Eczema
21 June 2007, Thursday
I have not shared with many of you that my little darling has eczema since he was 3 months old. Many people say that this is quite a common occurrence amongst babies under 1 year old, and most of the time it will go off when the baby becomes older.
This condition is hereditary, and from the looks of things, I don’t think that it will go away in the near future. We've gone from one skin lotion to another cream and right now I have a cupboard which has a range of unfinished bottles of lotion all from the experiments/trial and error we had to go through to find the right one from him. He now uses Cetaphil lotion which costs a bomb (thank god I can claim for these through my company benefits). On occasions, when the skin gets red from scratching, I have no choice but put some steroid cream to avoid infection. There are new findings in the market on non steroid creams available but unfortunately there hasn’t been much clinical trials conducted on babies/toddlers. I dare not try it on Aiden and his paed has not encouraged we do so too.
Every night, we have to put 2.5ml of antihistamine (either Zyrtec or Piriton) so that he gets a good night's sleep. I really pity him when he cannot fall asleep because of the itch.
I've had many advices from friends / relatives on alternative methods from using yam powder to oxidized water (?) to relief his itch. Sorry, maybe my brain has been wired to evidence based medicine after having been in the pharmaceutical industry for the last 8 years.
Aiden has not been able to go on seafood as of yet, so no fish and I only tried chicken once. Right now, he has his daily intake of 1 bowl of porridge, twice a day with a mixture of pumpkin, carrot, sweet potato, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli or baby spinach. I usually mix 3 different coloured vegetables with at least 1 sweet tasting vegetable daily. I also recently started him on red rice, millet and quinoa bought from the organic shop for health reasons.
I think this is also one of the reasons why he wakes up in the middle of the night as he is uncomfortable from the itch. Nevertheless, Aiden is a happy and healthy baby. I guess this is something that we have to manage as there is no cure for eczema. We are taking him for an allergy test (see baby Phoebe's allergy test)this weekend as we intend to start him on dairy such as cheese/yoghurt and at least chicken so he has his intake of meat protein.
I have not shared with many of you that my little darling has eczema since he was 3 months old. Many people say that this is quite a common occurrence amongst babies under 1 year old, and most of the time it will go off when the baby becomes older.
This condition is hereditary, and from the looks of things, I don’t think that it will go away in the near future. We've gone from one skin lotion to another cream and right now I have a cupboard which has a range of unfinished bottles of lotion all from the experiments/trial and error we had to go through to find the right one from him. He now uses Cetaphil lotion which costs a bomb (thank god I can claim for these through my company benefits). On occasions, when the skin gets red from scratching, I have no choice but put some steroid cream to avoid infection. There are new findings in the market on non steroid creams available but unfortunately there hasn’t been much clinical trials conducted on babies/toddlers. I dare not try it on Aiden and his paed has not encouraged we do so too.
Every night, we have to put 2.5ml of antihistamine (either Zyrtec or Piriton) so that he gets a good night's sleep. I really pity him when he cannot fall asleep because of the itch.
I've had many advices from friends / relatives on alternative methods from using yam powder to oxidized water (?) to relief his itch. Sorry, maybe my brain has been wired to evidence based medicine after having been in the pharmaceutical industry for the last 8 years.
Aiden has not been able to go on seafood as of yet, so no fish and I only tried chicken once. Right now, he has his daily intake of 1 bowl of porridge, twice a day with a mixture of pumpkin, carrot, sweet potato, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli or baby spinach. I usually mix 3 different coloured vegetables with at least 1 sweet tasting vegetable daily. I also recently started him on red rice, millet and quinoa bought from the organic shop for health reasons.
I think this is also one of the reasons why he wakes up in the middle of the night as he is uncomfortable from the itch. Nevertheless, Aiden is a happy and healthy baby. I guess this is something that we have to manage as there is no cure for eczema. We are taking him for an allergy test (see baby Phoebe's allergy test)this weekend as we intend to start him on dairy such as cheese/yoghurt and at least chicken so he has his intake of meat protein.
12 comments:
Poor boy. I don't really know much about eczema as Irfan doesn't have it. So when no one has it, you tend to be ignorant about it. Hehe. But I always hear that it will go away. So I hope that it'll go away soon and that Aiden won't have to suffer. Is it very itchy???
My daughter used to have eczema as well... Paed said its quite common with kids.
Heheh, on your question in my blog about small scale party and big scale party... can I say big scale party can swell up to about 150pax??? heheheh
aiyoh. wont know if u never tell also. Yvonne and WMD kids also haz ezcema. maybe you can ask them what cream they use.
