goes into toilets and does this herself
After school - I reapply thin layer of emollient to her whole body - then throughout the rest of the day we reapply emollient to her face(her dermatologist has said if her face doesnt look greasy she needs more cream, this is not always practical but we try to stick to this rule when poss)
Bedtime - tepid bath with table salt dissolved(helps itch)if needed and/or oilatum bath formula(rehydrates skin when it is v dry)if needed - twice a week wash hair in oilatum shampoo, try not to blow dry if necesary use cold setting - soak skin (for 20 to 30 min if possible depends how bad her skin has been that day) - aloe vera gel - cortisone and/or antibiotic cream if needed - thick layer of emollient - tubifast bodysuit - socks over hands/bandage wrists to stop itching
Throughout night - reapply emollient if she wakes and needs it, fan skin to soothe itch( we keep an electic fan in her room as often in the night she wakens scratching and gets quite worked up and in turn heats up which makes things worse)
Things we have had to change - use non bio - wash sheets 2 times week - no curtains in her bedroom - no carpet in house - cats new home, dog outside - house never over hot/cold - no flowers - no teddies on her bed ( just one fave which can be washed with her bedding) - hoover/ mop floors more often - damp dust - no soap whatsoever - avoid unnatural foods - switch to goats milk - her toys are in wipe clean boxes (less dust) - if we visit a house with carpet she cant sit on floor(otherwise within 10 mins her skin is red raw,unless the carpet it quite new) - she cant visit houses with cats - no swimming pool - hoover matress once a week ( we have a kirby which is great for this) - cotton clothes only
We are in the process of arranging allergy tests and have ordered Derma silk pillow cases which I hope help her face, which is never really red or raw thankfully but is always v dry and I think her pillow case although cotton is making it worse. She is also going tomorrow to get swabs taken to try to do something about this reacurring infection, doc said it is common in children with excema as they scratch germs from the skins surface into the blood (and since her skin is so bad and she itchs so much it is natural it will occur more often) but since it is so persitant they want to check it out.
Apart from the infection in her skin at other times generally I can keep things pretty much under control if I stick to her skincare regime. I just pray for the day she gets to live a normal life free from all this and she can play and visit family like any other child without worrying about dust, dirt and hair!!!
I hope some of this helps someone, I think I remembered everything lol !!!!!!
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