Childrens Eczema

Author
Discussion

Tony Angelino

Original Poster:

1,970 posts

112 months

Monday 3rd April 2017
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Following on from the 'dry skin on hands' thread where a few of the lads have shared suggestions for creams and remedies, does anybody suffer, or more specifically have children that suffer from eczema?

My lad is 10 and has had it on and off since he was a toddler, nothing too bad really more of an inconvenience with usually fairly mild patches on the crook of the arm, neck and face/forehead. We've never really cracked the case, been given various steroid creams from the doctors over the years but they all seem to work on a short term basis before losing their effectiveness.

They're doesn't seem to be any pattern in terms of change of weather, diet etc that we have been able to discern.

With it generally being moderate, only really his arms that are usually covered being what you'd call worse than this, we have held off going back to the doctors and are using up steroid cream sparingly as we're now in BUPA we can get him seen privately in the next 12 months or so....

Anybody have any recommendations or suggestions please? Tried plenty of the aveno/aqueous/e45/Egyptian magic cream etc. and generally speaking they make him worse as if he's having a reaction to it.

Thanks

TwistingMyMelon

6,385 posts

204 months

Tuesday 4th April 2017
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Ive struggled all my life, its either nonexistent or quite bad, giving up booze has stopped my eczema, although I doubt that applies to your child!

My daughter has suffered really bad since birth at times, anti histamines bring it down

I would look at diet, if my daughter has dairy then she gets an awful tummy and eczema patches , since we avoid all dairy her eczema has gone much much down and she has thrived so much better

Vocal Minority

8,582 posts

151 months

Tuesday 4th April 2017
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Tony - I had it when I was a bairn - mostly on my feet.

ETA: Just read your post properly - sorry. The steroid creams worked a treat for me, but it was cure rather than prevention.

boyse7en

6,671 posts

164 months

Tuesday 4th April 2017
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My daughter is 10 and gets it pretty regularly.

We've used most of the standard creams - E45, Cetraban, Diprobase, Sudacrem, etc - in conjunction with Hydrocortisone cream.
They seem to be losing their effectiveness over time. She's pretty bad at the moment - backs of knees, inside elbows and wrists, to the extent it bleeds occasionally.

Currently trying coconut oil, but doesn't seem that great. Does smell nice though.

AMLK

407 posts

184 months

Tuesday 4th April 2017
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My daughter and I use Epiderm cream as a moisturiser. It was developed at great Ormond street for kids that react to the normal creams. Our pharmacist gave us a free tub to try, then our gp prescribed it. Worth a try I would say.

joshleb

1,544 posts

143 months

Tuesday 4th April 2017
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I like to use Nivea Norwegian Sensitive body lotion when my skin starts getting dry and eczema starts forming.

When I get it, I get it everywhere I scratch, so I get patches all over my body of red, and normal skin patches right next to it where I just for some reason don't touch it.

Body is currently turning back to a normal shade of colour after an unexplained flare up.

Martin350

3,775 posts

194 months

Tuesday 4th April 2017
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I used to get eczema quite badly as a child.

Then in my mid teens I took a course of Chinese herbs from a herbalist.
It basically involved boiling up a load of twigs and stuff and drinking the juice, which tasted absolutely foul!


But it worked, almost straight away, and I very rarely have any trouble now apart from if I eat far too much cheese!

julian64

14,317 posts

253 months

Tuesday 4th April 2017
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Martin350 said:
I used to get eczema quite badly as a child.

Then in my mid teens I took a course of Chinese herbs from a herbalist.
It basically involved boiling up a load of twigs and stuff and drinking the juice, which tasted absolutely foul!


But it worked, almost straight away, and I very rarely have any trouble now apart from if I eat far too much cheese!
Wow twig juice cured your childhood eczema!

P.S. by 'almost' did you mean straight away or when you ceased being the 'child' bit of 'childhood eczema'

butch_

78 posts

191 months

Tuesday 4th April 2017
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I don't know about the Chinese herbs, but I'd be interested to find out more, as my kid has eczema (and food allergies, which are perhaps connected) since she was 6 months old.

We're doing the steroids and moisturising creams, in addition to that she also takes anti-histamines, which seem to help. We notice the skin gets worse when she doesn't take Aerius. Centrizine doesn't seem to have the same effect, so potentially try a few types of anti-histamines. As far as I understand, it takes a few days for the body to react to them, so it's immediate.

Going to the seaside helps a lot. Even if she doesn't bathe, just playing on the beach in the salty breeze has been the most significant improvement in her skin condition.

We've seen a private dermatologist at BUPA Cromwell, he's prescribed some stronger (and yet very diluted) steriods cream. This is supposed to be safe to use for longer periods of time...

Martin350

3,775 posts

194 months

Tuesday 4th April 2017
quotequote all
julian64 said:
Martin350 said:
I used to get eczema quite badly as a child.

Then in my mid teens I took a course of Chinese herbs from a herbalist.
It basically involved boiling up a load of twigs and stuff and drinking the juice, which tasted absolutely foul!


But it worked, almost straight away, and I very rarely have any trouble now apart from if I eat far too much cheese!
Wow twig juice cured your childhood eczema!

P.S. by 'almost' did you mean straight away or when you ceased being the 'child' bit of 'childhood eczema'
I know, a lot of people don't believe in these sorts of remedies, but it worked for me.

And yes, I meant I was much better almost straight away.
I think I was around fourteen or fifteen at the time.

julian64

14,317 posts

253 months

Wednesday 5th April 2017
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Martin350 said:
I know, a lot of people don't believe in these sorts of remedies, but it worked for me.

