Eczema not going away!

[Anonymous]

PP here. Protopic is not a steroid. It is wonderful. The black box warning is for really large quantities and research does not show a definitive link between it's use an cancer. We hardly ever have to use it because the aquaphor regimen has really helped prevent flareups.

[Anonymous]

cod liver oil? my niece has very bad eczema and it works for her. she's had minor flare-up with cod liver oil, but it's been pretty much kept at bay since starting. you can buy it with lemon flavor -- carlsson's is a good brand.

[Anonymous]

We had the same issues with our DS. Do you eat peanut butter? Never made the connection, yet my eczema and DS' totally gone after he experienced an allergic reaction at age two. I ate it almost everyday on toast during pregnancy and after. I miss the peanut butter. I dont miss the eczema.

[Anonymous]

Check out northwestern university for its eczema protocol. Completely turned things around for us.

[Anonymous]

I'll weigh in on the wheat suggestion. My DD tested negative for everything, yet had small eczema break outs monthly. It took four years to connect them to gluten, which also gave her constipation. No break outs or constipation since going GF, it's been almost two years. To me eczema is like an alarm, something is going wrong inside the body and you just have to figure it out. Also, consider soaking all of your grains to reduce phytic acid. Fermented cod liver oil with high vitamin butter oil (FCLO/HVBO) might be a good replacement for the fish oil - you can read some reviews on amazon. Good luck - I hope you find some relief for DC soon.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP. You seem to be doing everything you can. I'll throw in my two cents in case a random thing clicks.

I tried all the creams and lotions and my favorite by far is Cera Ve (the cream, not the lotion), recommended by dermatologist in my family. It comes in a big round container like Aquaphor.

My child was older and had obvious gastro issues so maybe this isn't the key for you the way it was for me... I met with a nutritionist and got some high quality probiotics recommendations. We used two different probiotics for a couple of months and then just one, which we continue to use. The doses he took were many, many times higher than what the children's probiotic bottle I bought at Whole Foods recommended. (Of course I had my ped approve everything before I tried it.)

We also do a high dose of fish oil. Again, we do a "therapeutic dose," recommended by nutritionist and approved by ped.

My son had HORRIBLE eczema, a year past elimination of food allergens, and bath regime, etc, and with introduction of probiotics and fish oil it went away in a couple of weeks and never returned.

[Anonymous]

What has worked for us for what sounds like a much less widespread but equally as persistent case has been 2x daily application of lavendar oil and avoidance of skin contact with pollen/outdoor allergens. E.g., she has to wear pants to the playground / wash her whole arms after playing outside.

[Anonymous]

Have you tried doing no pool for a while? Maybe the chemicals in the pool are actually irritating her skin instead of helping her. I saw she frequents the pool quite often, maybe it's worth a trial.

[Anonymous]

The only thing I can throw in is that the spray bottle isn't nearly as good as a 5 min or longer soak. Then barely pat dry and seal the moisture in.

I think there may be a typo, I hope that you have eliminated eggs from your diet while breastfeeding after she reacted? Eggs tend to be a food allergy that correlates highly with eczema. Something like 40% of eczema has a food allergy trigger, in her case that is clearly part of the story. I'd try going top 8 free for a month and see what happens. Soy and wheat too.

I was a vegetarian and had to go back to eating animal protien for a while, DC was allergic to eggs, dairy, soy, shellfish and we were told to avoid nuts and seeds. She has since outgrown the allergies (we were so lucky) but it took years. When they were eliminated from my diet and hers the eczema disappeared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you are already doing/have done many of the recommendations, so pls know you are trying your best. Only other ideas I can add are: agree on twice a day water only (no soap, not even the soap-free cleaners) baths, which should be lukewarm not warm, and add a capful of mineral oil to the bath. Literally the minute DC is out of the bath, barely pat dry and then coat, and I mean coat, his little body with whatever cream works best for your DC (we have always had best success with aquafor baby ointment, or the alba unpetroleum you mentioned - it has to be an ointment for my DC, creams don't lock in the bath moisture enough, although his allergist said that we should switch to cream in the summer, but the eczema would always flare when we tried that). Also if you are not already doing this, 100% cotton clothes - especially make sure pj's are all cotton. We also use an air purifier in DC's room. I think you should take DC to an allergist, not a derm dr. Last, You may also want to keep a food log and see if you can find a trigger. GL.

