Eczema - The Constant Itch! - our nightmare

My son Sam suffered with eczema as a baby and we tried everything - and I mean EVERYTHING. We spent a fortune. I did use steroid cream initially but only for a couple of weeks until I realised that it actually thins the skin and is not good for long term use. As soon as I stopped using it - BAM - the eczema came back much worse than before.

We suffered for 20 long months (seemed an eternity) with the eczema. When I say we, not just Sam, that is exactly what I mean. My husband used to spend his nights laid on the couch with Sam laid on his chest, holding Sams arms down while they slept. Well if you can call it sleeping. My husband was exhausted! I used to be constantly on the internet researching eczema causes, searching for cures, - trying to end the nightmare! My eldest son Harry suffered aswell - his Mum and Dad were focused on solving eczema, which of course did not leave a lot of time to spend with Harry.

I can safely say that it was one of the worst time of our lives. This may sound dramatic (not to a parent who has a young child suffering with eczema). The worst thing a parent has to go through is to see their child suffer and not be able to do anything to help them. Sam was always putting his hands up to his neck to scratch - this was the worst area. I think it was made worse because of the lack of air that gets to a babies neck when they can't hold their head up.

Buy at AllPosters.com

When a child gets eczema and their is a family history of allergies they can go on to develop (or may already have) other allergies, such as asthma, dust mites or hay fever. As many as 5% of children with eczema will go on to have food allergies and as many as 40 % of children develop asthma and/or hay fever.

Our son Sam went on to develop asthma and food allergies. I feel a bit cheated to be honest because in all our trips to the hospital with Sams asthma and our visits to the doctor with either the eczema or asthma we were never warned that this could happen. I never even knew that food allergies existed, well I had heard of them but I did not know how serious the consequences could be. We had to find out the hard way. Sam had a bad reaction to sesame that send us rushing to the hospital in panic - he was losing his breath, his face was all puffed up and he was going limp! It was terrifying.

Natural Remedies for eczema are being searched for more frequently due to the fact that the prescribed steroid does not actually rid the eczema. In fact, it can actually make matters worse. If you have eczema and use a steroid cream to try to resolve eczema you will notice that as soon as you stop using the steroid the eczema actually comes back worse than before. This is due to the fact that it does not actually solve the problem but it covers the eczema, sort of pushing it back.

My son Sam suffered with eczema as a baby and we tried everything - and I mean EVERYTHING. We spent a fortune. I did use steroid cream initially but only for a couple of weeks until I realised that it actually thins the skin and is not good for long term use. As soon as I stopped using it - BAM - the eczema came back much worse than before. We suffered for 20 long months (seemed an eternity) with the eczema. When I say we, not just Sam, that is exactly what I mean. My husband used to spend his nights laid on the couch with Sam laid on his chest, holding Sams arms down while they slept. Well if you can call it sleeping. My husband was exhausted! I used to be constantly on the internet searching for a cure. My eldest son Harry suffered aswell - his Mum and Dad were focused on solving eczema, which of course did not leave a lot of time to spend with Harry.

We have been virtually eczema free for a year or so now, but now Sam has got just a couple of eczema patches in the bends on his arms. To be honest, a few people I know who have had or have eczema or dermatitis are suffering more at the moment. You see we have a lot of dust in the air at the moment and dust is a trigger for eczema

We live on the Sunshine Coast, Australia and a couple of weeks ago there was a huge dust storm that came up from the Sydney area. We missed the worst off it (I feel for the people in the middle of it). The dust clouds were here for only a day or two but now 2 weeks on there is still dust in the air. This has been stated on the news, but I know be the dust on things. For example my outdoor patio set that I cleaned 2 days ago is now covered in dust! Even the windowsills indoors are the same the dust has gotten in when we have had the windows open.

Anyone who suffers with eczema or dertmatitis will know that dust is a trigger for eczema. We have just gone back to putting on Sams oil but it is not bothering him too much. No sleepless nights or anything, just every now and again I will see him having a scratch.

We now live close to the beach because we had heard that the sea could help with eczema. It did help Sam.

Sam was only 18 months old when we arrived in Australia and at first the sea frightened him (he had never seen it before). Up until that point, Sam had only been able to have a quick shower at night time, never a bath because the chlorine in the water would react with his eczema. We bought some 5 gallon drums and once a week went and filled them with sea water and took the water home. We used this sea water to bath Sam in. He loved it! We let him sit in the bath for an hour some nights.

The sea water really helped the eczema it seemed to dry it up and calm the itching. When he came out of the sea water bath we would just put on his natural oil to moisturise and we were sure that he would have a good night.

Eczema on the hands occurs in over 10% of women and around 4% of males (probably more in women as we have always got our hands in the sink doing the pots, eh girls?). There are some steps that can be taken to stop eczema on the hands getting even worse, these include:

Try to do the pots with a dishwasher rather than washing by hands

If you have to wash them by hands try to use a long handled brush

If you wear the gloves to clean etc (this is good practice with eczema on the hands) then get the ones lined with cotton or if you cant find them (they can be a bit tricky to locate) wear cotton gloves underneath rubber or vinyl gloves.

Try to avoid your hands getting too hot or cold as temperature change can trigger eczema.

Squidoo is my favourite place on the web. It's easy to make friends and it's just a lovely community of talented folk here willing to help newbies. The modules that you are given to work with make lensmaking easy and fun. So go have fun and Click here to Make Your Lens today