Hi. I heard about you from Sasha. My son too has eczema since birth and he is now 4 years old. You can drop by my blog http://yfmami.blogspot.com where I have a section where I write about my experiences coping with my son's eczema. You can also email me at: yfmami@gmail.com and we can share our experiences.
My son's skin has improved a lot. One perhaps he is older and secondly perhaps the probiotic that we give him is effective. Anyway, email me and we can share experiences.
Both my gals had pretty bad eczema on their chin and cheeks when they were still infant. They were on hydrocortisone but when i stopped using, the eczema came bk.
I bathed them with Cetaphil baby bath and used Cetaphil lotion. Our paed said not to use any products that have fragrance. After a few months, the condition improved and after they turned 1 yo, improved significantly. The rashes & eczema will also flare up when they are hot or in new or different places.
DOn't use fabric softeners on their clothes too.
I also notice that both my gals have a few small patches of red round rings on their body. This is also eczema and if they eat certain food that triggers eczema like prawns or food colouring, the rings become bigger.
Our paed said eczema is linked to asthma. Though my gals hv no asthma, but i hv to be careful when they hv cough & cold.
DOn't worry, I think your boy will most likely outgrow it, just like both my gals.
Heard u from Sasha too. Really sorry to hear about lil Aidan's eczema. My Ryan also has eczema when he was younger but thank goodness he's okay now.. only occassional rashes when he ate something he shouldn't; seefood especially. Cetaphil was recommended to us by the paed and we've been using the complete range (day lotion, night lotion, washing cream, and the hydrocortisone cream from the same co) till todate eventho he's all well now...
Cetaphil is quite good. We actually tried all sorts of cream/lotion before we settled with Cetaphil. So, the part u mentioned half finished bottles in the cupboard sounds really familiar.
Always apply lots of lotion on them, it relieves the itching. In addition, what milk do u feed lil Aidan? Ryan's eczema improved noticeably after we change his milk to Isomil.
Pureen has a special washing detergent for sensitive skin baby clothes. So you may consider that as well. Email/MSN me.. we share share experience ya.. yvonnelow@hotmail.com
we're in the same boat! there is hope though, we have many friends, family and relatives who have it (NZ and Aust ... very common in these two countries) - cant escape the bloodline :). Anyway, most grow out of it, may take years but there is still hope. My hubs has it too and life goes on. His sis had it but has since outgrown it during her teens. The docs here prescribed Sigmacort ointment for Bee. She uses QV bath. I buy Cetaphil Moisturizing Cream by the dozen for hubby (he's the gene carrier!). Bee is okay with Sorbolene now but I used Cetaphil on her when she was younger. Her eczema also started when she was 3 months. Thanks for sharing your experience. Things will get better for Aidan I am sure. Aidan's porridge diet is the same as Bee's. I too cant wait to see if I could feed Bee some cheese. Her nx allergy test is next month. I really hope Aiden's test will show negative to every allergen!
OOps sorry, I mispelled Aiden as Aidan!
Jeriel started to have when he was after 2 years old which puzzled both Dr n us...So we found that we need to double rinse his clothes int he washing machine...
Hope Aiden will get better n have good nite sleep
Nadia: I think so cause he scratches himself whenever he wants to go to sleep
Julian: Aiyo, pple in EM always do things in big scale one. Here, we are limited with space. 50 - 60 in my hse would me them having to sit on my roof top liau
Sasha : thanks dear for connecting me with all the mummies..
WMD : thanks for the helpful tips. It really helps that I can share this with someone. Me so heartache looking at Aiden when he cant sleep becoz of the itch. Will write u separately
HFM : yeah Aiden's real sensitive to new food introduced to him too. I have my maid triple rinse his clothes cause I am aware that detergent can cause him to itch
etc mummy : Aiden's was on bm until he was 9 mths old then I switch to Naan HA. I'll know with this week's allergy test to see if it is dairy that he is also allergic too. Yeah I use Efficort form Galderma too. I think this Co is making big bucks from us parents la
G: thanks for the note of encouragement. Actually living in MYS (high humidity) aggravates the situation too. My hubby and I always talk about moving to Australia. We both studied there for 3/4 yrs and hubby (gene carrier) said that weather there is better for pple with eczema.
Chanel : hello, didnt know that Jeriel had eczema too. Must be caused by food allergy if only appeared after 2 yrs.
i have no clue about eczema but 2 of my cousin's sister children have it quite badly..girl somemore..
Anyway, hope aiden's one will go away in time to come...
i have no clue about eczema but 2 of my cousin's sister children have it quite badly..girl somemore..
Anyway, hope aiden's one will go away in time to come...
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