Thanks for the suggestion. We were trying the water only baths, but I found that her eczema was getting worse in areas where she sweats. We started using cetaphil restoraderm in the bath because I want to get off any bacteria that is accumulating from her sweat. We do lather her up with cream/ointment after the bath when she's still wet, but maybe we should it it literally right when we pull her out.

We also make sure she only wears cotton and we have an air purifier.

We've seen an allergist and they've told me to keep eating all foods and just keep lathering her up with lotions and creams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had the same issues with our DS. Do you eat peanut butter? Never made the connection, yet my eczema and DS' totally gone after he experienced an allergic reaction at age two. I ate it almost everyday on toast during pregnancy and after. I miss the peanut butter. I dont miss the eczema.

OP here. I occasionally eat peanut butter, but thats just because I am trying to stay away from dairy, eggs and soy. I actually don't like peanut butter that much, but I haven't noticed a difference in her skin. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:cod liver oil? my niece has very bad eczema and it works for her. she's had minor flare-up with cod liver oil, but it's been pretty much kept at bay since starting. you can buy it with lemon flavor -- carlsson's is a good brand.

Thanks! We're raising our DD vegetarian so I'd prefer not to use the cod liver oil if I can avoid it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Check out northwestern university for its eczema protocol. Completely turned things around for us.

OP here. I googled it but I can't find it. Can you send it to me?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll weigh in on the wheat suggestion. My DD tested negative for everything, yet had small eczema break outs monthly. It took four years to connect them to gluten, which also gave her constipation. No break outs or constipation since going GF, it's been almost two years. To me eczema is like an alarm, something is going wrong inside the body and you just have to figure it out. Also, consider soaking all of your grains to reduce phytic acid. Fermented cod liver oil with high vitamin butter oil (FCLO/HVBO) might be a good replacement for the fish oil - you can read some reviews on amazon. Good luck - I hope you find some relief for DC soon.

OP here. I agree with your assessment that eczema is like "an alarm" but we haven't been able to figure out what is causing it. Does your family have a history of gluten allergies? How long did you have to stay off of gluten before you saw a difference in your DD's skin?

As I said, I'm vegetarian and I am trying to stay away from dairy, egg, and soy so staying away from gluten will be really hard. I can try doing it, but I'm curious to know how long you did it. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP. You seem to be doing everything you can. I'll throw in my two cents in case a random thing clicks.

I tried all the creams and lotions and my favorite by far is Cera Ve (the cream, not the lotion), recommended by dermatologist in my family. It comes in a big round container like Aquaphor.

My child was older and had obvious gastro issues so maybe this isn't the key for you the way it was for me... I met with a nutritionist and got some high quality probiotics recommendations. We used two different probiotics for a couple of months and then just one, which we continue to use. The doses he took were many, many times higher than what the children's probiotic bottle I bought at Whole Foods recommended. (Of course I had my ped approve everything before I tried it.)

We also do a high dose of fish oil. Again, we do a "therapeutic dose," recommended by nutritionist and approved by ped.

My son had HORRIBLE eczema, a year past elimination of food allergens, and bath regime, etc, and with introduction of probiotics and fish oil it went away in a couple of weeks and never returned.

OP here. We also use Cerave and like it a lot. I like the consistency more than the cetaphil restoraderm. I actually use Cerave myself even though I don't have eczema. We had our DD on BioGaia probiotics for a while, but it didn't seem to make a difference in her eczema. We could try another brand but a lot of the baby probiotics have dairy in them. I also read that probiotics don't help eczema if the trigger is non food related. At this point, we don't think its food related though I could try going on a strict elimination diet and see...