Eczema is just nutty!!!!!

gold21

Sun, Jan 18 2009, 1:18 am

My lil sweetie pie 5 mnth old has had eczema now for like a couple mnths. Only recently it has gotten waaay bad. His cheeks are crazy inflamed and red and itchy. The cream that had been working previously, Desonide, a mild corticosteroid, just wasnt helping anymore.

I went flying to the pediatrician who prescribed Westcort, a medium strength corticosteroid. Then I got an appt with a derm who prescribed a lighter corticosteroid, saying that Westcort is too strong. I'm waiting to fill that precription Beezras Hashem tommorrow.

What is the story with eczema, people?! People say: Omigod don't use steroids! Use Clear Cream from israel. Others say: Don't use Clear Cream, are you crazy, you have to follow your doctors instructions. Others say: Screw the stupid doctors, find a natural herbal cure.

Is there anything that works for moderate to severe eczema that's safe?! Do I order Clear Cream? Do I fill the dermatologist's prescription? Do I search for a natural cure? HELP!!!

EvenI

Sun, Jan 18 2009, 3:19 am

You can try a naturopath who does something called "mora therapy" (Bio-Resonance Screening and Treatment). I recommend you search for "mora therapy" to find out a bit about it. There may be other systems that are equivalent as well. That should be able to identify a trigger, and the practitioner should be able to give you a treatment program.

I would say to avoid steroids until and unless you have researched other options thoroughly. I think it's disappointing that conventional medicine says that eczema is triggered by some allergen, and they offer no way of identifying the allergen, and then recommend steroids. If you can just find the trigger, you don't need steroids, so why expose the baby to steroids, which may solve the problem but also cause others?

Ima'la

Sun, Jan 18 2009, 5:50 am

If you can find the trigger, like EvenI said, and avoid it so that you don't need steroids - great. But if not, please don't be scared off by the steroids and do use them to keep it under control! The skin is an extremely important organ and if it is full of "cracks" created by eczema, then it cannot properly do it's job of keeping out infection, etc. Most children outgrow eczema by the time they are around 2. My ds did around then - since then he has occasional flare-ups, often related to the season, but we rarely need to use steroid creams.

What is Clear Cream? Funny to hear about people importing cream from Israel when I used to import so much Eucerin from America! I have found Vaseline to work well, lately, although what we are dealing with I think falls more into the category of dry skin than actual eczema. The rule of thumb for non-medicated moisturizers should be that if you can rub it in, it's not good - it needs to be a thick creme that doesn't rub in and makes a yucky mess everywhere. Sorry to make it sound like that, but otherwise it just isn't protecting the skin well enough.

Also, keep in mind that eczema also goes hand-in-hand with allergies and asthma. I hope your baby won't have that, but it is a good idea to be aware.

RichWithNachas

Sun, Jan 18 2009, 5:56 am

When one of my children was a few months old she developed a thick eczema behind her ear. I was nursing at the time. I went to a naturapath who tested me and the baby for allergy. Once knew what I was allergic to, and stayed away from it, the baby's eczema dissappeared

EvenI

Sun, Jan 18 2009, 7:48 am

I forgot to mention that I am in a similar situation with my son's skin and his pediatrician advised me to bathe him in a special oil that cleanses and has a refattening effect on the skin. It's called balneum forte and it's made in Germany. We are in Israel and there is a local distributor here and it's a product you can get in most pharmacies here (I don't know about where you are). You use it instead of soap and it helps moisturise instead of dry out the skin. She also told me to use nivea cream and to put the cream on directly after each bath, since that's when it' is best absorbed. She actually told me to do these things before trying steroids, so I have been doing it for a while, and it isn't really healing the skin, but I imagine it's avoiding making it worse by using soap. I intend to go to a naturopath this week to try to find the trigger and I hope to avoid steroids.

Also, something that has helped a lot but not eradicated it completely is giving him flax oil. Your baby might be too young for solids, but, once he is eating solids, you could try that.

btMOMtoFFBs

Sun, Jan 18 2009, 8:59 am

my kids have mild cases and we find slathering on Eucerin Calming Cream like 2-3x day helped cure like 90% of it. also, run a humidifier so the winter heat doesn't dry out baby's skin even more.

since my kids have only mild cases, I can't comment on the prescription creams you mentioned.

TzenaRena

Sun, Jan 18 2009, 9:13 am

the title to this thread says it all! My baby niece, who was nursing had really bad eczema, until her mother cut out sesame, cashews, almonds ,other nuts, and oils and butters made from them from her own diet, then she cleared up nicely. She did develop asthma later, and those things were triggers for the asthma too.

