Baby allergies
An allergist helped our child - Jennifer, Morisstown, USA
Both my children had eczema as babies, but my son had it far worse than my firstborn daughter did. 80% of his body was covered with rash, and raw and bleeding. We had to mitt his hands day and night, and still would discover deep gouges on his face. He oozed through all his clothes. But the worst part was that he lost weight due to the calories his body was devoting to skin repair. He had to be hospitalised for the weight loss once (as well as another time for a secondary skin infection) before he was five months old.
I write this detail to communicate that our son had about as bad a case of infant eczema as I can imagine. Because we tend toward holistic health solutions, we tried almost all of them. We bathed our son twice daily in stinging nettle, we took him to an acupuncturist/nutritionist, we used every skin remedy available at the organic grocery, one by one by one. We cleared and cleaned our home according to special requirements, bought an air filtration device, etc. I took just about everything out of my diet to test for food allergies. (I was eating millet, chicken, and lettuce at one particularly low point). I even followed my now former pediatrician's command to stop breast feeding ("my milk was harming my baby") and trialed our son for one month on hypoallergenic formula. (During this nursing hiatus, I pumped to maintain my supply).
Not one of these things worked. The terribly certain pediatrician's advice did nothing and we returned our son to a diet of breast milk and organic formula (the combination necessary since he needed so many ounces of fluid to cope with the skin issues).
We also saw our share of top, highly trained doctors, at institutions all over New York City. Some of these people were kind, most were incredibly rushed, some were out and out nasty and autocratic (when one dermatologist was unable to help our son, she told us to put him on oral steroids even though she added that they had a low chance of working and might make his situation worse. When we attempted to understand what "worse" might mean, she left us alone in the examining room and refused to come back).
Finally, we were led to an allergist in New Jersey. He gave us the very informative statistic that eczema is caused by a food allergy only 10-30% of the time. This is why the special formula did no good (our son has no food allergies), nor did my ridiculously reduced diet. He also gave us a regime of medical and non-medical interventions that he said would work for certain if our son had classic, straightforward eczema. For certain! We would’ve laughed if we hadn’t been closer to crying by that point. But in less than one week, after months of suffering, our son’s skin was clear.
To follow this doctor’s advice, we had to get past a reluctance toward medical interventions, which we felt especially strongly about for a baby. But this doctor's treatment never went so far as oral steroids (in fact, he told us that taking oral steroids would've been a huge mistake and it was lucky we had hesitated over the other doctor's advice). This doctor used a quartet of topical steroids, a course of oral antibiotics to clear secondary bacteria, an oral medication to stop the itching, and also several benign approaches (no bathing, specific emollients, etc.) Two of the best dermatologists in NYC did not use such a specific, targeted approach to topical steroids (one told us to “slather” the same, mid-potency steroid everywhere, including the head). And I can’t convey how many times we begged for an anti-itch remedy to no avail. The sole possibility we were offered was horrifying to consider for a baby (a sedative whose main use is psychotropic) and otherwise doctors told us there were no good anti-itch remedies.
I consider the doctor who finally helped our son something of a savior. He was kind, respectful, and most importantly, what he did worked. A year later, my son has never looked back. Occasionally he gets a flared patch and then topical steroid for a few days quickly sets him right. He's on no oral meds whatsoever and hasn't been since that initial treatment.
I recognize that every case of eczema is different, yet I feel we learned two important things from our experience that might help others. The first is not to be so fearful of medical approaches, even with a baby. We've all been horrified to learn that this or that supposedly safe medication turns out to be harmful. But many of them do not turn out this way, and sometimes they are simply the key to a cure, as much as we would have preferred nettle or vitamin E to do the trick.
And the second thing we learned is the name of this doctor who had a regime that happened to work near instantly for our child. In case the same might be true of you, I offer his contact information. I know that we would've been willing to travel great distances when we were desperately watching our baby suffer. Dr. Donald Perlman, in Short Hills, NJ put him right.Good luck to all. (August 2007)
Baby eczema wash - Shawn, Woodstock, USA
I have found a baby eczema wash called Gentle Naturals, made by baby Oragel. The Gentle Naturals line makes an eczema line. Though the wash works great on my toddler, the eczema cream actually worsens it. (May 2007)
Neocate and infant allergies - Lakhu, Colombus OH, USA
Our son was born normal but started developing a severe cradle cap and seborrheoic rash through his body starting around week 3. Later this turned into a severe case of dry skin/eczema. We were horrified. Allergy testing revealed multiple food allergies, and elimination of these foods from my wife's diet (breastfeeding) helped a great deal but she would occasionally eat food that he would react to. At ten months, we stopped breast feeding and put him on Neocate. Since then, he's fine now with occasional patches of dry skin for which we use two prescription creams, Mimyx and Atopiclair. These are not immunosuppressants or steroids but are steroid sparing topicals that moisturize the skin and reduce itching. They really work and have no known harmful side effects. We also use the prescription steroid Locoid for occasional flare ups. For parents of a baby with severe eczema, sometimes it all seems hopeless. However, most of the time, there is a solution. I think food allergies is the biggest contributor, and eczema sufferers should be tested for allergies. Our son is 1 year old and perfectly normal now since we avoid those foods. So don't lose hope. (January 2007) Contact Lakhu
Last Reviewed: 29 September 2010
Next Review Date: 29 September 2012
