Jumping out of my skin with eczema

[SpaceBee93]

Hello,

My name is Bee and I'm in my early twenties. I've suffered from eczema all my life, and just recently have had one of the the worst flare ups in my life, resulting in a hospital visit and testing. My scalp itches, behind my ears, even my eyebrows, and I have eczema rings around my eyes, cheeks, and blisters on my hands. My elbows, legs, and back are also covered in sores. I moisturize religiously every day, drink cranberry juice and water, and have tried eating my veggies. I'm allergic to most fruits except cantaloupe and bananas. Is there anyone who can help me with tips for food or creams? I'm desperate and losing sleep because I can't stop the itching. I want to unzip my skin and find someone else's to crawl into, as gross as that may sound. The only thing that seems to help is Aquaphor as my skin stopped reacting to Baby Eczema which had always been my go-to. My dermatologist was never that great, and I hate using steroid creams because my skin builds up a resistance to them so quickly. I had no idea there were forums and if anyone has tips I would be so grateful.

[Marcie Mom]

So sorry to hear of the itch and the eczema that's affecting so many areas. Is there any other trigger apart from food? For adults, it may be dust mites or pollen that's affecting more than food-related.
Patch testing helps to figure out the irritant ingredients in skincare products... I would go with one that restores the skin barrier (ceramide/lipid), not also many ingredients and also as little of common irritants as possible.

I tried to 'figure out' the ingredients in this post http://eczemablues.com/2015/09/selectio ... gredients/ - see if it helps

Take care,
Mei

[SpaceBee93]

MarcieMom

I am in the process of figuring out where to go for testing. Where I'm from, there aren't many people in the dermatology field and I live in a rural community of about one thousand residents. I've been told sunlight can be a factor as I have very sensitive and light skin, and also stress. Currently though, I can say stress levels are at a very low level as I'm happy at work and have taken time off school so I'm not sure what else can be triggering this. I really appreciate the link, I'm trying to learn a lot about monitoring ingredients in both food and medicines. My mother had many similar skin issues as me but she's not around anymore for me to ask questions and nobody else in my family has these problems-they're all olive skinned! Thank you so much for responding, I'm glad I found this forum so I can explore more and learn! I'm thinking too, thanks to you, that with all the leaves dropping for autumn and the abundance of hay bales that these might be irritating my skin.

[Marcie Mom]

Hope you find somewhere to go for allergy testing soon!

It's not so easy to figure out and because the eczema comes and goes, something like dust mite which is there all the time may be the irritant but we can't 'observe' it but instead focuses on 'observable' stuff like food. Dust mite, pollen, pet dander, cockroach, mold, (air borne allergens) are quite common and end of the year, we spend much more time indoors which lead to more contact with these allergens in the air.

take care!