Hi everyone I’m a bit late doing my blog this week as have been a bit megga busy, you know the sort of week – arranging firework outings, catching up with homework, football matches, parents evening and oh yes grandma has decided to volunteer her services to VRH as a volunteer reading helper in school, so has been off on a jolly to do her training, so hasn’t had time to make the apple crumble this week!
Anyway thought it might be of interest to you to look at some of the triggers that have caused our eczema flare ups.
When we first had the diagnosis we had some allergy testing done and like many of you, the main causes of the aggravations were eggs, dairy, pet hairs and dust mites. Now these we can deal with!
The carpets throughout the house, which had been there with the previous owner since the year dot and who had themselves had children, pets and goodness knows what else had to go. So these were hastily pulled up from everywhere and disposed of, leaving us with bare boards throughout. Did it make a dfference to the eczema – NO. Maybe we should have asked the rest of the family to change their flooring but you can’t can you. All we could do was to try to stop too much crawling around when visiting, which with an enquiring and inquisitive baby is difficult to do.
The cat was the next thing, although it was a bit of a loner so not that often at home, was re-located to a friends house who didn’t have this sort of problem, so therefore it was still part of the family in a way. Grandma would have looked after it but that wouldn’t have helped much as we visited often.
Eggs and dairy were more easily dealt with, they just had to be cut out. Cows milk was replaced by Goats milk which was then replaced by Soya, which as I said last week you have to source, as they are not always available locally if you live in a village and therefore needed to be stocked up.
However, changing all these things really didn’t make a noticeable difference.
What we did find out as I know you will understand, was that there were other triggers. Firstly a stressful, crying, scratching baby equals stressful parents which then equals more rashes, itches, scratches and infections. So from my experience stress is a relative factor, or anyway it is in our case.
Many times there was no clear indication as to what caused a flare up, I went to a beautician friend for a leg wax and wow the skin of my child erupted into a wonderful purple shade. He was nowhere near the wax, the house had no pets, and my friend was very laid back although her own child had had eczema, but she had never experienced this. So what caused that episode, as an hour later the skin was ok and back to normal colour – who knows!
We have found an allergy to nuts, when he ate a couple of peanuts not so long ago (he is now nine) so nuts are now totally taboo, if they weren’t before.
When cooking with Super Gran making some buns, which all the children love to do and she doesn’t mind the mess, in fact she loves it. Whilst sifting flour – some in the bowl, a lot on the floor and some on the hands. Again a huge eruption on the hands and the same thing happened when the eggs were cracked and put in the mixer on both occasions there was an instant flare up. So what can you do, its horrible when you deprive a child of doing things that all kids love to do, if you were to put gloves on them I bet that would have a reaction too.
We have had two bad ones. Firstly as we walked across the local sports ground an immediate flare up on the feet, ankles and legs which we then discovered was due to an insecticide which had been put down. We won’t be doing that one again.
Secondly after a pretty cold day the weather changed and was really quite hot, so a visit to the local coast was the treat for the day. Everything was fine, weather brilliant, stress free and freedom for all when suddenly the itching started and it was phenomenal, he nearly tore himself to pieces and could not be calmed by anything he was hysterical with the agony of it. We ran back to the car, tipped cold water onto a cloth and cooled him down as best we could with what we had available and drove like mad to a relatives house. But before we got there, he fell asleep almost immediately and woke up when we reached home (no stopping at the relatives) as if nothing had happened. This was frightening and we didn’t have a clue what triggered it off.
When these occasions happen he says he feels as though his skin is on fire and we have found that cooling it as fast as we can certainly does help, although it doesn’t stop it.
So anyone who reads this and can empathise with us, I really would like to know what triggers you have found and what your strategy is for coping, this way we can impart all our information to others and maybe avoid some of the worst pitfalls.
To visit us click www.snugglepaws.com site and see how we have tried to do our best to help ourselves with our situation or visit us on www.twitter as we try to tweet but I’m afraid we are not very good at it yet, although we do try there is room for a lot of improvement.
Nikki and Chris
Our story started off as the ultimate dream, the joy of a baby boy turning our word upside down, bringing new meaning to each new day. Then, after a routine immunisation, Louis became very distressed and his inflamed skin reacted in a red, itchy rash. From that moment on his skin was never the same. We were told that it was a condition called eczema. With no experience of this skin disorder, and no family history, we asked ourselves "why our baby boy?" As time went on, Louis's itchy skin drove him mad, my husband and I tried to find an eczema relief solution but the stress on us all was exasperating. Whilst it was a difficult time, the result of our search for eczema relief for our child is Snugglepaws. I have developed fun but functional, 100% cotton clothing that has helped to ease the effects of Louis's itchy skin. We hope that our eczema relief solution will bring the same comfort to your child's dry or itchy skin. Whether your child is sleeping, playing or travelling around, Snugglepaws have the perfect clothing to keep them safe and help their skin to heal.
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