The Eczema Tribe - Page 3

[Jessviola]

parthenia, i would be very interested in the results and knowing how to make it myself. and to avoid confusion, the sarsaparilla is from the vine, not the tree.

[msiddiqi]

I may be a qualified member of this tribe. DS (almost 4mo) has had these dry patches with little bumps on his face. Last weekend they seemed to spread to other parts of his body . The ones on his face turn red when he's hot or crying or just rubbing his face. I just noticed today that the back of his neck is all dry.

I had bad acne for years and I always felt this fustration trying to cure it. (After a lot of diet/lifestyle changes my skin is great! I guess you can say it took me on the road to all things crunchy ) Now I'm getting that same sinking feeling trying to figure out what could be wrong with DS.

It's not that visible but his face is all rough . I miss his baby soft cheeks. I guess I should really consider cutting out dairy. I actually didn't eat dairy for almost 2 years but during my pregnancy I started craving it. I still don't eat much but if that's what's bothering him, its definitely not out of my system cause I do have it every few days.

But overall he's a very happy baby... I just wonder, could it really be something in my breastmilk he's allergic too? If there was something in my breastmilk, wouldn't he be all gassy and stuff? (although I must say his poops don't smell all that sweet as some mamma's describe breastfed poo)

I changed his detergent back to the baby one two days ago and washed all his clothes... It did seem to get better, but today it seems pretty bad again. I gave him a lanolin bath hoping maybe that would help him.

Luckily, he's not scratching really. I don't know if it's not itchy or he hasn't figured out how to do it. Either way, I'm happy about that.

I sort of feel overwhelmed. There is so much information on these boards about treating eczema, but now I don't know where to start. I wish someone could just give me a checklist.... like a to do list :LOL

[bestla]

deleted post

[ShannonCC]

Originally Posted by msiddiqi

If there was something in my breastmilk, wouldn't he be all gassy and stuff?

Just wanted to chime in here DD was recently (a month or so ago) taken off of dairy to see if it was causing her excema. Her excema wasn't bad at all and only developed at 6 years of age so it wasn't a serious case or anything. Anyway, her cheeks cleared right up and no, dairy never caused her any gas or digestive problems. Now, it causes ME digestive problems AND my excema cleared up when I cut it out, so I don't know what to tell you We're all different. But what the heck, try going dairy free for a few weeks if you suspect it. Just make sure you either make your food from scratch or read all ingedients because there's a lot of hidden dairy out there.

[msiddiqi]

Originally Posted by ShannonCC

Just wanted to chime in here DD was recently (a month or so ago) taken off of dairy to see if it was causing her excema. Her excema wasn't bad at all and only developed at 6 years of age so it wasn't a serious case or anything. Anyway, her cheeks cleared right up and no, dairy never caused her any gas or digestive problems. Now, it causes ME digestive problems AND my excema cleared up when I cut it out, so I don't know what to tell you We're all different. But what the heck, try going dairy free for a few weeks if you suspect it. Just make sure you either make your food from scratch or read all ingedients because there's a lot of hidden dairy out there.

You know, I decided to do exactly that and his rough spots got all clear! I was also taking flax seed oil so I thought it was probably that, but this past weekend I had cheese and he got rough spots again. So dairy is officially off my diet now .

[mlleoiseau]

