Homeopathy for eczema

Eczema Hell

Hi all been out of it for a while the main reason being that my son had some more rough patches.

When I returned to England I paid to see a top specialist in Great Ormund Street hospital. He said that eczema is not always an allergy and that now they know for sure that eczema is caused by two specific genes or lack of them working properly. I know mummybee that your going to cry out that its diffinately all to do with food but after one year down the line I have to say I am not really sure it is. Perhaps there are certain foods which agrivate the eczema but I do beleive that its all in the genes. First my grandmother had severe eczema she lived in england her whole life and ate meat and two veg every day her daughter my aunt lives in spain also still has eczema but eats spanish food every day. My son has severe eczema but we live in Hk and I eat chinese food every day.

What I am trying to say is that the only thing which we all share is blood. I sure some foods may have caused James to be worse and my breast milk may be making him worse but like I mentioned before on my previous posts I changed to Nutramigen for around one week and his condition did not improve if anything he was worse.

So what do you do, the million dollar question? I personally got to the point where I stopped caring my son was so ill I thought he might die. Finally I decided to just feed him meat in the end he has to eat it a some point so why not earlier better to know one way or the other. So I made him chinese congee with pork.

Nearly six months down the line my son is much better although many people think he is still really bad. He now every day eats a huge bowl of meat rice and veg. I introduce different veg at different times and it does not seem to relate to his eczema. Can I be sure? In answer no, but I can tell you now that his body is stronger (much better after starting meat) that his condition has improved.

Anyway you have to decide yourself if you want to feed meat to your baby but if you really don't know what food is causing what and your not even sure whether it is food causing a problem then your probably in a similar situation that I was in. I still really don't know for sure which foods may cause a problem but by keeping certain foods a constant you can see whether there is an effect or not. For example my baby only eats pork or chicken with spinach and rice everyday and I add in extra foods maybe once or twice a week I know the three basic foods have no problem as he has stedily got better continually eating these foods.

As for steroids while in england I showed the doctors what steroids I had been putting on my babies face and they were horrified basically grade 3 steroids which is what I was using are too strong for a baby and far too strong for a babies face. All the doctors I saw were in agreement on this and even the goverment doctor in hk will not give you these kinds of steroids either. Basically you can pretty much only use hydrocortazone regularly strong stuff in england they will only give you for a real emergency and many doctors not even then.

I had the very unplesant experience of having to ween my babies face off of the grade 3 steroid which was horrible. His skin had become addicted to the steroid once I discontinued its use my babies face exploded leeking water continually and his skin disintigrated until his face had two bloody wet red cheeks. He looked like a red and white panda. I then had to put back hydrcortazone which of course did not work very well and the eczema seemed to get quite out of control. At great Ormund Street I was given back a grade 3 but highly highly diluted steroid to use in wet wrapping but I never used it from the fear of my son being re-addicted to the seroid. Lucky he never needed it once I got my son eating properly his health improved incredibly and with his health improving so did his eczema.
Basically if you put streoid on the skin it helps to control the eczema highly necessary but if your eczema is like my babies in that it is continual you never have a day when there is no rash then be careful about continually using strong steroids.

Anyway that it all I have timeto say as my baby is screeming his head off!!!!!
 
hi Emma Tam. first off, let me say how glad i am to hear that your baby is better. your stories is one of the heartbreaking ones i've read.

funny, i was just thinking about my baby's diet before checking geobaby.com tonite. your post is so timely! anyhow, i had exactly the same thoughts you have! i'm not sure anymore if it's the food i give that give him eczema bec whether i give it or not, the rashes are out. as i've said, it's like it just has a life of its own and will decide on its own when it wants to subside or flare-up. i swear, i've tried controlling his food intake/cream/lotions/laundry detergents,etc. everything! and up till now, i dont know what causes it to flare up. i am curious, though, about what you think made your baby's eczema improve? you said that 6 months after feeding him meat (how old was he when you started him on meats) his eczema improved? what do you think made his eczema better? do you think we dont have a choice but to wait patiently for his body's immunity to mature? did your child undergo skin prick tests?

i am ready to try neocate. i have 4 cans coming in and i can only wonder what to do if his rashes still come out when he's on neocate!

i am also very very hesitant in applying steroids on him. he was given diluted betamethasone (diprolene) and his rashes improved immediately (after 3rd day). i am so desperate that i'm thinking of trying protopic (i know it may cause cancer and is not given to babies 2 yrs and below). all the dr's i've been to have prescribed protopic and elidel to me and i've gotten into arguments with them abt the use of protopic. you're not going to believe the "verbal abuse" i've gotten fr dr's bec i've stubbornly resisted protopic and steroids. but in the end, when the rashes are so bad and all my son does is scratch, i dont have a choice but to go back to steroids. i wish i had another option other than steroids. i can only hope that they dont have long-term side effects on my son...

it's always a relief to hear from other eczema moms..
 
