[jacoby]

btw MB, my son had a skin prick test when he was 4 mos old and he was negative for dairy, soy and mites. but when we gave him soy, he broke out in hives. that's when we switched to nutramigen. things were quieter with nutramigen till after a month after. he was abt 6mo old and his rashes were terrible. in your experience, do environmental allergens cause terrible eczema? i'm racking my brains trying to find the trigger for my son's eczema! and failing miserably :-(

[mummybee]

Jacoby, yes, eczema is truly a miserable experience. I have my fair share of it earlier on, judging from the no of posts i had here and in other forums. I am not over it yet - I just become more aware of the things my daughter is allergic to. recently we went to Manila and she had two nut-related allergy attacks with her eyes swelling up like crazy and her nose dripping literally like a tap at full force. i had to rush her (running) into the hotel bathroom and poured water all over her face to "cool" her down.

I was told that before 1 year old, a negative result in a skin prick test may not be accurate but a positive result is real. so unless your boy shows a positive reaction to a certain food, you can't be sure. that is why his negativity to dairy soy and mites can't be trusted. my daughter tested negative for 16 / 16 foods too at 4 mths but results were dramatic at 1 year old with the same 16 foods.

oh sure environment can cause eczema. Emma commented her son's condition worsens when she moved to HK city and pollution (but mine had eczema even in Australia). other things you might want to consider: use latex mattress (prevent dustmite poo) and special zipped-up mattress protector; we used Dreft laundry detergent for whole family (she reacted to Pigeon baby detergent and ything with frgrance or softener; bought from Gateway in HK); we don't use harsh cleaning agents for floor/cleaning; she is allergic to common moisturisers like Eucerin, Cethaphil, and oatmeal-based types (she tested positive to oat). I mention these cos his rashes seem constnat so maybe he is reacting to sth u placed on him everyday eg laundry detergent or cream?

The EO in Watsons has no brand. David Craig sells EO also but you get this from some health shops.

hang in there - it WILL get better....

[jacoby]

thanks MB. m trying aqueous cream right now but i read in the internet that a study was done in britain. accdg to the study, children reacted to aqueous cream when it is applied directly onto the skin. but same children did not react to aqueous cream when aqueous was used as soap susbtitute. so now i'm using it as soap substitute and bioderma as his body lotion and aquaphor for his drool rash. i know aquaphor has lanolin and i'm not certain if he's allergic to lanolin. but it's been a week since his major flare-up (we had to apply betamethasone+petroleum jelly from paed) and so far his skin's been clear (except for roughness on the forehead and red rash on the upper lip). it's been his best week so far and i'm really scared to see another outbreak. we havent changed his regimen nor the food we've been feeding him so i dont know exactly why his skin's been good for a week now. i'm enjoying it while it lasts. i do know, though, that he's teething (increased saliva and refusal to feed) and eczema gets worse everytime he's cutting teeth. i will definitely consider doing a skin prick test for him as he's turning one next week. i too have cried rivers everytime he flared up and cant wait for him to outgrow this!!

[jacoby]

p.s. what shampoo do you use on your daughter MB? my son gets bad dandruff that he scratches a lot. and did you ever try homeopathy or giving your daughter acidophillus/lactobacilli? sorry to hear about your bad experience with nuts in manila too. manila's restaurants can be quite notorious for not disclosing what's in their food. my niece fr the US broke out in terrible hives after being served pasta with cheese even though her mother explicitly instructed the waiter to omit cheese fr the pasta

[EmmaTam]

Hi all been out of it for a while the main reason being that my son had some more rough patches.

When I returned to England I paid to see a top specialist in Great Ormund Street hospital. He said that eczema is not always an allergy and that now they know for sure that eczema is caused by two specific genes or lack of them working properly. I know mummybee that your going to cry out that its diffinately all to do with food but after one year down the line I have to say I am not really sure it is. Perhaps there are certain foods which agrivate the eczema but I do beleive that its all in the genes. First my grandmother had severe eczema she lived in england her whole life and ate meat and two veg every day her daughter my aunt lives in spain also still has eczema but eats spanish food every day. My son has severe eczema but we live in Hk and I eat chinese food every day.

What I am trying to say is that the only thing which we all share is blood. I sure some foods may have caused James to be worse and my breast milk may be making him worse but like I mentioned before on my previous posts I changed to Nutramigen for around one week and his condition did not improve if anything he was worse.

