Hi all, I am the mom of a 4 year old son who has suffered terrible for more almost three years with moderate/severe eczema. Most all of his sheets have blood stains on them from thne constant nightime scratching. He has scares mainly on his heels and knees but the eczema seems very nondiscriminationg about its location. He pretty much it from head to toe.
My husband gave him a mo-hawk at the beginning of the summer bc his hair is so thick and he just cannot tolorate the heat/sweating. We have also spend the last two months in the house because of this, we live in texas and the 104 degree heat is so humid that it effects not only his skin but his asthma as well.
Eczema runs in my family, my brother and two of my nieces have had it but it has cleared up with all of them, of coyrse no one has had it like my son.
We have tried all of the RX and the only one that I have stuck with is the topical steroid. Elidel and protopic did NOTHING and I mean NOTHING. Also there are many reports about suspected cancer and liver damage with the drugs. I knw that there are side effects from the steriod but we have yet to see them and right now the benefit outweighs the risk. He baths only once a week because the water hurts him so badly, he screams and says that it burns, needless to say we have not been swimming this summer.
In addition to the steroid we use Aquphor, not the cream but the ointment. He has been tested for allergies and he so far is allergic to cats, dogs, pollin, and grass. They stopped testing him and the Allergist told me it was no good to worry about what he was allergic to, we simply couldn’t alter our lives that much. he would have to grow out of it, and despite the fact that it has gotton worse they still tell me he will probably out grow it. I am really beginning to wonder.
A few months ago while playing at McDonalds a women pulled her son away from mine, they were playing, she must have thought he was contagious. Everywhere we go people stare, his arms and legs are wounded and scabbed up. The doc says that adults with eczema say that the pain of scratching until it bleeds actually feels better than the constant severe itching…this makes me very sad, that my baby would rather feel pain that the daily itching and discomfort.
I declared war on this disease but it is winning. I am terrified that my son will battle this his whole life, that it will never get better. The social stigma alone is too much to think about. he will be starting pre-k next week. Two days a week and I have no idea what to expect from the teachers, paretns or even other kids. the entire thing feels so hopeless.
lopezfamily76116@yahoo.com