My 18 month old dd has had eczema probably since she was born. It started with really inflamed rashes on the cheeks, at 7 weeks developed a horrible cradle cap with raised red oozing patches, and by three months she was covered head to toe. Ped said that it's hereditary with no known causes and wanted her on antibiotics and steroids. At three months, she started waking frequently at night and her bowel movements changed from the normal breastfed ones to really foul smelling ones. On my own I started reading about it and eliminated all the major allergens from my diet--dairy, corn, soy, wheat, seafood, nuts, tomatoes, berries, eggs, chocolate, etc. She still didn't get better. By five months, she woke every 30 minutes during the night and the only way to get her to sleep was to nurse her. She wore mitts all the time, and sometimes at night I would tie a stretchy blanket around her pinning her arms down. Finally I caved in and gave her the steroids and antibiotics the ped prescribed. It instantly cleared up. I was using hydrocortisone cream on her also per the ped. The hydrocortisone made her flare back up on her arms. Ped said that as long as I kept her moisturized she'd be fine and to only bathe her once a week. I finally talked the ped into testing her for allergies. Turns out she's allergic to milk, wheat and dogs. I also got a referral to an allergist who advised daily 10 minute baths with no soap and to moisturize within 3 minutes of taking her out of the bath. That did seem to help. I was given a prescription for elocon, a stronger steroid, to use and dd tolerates it much better. Her main spots were wrists, elbows, knees and ankles. During all this time I also consulted with a homeopath, 6 naturopaths, tried efa's, earthworm herbals cream, probiotics, etc.
About 6 weeks ago, I started using pure shea butter as a barrier cream after her bath--I don't even dry her off, just pull the plug and start rubbing it in. It is absolutely wonderful! I have not had to use elocon since I started the shea butter. She looks absolutely normal.
Here is what we do that really seems to work for dd.
1. Avoid her known triggers. I still avoid the top allergens in my diet and hers. She also can't tolerate beans, spinach, red berries, corn. We no longer visit friends with inside pets, or if we do, we don't go in the house. I try to keep the house dusted and vacuumed and wash the sheets weekly in hot water.
2. She only wears 100% cotton clothes. I have found that she will break out in a rash if she wears polyester. I also dress her in one piece outfits so her tummy isn't exposed to things.
3. We try to wear 100% cotton or put a cotton blanket between our clothes and her when we hold her.
4. All our laundry is washed in All Free and Clear with a double rinse and no liquid fabric softener or dryer sheets.
5. She gets a daily 10 minute bath with no soap. I add enough sea salt to the water to make it taste salty. (Her skin became so soft when I started the salt.) I get the water as deep as possible and continually wet her parts that aren't submerged.
6. She is not dried off and she gets moisturized immediately after her bath. I avoid moisturizers with fragrance, perfume, lanolin, alcohols, petroleum, petrolatum, etc.
7. When her skin is broken and rashy, during the day I will spray colloidal silver on it and then apply shea butter. One doctor said there's no point in applying a lotion/moisturizer if you don't hydrate the skin first.
8. We supplement her with aloe vera juice, probiotics, vitamin C and a multi vitamin. She won't take efa's so I try to sprinkle ground flaxseed on her food.
9. Since I am making our foods from scratch, we avoid colorings and most sugars.
10. Until we started using the shea butter and she stopped being so itchy, we dressed her in long pants and long sleeves during the day and night. That way she would be scratching through clothes.
11. We cut and file her fingernails about every 4 to 5 days.
12. At meals she sometimes becomes itchy when she gets food on her wrists. She now wears longsleeved cotton bibs I bought from abetterbib.com
I may be leaving something out, but that's all I can think of right now. We are trying to have a second baby. When I do get pregnant, I will definitely avoid all the major allergens and take probiotics.
By the way, two great resources I've found are the yahoogroup eczemaparentscircle and the kidswithfoodallergies website.
Deborah

[TerriKay]

No time to write much now, but Derek had AWFUL ECZEMA when he was smaller. We found some stuff online that has WORKED WONDERS for him. It does have hydrocortisone in it, but it has been a life saver!!!

http://www.eczemamiracle.com/

It didn't seem to be helping the first couple days that we used it, but after about the 3-4th day, he woke up completely cleared. Now we just use it once in a while when he starts to flare up.

If I can get my USB port working, I will try to download some before/ after pics.

Good luck everybody!!