Reading pages after pages on this post, finally I'm glad I'm not alone here. My 1 year old girl has had eczema for almost 6 months now and there is not a day with her skin totally clear up. I call it good, if it doesnt get worse. Lost count of how many types of cream that I tried on her. Hopefully there is a day I will post here that she's out of eczema. Good luck everyone!
 
Hi jacoby

sorry I have not replied sooner.

I gave meat at 9 months. The HK doctor told me not to give until after 1 year.UK saidbaby should have a normal diet from six months.

I only use hydocotazone or (however you spell) it nothing else works. I try to use as little as possible and I am never able to get rid of the patches only keep under control.

I've tried so many creams but I think they are all much the same. The best ones I now use are QV creams and lotions Oilatum bath oil and vaselene.

I've never bothered with skin prick tests. Before one year they will all be inacurate and he has to have already been exposed to that food to have a reaction. Before one year his diet was so limited what would be the point. Now I am introducing more foods I may consider doiong tests in the future but everyone tells me his skin will be better again at a year and a half and then better again at two years so lets see what happens first.

I've also been in touch with other eczema sufferers inUK and most of them do at some stage control the eczema with diet and emmolients but however careful they are many times the eczema comes back for no reason.

Right now I really beleive if my son is as healthy and strong as possible his skin will be better.
 
hi Emmatam. i agree that no amount of emollients and diet restriction control eczema, at least in my son's case. that makes it all the more frustrating! my son's eczema worsened before i introduced solids despite vigilant application of emollients. yes, only steroids keep the eczema at bay but it comes back with a vengeance!

you mentioned that for a time, you were feeding your son chicken and pork(?) bec he wasnt not reacting to them. how were you able to tell? the reason i'm considering skin prick test is bec i cant tell if he's reacting to the food as his rashes never truly disappear. the dr tells me to re-introduce the food 3x watching for the symptoms of allergy. but with the way his rashes appear so frequently, he'ld be 10 by the time i finish introducing all solids! honestly, it's so confusing! everyone tells me to jst give him anything except nuts, wheat, seafood since the rashes come back anyway even if he's just on extensively-hydrolysed milk!

anyway, my neocate finally arrived. i'm not sure if it will work and dont know what to do if it doesnt stop the eczema:-(

i guess time is our friend!
 
p.s. what is delayed allergic reaction anyway? does it even apply to our babies who have daily rashes? :-(
 
Hi jacoby

I also have no idea of the time it takes for the allergies to occur. One doctor told me in UK that if there is an allregic reaction you will see in 20 mins. As my sons face has a permanent rash I am like you in that you never really know if there is a reaction. The same doctor also said that as the eczema returned continually with the use of strong steroids that I should cut the use of them completely. That is why I am now only using hydracortoizone. My sons eczemz was worse after 3 months old and after 7 months old I can only guess that these were growth periods and perhapse he was weeker in that time.
 
as i am writing this, my son's eczema seems to be returning again after 4 days of rest fr steroids :-( i fed him sweet potatoes yesterday and today 2 red spots appeared on his arm and some pink spots on his thigh. are sweet potatoes notorious for causing allergies? or is the eczema returning on its own and feeding him sweet potatoes was just a coincidence? sigh! i was wishing for a longer rest fr steroids but i guess it was not to be...
 
Hi everybody,

Sorry I haven't been active these days. Since my last post, I have fallen pregnant, re-located to Singapore, flew home to Australia to give birth, settled my daughter (yes the allergic one) to preschool, and full-time breastfeeding the new baby, a sweet-natured girl who is .......big big sigh....free from allergies (at least not to my breastmilk).

Want to answer your questions, jacoby. i don't use specific shampoo; just sth for hair and body. I have used safely: QV wash, Mustela wash and Huggies wash.

