Eczema                Welcome to our eczema page! These ramblings came about as a result of our experiences with our son, Joe, and my desire to share this experience to let other parents know there is support out there. We sure have learned a lot about eczema since Joe came along in 2002; particularly that it can be a life-altering condition for both the child and the parents, and it's important to be be well-informed and have a good support system. This info is NOT intended to promote any specific product or therapy for profit, and its sole purpose is to provide support and information. My advice should not be used to diagnose any skin condition or to substitute for the advice of a professional health care provider. However, get informed, be proactive, and realize your have treatment options within and beyond the scope of mainstream medicine. :-) Our Story Joe was born at home on December 11, 2002, after a short labor. He is our second child, and my husband, daughter, and I were thrilled to be welcoming a new baby boy into our family. Both my pregnancies were fairly uneventful, and we had never had any health concerns with our first child, so nothing really prepared us for what was to come. As you can see in his pictures, Joe developed eczema on his face at about two and a half months old, and it quickly spread to his whole body. For a few months, he looked like a little burn victim, with sores covering large portions of his head, face, and arms. At around nine months of age, it subsided enough to give us some sense of normalcy, although he still had flare-ups and would scratch himself raw if we didn't watch him constantly. Initially, we took him to the doctor, who prescribed a new cream, Elidel. Not knowing anything about eczema, we tried a sample of the cream for a few days. I guess I naively thought it would clear up and that would be that. Sadly, about a week later, my son got very ill, with an extremely high fever. Long story short... he was hospitalized and diagnosed with Kawasaki Disease, which damaged his heart, causing enlargement of the coronary artery and two small aneurysms. Though I've been assured numerous times that the Elidel cream could not have caused the illness, I nonetheless felt compelled to pursue a more natural treatment of my son's eczema, as there is no known cause for Kawasaki Disease, which in my mind, discounts nothing. Further, I now realized that Joe's eczema would be a chronic condition that we would have to manage, and not just a little rash that would go away in a few days. Therefore, immunosuppressant creams and steroids are not my method of choice to manage it. Of course, I am not discounting the usefulness of these drugs for many families managing this disease, but at the moment, that's not the route we've chosen. We take one day at a time. Currently, we manage by using a great eczema cream from Earth Worm Herbals. We use this several times a day to moisturize all over, as well as on spots, when he has a flare up. When his skin was really oozy and looking borderline infected, we would clean the weepy spots with half peroxide, half water, then give him a luke warm bath, then immediately rub him down with the cream. Thankfully, we've avoided the use of any oral antibiotics, thus far, though they have been prescribed many times. I guess I just used my own intuition and judgement and felt we would get him through it and make him as comfortable as possible, without starting an endless cycle of antibiotics. Of course, no one knows what the future holds, and antibiotics definitely have their place, but for us, they'll be a last resort with regards to Joe's eczema. Though in reality, it has only been a short time that we have been dealing with eczema, I feel like I've read every article, tried every cream, talked to every doctor and tried every supplement to help relieve Joe's symptoms. Shortly after its onset, I began an elimination diet myself, as I breastfeed Joe. I eliminated all the potential allergens, such as wheat, dairy, egg, soy and nuts. This basically left me on a whole foods diet. Though I lost some weight, and felt great by the end of three months, it was socially very challenging to eat so limited, and also did not seem to make much of an impact on Joe's skin. In fact, it wasn't until we went on vacation to Newfoundland in July, that his skin started to look better, and at this point, I had gone off the diet, with the exception of still avoiding nuts and milk, as those are things he tested very positive to on the allergy skin test. The whole three month elimination diet was really a fascinating experience, though, because never in my life had I had the motivation to eat so natural. The possibility of helping Joe was a real motivator, and the side-effect of seeing how it feels to eat absolutely no processed foods, no junk foods, no sugar, etc. was interesting. In many ways, I wish I could maintain that level of healthful eating indefinitely. But, I must admit, I have succumb to the social pressures and trappings of the American diet. Still, I don't discount the importance of an overall healthy diet in the treatment of eczema. As we introduce solids to Joe, we are careful to note his reactions, and keep things as simple as possible. Because scratching is a major concern with eczema, much of our time is spent distracting Joe, keeping his hands busy, so he won't hurt