10/05/2012 by spindlygiraffe.

My last post, over a month ago, all was well.  To be honest it has not been too bad since either.  Although, I can say that now.

April has previously been a bad month for James and it was again.  My own hands and legs were driving me beserk so I could understand how he was feeling!  We have an array of creams that we were able to try but in the end had to admit defeat.  A trip to the GP was in store and more oral antibiotics.  The good news is…. it did the trick.  His skin improved, and the green patches went.

April has been bad for him before. I was not sure if the unusual weather might make a difference - in the end, it still got him!  It is still good now although he is on another antibiotic for ear infections.  How come some children just get everything?

In a previous post I mentioned James having a very high pain threshold - evidenced again by his ear infections.  He commented on one being sore one night.  It popped in the night with lots of discharge, both were infected and apparently there is a little hole in the bad one.

Posted in Eczema and the Weather | 2 Comments »

27/03/2012 by spindlygiraffe.

We had a dermatology appointment with James last month.  I collected him from school, he started coughing and then I thought he was starting to get wheezy.We went into the appointment and the nurse said he was the best that she had ever seen him. Thankfully, it has been pretty good for quite a while. His hands weren’t great, but we can cope with that.  I just wondered what we should do if it got worse as he was obviously getting poorly.  His eczema does flare when he battles off infections and other illnesses.

That night he ended up on his inhaler hourly, the doctor then put him on steroids tablets.  I chuckled to myself, as never mind me worrying about the poorly symptoms, the steroids would help his skin too.  Bonus!  (Obviously he needed them for his breathing anyway.)

Currently, it’s still going well.  Let’s hope that April sees it continuing to do well.

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06/02/2012 by spindlygiraffe.

It has been a long time since I posted on here.  Overall things have been pretty good.  My huband took James to his last dermatology appointment and asked questions.  The referral to a paediatric dermatologist had been rejected.  In fairness it has not been so bad since then.  However, I was cross it was rejected.

James’ face has been so much improved, we are able to use protopic 0.1% at the weekends and pretty much moisturisers the rest of the time.  I could spend all day just looking at his handsome wee face.  I was speaking to his teaching assistant at the Christmas Fair and she was commenting on the photo I had sent with the eczema fact sheet I’d prepared for him starting.  They’ve not had to see that, I find it upsetting to look at the photos, even though that was how he used to be… the majority of the time.  His face used to be varying degrees of severity, usually severe but sometime worse and occasionally better.

I’m loving it now.  He is a very tactile little boy and loves it if you stroke the side of his face.  It is an amazing feeling when it is soft!

Over his body is not too bad.  The cold does not seem to have affected it too much.  Central heating has.  Last week, his eczema did take a turn for the worse, but it ended up being more of an asthma problem.  Now he is 5years, he is officially asthmatic!  He has patches but not too bad - nothing that a bit of Elocon won’t hopefully sort.

Such a relief.

I did find out from someone who used to be an MDA at his school that not all of them are that sensitive during the hot weather.  She was saying that she used to get him to sit by the window to eat his lunch.  He overheats and scratches intensely.  Others however, apparently said, he needs to deal with it.  Oh if they could change shoes for a day and endure it.  I will raise it at the next parents evening pre-summer.

Posted in Children and Eczema, Eczema and the Weather | 1 Comment »

02/12/2011 by spindlygiraffe.

My GP is horrified that I would take my son swimming.  He does everything and he tells me something is sore, or I notice it making his skin dramatically worse then I’ll not stop.

He always has a shower at the pool to wash off all the chlorine and other gubbins from the pool water.  A long time ago I noticed that he was not scratching much at all after swimming.  At that point I stopped putting anything in his bath water.  If it didn’t make his skin better, it certainly didn’t make it worse.  He is now back using dermol as a wash, but not filling the bath with any other emollient.

This morning James decided he didn’t want any epaderm ointment on his face.  I put some on my face encouraging him to put it on too.  When I had a shower a bit later, it was noticeable where I had put it on.  The water seemed to be sliding off.  I wasn’t convinced how clean I would be if I was covered in it.  Usually James just goes swimming (many pools don’t like creams on before the kids go in), then showers and then creams.  However, next time I will be trying the epaderm on the worst patches before he goes in.  Obviously I know how slippery it would make him and need to make sure his hands and knees can still grip so he’s able to pull himself out or I could grab hold of him if needs be.

Posted in General | 4 Comments »