My daughter reacts to sweet potato. don't think it is allergy per se cos onyl her mouth itches but was told eczema skin may jsut be more sensitive to saps eg from mango, yam etc. She is definitely allergic to potato though.

Emma, I am so glad your son is getting better. totally agree each case is unique and for some it is food-related and others, causes are less clear. And yes, it is hereditary (I am a geneticist btw). My husband has many allergies and he went for skin prick test and confirmed that he has EXACT same allergies as our daughter, ie eggs, potato, pork to name a few.

for me, I just KNEW that W's allergies were food-related. Call it mother instinct.

Now that W is older, I do see a change in rash development which I would like to share hopefully might be useful to you. When W was a baby, her rashes developed much like how all of you described - random spots on trunk and limbs, upper lip redness from drool esp bad during teething, random day attacks which do not seem to tie with specific food intake, and rashes returned once steriod usage stops. From about 1.5 yrs on, rash attacks were less frequent and longer steroid-rest periods, but attacks still random. Steriod use greatly reduced, food intake didn't change much. About 2 yrs, pattern changed. No more rashes UNLESS she takes a particular food. When they do appear, they appear within minutes (seconds to 10mins) after food intake and they almost scarily popped out like popcorns on her skin. Her face first then move downwards to her extremities.

My experience is that the rashes become more predictable and also controllable. If I give her Zrytec (fast-acting) within mins, I can arrest rash from moving downwards to her body. generally rashes stop at neck level. It is totally weird but totally true!

Actually, what do you mums think abt giving your child anti-histamine instead of steroids? On reflection, I feel if I were to turn back the clock, I would have preferred giving her Zrytec than dousing her with steroid (yes I did use the strongest Elocon for the longest time!) - the lesser of two evils?

I also want to say to you all not to despair. I can't remember how old your children are (except for Emma's) but please believe me when I say things DO get better as your child grows and his/her immune system builds up. For me, I can safely say the "worst" period is over for me and for W. Now that she is 3, she's able to TELL me when her mouth feels funny and itchy (she says it tingles) and when her tummy aches (I never know this!).

Her allegies get better each passing birthday. Had skin prick test last mth and was cleared of nuts and fish. I didn't believe so doc let her eat peanut butter with adrenalin tank next to us.

I hope things get better for you all soon. if i can of any help pls let me know.
 
Jocaby, I forgot to ask is your son affected by his rashes? ie is he disturbed / pained by the rashes? For my daughter she used to develop blistery spots on her tummy when she had cheese of Kraft brand and eventhough they looked painful to ME, she said they are nothing - not itchy or painful. Again on reflection, had I been too quick to put steroid on her during the baby days?
 
My daughter has rashes as well, she keep scratching for all night long. My friend in Australia recommended a Cherub Rubs soothing and this product stops her from scratching. It is an organic product, so i think it helps. you may want to try it.
 
hi jacoby, my son seems to react to sweet potato too!! I just tried papaya and it almost gave him instant rashes.. at my wits end.. using steriods almost everyday and it only manages to keep it slightly under control... am using oilatum to bathe and DML lotion as a moisturizer.. anyone has any other ideas or advice?
 
sorry for the long silence but it's so gooood to hear from all of you! mummybee, congratulations on your new baby. and what a relief and blessing that he/she doesnt have eczema!

i just want to say that everything you said is true! things do get better when they turn 1. my son's eczema improved dramatically when he turned 1. his rashes diminished in coverage though it was still coming and going for no reason. we were still using steroids (betamethasone) frequently. but what truly made a big difference was NEOCATE. we were able to get hold of some cans fr abroad (it is not avail in my country) and tried it. the rashes simply retreated in 2 days. it was truly remarkable. he's been on neocate for about 3 months now. he still has rashes but they're small patches, so much fewer in coverage and controlleable by low strength steroids. he sleeps well at night and takes scheduled naptimes now. his mood has improved so much. i keep hitting my head for not trying neocate earlier. i cannot believe that the doctors here were discouraging me from giving my son neocate (he was taking alfare, an extensively hydrolyzed formula) when it was the only one that made such a huge difference in his eczema. i must say, though, that i'm still a bit baffled by whether he reacts to the food we're giving. i cannot seem to categorically pinpoint whether he is intolerant (as opposed to allergic) to a certain food. and i take comfort in your observations, mummybee, that by the time he is 2, the rashes will develop in a more predictable manner. sadly his diet is limited to broccoli, zuchini, bananas, cooked pears, and rice (all organic and homemade).

