Hi,

I have four items of clothing here that we bought for my nephew when he had severe eczema as a baby. They are from Cotton Comforts and are 100% cotton. All have only ever been washed in eco/natural washing powders or Surcare and never in fabric conditioner. I would like to pass them on to someone who needs them as they were quite expensive at the time. They have been worn but are in good condition. They are:

2 x cotton sleepsuits size 70 (suitable for 6 to 12 months old) - these fasten at the back and have mittens - one is mid blue and the other bright blue and lime green stripes. The web link to the item is:

http://www.eczemaclothing.com/Condition ... itt+PJ.htm

2 x long sleeved mitten T shirts - one mid and one royal blue. Web link is:

http://www.eczemaclothing.com/Condition ... +Hands.htm

I do not want any money for these items but would ask for anyone who wants them to pay for the postage, via paypal. I would not think this would be expensive - 4 items of clothing.

Anyway if you are interested, please get in touch

Karen

Hello Jennifer

Welcome to itchybaby, thank you for sharing your story.

I'm so pleased your getting more help now and there trying to help you find the things making your little girl worse.
It must have been so hard having your elder daughter to care for and your itchybaby when you were going round in circus with the Doctors.

Your poor little one!!! She sounds like how my DD2 was and it was heart-breaking. In the end, what sorted my DD was hydrocortizone cream, leave on for 30mins; then Epaderm absolutely caked on and tubifast top and leggings over the top of that. It helped the skin absorb the skin and now that we know she is allergic t house dust mites, we know they also work by protecting her skin. If you're getting refered, ask for wet wraps and allergy testing. 10 months down the line, I wish I had known about it back then as it would have saved us all from a lot of pain and frustration.

Well Gateshead actually! Hello everyone - I'm Jennifer and I'm mum to a 2.5 year old daughter and a 11month old eczema baby.

DD2's eczema started when she was 8 weeks old and after 2 months of tears and frustration where I was told she looked like a burns victim because I wasn't moisturising enough, we ended up in A&E where we finally saw someone who took me seriously. She improved some, but was never great till we moved to gateshead and her new GP (may the Gods bless him!!!!) and the hospital have been amazing. You wouldn't know she had eczema now looking at her. We were at the hospital on Thursday and we've just found out that she has an allergy to eggs, house dust mites and cats. Waiting on blood test results to find out about milk.

Phew! Sorry, didn't mean to ramble on so much!

Awww she's gorgeous! 

Josh scratches with stress too, and tiredness.  He claws and scrapes the back of his neck.

If you have a look on the summer info page on the site there’s swimming info on there   Have you tried using soda crystals with the soap flakes?

My laundry method   '
The method we use in a spoon full of washing soda, or soda crystals into the soap draw of the washing machine.   
Wash this down with a pint of hot water.
Mix about 200mls of soap flakes with very hot water and stir until it's a soapy solution, then pour this into the washing machine.   
Add a further 1 or 2 pints of hot water and start washing machine immediately.

When it's finished use an extra rinse.'       The extra hot water & the soda crystals all help

One other point that I have noticed in the last week is that the scratching is linked to stress etc. I can explain.

Our daughter is 1 and is trying to walk/talk and teeth all at the same time. We assume this is why she has quite a few unhappy days at the moment - not made any easier by the eczema. But I have noticed, when for instance, she cannot get through the stairgate and gets upset about it she will sit down, yell, maybe start sobbing, but will go for the back of her knees and scratch scratch scratch. She'll do the same with her elbow when she gets pissed off.

Has anyone else noticed this link?

She's a super active baby, never sits (literally) and plays, just does laps of the lounge going from one thing to another. I suppose this could cause sweat and therefore more itching?

Maybe the change in weather for autumn will help

Hello Lizzie,

I was going to fill your survey in but in retrospect I can't really answer the questions. Out 1 year old daughter has eczema but we're still trying to find the cause(s) and if I filled in your answers I would jut be going on what we suspect, mainly due to other peoples opinion.

Still, good luck with it.