[ewink]

Hi,

I think I belong to this group also. Not sure if anybody is still here by now, since it seems like nobody has posted for a while. My DS is 5 1/2 months old and has suffered from eczema pretty much since he was born. It started as dry flaky skin and cradle cap, but soon got a lot worse. He also has some serious digestive problems, with green, mucousy, bloody diarrhea, and nasal congestion. He has several food sensitivities. I am off (BF'ing him) wheat, gluten, corn, dairy and citrus, and there are several other things I can't eat that I have tried (that I normally don't really eat much at all), such as garbanzo beans. I haven't tried soy milk yet, got some sitting in the pantry though to try at one point. His digestion has recently finally been much better, I think the probiotics that I'm taking and also giving him are finally working, and I also started taking (bovine) colostrum which really seems to help him.

But his eczema still isn't better. Sometimes his skin will look really good for a few days, only to flare up again.

I found this product line online, but haven't tried it yet. Wondering if anybody has tried the Stallatopia line of Mustela? (http://www.mustelausa.com/stelatopia.html)

Edith

[circlemama]

Welcome Edith,
Some kids that are sensitive to dairy, are also sensitive to beef products.
Maybe the bovine supplement could be bothering him. Sometimes a rotation diet helps when there are so many foods to avoid. I am glad to hear you are taking a probiotic, many babes get help when it's directly given to them. There are many probiotic products made specifically for infants. Good luck.
Circlemama

[JaneS]

Edith, start reading the "Healing The Gut" Tribe thread... in my experience, nothing we put on DS's skin worked as well as internal help. (Although evening primrose oil on patches did help.)

When he was 8 mos old we started an Elimination Diet and also naturopath px'd 1/2 t. cod liver oil and 1/2 t. flax seed oil. Then changed to evening primrose in place of flax.
Quercitin, an anti inflammatory, 1/4 t. once a day then up to twice a day. Culturelle and acidophilus probiotics. That gave us our initial clearing, but still battled digestive issues since then. Which led us to where we are now...

[Jessviola]

update on us

We had an appointment with the ND last Tuesday and found out what the food allergy test said. The results were actually in. What a crazy little list. Max's blood reacted to:
apple
avocado
bean, green
bean, yellow wax
broccoli
brussels sprouts
cabbage
cauliflower
celery
cherry
coconut
cranberry
eggplant
garlic
grape
grapefruit
lemon
lentil
lettuce
lime
oat
onion
orange
papaya
parsley
pea
peach
peanut
plum
radish
strawberry
tangerine
wheat
egg whites
cow's milk
barley
soy

Basically, he's reacting to most of the foods I'm eating now. I think that he got sensitized to them because they were all that was left after eliminating so much. I have a theory that his liver is a little sluggish because it took unusually long for his hematoma to go away after birth (rough train of thought to how I'm making connections: hematomas~jaundice~liver) and because he had such a positive reaction to the sarsaparilla (purifies blood and detoxes the liver) and now I'm thinking that it's not clearing the proteins out of his system as quickly as normal and so they build up and he gets sensitized easily. Does that make any sense or am I a complete loon?

So now I'm on a 4 day rotation diet using the foods that tested safe. There's a bit more variety, but it's tough to come up with enough ideas for 4 days worth of different stuff. I can eat goat and sheep milk products so I get to eat some cheese! I'm hoping to get some goat mozzarella from a shop that makes their own cheese so I can make a pizza. At the least I know they have parmesan from sheep milk so I can have my rice pasta with sauce and parmesan.

The little things that bring such joy.....

Oh yes, as I almost completely forget the most important part. It's now been a week since the appointment and Max's skin is looking really good. I'm holding my breath because everytime it gets clear, it flares up again. It feels different somehow this time. I suppose because we're not relying on a cream. Although I did get my fun package of herbs today and they're stewing in the crockpot right now

[Mooney]

Thank you all for your posts! I'm just getting started on this quest for relief and this thread has been a great source of good ideas and products to try.

