I have had a lot of empathy with my son and his eczema this week due to the insect that has had a few bites out of my leg.
I’ve woken up three days in a row with a new itchy insect bite, all on the one leg. The last one is the itchiest and has come up in a big bump. The antihistamine cream is doing its job, but I can tell when I need a top up as I find excuses to itch around the bite – ‘I’m not scratching, I’m just looking/rubbing/other excuse’.
Like my son, I have found myself idly scratching my leg before I remember I’m not supposed to. I have had husband and my sister telling me not to scratch and I have found a few surfaces that I can lean against to get some light relief.
Yesterday, MIB was sat on my lap and his sandal was scuffing the top bite. My immediate feeling was ‘ooh, good…scratchy!’. Then I pictured MIB sitting at the breakfast table, rubbing his itchy wrists on the table edge. How hypocritical of me!!
Wearing shorts displays the bites splendidly. I am not too concerned about this, but I am vain enough to wish my leg didn’t look so tortured. However, since they are bites, I don’t feel embarrassed or too conscious of them being on show. I am grateful though that MIB doesn’t mind that his eczema is visible to others – yet.
For all these reasons, I am embracing my bites. They are a good reminder of how MIB feels every day of his life and it has helped me think a bit more about how ‘constant’ it must be for him. How lucky I am not to have any eczema right now in this hot weather because, quite frankly, I am a wimp dealing with an itch compared to him.
MyItchyBoy
My son has atopic eczema and he reacts badly to dairy, soya and we are slowly working towards him eating eggs again. He's had a mild anaphylactic reaction to peanuts and has regular flare-ups to random things that we rarely manage to pinpoint. I started the blog to share my experiences and frustrations of having an itchy boy.
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