it's still along way for my son and me and i'm still picking up lessons a long the way. the lesson i've learned is to discover the child's baseline and the only way to do it is to eliminate possible triggers whether food or environmental related. i think i almost lost my mind last year trying to find the baseline. everyone told me i was crazy trying to find it but through neocate, i think we have established it. from there, i was able to see if the new foods i was introducing was causing a reaction. the hard part is having a delayed reaction. mummybee, any advice on this? would appreciate hearing it.
 
p.s. my sister-in-law who is based in washington, usa has 3 eczema/very allergic children. her children takes zrytec daily (whether there is a reaction or not) as a maintenance drug to prevent development of brochial asthma according to her dr. for allergic reactions (hives, edema), she gives them benadryl and elocon for bad flare-ups. for rough, bumpy skin, she applied acid mantle compounded with 1% hydrocortisone. she uses aquaphor as the emollient. i'm trying the same regime. my dr prescribed zadec (asmafen) for bad flare-ups. i try not to give this due to the side effects. has anyone heard about this drug?
 
i want to share my experience in using homeopathy on my two kids. I have two kids, one aged 5.5 & other aged 3. The elder one has eczema almost since birth & the younger just have it when he was 2.5 years old.

I started to use homeopathy for my younger one two months ago. Homeopathy is very new to me, though i love the concept very much. The eczema started on the foot and arm areas first and then spreaded to the face & the new body. The moment he had the eczema, the nose was very itchy and mucuse (very watery) was also coming out. I visited both the GP and Chinese practitioner. The former seemed not very effective because after finishing the whole course of medicine, the problem was still there though the symptoms were a little bit relieved. I then turned to the herbal medicine, however, my son could never take a drop of it. I heard the concept of homeopathy from my brother who lived in Germany & decided to have a try on this.

What my son was taking were sulphur & symbioflor 1, the reaction was that he poo more, sleep better & the nose problem was relieved, appetite getting better after taking two days of remedies. In the first two weeks after taking the remedies, her skin was peeling off, however, her nose was getting better & better, appetite still good, sleep better. After these two weeks, his skin has been back to normal, just have some problem with the fold of the arms & feets.

With this encouraging result, I tried this on my daugher who had taken herbal medicines for four months. Of course, before this, she was taking western medicines on and off. To me, she was really good taking the herbals, however, it's really not easy for a little girl to take herbals for a long time.

She has been using homeo remedies for more that a month. Honestly, the result so far is not very satisfactory. She got flare-up especially on the face, fold of arms & feets. It's very painful for me to see her suffering but I really hope that homeopathy can help. The positive side is that she can poo better & the nose problem has a little bit relieved. What she is taking now is sulphur, seal oil, symbioflor & Udo 3.6.9 Oil.

Hopefully, these flare-ups can be gone very fast. I hope to hear some more successful cases which encourge me to continue homepathy on my elder daughter.
 
Hi Jacoby, so lovely to hear from you and most of all, soooo happy for both your son and yourself that things are getting better! I certainly know how you feel.

My daughter's eczema cleared dramatically as well once we switched her to Pepti Junior. Your son must have been the 1% group which cannot even tolerate extensively hydrolysed formula! thankfully he can still take neocate. And well done to you that he does like drinking it. Neocate and Pepti are known to be very unpalatable. I had such horrible memories of conditioning my daughter to it.

Perhaps best to steer clear of dairy - milk and milk-derived products - for the moment as he seems quite allergic to milk? My daughter outgrows her milk allergy sometime before her 2nd birthday. So hang in there. I cried when she had her small piece of cheese and promptly declared it the most delicious food in the world. She also reacted more to Kraft brand of cheeses.

For delayed reactions, these, I find, too to diminish as my daughter gets older. But I remain cautious even now. For her, delayed reactions can take two forms: (1) rashes only appear 2-3 days later as is true for cauliflower; or (2) rashes appear immediately and continue to develop over course of 3 days as is true for eggs (I call this "my worst nightmare reaction").

Knowing this, I would only test ONE new food in a given week, in increasing dosage. As an example, Day 1: rub minute amt of food on lips; if no bad reaction, let her consume 1cm size. Day 2: same food but 1.5cm size. Day 3: same food but 2cm size. No new foods / no visit to new places over these 3 test days plus next 3 days.

