hello im a newbie..xxx

[severett1978]

hi there, my name is sarah and i am looking for as much info on eczema as i can possibly get my hands on. i apologise if this gets quite long winded but im not the best when it comes to explaining things. I have an 11 year old little girl who supposedly has eczema. her history in my eyes is rather strange tho which is why i would appreciate some advice. my little girl was diagnosed with atopic aczema when she was 4 months old...it was always a struggle but we were told that there was a good chance she would grow out of it when she turned 7. we waited and waited and so far we are still waiting! in fact her skin condition has worsened over the years? we spent 10 years living in 1 place and attending the same gp who always made me feel like there was nothing else i could do apart from apply emmolients and steroid creams. as far as i was concerned this was never good enough but as i was not the proffesional involved i took her advice and struggled on thinking that was just the way it had to be. me and my family then moved last year to another part of the town and also moved surgeries and the help i get now is unbelievable compared to what i was getting. the only thing now is that they have confused me! not that it takes a lot...lol. the specialist skin nurse told me last year that my daughter actually had ichthyosis of the hands and feet and refered me to a dermatologist...i have researched ichthyosis and found some of the sympoms to be true but when we went to see the dermatologist they told me that she did not have ichthyosis and that she has chronic eczema all over. the help i need from you guys is to find out if my daughters symptoms are that of eczema as i have never seen another child like mine! she has hands that are very dry, constantly cracked and look like they belong to an old lady, she constantly sheds skin through itching and suchlike to the point where i have to hoover her bedroom and change her bedsheets on a daily basis otherwise you can see the build up of skin on the floor! when she takes her clothes off to get changed from school or get dressed for bed there is always a lining of skin on the inside of her clothing!

As a mother i feel very uninformed and feel like im going bloomin crazy to be honest! im trying to keep up her self confidence and that is sooo hard at the moment as she starts high school in september and at her age appearance is everything! it makes me feel soo sad. what else can i do for her? i just cry for her sometimes cos i dont know what to do to help her.

any info would be great! thanks guys..xxx

[AnnaB]

Hi and welcome I hope you find lots of support and advice here. I would trust your dermatologist and follow their treatment plan? Were they helpful did they give you some spirit to fight the eczema. There are so so many options that the dermatologist can prescribe that the GP cannot so give them a chance and keep going back there is no fast answer. I haven't changed GP but I have changed dermatologist from one hospitl/county to another!!! You have to feel supported and understand to get your head anywhere around eczema. I cry for my kids too. Anna

[klynn]

I am 23 years old and new to eczema. The biggest help to me is to pay attention to when and what makes my eczema flare up. I need to take quick slightly warm showers (though I miss my hot showers) and lotion up right after. What has me puzzled is the shedding skin. I saw a story on a girl that shed skin everyday...I believe it was in Europe. I believe the disorder was harlequin ichthyosis. I am not saying this is what your child has, but shedding that much skin in a day is a lot. Normally people shed skin every 25 to 45 days. I would look for a specialist.

http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/mi ... equin.html
http://www.10news.com/health/3919722/detail.html

[itchyhippy]

hi there
i'm a long term sufferer of eczema and have a friend with itchthyosis - i hope i can help.
eczema and itchthyosis are very different conditions - though they may look similar to the untrained eye. My understanding of Itchthyosis is that it is a condition in which the skin cells grow faster than normal and as a result, a sufferer has to scrub and ex-foliate a lot to get rid of the dead, dry skin cells.
Eczema is a dry skin condition and is characterised by itchyness, soreness and red patches - a sufferer will often feel uncomfortable and it can be very painful. It often fluctuates between good and bad and some days are better than others.
The difference between me and my friend is that although his skin takes a lot of maintenance and can often seem unsightly, his doesn't itch or hurt or cause him any discomfort.
I would agree with other people who have said to trust your dermatologist - they're trained in telling these things apart. obviously I'm not an expert but I can pass on things from my experience.
Unfortunately the dry skin everywhere is a characteristic of both conditions so whichever it is, that will just have to be something that will become a way of life.
One thing that I know does help sufferers of both conditions is light therapy. although you may not want her to use sunbeds at a young age, it may be something to consider as it has proven to work. My skin always gets better in the summer - it loves the sun, there are vitamins you get from the sunlight that help the skin.
Good luck, hope this helps x

[Heidijo]

we have the same shedding skin issue, if something gets left on the stair it is covered in skin after couple of days, and school uniform is black so it looks like a snow cloud when he takes it off and he hates it we have not found way to control it just live with it and use the hoover loads!!!!