MinnieMa

Sun, Jan 18 2009, 1:33 pm

Please go for allergy tested as soon as you can. I went to dermatologists, pediatricians................... they all said use this cream and that cream...... No one said it might be an allergy. B"H I had family who convinced me to go for allergy testing - my baby was 3 months old at the time. It showed one allergy really bad, which I removed from my diet. My baby still continued to have really bad eczema. I went through nights of no sleeping, jsut crying... his sheets was all bloody. He used to wear socks on his hands just so he wont scratch. SOmetimes his face even became infected. At 5 months old I didn't know what to do anymore the allergist advised me to stop nursing and use a hypoallegenice formuls (I.e elecare, neocate). I didnt want to listen & I did a trial run. I pumped for two weeks and gave that formula. IT was like a total transformation. My baby always had breathing issues. He had croup and bronchitis three times before he was even 4 months. He started breathingmuch better. The eczema slowly got better. He still gets some here and there, but BH we keep him away from those allergins. A month later we tested him again and this time showed an allergy to something else. When a baby is so young the allergy doesn't always show right away. WE test every few months. Please please get your baby tested. Now is the time. If you find the allergy early enough, he might be able to grow out of it. Hatzlacha. PM me if you have any other questions.

EvenI

Thu, Jan 22 2009, 5:35 am

I am adding an update on my progress with this issue, since it might help you. I took my son to Shoshanna Steif in Jerusalem for bioresonance testing and treatment (actually not using the Mora system, but a different one, called Bicom). He got a treatment there and then from the machine to strengthen his body in general and to help specifically with the skin and she tested his reaction to lots of foods. I selected all foods that I eat myself quite often (I'm nursing him) and foods that he eats or that I would like to try giving him. She produced a list of foods that he has difficulty digesting and she said that the eczema and his constant runny nose and cough are due to mucus accumulating in his body due to the digestion problems.

The treatment now is to cut out all those foods for a few months, give him acidophilus and some other remedies for a few months, to build up his digestive system, and also to use a homeopathic cream on the affected skin areas until it clears. In future, we will probably be able to reintroduce all the foods into his diet.

There's not much point listing the foods here, because it can be different for each child, which is why she tested him.

Bear Eczema

Tue, Mar 24 2009, 2:51 pm

Attention all mothers dealing with ECZEMA babies DO NOT LOSE HOPE!!!!! I am a mother just like you I went through the whole 9 yards, from doctor to doctor with just no answers. I urge you to visit the website we put together www.BEAReczema.com for excellent tips, advise and testimonials of what us and other parents used to help treat their childs eczema. With Hashems help you will be able to get through these unBEARable times.

EvenI

Tue, Mar 24 2009, 3:39 pm

I guess I forgot to update here. My son's eczema disappeared very quickly after the treatment that I described - well, I didn't give him all the drops and stuff, out of laziness, but I cut out the foods and applied the homeopathic cream and saw amazing results. I am not being so disciplined about my own diet now, and I am still nursing him, and I see that he is getting some of the eczema backm, but not nearly as badly - I guess I have to do the whole treatment program, and I have to behave myself, but basically it's amazing.

gold21

Tue, Mar 24 2009, 6:30 pm

EvenI, thanks for the info.

Are you into natural and alternative stuff in general? I'm like so mainstream in terms of lifestlye choices: labor and delivery (pro epidural; doctor, not midwife) immunizations (everything except flu vaccine); ya know, the whole nine yards.

So I'm a little freaked at the thought of trying the alternative treatments you mention. However, mainstream medicine doesn't seem to have figured out a treatment for moderate to severe eczema! So my curiosity is piqued.

Another weird thing is that my son breathes noisily. Sounds kinda like he's lightly snoring sometimes. Or like he's congested. But he always breathes like this! The ENT said everything looked normal, and that probably as he gets older he will start breathing more quietly.

I dunno. It bothers me that he sounds chronically congested/ lightly snoring/ whatever it is.

You think that's something I can ask the alternative medicine person?

Anyways how would I find info on someone in NY who does this type of thing?

Thanks a bunch. :-)

octopus

Tue, Mar 24 2009, 6:44 pm

my dd has slight eczema, but my nieces and nephews had it majorly. My sister's pediatrician told her this secret though it is a bit old-fashioned. She gives them five minute baths every day and slathers them head to toe with vaseline. EVERY DAY. no soaps or shampoo in the bath. very short baths. Be careful around the face when applying vaseline. My dd's face was getting terrible and within days it cleared up.

My sister also said that putting a drop of bleach ( shock

) in the bathwater (to kill the bacteria) really works at getting the eczema, but I didn't try this. I was too scared.

gold21

Tue, Mar 24 2009, 7:51 pm

Oh well I dunno, my son doesn't really have eczema on his body, just dry skin sometimes. Only eczema on his face. So would bathing help that? His face won't be sitting in the water, you know what I mean? You think I should splash bleach on his cheeks? Yikes. Probably the pediatrician meant that treatment for body-eczema?

Also, I have tried moisturizing religiously and its not enough for him. He needs meds.

His eczema gets infected once every few weeks unfortunately which adds to the problem.

.....Sigh.....