If absolutely no rxn - incorporate into regular diet.
If minor or un-bothersome rxn - incorporate only small amt once a week/fortnight

I will not be too overconcerned abt delayed rxns. Almost certainly these rxns, when they come, are not severe and don't seem to affect my daughter's mood. The worse delayed reaction we got is one bout of vomiting and one day of diarrhoea a day after eating pork and drinking marigold milk.

With homeopathy, I haven't re-visited this path since our bad experience when my daughter was one year old. I will let others share their positive experiences.
 
mummybee, so wonderful to have your quick reply and as always, your invaluable advice/inputs. as i always tell my husband, most of the information that have proven useful and beneficial to me came from this forum. have been contemplating on re-challenging my son's reaction to meat. he broke out in hives when we gave him lamb when he was about 1 and 3 mos old. i was thinking turkey or beef? and do i have to try organic turkey/beef? i shall use your "plan" of introducing new foods and will keep you posted on the results. i hope we will be as "lucky" as you are in the relative speed with which your daughter outgrew her food allergies/intolerances.

i did consider bringing my son to a chinese herbalist but balked at the idea. i was just too terrified at the thought of applying/feeding my son herbs that i was totally unfamiliar with. i thought it just might do more harm than good. homeopathy was something i never considered. although i heard that there are positive results on probiotics for eczema children? i have yet to find a totally dairy-free probiotics brand though. till then, we will have to cautiously find more foods to incude in my son's limited repertoire.

mummybee: did you bring an epi-pen with you when you travelled with your daughter and what age was she when you started travelling with her? and if you can think of any ideas/advice on how to introduce new foods for our allergic/intolerant children, would very much appreciate it!
 
Yes, Jacoby, during the time when W was allergic to nuts (outgrew when turned 3), we dare not go anywhere without epi-pen. Thank God we never use it.

To be honest, we dare not go for holidays until she was 2.5 where we had to go to Manila to attend my brother-in-law's wedding. What a nightmare. Cos she is not allowed to take outside food, we had to scout for a clean serviced apt and bring own steamer and cooker. Even so she had three major episodes of eye gland swelling and face turning tomato coloured and until this day we don't know what caused the reactions.

Unusual your son's rxn to lamb. It is the least allergic foods known. I would totally recommend you re-try. I used to buy lamb strips from Citysuper, the ones air-flown fresh never frozen they are not cheap but fantastic for the little ones!

I did use to buy everything organic from Citysuper and 360 but when W turned 2 and rxns become lesser, I forgo organic but still ensure I don't get anything from China.

I also recommend you google for food lists that tell you what are the least and most allergenic foods. I find it extremely useful. eg I have never given W strawberry and orange families cos they are known to commonly cause severe rxns.

For meats, this is the order I go with success: chicken, turkey, lamb. I find turkey only in Citysuper. They are not tasty though, quite chewy. I tried pork next but she had diarrhoea. Plan to re-try 6 mths later. last was beef. she was allergic to it at 1.5 yrs old (mouth swollen) but at 2.5 years old, ok. She loves beef now. Some old chinese ladies in a restaurant told me not to give beef and duck too early - dunno why - but I listened.

For fish, a mummy in this forum told me to try sole fish - again Citysuper has it but not all the time - and I did with great success. All other fish W was allergic to until 3.

Allergist also said to give TINNED tuna when W turned 1.5 yrs old to compensate for calcium that she wasn't taking from dairy. There is no one known allergic to tinned tuna so I would say go for it. But do read ingredient list cos some tinned tuna has soy or broth/msg added.

I have forgotten to mention there is a great dairy-free, nut-free margarine spread called Nuttlelex. I am not sure who stocks it now in HK but it tastes like butter and works in making cakes/biscuits.

BTW, waht oil, if any, are you using? W used to mildly react to olive oil (esp the good cold-pressed ones) we used sunflower / safflower oil - also Citysuper - with success. It took us ages to figure out re olive oil rxn!!

oops, baby is crying. gotto run..
 
thank you, thank you mummybee. your list is quite comprehensive. i will take your them under very serious consideration. i was going to try a teeny weeny beef soup in a week or two but maybe i should re-challenge lamb or maybe organic turkey. will report back on results. wish me luck!
 
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