himself. I trim and file his nails every other day, and we put socks on his hands while he's sleeping. We made some soft wristbands out of fleece to snap around his hands while in the car seat. Restraining him like this seemed so cruel at first, but we soon learned that he was much happier in the car if he couldn't start a scratching frenzy. He can move his hands enough to hold a toy and scratch his legs (which we cover with pants), but not to get digging at his head and face. At the beginning, I didn't know how I'd ever go anywhere alone in the car with the kids, because every time I would go out, he would be bleeding by the time I got where I was going. And at home, he sleeps with one of us all the time, so we can be aware if he's starting a scratch fest in the middle of the night. Thankfully, recently, for the most part, he sleeps fairly well. From an emotional standpoint, in some ways it almost feels like we've been dealing with a child with a disability. Thankfully, for parents of children with eczema, there's always the hope that the condition will subside with age, even in the most severe cases. However, it definitely brings with it some emotional challenges. First and foremost, when you have an infant with severe eczema, your whole focus becomes keeping the baby comfortable and keeping them from scratching themself raw. And on some level, it's hard not to feel deprived of that special time with your cute little baby. I know at first I felt cheated because my whole focus was just on keeping him from getting infected. I couldn't hold him the same way I did with my daughter, because if you'd hold his face against you, he'd just rub until he was bleeding. Though nothing would light up my day like his smile, some days, I was just so emotionally and physically drained, that it was hard to feel very hopeful about anything. I also felt guilty that I wasn't giving my older child enough attention and that her experience of being a big sister was all about Mommy being stressed, and not touching Little Joe's "boo-boos." Even now that things seem a bit better, every time Joe flares up, I get a little twinge, wondering how bad it will get, and how it will affect our day. Overall, eczema has definitely presented a new challenge to our lives. All we can do is find the tools that work best for us in managing it, and making our son as comfortable as possible. Before I had Joe, I used to think eczema was some little patchy rash people got on their elbows or something. I had no idea of its potential severity. I feel a special bond with the other parents I have met who have children with eczema, as it's something you just can't imagine unless you've experienced it. But, I'm also thankful for the support and kindness of my friends and family, and I continue to hope that Joe is one of the lucky ones who "outgrows" it in his first few years of life, or that it at least diminishes to the point where it's not so life-altering. Joe obviously has some serious allergies, and this alone will be challenging, but we hope he has the chance to develop into a happy little guy without the constant distraction of itching. Again, all we can do is take one day at a time. UPDATE 03/03/04 Joe is now almost fifteen months old, and it looks like I got my wish, because I have actually gone days without thinking about eczema. We continue with our daily moisterizing routine, but overall things are much easier. Joe still has very dry skin, and his wrists, back of his knees and cheeks still flare up a bit on and off, but nothing to the degree of last year. He hasn't had an open sore due to eczema in quite awhile, which makes managing it a whole lot easier. He's still a little itch monster. I don't know if it's out of habit, or from the dry skin, but we still keep him in 100% cotton clothing, and he doesn't run around nudey much, or you'll find him in the corner scratching himself. I'm wondering how the hot weather this summer will affect him, but for now, things are good. I remember when Joe was five or six months old, we took our daughter to the doctor, and the doctor noticed how bad Joe looked with all the eczema on his face and his head wrapped in gauze and he said, "Don't worry. It will get better." I remember thinking, in my sleep-deprived state, How can he say that? He doesn't know, and I've never seen a child with eczema as bad as Joe. But looking back, the doctor was right. Not only is Joe better, but our ability to deal with his condition is much better. UPDATE 12/16/2004 Joe just turned two last week. He's a happy guy and eczema isn't much a part of his awarness. He has occiasional mild flareups around his mouth and on his legs, but overall, it's manageable and doesn't cause him any significant discomfort. I do notice when we keep his diet primarily whole foods, and avoid all processed foods and the things he's allergic to, that his skin is much nicer. We continue to use the Earthworm Herbals eczema cream on any flare-ups, and once a day just to moisterize. Products We've Tried Elidel (briefly for a few days) Eucerin & Aquafor Theraplex Burt's Bee Baby Skin Creme Pure Baby Eczema Care California Baby Moisterizer Arbourdouns Calendula Cream Earth Worm Herbals Eczema Cream * This is what we currently use. Other Things We've Tried Elimination diet for mom (breastfeeding) Probiotics Change in Environment Allergy Testing Copyright © 1998-2009 Petite.net