My son, who is now about 21 months old, has always had excema. Or at least that is what his pediatrician has said. We've used aquaphor, vaseline, and several different steroid creams to help. They seem to work for a short bit, but when stopped, it returns again. I have a feeling it's not just excema. He has red spots that tent to bunch together on his elbows, on the inside of his arm where it bends, his knees, the backs of his caves, his ankels, and the lower part of his back, just under the diaper line. Any ideas? And anything that you think of that may help? He itches constantly, sometimes to the point where they bleed, and now, he crys like he's hurting when we put sunscreen on. Thanks for any tips.
My children and I have eczema really bad. The only thing that has helped is Melaleuca's Renew Lotion. I can send you a free travel size if you want to try it. I tried everything my doctor recommended. When my doctor gave me a free sample of Renew Lotion, I was totally hooked!!
Sounds like eczema but you are treating the symptoms but not the cause. Most likely, he has some kind of food allergy. Try cutting out common culprits like dairy (like in my son's case), wheat, eggs, ect. I was in the same position with my son because he had milk eczema that would constantly come back and I knew it was an allergy. Since we cut out dairy over a year and a half ago he has never had any eczema. Plus no constipation or irritability either.
My son also developed eczema when he was 18 months old. Not even the steroid ointments cleared it up. We use the Melaleuca Renew Lotion too. It cleared it up his eczema within 3 days...no kidding. Now I use it only when I find a patch (as a matter of fact I found a patch on his face during bath tonight and out some on him at bedtime). I am a Melaleuca Rep and can give you more information if you'd like.
The Renew Lotion is great for elbow, knees and heels too. My heels were cracked and bleeding and the Renew Lotion cleared that up too.
My granddaughter has had eczema since she was a baby and hers acts the same way you describe your son's. Have you found what is causing the eczema. For my daughter it was worsened because she was allergic to milk protein, soy, peanuts, animal dander and pollen, As a baby her eczema improved with the elimination of dairy and soy from her diet.
We also used a prescription cream that healed it. The combination of the prescription and elimination of dairy and soy reduced the amount of breakouts tho she still had some difficulty and still does now at age 10. She also has asthma. The allergist said that the eczema still is aggravated by allergies and has prescribed an antihistamine as well.
He could have an infection because he's scratched the skin off.
I receive a newsletter from a Dr. Mercola who is a nutritionist and this is what he says about excema in children/babies:
The reason it is so common is that most children are far removed from consuming an optimal diet. This generally extends to the parents and the breastfeeding mother.
One of the first things that can be done if the child is breastfeeding is to have the mother switch from pasteurized milk to real, raw milk. Pasteurized milk is damaged and can easily contribute to major immune and skin dysfunctions in the breastfed child. You can read the links below for further information on the dangers of pasteurized milk.
Next it will be helpful for the breast-feeding mother to stop all gluten products. Gluten is frequently a major contributing factor to these types of skin rashes. If the child is eating foods, then all grains should be avoided. I expand on the reasons for this in Chapter 2 of my book, Total Health.
Ideally, the infant should be breastfed. If he/she is on formula, all soy formula needs to be stopped immediately. Most commercial infant formula is close to junk and should also be stopped. If breastfeeding is not an option, you can use raw milk to produce a healthy infant formula.
I can't tell you how many patient's mysterious rashes, including eczema, have disappeared entirely after removing ALL wheat from their diet. Many people have hidden gluten sensitivities that frequently results in skin rashes, so if you struggle with eczema and do not recieve improvement from stopping pasteurized milk, excluding wheat clearly should be next on your list.
I hope some of this helps! these are also the same solutions for getting rid of teen acne and they work!
K.
My youngest has excema, one thing that helps aside from the lotions and creams is bathing him less frequently. He bathes once every three days, hard when you have a boy, but the break outs have stopped.
I have a friend whose son had eczema from the time he was a baby. She tried the steroids prescribed by the drs, but nothing helped, so she went to a naturopath who recommended that she give her son black current oil. Her son is now 12 and, as long as he takes the black current oil on a regular basis, he doesn't have a problem with eczema at all. Good luck!
It does sound like excema but unfortunately it is difficult to find the cause. It can be a combination of allergens (ie, dairy, dust, pollen, hay fever, laundry detergents, soaps, etc) that can all add up to a reaction. My daughter has had it since she was 9 months old and now at 4 she still has problems, just not as severe. We especially notice her drying out during the summer when she is in the pool alot. Everything burns her skin, prescriptions and dr recommended creams such as aquaphor and eucerin, even baby aveeno products. Right now the only thing she will let us put on her is pure Jojoba oil (ordered online). You might also want to try olive oil. A dermatologist told us it was a terrific natural moisturizer that also was an anti bacterial agent so would help avoid any infections caused from scratching. As for sunscreens, many contain alcohol which will burn and also dry out the skin so try using "physical sunscreens" that contain the ingredient titanium dioxide. This is usually used in kid or baby sunscreens and is creamier and harder to rub in but will not burn or dry out their skin. The oatmeal bath also works really well to soothe if the skin is inflammed and burning. Aveeno sells it in packages ready to be dissolved in the bath. Good luck. It is the worst thing ever to see your baby in such discomfort. I hope some of these suggestions will bring him some relief!
Have you tested him for food allergies? My son had eczema and he has some slight food allergies, nothing major. We started using vanicream twice a day (now only once) and that made a huge difference. It is a non-steroid cream you can get at Target.