And yes, I meant I was much better almost straight away.
I think I was around fourteen or fifteen at the time.
Your certainty of effect is like a beacon to a lot of people struggling to get to grips with what is sometimes a very difficult to treat condition.
Its frustrating to read.

Martin350

3,775 posts

194 months

Wednesday 5th April 2017
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Frustrating to read..? confused

I'm only recalling the experience I had.


243

72 posts

201 months

Friday 7th April 2017
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Try searching on Facebook for Dr Aron eczema discussion group.
I know his treatment regimes have changed alot of people's lives for the better.

hyphen

26,262 posts

89 months

Friday 7th April 2017
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Try natural products first, such as coconut oil. Otherwise the ubiquitous Cetreben is good.

We were given the latter a couple of weeks ago by the doc as son started scratching a lot, then at a mums get together the OH got chatting to a paediatrician and she recommended trying natural stuff like coconut oil first.

So we have so far ditched the cream and using organic coconut oil from holland & Barret. Seems to be doing the job so far


Tony Angelino

Original Poster:

1,970 posts

112 months

Friday 7th April 2017
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Loads of great replied here, thanks. Will look through the suggestions and try some of them.

Cheers all.

butch_

78 posts

191 months

Friday 7th April 2017
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Forgot to mention, we've been using shea butter, from "shea geniius", who have a market stall in Greenwich market.

Wildfire

9,774 posts

251 months

Tuesday 18th April 2017
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I've had eczema all my life (now 36) and it's mainly diet/ allergy related. I have found that mine is very closely related to dairy products. As a small child if I even touched milk I would come up in a rash which broke out into long lasting eczema.

Now as an adult, I try to have little dairy in my diet and have mostly acclimatised to having a bit here and there (a pizza, bit of chocolate etc.) but if I do have too much I start getting smaller patches of dry skin that can break out into eczema. As I get older I have also found that certain patches are stress related.

Whilst it sounds like you are not going down the steroid route, I would strongly advise to never touch the stuff.

After a bout of contact dermatitis (after 8 months and finally being traced to my new girlfriend's washing powder), the Dr prescribed some topical steroids to calm things down. I was in agony, with a good 75% of my body red and itchy and taking multiple anti-histermines a day, along with an array of creams.

After a week it was all gone, then the real hell started.

Small patches came back, but in different spots. So naturally I out more cream on, but this time it was different and it almost burned. Back to the doctor and after a fair bit of consulting, I was told that I would be on creams for the rest of my life as my eczema had come back.

I researched on the interweb and came across a forum that detailed topical steroid addiction. After speaking to many of the forum members I decided to sack off the doctor and his advice and go cold turkey with the creams. The next month was terrible. My skin was paper thin and at one point every time I moved, you could hear dry skin flaking off me everywhere. I had to stop wearing dark clothing and had to moisturise almost every hour.

But after that it started easing up. It took me almost 18 months but I got back to 95% health. I now get spots that are overly sensitive (neck mainly), but now 4 years later I just moisturise my neck and face.

Cream wise I found sulphur cream good for relieving the itching when I was in the middle of both the dermatitis and the steroid come down, and these days for particularly dry days I used Nutraplus 10% Urea cream.

julian64

14,317 posts

253 months

Tuesday 18th April 2017
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Some strange posts on this forum

I think its because people are confusing different illnesses.

Eczema
Skin allergy
Food Allergy
Contact dermatitis
Cellulitis

Are all different conditions which will give you a red dry looking irritated skin. The treatments are all different, but to say no one with eczema should be using steroids is patiently at odds with modern medicine. I think if you have been diagnosed with eczema and finding that steroids are burning your skin or making things worse then you need to revisit your doctor because there will be a reason.

TwistingMyMelon

6,385 posts

204 months

Tuesday 18th April 2017
quotequote all
julian64 said:
Some strange posts on this forum

I think its because people are confusing different illnesses.

Eczema
Skin allergy
Food Allergy
Contact dermatitis
Cellulitis

Are all different conditions which will give you a red dry looking irritated skin. The treatments are all different, but to say no one with eczema should be using steroids is patiently at odds with modern medicine. I think if you have been diagnosed with eczema and finding that steroids are burning your skin or making things worse then you need to revisit your doctor because there will be a reason.
Whilst the NHS has been very good to my family its biggest weakness has been towards eczema, whenever I have seen a Dr for myself and daughter regarding any bad skin condition it has been just a case of given steroid cream. When I went back and told them the cream was making it worse I was given stronger steroid cream.

Only cure for myself and my daughters eczema has been to watch what we eat , in my daughters case avoid all dairy and uncooked egg and some not too much tomato. In my case it is avoid alcohol , especially beer (which I loved!) . If we didnt avoid foodstuffs we would have chronic awful skin, which the only answer we got from the 5x GPs we saw would be to put cream on it, which at best eased the effects

Flibble

6,470 posts

180 months

Friday 21st April 2017
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I find steroid creams will cure my eczema on a temporary basis, as soon as I stopped it would come back. My dermatologist has prescribed Protopic which seems to be working much better - it's a non-steroid immunosuppressant cream which is supposed to stop outbreaks rather than being a hardcore cure like steroids.

Downside is I'm pretty sure it's not suitable for children. frown

Moisturiser wise, coconut oil knocks everything else into a cocked hat for me. I use a cheap one from Tesco (the food grade stuff, not a cosmetic version).