Sorry.

Sorry to double post, but was just replying to a friend on another forum and it made me thing of your little one and the amount of things they are sensitive too.   


I wondered if you'd ever herd of the bucket analogy for allergies.

You have to think of a body’s tolerance to allergens/chemicals as an empty bucket, and then the allergic, itchy, sneezey reaction/state as that bucket overflowing.

If there’s not much in your bucket, then all kinds of stuff can go in there and it's fine.
If you have 1 or 2 allergens that the body is especially sensitive too in the environment they are 'filling up' the tolerance bucket.  Making it constantly in a too full state....
...... Any other little thing that a body may otherwise deal with ok will make matters worse and cause the bucket to overflow.


If you think of your little boy at the moment as in 'full bucket' mode - his body is going to be hyper sensitive to all kinds of things that he might normally shrug off ...... add to that the fact the skin is sore too, so it's not working properly as a barrier there for is more sensitive thus adding more things into the overfull bucket.

Dose that make sense?

I'm just thinking your boy seems so sensitive to so many things at the moment.   
The fact his skin improving is a sign your helping to stop his bucket overflowing 
I wonder if you continue as you are, removing all kinds of things that are filling the bucket up if you will be able to work out just 2 or 3 bad allergens.

Perhaps with time your little one will with time be able to tolerate some of the things you have had to remove at the moment, when you work out the things that are really hard for his body to deal with and are his big allergens.

Hi andrea and Trace1002 ,
Thank you so much for filling the survey in!
I posted it on lots of different sites but i didnt think that anyone would actually pay it any attention   
The survey is going to be open until i get enough replies to analyse the data, but probably for a couple of months.
Even though i've had eczema for practically my whole life, i don't really know all of my triggers and i still have flare ups.
I try to avoid getting hot, and I find that if i am out in the sun, or doing exercise my eczema gets noticeably worse.
My mum found out that i was allergic to lanolin - which is a substance in some of the creams i was being prescribed.
When i was little my mum made me wear cotton gloves while i slept to stop me from scratching, those really helped to control the damage i was doing to my skin and I still wear these now!
animal hair and dust make my eczema worse. I use hypoallergenic pillows, and have wooden floors rather than carpets to try and keep the dust to a minimum. When i was a toddler my mum used to freeze my toys (in plastic bags) to kill the dust mites.
The most difficult thing about having eczema is the itching. When i was younger, if I was really itchy i used to read a book and have an ice lolly to calm me down and take my mind off the itching. If that didn't work i used a cold flannel, or Eau thermal Avene water spray if I was in the car.
I also used to make sure that i put vasaline over my eczema when i went swimming in the sea / a pool, because otherwise it stings.
These things will probably be more relevant to an older child, but I hope that they help!

Hello there

Welcome to you and thank you so much for taking the time to post!  I’m so sorry you and your little one have had to go threw so much.

It is the treatment that you received - like I received that made me soooooo upset and determined to set up this site.

It's utterly heartbreaking that parents have to go threw there little ones suffering anaphylactic shock before people will take the time to listen to and try and help them!

Perhaps Eczema is changing fast and our GP's are not up to date, but the fact that 1 in 5 of our babies are born suffering like this and it's rising all the time is concerning.

I'm not just not prepared to accept that 1 in 5 of our babies are being born 'broken' and needing there immune system suppressed ?   
The fact that these little ones are so sensitive to modern chemicals and food and parents are being refused help is so backward.
I don’t understand why more time isn’t spent studying these reactions and trying to work out why? – rather than try and stop there bodies doing what comes natural with steroids.   
I keep wondering what when it's 1 in 3, or every other baby born who needs steroids to stop there bodies reacting violently to our modern life, will Dr's then listen to Mums and start helping us work out why are children struggle to deal with our modern way of living

- Sorry, bit of a rant there!

I'm so pleased you’re finally getting help and people are taking time to listen too and help you find what your little one is sensitive too. 
How are you finding sourcing alternative products and food?   Are you seeing specialists regularly now?