So what do you do, the million dollar question? I personally got to the point where I stopped caring my son was so ill I thought he might die. Finally I decided to just feed him meat in the end he has to eat it a some point so why not earlier better to know one way or the other. So I made him chinese congee with pork.

Nearly six months down the line my son is much better although many people think he is still really bad. He now every day eats a huge bowl of meat rice and veg. I introduce different veg at different times and it does not seem to relate to his eczema. Can I be sure? In answer no, but I can tell you now that his body is stronger (much better after starting meat) that his condition has improved.

Anyway you have to decide yourself if you want to feed meat to your baby but if you really don't know what food is causing what and your not even sure whether it is food causing a problem then your probably in a similar situation that I was in. I still really don't know for sure which foods may cause a problem but by keeping certain foods a constant you can see whether there is an effect or not. For example my baby only eats pork or chicken with spinach and rice everyday and I add in extra foods maybe once or twice a week I know the three basic foods have no problem as he has stedily got better continually eating these foods.

As for steroids while in england I showed the doctors what steroids I had been putting on my babies face and they were horrified basically grade 3 steroids which is what I was using are too strong for a baby and far too strong for a babies face. All the doctors I saw were in agreement on this and even the goverment doctor in hk will not give you these kinds of steroids either. Basically you can pretty much only use hydrocortazone regularly strong stuff in england they will only give you for a real emergency and many doctors not even then.

I had the very unplesant experience of having to ween my babies face off of the grade 3 steroid which was horrible. His skin had become addicted to the steroid once I discontinued its use my babies face exploded leeking water continually and his skin disintigrated until his face had two bloody wet red cheeks. He looked like a red and white panda. I then had to put back hydrcortazone which of course did not work very well and the eczema seemed to get quite out of control. At great Ormund Street I was given back a grade 3 but highly highly diluted steroid to use in wet wrapping but I never used it from the fear of my son being re-addicted to the seroid. Lucky he never needed it once I got my son eating properly his health improved incredibly and with his health improving so did his eczema.
Basically if you put streoid on the skin it helps to control the eczema highly necessary but if your eczema is like my babies in that it is continual you never have a day when there is no rash then be careful about continually using strong steroids.

Anyway that it all I have timeto say as my baby is screeming his head off!!!!!

[jacoby]

hi Emma Tam. first off, let me say how glad i am to hear that your baby is better. your stories is one of the heartbreaking ones i've read.

funny, i was just thinking about my baby's diet before checking geobaby.com tonite. your post is so timely! anyhow, i had exactly the same thoughts you have! i'm not sure anymore if it's the food i give that give him eczema bec whether i give it or not, the rashes are out. as i've said, it's like it just has a life of its own and will decide on its own when it wants to subside or flare-up. i swear, i've tried controlling his food intake/cream/lotions/laundry detergents,etc. everything! and up till now, i dont know what causes it to flare up. i am curious, though, about what you think made your baby's eczema improve? you said that 6 months after feeding him meat (how old was he when you started him on meats) his eczema improved? what do you think made his eczema better? do you think we dont have a choice but to wait patiently for his body's immunity to mature? did your child undergo skin prick tests?

i am ready to try neocate. i have 4 cans coming in and i can only wonder what to do if his rashes still come out when he's on neocate!

i am also very very hesitant in applying steroids on him. he was given diluted betamethasone (diprolene) and his rashes improved immediately (after 3rd day). i am so desperate that i'm thinking of trying protopic (i know it may cause cancer and is not given to babies 2 yrs and below). all the dr's i've been to have prescribed protopic and elidel to me and i've gotten into arguments with them abt the use of protopic. you're not going to believe the "verbal abuse" i've gotten fr dr's bec i've stubbornly resisted protopic and steroids. but in the end, when the rashes are so bad and all my son does is scratch, i dont have a choice but to go back to steroids. i wish i had another option other than steroids. i can only hope that they dont have long-term side effects on my son...

it's always a relief to hear from other eczema moms..

[milb]

Reading pages after pages on this post, finally I'm glad I'm not alone here. My 1 year old girl has had eczema for almost 6 months now and there is not a day with her skin totally clear up. I call it good, if it doesnt get worse. Lost count of how many types of cream that I tried on her. Hopefully there is a day I will post here that she's out of eczema. Good luck everyone!

[jacoby]

so do i MILB! looking forward to that day too!