As for my story:
I have a 15 mo ds who has developed what I think is eczema in the last three weeks. His patches are on his left hip and right elbow crook...they started small and have been getting bigger and more diffuse. Just in the last couple of days they've started itching him. We haven't seen any doctors about it, so we haven't tried any steriods/prescriptions.

My sister has had eczema all her life, which is why I recognized it. Her dd, who is 29 mo, also has eczema. I am my niece's caregiver, so I also deal with her eczema on a daily basis...her spots are her eyelids (!), elbow crooks, and sometimes her hips, knee crooks, and upper arms. I don't think they've done much about it (for either of them) except moisturize.

I'm gearing up to go on an elimination diet, keep a food log of what we do eat, ordering EPO (we already take Cod Liver Oil) and probiotics, and finding some good non-petroleum products for moisturizing (we're using Aquafor and Eucerin...and they're not really helping).

[sarahariz]

healing eczema

Originally Posted by JaneS

Edith, start reading the "Healing The Gut" Tribe thread... in my experience, nothing we put on DS's skin worked as well as internal help. (Although evening primrose oil on patches did help.)

When he was 8 mos old we started an Elimination Diet and also naturopath px'd 1/2 t. cod liver oil and 1/2 t. flax seed oil. Then changed to evening primrose in place of flax.
Quercitin, an anti inflammatory, 1/4 t. once a day then up to twice a day. Culturelle and acidophilus probiotics. That gave us our initial clearing, but still battled digestive issues since then. Which led us to where we are now...

Hi All,

I agree with Jane. She is the person who encouraged me when I was desperate to find something to heal my dd, who developed eczema at 5 mo of age. DD was exclusively breastfed. Believe me, I wanted to do everything but give up my chocolate. The homeopath told me to eliminate eggs, wheat, & dairy for 2 weeks and if one of those was the culprit, her face should look significantly better after that time period. Well, if anything, it looked worse.... but it has turned out that dairy is one of the things that she is sensitive to.

It took my sticking to a stricter elimination diet for 4 weeks before we started to see a change. I eliminated gluten, dairy, chocolate, eggs, nightshades, tree nuts, fish, caeffine, sugar... ate only turkey, chicken, lamb, and grass fed beef for meat... and I added in good oils-cod liver oil, borage oil, evening primrose, etc and I also took probiotics. I think it took that kind of elimination because my dd's system was overloaded... also, it takes 2 wks for dairy to get out of the mother's system then 2 more weeks for it to get out of the baby's. Also, I ate as much organic as possible.

We had been using the eczema miracle cream (1% hydrocortisone) out of sheer desperation, but it didn't touch the eczema until I started my diet. Around week 6 we went to a Chinese medicine practitioner who also does NMT (neuromodulation technique). We did do a few sessions of that, but I'm not sure how much if any that helped, looking back on things. However, she told us to stop the eczema miracle cream and start using Chinese Pearl Powder creme 2x/day instead. That stuff is fantastic. I bought it through her-she says she gets it made for her in SF Chinatown.

Now, that dd is a little older (13 mo), she is okay if I eat like I "used to." If I eat lots of chocolate or lots of uncooked dairy or lots of desserts she'll get reddish cheeks-but the pearl powder cream takes it all away. She seems to be allergic to dairy... she got some goat's milk yogurt on her face the other day and broke out in hives.

My dd eats way better than I do! I delayed solids (because of the ezcema) until she really wanted them, which was at around 10 mo when she started crawling. She eats only meats, veggies, and fruits. Absolutely nothing processed and no flour and no dairy!

Bascially, I believe the key to getting rid of eczema is to change the internal environment of the digestive system.

Check out this thread, where I ended up getting so many of my eczema questions answered!

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=228710

Plus, here's the "Healing the Gut Tribe" thread Jane referred to:
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=320840

[Love my 2]

Originally Posted by klothos

am i the only one on here with Pompholyx? :

Nope, I looked it up and that is exactly what I have. It is pure torture at times. I wake up in the middle of the night with such severe itching, my fingers get so swollen that I've had to cut off my wedding ring. It's been really bad with stress and moving and having my hands in water and all the cleaning and washing of dishes I've been doing. Is there anything I can do about it? Everything I've read says to use steroid creams and heek my hands dry. What type of products do you use? Has an elimination diet helped?

