Emma, if you check my past posts here and in other expat forum, you will find I had the same concerns as you. my daughter's rashes come back the day after i stopped steriod, and what more, her rashes were worse than ever as they attacked the exact same parts of her skin. My PD has to BEG me to use steriod on her for an entire hr cos I was that stubborn. I relented only and only when he said see, how your daughter is scratching herself so badly and losing her temper? she shd be spending that time playing and enjoying life, not scratching and feeling upset. yes, i was indeed compromising her life had i not use steriod on her. she couldn;t sleep every single night cos she scratched her neck and i couldn't sleep cos i had to scratch for her when she was too tired..... it was painful, painful, painful for me. that is why we ahve delayed having abby no 2 despite that we love children cos we are so so so scared.....
we are in a different league here, Emma. Our kids have defective genes that make them susceptible to allergies. Our kids are not like others whose parents are fine - these kidss eczema is far far far minor to my daughter's least serious flareup. theirs? maybe due to polllution, water, environment. Ours? haha, food, dust, mites, animal fur, list goes on. and when my daughter's flareup starts, it can go to bleeding stage if she scratched too much.
I dare guess your son's condition is a vicious cycle. hubby and i used to joke our life and our moods is ruled in a 5-day cycle. Why? my duaghter will get a flare-up, i put steriod for 3 days, her skin was BEAUTIFUL during third and fourth day - we are happy days. then fifth day, rashes were back, worse than ever, sad......doctor said use longer until skin is stabilised so i use for 2 weeks, see beautiful skin, then rashes back again. i swore off steriod, then i use it again when her skin was so bad, then get guilty and frustrated.
this is a battle you have to face Emma for the first year of your son's life. After first year, i promise it will get better. As an example, my daughter uses 1% hydrocortisone from 6 wks to 6 months old. her skin became immune so i have to go one grade higher to flunicolone from 6 - 9 mths then skin immune again so move to highest strength Elomet (wonder drug we call it-rid of eczema in half day) 9mths-1 year old. THEN MAGICALLY, after skin prick test and diet restriction, we stopped steriod on the 12the Feb 2007. at first stop 2 weeks, then mild rash so apply sparingly, then stop 4 weeks, then rash is milder etc. I have NOT use steriod for past 10 months. yes, that was the date we celebrated.
since your son's eczema keeps coming back, it is logical to assume that you are keep exposing him to the thing(s) he is allergic to. so no chnace for his skin to recover. once recover, you expose him to allergen, his skin gets sick again. and why do you think your son's excema broken skin will recover on its own with mositurisers?
Put simply, to stop his flareups, you need to stop giving/exposing him to the allergens he is reacting to. yes steriod will make his skin better but this is just cosmetic recovery. if and i am saying if your son has food allergies, his flareups will come back once you stop steriod. it is from the inside that you have to tackle. Why don't you do the skin prick test eventhough the test is not accurate at this stage if you have money to spare. why? the test might tell you even one item that your son is allergic to, maybe THE ONE he is highly allergic to, and then you stop eating this food or don't introduce it to him. Dr. Adrian Wu uses more advanced testing material for skin prick test, my daughter didn;'t even flinch.