Is Everyone Told Their Child Will Grow Out of Eczema by 2?

[mksuperhoop]

Hi,
My 2yr old has eczema and when we first took him to GP and Dermatologist we were told it would be gone by 2!!
Now he's 2 we are being told it will be gone when he's 4!! What are we going to be told when he's 4??
Is everyone told this?? Is this standard NHS procedure?? Has anyone ever 'grown out of' eczema??

[Sinead1992]

I was always told this when I was younger, I think it is just what doctors do to give us false hope, it may get better as they get older but not many people grow out of it. I have had it all my life. I was also told that I would grow out of my asthma but never did

[itchyhippy]

yep sounds familiar. throughout my childhood i was always told it would go in my teens. i am now 23 and still suffer really badly. I do know of some people that had it as babies and did grow out of it but this is not always the case. From experience, it never truly goes away, i know that even if mine clears up it will always come back when i get stressed.

[AnnaB]

It is the worst thing anyone can say to me and my children. I want to scream when anyone and everyone say they will grow out of it. No one knows and I doubt they will. To have medics say it must be tough. Thinking of the future with or without eczema does not help the turmoil we live in now day and night.

[Sammie]

I think it is a G.P's way of saying, "If it's not in my medical encyclopedia, then I don't have a clue"!
Maybe it's them wishful thinking!?

G.P's have a habit of feeding you bull, whatever your condition.

I just hope you have a sympathetic, doctor that can show you empathy.

My (ex) G.P was a crule and heartless insulting bitch!
The doctor I have now..she is brilliant!

Anyone else had that treatment?

I wish you well
xx

[AnnaB]

We had a bad time with the dermatology specialist at the hospital. So we changed hospitals!!! Brilliant service and support now.

[admin]

I was also told this when I first went to my GP. Unless you have a GP with a special interest in dermatology and in particular eczema, you tend to get this sort of off the cuff, blanket response. Most GP's only have around an hour's training on eczema and this is why you either need a GP with a special interest, or get referred to a Dermatologist. However, some Dermatologists are also very glib and make these sort of sweeping statements.

It is true that many children do 'grow out of' their eczema. But I believe it is very wrong for any healthcare practitioner to give out false hopes. Dealing with eczema is bad enough without unnecessarily raising parents' expectations.

I am sorry you've been led to believe this ... and this is a great topic. Hope you don't mind but I've slightly updated the topic heading to reflect the thread.

Healthy regards
Deborah Mason
Founder

[mksuperhoop]

no problem at all. i did not realise i'd been age specific.
we definately have GP's with little to no knowledge or interest or time to deal with eczema and our dermatologist seems to assume that you know everything.
its only when we read and watch video's on sites like this that we realise just how little we actually do know.
i am a firm believer in self education, but when your being treated by a specialist i expect to get told everything as if i knew nothing!!
we now have a pretty good grip of most things except sleeping!! this is the last area to sort out. we have cotton everything, cool room, and now just need to get him to sleep for longer than a couple of hours at a time.
these little ones need their sleep, as do us big ones!!!!

[AnnaB]

Have you tried wet wraps to help at night. They are a hit with my son, they brought his 1st ever undisturbed nights sleep. They certaily help reduce steroid needs too. Yet they won't suit everyone. My daughter cannot cope sleeping in them so we wrap her by day when needed. We turned down the chance to be in a genetic trial to see if my son had the faulty gene thought to be linked to eczema. But a specialist made a clinical assessment that he had other signs of this gene and in my view we cannot alter our genes so cannot see he can grow out of it.

[Jentle]

Here are some statistics and general facts for you. Remember this is in general and each case is individual:

• Eczema affects 20% of all infants in the United States alone. For every 10 cases of eczema about 8 of them occur before a child turns five.

• Most infant eczema is out grown by the age of two or three, children who still have it will normally find they outgrow it by the time they are teenagers.