Childhood eczema

Posted on Feb 16 in Featured, Featured Article, Latest News, QV Flare Up, QV Intensive, QV Kids, Skin Conditions, Skincareby QV SkincarePrint

Here’s a Practical Parenting article with some advice if you think your child is suffering from eczema.
Always seek medical advice for correct diagnosis & treatment!

–

PARENTS that suspect eczema should have their children appropriately assessed so they know what they should and shouldn’t be avoiding.

When Luke, now 5½, was just 5 weeks old his mother, Susan, noticed patches of red, dry skin on his tiny body.

“I noticed it in the creases of his wrists and knees, and could tell it was distressing to him,” Susan says.
“It kind of went all over his body after that.”

When Luke was about 6 months old, the family started treating his eczema with a low-dose cortisone cream.

Having noticed that Luke’s eczema flared up after he ate certain foods, his parents also had him allergy tested.

“He’s allergic to dairy, nuts, sesame, dust mites and cats,” Susan says. “Avoiding those triggers seemed to help a little bit, but didn’t make it go away. It got to the stage, when he was about 4, where he was waking up every hour. He was bleeding on his sheets, and his quality of life was affected. ”

The family took Luke to hospital, where he was smothered from head to toe in cortisone cream two or three times a day. An emulsifying cream was applied over that, then wet bandages, dry bandages and, finally,
a tracksuit.

“He was in for four or five days. When we took him home he almost looked normal, and he hadn’t looked normal since he was a baby.”
Luke now wears a full-body wrap under his school uniform, says Susan. “We apply cortisone cream up to four times a week, emulsifying cream every day, and he goes to bed in wet wraps.”

At 3½, Luke was also diagnosed with mild asthma, but so far his brother Owen, 21 months old, has shown no signs of any allergies. For Luke, the case of Susan’s cousin gives hope: “He had all these allergies and when he hit adolescence he grew out of them.”

Symptoms
Eczema can have multiple triggers, Dr Wainstein says. “Food may be one, and there are other allergens like pollens, dust, animal hair and other things that are difficult to identify.

“It’s important that parents have their children appropriately assessed so they know what they should and shouldn’t be avoiding, and why.”

Treatment
The main form of treatment involves topical application of cortisone creams and barrier creams.

It’s not advisable to put children on a restricted diet before consulting a specialist or dietitian, says
Dr Wainstein. “When foods are restricted as part of the management of eczema it needs to be done very carefully and under the guidance of a specialist and dietitian if possible, because it’s very unlikely that a restricted diet in the absence of other treatments for eczema, such as steroid skin creams, will be the ultimate solution for the condition. And a restricted diet may lead to nutritional and psychological complications.”

Article source: http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/practical-parenting/baby/health/article/-/7822587/eczema-in-children-symptoms-and-treatment/

Image source: Clare Bloomfield / www.freedigitalphotos.net
www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=862