talkhealth Blog

Hi everyone

Its blogging time again to which I must admit to putting aside, as I get on with all the other things that go with looking after the flare ups of eczema, running a home, business, writing an essay and catching up with all the blogs, tweets etc.  phew!!  I need a lie down already.

So the last two weeks have seen me trying very hard to complete my latest assignment for my degree, which ends this year (what will I do with the extra time hmmm) but as Super Gran did an OU degree which took six years, I guess I am getting off lightly.  I then help tackle the homework with my son, which is sometimes a bit of a doddle and at others taxes my brain as well as his, so am keeping rather busy just with the education side of life.

The Eczema at the moment is under control but as the weather is fairly cold it does seem to be a better time of the year for us.  Which brings me to something I have been interested in for a long time and that is research and statistics worldwide on the prevelance of eczema.

I have mentioned before that this type of information is not easy to find and I don’t know if it is because research is sporadic, some of it is ten years old, or that it is only available through medical journals which are simply not available to the general public.  Nevertheless I did come up with two pieces of information which are not too out of date, one was from the United States where a cross section of 50 states were examined and the findings were that 9 to 18% of those under 17 suffer, with those being more susceptible living on the East Coast, in a city and having higher educational standards.

Now this brings me to ask are there environmental factors at work here, such as less clean air due to traffic or factory pollution but if this is true what about countries that have similar enviornments do they get the same results and if this is the case, what can be done to help those that suffer the effects.

What perhaps could be correlated is that stress is often a trigger and if as in the US study it is shown that those who attain high educational standards have a higher prevelance to Eczema, this could well be true, as the harder you study the worse the stress factor becomes.  But how do you realise that a small child is stressed and combat that?

The other study I looked at was from the Journal of Allergy Clinical Immunology , which I think is a very interesting but in depth article which is worth looking at.  This looked at global variations with an analysis of data from two age groups 6/7 years and 13/14 years but I could not find anything for the younger age group.

The variations between countries is interesting but time consuming to explore (I warn you now) but briefly showed a low prevalance in India and a much higher one in Africa.

I would be interested to hear from anyone who can add their own personal experience of this.

I know that Mei of eczemablues and twitter fame is working hard in Singapore to raise awareness and has had success with highlighting the need for an Eczema Financial Assistance Scheme in order to subsidise low income patients for those seeking help with treatment.  This is where we in the UK, are so lucky because everyone has access to the NHS for treatment.  I am sure like so many of you if I could cost up the huge amount of creams, steriod treatments, wraps etc etc that I have had to use in the last nine years, the cost would be staggering.

So good luck to Mei for the work she does in raising awareness.  I must also say that I have looked at her cartoons and had a chuckle, especially the one where Mom is creeping past the sleeping child to get to her own bed.  How many times have we all done that!  My son slept so badly both day and night with the constant scratching I often found myself in that position.  I can laugh now, but at the time, with stress and lack of sleep it was an awesome combination.

I have also, amongst other things been looking at statistics I have gathered to try and achieve the right ratio of garments that I need to keep in stock for the business.  This might seem like an easy task but the findings are not so easy to understand.

The sleepsuits, Kittten Mittens (as they are so comfy) are much more in demand for boys at 9 months and yet lag behind girls at 2 to 3 years old, and then overtake girls again at 3 to 4 years.  anyone got an explanation for this??

The tops, Puppy Play Day (enclosing the hands with no chance of escape) have a huge impact on boys of all ages except 4 to 5 where girls rule the day.

Again I would be interested to hear what you have to say about the differences I have found, if you have the time.

Lastly, due to popular demand (i.e. your e-mails) we thought we should let you know that we have listened to you and re-stocked with plain pink sleepsuits for ages 2 up to 6 years.  So thank you everyone for your support we are now back to business as usual.

Check us out on www.snugglepaws.com

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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.