I thought I would create this page here on my site in case it helps anyone else.

First, A Little History...

My daughter Alexa, who is now 10, has suffered from eczema ever since she was a toddler. She has no other health issues or allergies that we know of, and her eczema tends to only be an issue in the winter months.

At first, when she was younger, she would only get it a bit on the insides of her arms at the crease of the elbow (in small patches), and on the backs of her wrists.

Her pediatrician prescribed Elidel which we'd use on flare ups on an as-needed basis, and for a few years, that worked.

Eventually, though, her eczema began to get worse and spread to other areas. One year, she started getting it behind her knees. Another year, she got it in all of those places plus a patch by her navel.

The pediatrician switched us to an ointment that says:

Fougera Triamcinolone Acetonide Ointment, USP, 0.1% (instead of the Elidel).

It worked just as well on flare ups but we didn't want to use any of these medications on a daily basis all winter. I mean, there's some pretty scary information out there about long term exposure and so on. However, whenever we stopped using the medicine even briefly, she'd get these bad flare ups that seemed to come on so quickly and fiercely, and then there we were battling it with the prescription ointment again...which would work and get it back under control within a day or two, but in the meanwhile, she'd be miserable.

Last year, the winter she turned 9, it was the worst ever. She had it on the crease of the elbows, but in bigger, redder patches than ever before. She had it on her hands and wrists. She had it by her navel. And worst of all, she had it on her face (around her eyes and in small patches on her cheeks and near her mouth) and on her neck.









I was treating her pretty aggressively with the prescription ointment, but it was starting to feel like I'd have to cover her whole body in the stuff for months on end, and I felt like there HAD to be something more we could do. The pediatrician couldn't seem to help with anything more than renewing the prescriptions. So, I asked them to refer us to a dermatologist.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel that the dermatologist helped much, either. He didn't stay in the room long, and I had the sense he was lecturing me or kind of talking down to me. He basically said that we had to use lotion all the time to prevent the eczema from flaring up/getting bad to begin with and to use the prescription ointment on flare ups and that was that. We left with no other solution and some vague sense that this was all my fault, that if only I had been more diligent about prevention, everything would have been fine.

This year, her eczema returned as it does every winter, and for the second year in a row, it was affecting her face. We first noticed it starting to get bad like that again on November 19, 2010. We HAD been very diligent about putting lotion on quite regularly, every day. I'd already switched her to a fragrance-free/sensitive skin soap a long time ago. So there we were again slathering on the prescription ointment, and in the meanwhile, my daughter was MISERABLE. I put lotion by her eyes, she started crying that it was burning, I started telling her not to cry because the salty tears would probably burn worse, and I was thinking there HAS to be a way to prevent this from getting this bad to begin with. I can't deal with this anymore, and either can this poor kid.

So, I went online to my homeschooling forum and on various websites. I compiled a list of possible solutions. I picked out the ones I wanted to try right away. And I tried them.

And I'm happy to say that HER ECZEMA HAS BEEN UNDER CONTROL for the past couple of months since!!! No bad flareups!!!!

HERE'S WHAT WE DID:

1. We started using a humidifier in her room every single night. I know this makes a difference because there were two different times she forgot to turn it on at night, and the following mornings, she'd have redness under her eyes. This is such a simple thing, and I'd never known about it. I would HIGHLY recommend starting off by using a humidifier every single night if your child suffers from seasonal eczema like mine did.

2. I had already been making sure she put on lotion every single day. Now I began making sure she was doing it A FEW times a day. At least 3X a day I have her go in and put lotion on/remind her to do it. After doing some reading and getting some input, the lotion I decided to use is called:

CJ's BUTTer which can be purchased here:

www.cjsewingroom.com/

I exchanged a couple of emails with CJ and she was WONDERFUL. Extremely nice, extremely sympathetic, threw in a little extra something for us, shipped very fast...and I'm happy with the product and will be continuing to order it as needed myself. We're using CJ's chapstick under the eyes as it's small and easy to use there, and the lotion on all of the other areas. We've got both the lotion form and the 'stick/roll on' form, both of which work great. Use it diligently, a few times a day!

3. I had her stop using soap altogether. I stopped even the Dove for sensitive skin and decided to go with Cetaphil, a soap-free cleanser, instead. I ordered it from Walmart. She uses it in the shower and for hand-washing.

4. I switched to All Clear laundry detergent for her clothes only (I still wash the rest of ours with the generic stuff, and in the summer when eczema isn't an issue I'll probably use that for her too, but for now we're using this All Clear stuff). I just bought it at my local supermarket. I probably really didn't HAVE to do this step but figured I may as well come at this as aggressively as I could to start and make sure it cleared up, and then I could start dropping some of these things and seeing if we could make do without it, such as using a special laundry detergent.

*5. I bought Zyrtec non-drowsy allergy medication at the pharmacy. I give her one pill a night. From what I read (including on the Ask Dr. Sears site), this will help her not itch. And if she doesn't itch, she won't scratch. And if she doesn't scratch, she won't make the eczema flare up even more. See, it was like a vicious circle. I read it is safe to give for several weeks at a time. Then you should take a break. But if I think I need to, I'll go back to using it. This will only be in the winter months anyway.

*NOTE: As it turned out, we used this for a few weeks to ensure that we really had her out of this bad cycle of itching and scratching and flaring up. But at this point (Feb 8, 2011, my latest update), she hasn't used it in several weeks- and still no bad flare ups. I really think the humidifier, the lotion, and the non-soap cleanser is the biggest deal in all of this. If she gets occasional flare ups, they tend to be very mild, and as soon as we notice them, we use the prescription medication (see step 6 below) and it clears it right up by like the next day, before it has a chance to get bad.

6. I continue to use the prescription ointment, Triamcinolone Acetonide Ointment, on flare ups on an as-needed basis. Over the past two and a half months or so, the flare ups when they occur have been only in VERY small patches, and NOT happening every day, and I use just a bit of the prescription stuff and it goes away. I check her trouble spots daily to see if she has any of those flare ups.

We've been doing this routine for almost three months now and there have been NO bad flare ups, NO itchiness, NO red eyes, NO misery or complaining, NO huge, red noticeable patches all over her arms...she's like a different kid.








This routine is working for us as of now, so we'll continue with it. This is the most pleasant winter we've had in a long time and I'm SO happy with how it has been going!!!!

I hope that this helps somebody else!  

P.S. Here is the link to the eczema page on the Ask Dr. Sears site. It contains further helpful information:

www.askdrsears.com/html/11/T081800.asp

P.S.S. If you do try these things, drop me a comment and let me know how it's working for you!


~Nance