The Itch Scratch Cycle

[catjag19]

Thanks Anna, Rich & Helen for your replies.

Rich, I have just taken a look at the book on the internet & it looks very good. After reading the summaries and the blurb I have decided to look for it and buy it so thank you for the recommendation!
Helen, I do exactly the same as what you said and i do find it works but not straight away. It does relieve me from my dry skin and does make me feel better.
I am looking forward now to trying the book and other things to help me too.



Catherine.

[achateau]

I don't know if I'm asking this right, but I started to wonder about my 5 year old's eczema. She has severe eczema but it's been a lot better. I keep her skin moisturized like no body's business and do everything right. I have gotten to the point, after 4 years, of starting to really wonder about the itching. She itches SOOO often. Sometimes I wonder if her skin is actually itchy or if she's just so used to being a scratchy person that she itches. She'll itch when she's frustrated, thinking, bored, etc. Makes me friggin nuts. THoughts?

[donna86]

you are so right!!!I have just found the cause of my eczema and have cut it out of my routine and although my skin is so much calmer i cant stop itching i think i have just got so used to picking and scratching its habit. I try to dose up on anti histamines so im so dozy that I cant be bothered to itch!!!

[itchyhippy]

i find its a little of both. i do itch a lot but sometimes i also scratch because its habit. i have suffered from eczema for about 20 yrs and its now so much part of my life. i do sometimes find i scratch without noticing sometimes so it does become involuntary. try asking your doc about antihistemines - they are supposed to help itching (part of the alergy response). otherwise just keep her nails short and filed, then when she scratches it won't do as much damage.
hope this helps

[neeco98]

I notice this on my son, too. I'm thinking he can't be itchy all the time, can he? I'm wondering if biofeedback or neurofeedback would help. Yout thoughts?

[Spanish39]

Hello everyone.

I'm new to this board - but not new to eczema! I suffered myself as a child but pretty much grew out of it in my teens. I still get mild flare ups and have very dry skin but nothing too bad. My daughter (age 4) had severe eczema as a baby, which improved a lot once we realised she was severely allergic to cows milk (bad enough that I had to come off dairy whilst I was breast feeding!). She still flares up in one armpit and behind one ear, but I have no idea why it's just one side.

Anyway the problem child at the moment is my son (age 2). His eczema is over his whole body and is really quite bad (although not into the wet wrapping level, he needs quite high dose steroids). My problem is that he scratches during the night and wakes up in the morning covered in blood and scratch marks. To be honest he wakes regularly during the night as well and I assume that is because he is itchy. We do all the usual things to manage his skin plus at night I give him a dose of Piriton (an antihistamine). I've just ordered a pyjama top with pull over gloves which I hope will stop him drawing blood but I wonder if anyone can offer any other advice on controlling the itch at night. Are there medicines you've tried? Or anything else I can do? Someone told me I should get a humidifier / air purifier for his room - anyone tried this?

Sorry this is so long but many thanks in anticipation of any help.

Spanish

[Spanish39]

Yes, I think my son scratches out of habit as well. He always seems to scratch at his neck and back of his head as he's falling asleep. I have no idea how to stop him doing it.

[AnnaB]

Hi

I would say if your son is using high level steroids and scratching to the point of bleeding then I would think he would benefit from wet wrapping. The snug fitting suits prevent damage and the wet layer cools the itch. Both my children use them. My son gets on really well with them but my daugter as she is so small gets cold from the dampness in the night but can manage them in the day better.

There are also the Dermasilk suits you could try on prescription.

We have cetirizine prescribed which we use daily all year which we were told works differently to piriton but when bad we can use both together, so if piriton isn't working the there are others to try. Before giving children strong steroids and medication I think all none medicine approaches should be tried. I think you should talk to yourspecialist aboiut wet wraps.

Good luck

[nliedl]

I have just signed up to this and i know for sure that i scratch our of habit sometimes. If i find myself having not scratched for more than a few hours, i think 'why havn't i' and then i start! If i'm bored and want to get away from my desk at work, i go to the loo to pick at my ankles which starts the itch again. However it's not all out of habit, sometimes i definitely feel a massive itch and i scratch for hours during the day and at night.

It's such a part of me that i actually 'miss' not scratching sometimes - as if a part of me has been taken away and i don't know what to do with myself. Now that's messed up!!

[riseandfall]

I find myself in a distressing and embarassing situation. The problem might be beyond the scope of this message board, but any insight I can get may be helpful. The problem actually started with hemmerioids. I was diagnosed with hemrds after a colonoscopy. I had dealt with them on and off for about five years, but they became intolerable and more persistent, so I decided to have them taken care of with infrared coagulation therapy (IRC). During the coarse of the IRC, I had some complications, mainly a fungal infection that took three weeks to clear up with an oral anti-fungal pill and jock itch cream, and then an increase in anal itch. I had an adverse reaction to the Mozaic's ointment the doctor gave me for the itch initially and had sores for several weeks. After the sores cleared up and I went back to the doctor, he said he didn't see any visible reason why I should still be itching down there. He suggested I may have neurodermatitis or some kind of psychogenic condition. He perscribed for me an ointment that has lidocane and hydrocortisone. It helps better than any of the other treatments I have tried (a whole bunch actually: A+D ointment, Desitin, Dermoplast, Mineral Ice, witch hazel, oatmeal bath, baking powder bath, aloe vera lotion, Prep H (regular, max strength cream, cooling gel), heavily diluted capsaisin cream (burned horribly but stopped the itch for several days but caused blisters), ice packs, salt water bath, corn starch powder, talcum powder), but the itch keeps popping up. Then, in the past few days, I've started itching all over the place. It was a few places at first, but then my skin started flaring up all over the place. I don't see any visible reason for the itch, no sores, blisters, scaly patches, ect. I don't have any known allergies, but had an unexplained case of excema when I was about eight years old that came and went.
I'm worried I have some sort of untreatable mystery illness that is psychogenic in orgin and will keep getting worse. The best theory I can think of is the psycholgical trauma of the hemrds caused a nervous reaction that caused the anal itching even after the hemrds mostly cleared up, and then the further trauma of the anal itch caused my nervous system to finally go haywire and now I itch all over because my head is so messed up, my nerves are shot, and I'm worried I'm going to be stuck in a self perpetuating downward spiral of itch/stress/psycho-itch. I also wonder if the hemmeroids may have cleared up without complications if I hadn't been going through a rough time for the past year and a half before I had the treatment, and maybe my psychological state made the healing process go awry. I've been caught in a mess of legal problems, trying to stay sober (former alcohol and marijuana abuser, almost ended up in prison), probation, lost my driver's licence for a year, accidents (sprained ankle, then six months later, needle in foot, then hurt wrist), finacial problems, family member with cancer, trouble at work, and social isolation due to hemroids. I excerize to stay sane, and it usually helps except sometimes sweating makes the anal itch worse, but I wonder if it's enough to work off all the pent up anxiety and anger to keep my emotional problems from manifesting themselves as a skin conditon. I DO NOT want to take any anti-depressant or anti-anxiety meds unless I'm completely broken and that's the absolute only hope because taking those will make me ashamed of myself and I'll get lazy, won't excerize, get fat, and I'll have to come off them eventually and when I do, I'll be angry about having gotten fat and lazy and having to start all over with my excerize routine after all the work I've done was wasted.
Like I said before, this is all probably WAY beyond the scope of this message board, but if anyone has had a similar condition or knows someone who's had something like this, please let me know.