Weeping Excema

Kim we've seen a specialist too which was great - because even though I have an awesome GP who is really onto it she could only order a few blood tests, whereas the specialist ordered a whole heap of them. (they cost lots so the GP didn't feel she could order too many without getting told off lol). If you have health insurance that covers your bub that should cover the specialist - our Southern Cross policy does

This may be blunt, I don't know !

If your child has ezcema. They ARE having a reaction to SOMETHING.

What that something is, is up to you to figure out. Drs aren't that great on food intolerances.

Firstly cut out dairy. Maybe then cut out Soy & wheat. Introduce back in those things and see if there is a reaction.

If this makes no difference you then have something to go to your Dr with.

You can make your childs life easier than what you had. You have the knowledge that was lacking 15-20 year ago.

It is not normal for your child to have eczema, it is not easy to work out what is wrong. I'm still trying to figure it out myself.

DS excema is not improving any at all and its starting to bother him, he's constantly scratching at his head and back and anywhere else he can reach.

I have decided to cut wheat out of diet and see what (if any) difference that makes and will then see my doc. Last time I saw him about it he gave me the "normal baby excema" line too, I tend to find with my Doctor that if I do all the research first and go in telling him what I think he usually agrees.

Now to find dairy and wheat free foods

Milliemoo - I don't think one week would probably be enough, I know it took 3 weeks for the dairy/egg to get out of my system with Nat. By 6 weeks, you could have gone to a specialist and got the testing done, and know for sure whether it is gluten or not. I hope that doesn't sound too mean! It really is worth pushing your GP a bit further to get testing done, or refer you.....otherwise you could be doing a huge diet change for no reason.....and then if it's not dairy or gluten, it could be egg, soy etc etc.

Once again, JM2C and hope I don't sound too harsh, but trying to cut things out without really knowing if it will make a difference might only make life harder for you all! Big hugs though, it's such a drama to go through regardless.

When we cut wheat out with C, I noticed within a day or two that his rash wasn't increasing. It took around a week to start healing. 3 weeks later he's still not right but man is his skin far far better.

The problem with tests, is that they might show nothing. C has skin pricks and nothing showed up yet by removing the main allergens he improved. This means it's either non Ig-E allergy or Food intolerances.

fair call about the testing I guess we were lucky in that it was relatively 'simple' that her allergies were related to dairy and egg, and within 3 weeks of me cutting those out, the eczema and everything else had gone.

The only reason I was pushing the testing so much is that we spent months with no answers (and the gp fobbing us off with creams etc), and had I gone to the specialist and got testing done earlier, for Nat that would have been an 'easy' answer so much sooner.... but I do know that the answers aren't always that easy.

Ooh also, a great tip I got was to take photos of the eczema and any other reactions so that you can show the doctor/specialist. (especially if it's cleared a bit by the time you get to the specialist!)

OK, I woke the boy this morning and I nearly burst into tears his skin was so bad I just don't understand it. Yesterday it was really clearing up and I was convinced that this morning it would look great I've got a new theory I'm testing today, which seems completely mad to me, but also makes sense I'm wondering if it's the organic muslins that I use ? I say this because he's gotten a lot worse since sleeping in his cot, which is when I started to put a muslin under his head to sleep. So he has contact with the muslin for min 16hrs per day if we're at home. On top of that, I use the muslins as a wee cushion when he's feeding, so again more direct contact. Yesterday, we we're out all morning, so very little contact with the muslin, and thinking about it, his skin does always seem a lot better on days when we've been out and about in the pram ie: not sleeping on the muslin.

So I'm trialling not using the muslins to see if that helps. If it doesn't, I'm going straight back to the docs and demanding some allergy tests

You poor thing (and poor wee boy too!) Could it be the type of washing powder etc used on the muslins? The face tends to be more sensitive to these things, so may be reacting when the rest of his body doesn't (assuming clothes etc washed the same way).