Recommendations for infant dematologist or allergist in DC area?

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

My poor 7 month old son is having a horrible time with eczema. He's covered head to toe and wakes up all night long screaming because he's so itchy and miserable.

We are trying all the typical things like Aquaphor, Vaseline, calendula cream, hydrocortisone. I've cut out milk, soy, wheat, eggs, and shellfish from my diet. (I EBF). It has not improved at all.

I'd like to have a dermatologist or allergist (or both?) take a look and see if there is something we're missing. I notice some people on here had their babies tested for allergies.

We live in DC but can go anywhere. Any recommendations??

Thanks!

MCW

[Anonymous]

Try cutting out all nuts as well. My baby also had extremely bad eczema. We went to Dr. Josephs in Bethesda.
6410 Rockledge Drive
Suite 304
Bethesda, MD 20817

We did a scratch test. It was good because I could add a few things back into my diet as we found milk, eggs, and possibly nuts to be a source (it came back as a weak positive). His eczema got a lot better, but did not completely clear. We used Burt's Bees baby cream and cortizone cream at the same time.

Now at a little over a year he is SO MUCH better. I think he's starting to grow out of it. He still gets it once and a while (like a tiny spot on his chin), but its not nearly the same as it used to be.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

so sorry the guy is suffering. try to get to see someone asap. We go to Athena Economides at the Institute for Asthma and Allergy, in Chevy Chase (there are a couple lcoations). She is good, but beware of wait times. Our first appt, where they did scratch tests, took about 2 hours, so go prepared with food, toys, etc.

[Anonymous]

The main pediatric dermatologist in the area is Dr. Silverman. It took me 8 months to get an appointment with him. No joke. I would start with your ped. You could also see a regular dermatologist. My DD's issue was clearly skin related so I don't know about seeing an allergist.

The regular derm practice we went to was O'Neil, Jaffe, and Lindgren (we like O'Neil).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The regular derm practice we went to was O'Neil, Jaffe, and Lindgren (we like O'Neil).

We like this practice, too. DH sees O'Neil, I see Lindgren.

[Anonymous]

We took our kids to see Dr. Silverman in Fairfax although the wait last year for us was around a month - rather than 8 months. Maybe they prioritize it based on your child's "urgency" - my kids had hemangiomas (growing birth marks) which were getting rather large, infected, etc. If all things are equal and his wait is still that long - and you feel the need to see a pedi derm - I would highly recommend Dr. Cohen up in Hopkins. He had a wait of about 6 weeks. We ended up switching from Silverman to Cohen because I didn't like Silverman's bedside manner or the plan for dealing with my kids' issues. Dr. Cohen is honestly amazing and we couldn't say enough things about him - much more personable, more forward thinking in his treatment, etc. As an aside we did have him look at my son's eczema during one of the appointments and he basically said to use Vanicream (which can be hard to find - we got it at Preston's Pharmacy in Arlington) which reallly helped improve things. But his eczema wasn't horrible (wasn't cracked or bleeding). Good luck toyou.

[Anonymous]

Dr Woods at Johns Hopkins is considered one of the best pediatric allergists in the country. can take 6 months to get 1st appt.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Dr. Silverman's next open appointment is April. Since we want someone to look at this asap, I made an appointment tomorrow with with the physician's assistant at Jaffe, O'Neill and Lindgren (so that we can get in as a patient rather than wait until February for the first appointment with one of the doctors.) If that doesn't work, I'll keep moving up the highway to Baltimore.

It'll be good to find out if this is a skin problem or an allergy problem, so thanks to the poster who drew that distinction for me, which I hadn't made before.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions!

MCW

[Anonymous]

We went to Dr. Silverman for our son's eczema. If your ped will call and make the appointment, you'll get in MUCH faster (I think we waited maybe a week or two, and once they got us in the same day). I actually liked his bedside manner. He had puppets in his office and he amused DS with one for a bit, plus a long mirror that was helpful for keeping DS entertained while we waited in the office.

[Anonymous]

You might want to go see both a derm and an allergist. fwiw our son's eczema was allergy related--he was tested at 6 months--but he also has super sensitive skin in general and got rashes really easily. At a year it started clearing up. ANyway, I hope the appt tomorrow can get your son some relief--they might give benadryl as well as a medicated ointment

[Shopmom]

My son has allergies, food allergies, asthma, and eczema so you can imagine finding a good doctor is a high priority for me. I found an awesome allergist with the Allergy and Asthma Center in Greenbelt, Maryland who we've used since the baby was about 5 months old. Not only do we have all of the allergies and food allergies tested every so often, but we were also prescribed the right medicated moisturizers that keep my sons skin under control all year round. There are even oral meds that can be prescribed to cure horrid itching from the inside out. In the meantime, you will want to moisturize more often to prevent winter itch.