[Livi's Mama]

DS's ped just told us he has a "pre-eczema" condition. I've been applying coconut oil, but nothing else yet. Wanted to do more research. I thought things got worse (his chin & chest were awful, on & off, where his drool is) when I ate tomatoes. Dr said wouldn't be a factor, so interesting that a pp said high-acid foods seemed to make things worse. So far, besides the raised red areas on his chest, he's got dry patches on his legs. Guess I'll have to try an E.D. I've never been good at not eating foods i'm not supposed to : .

FWIW, in my very minimal research before coming to MDC, I read a recommendation to treat eczema by taking 2 tsp real apple cider vinegar (raw, unfiltered) & 2 tsp honey in a glass of water 3x/day. Also said could dilute 1 tsp a.c.v in 1/2 c water & apply to skin. And said people w/eczema are usually low in potassium. I happened to have potassium vitamins on hand, so I've started taking them & drinking the a.c.v. But it's very early days & hard to say if it's helping at all.

Also fwiw, my dd seems to have no allergies. We lived in the city when I was pg w/her. Then we moved to the country. My "hayfever" is now bad each summer & was particularly bad last summer when I was pg w/ds. I can't just dismiss it as a coincidence, although it could be. Ironically, I'd say my diet while pg w/ds was much better than w/dd. More organic foods, cod liver oil, fewer processed foods, etc.

Thanks for all the tips & for not making me feel alone in dealing with this!

[huggerwocky]

I have a question.I've been having the same spot with eczema for about 3 years now.But, now I am egtting a second one and I have dry patches all over my upper body. Needless to say, I'll see a nurse in 2 weeks ( dermatologists here either don't take new patients or only with referal)

Do you think it still makes sense to try to find out if there is some nutritional cause maybe?

[Diane B]

I know this thread is old, but I just wanted to join the tribe (late, I guess.) I'm feeling discouraged because we had just about got our daughter's eczema cleared up (under her chin mostly) when it reappeared on her lower back, and now again under her chin. sigh. We have her on an elimination diet (we did applied kinesiology with a chiropractor)-she's off most dairy, oats, tomatoes, potatoes, oranges, and a few other miscellaneous things, plus we give her an omega oils special supplement. It got SO much better and I thought we were out of the woods. It's helpful to read people's stories and know that this is ongoing and requires creativity and patience! We do use a couple of lotions to reduce the itching, but no cortisone - we don't want to drive the inflamation "underground". Sounds like it doesn't always work anyway. I think the oils have really made a difference for us, plus we are very careful about perfumes, detergents, etc.

We have tried to be clear with her day care about her special diet, but I think sometimes they forget or don't realize that something contains oats, for example. Also, it seems like a lot of kids are sensitive to berries. We've been eating strawberries and raspberries the past few days, so perhaps that caused the flare up.

[circlemama]

Diane B.
We all know our children best. I do know that alot of "allergic" kids have problems w/ seeds. It's not unheard of for kids to be sensitive to flax oil, or fish oils. Just a thought. Our minds are always wondering, especially when
we've had a clear up, only to have a flare up return. Sometimes, we aren't going to figure it out, due to seasonal stuff, combination food allergies or unknown factors like daycare. Our kids are lucky to have great moms like us,
who keep trying to figure it out.
Circlemama

[UrbanPlanter]

diane b - the elimination of all wheat and gluten products seems to be very successful for us so far - in the month since we've started it ds' eczema has gotten much, much better.

[tinaq]

In addition to elimination diets, has anyone used a chlorine filter w. their bathtubs & noticed a difference? I'm seriously considering purchasing one & wonder if anyone has any recommendations.