I woke up yesterday with a feeling of anticipation-- as if it was my wedding day or the first day of school. I know that sounds somewhat pathetic. After all, it was just a doctor's appointment. Only a doctor's appointment.
But we had been struggling with Ben's eczema for months, and I was hoping for--the impossible. A miracle cream to make it all go away or at least someone to sit down with me and talk to me about lotions, sunscreen, shampoo.
What I got was a 45-minute wait only to see a doctor for five minutes. When I asked about lotions, he said, "You're going to put him on something called Cetaphil." I'm not sure if he believed me when I told him that it makes Ben break out. When I asked about soap, he gave me samples of Dove for sensitive skin. But there's a difference between sensitive and supersensitive. Dove for sensitive skin still contains a long list of ingredients, all of which could be potentially irritating. The terms hypo-allergenic and fragrance free usually still mean break out for Ben. When I asked him what to use on Ben's head, he said, "Just use Dove. It's not like he's going on a date or anything."
Then, he prescribed a steroid. I said I was concerned about potential side effects. One side effect is potential thinning of the skin. He said, "Don't worry, Mom," and said he'd check back on him in two weeks. All that excitement, all that anticipation--for that? I was so mad. I had been condescended to. None of the stuff I wrote down about all the stuff we'd tried was even read. We got the prescription for the steroid, only to discover that it contains sodium laurete sulfate, a skin irritant. I decided that we would ask Ben's regular doctor about steroids when we went in today.
Ben's skin has been getting better over the last few days, although there are still times when he scratches himself until he bleeds. Burt's Bee's Thoroughly Therapeutic, which I discovered at the drugstore by accident, seems to be helping. I had read on the Internet that honey has healing properties and has been found to help heal difficult wounds. But I can't really put honey alone on him. It would make a mess. And, if I used a band-aid on his face, he would eat it off.
Ben's regular doctor said he doesn't think he needs steroids--yet. So, we'll keep putting lotion on him. And I have appointments with Ben's allergist and a different dermatologist next month. For shampoo, we may try Dr. Bonner's Baby Mild Castille Soap. I got it at the Natural Store today. It was nice to be able to take out all my frustrations by buying sweet potato chips, Glutino glutin free pretzels and shampoo.
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Jason Tandon
3 years ago
What was the steroid he prescribed? And for the record, I have terrible psoriasis, and I've been on pretty strong steroid creams for years, nonstop, with absolutely no side effects except for relief from the rash. The "thinning skin" isn't usually a problem unless (1) it's going into skin folds or otherwise being occluded, and (2) it's being applied constantly for years. If he doesn't need them yet, that's great. But if he does, please don't be afraid. The risk of a skin infection from scratching the rash is FAR more serious than the risk of steroid cream side effects--or at least, that's what my dermatologist has been telling me for years.
ReplyDeleteThe steroid is Desonide Cream. We do have it. I'm just not sure that he needs it yet. Also, I just wish he would have been more helped and discussed other options like Eletone or Mimyx. Also, he didn't really explain to me if I could put it on scabs. On the directions, it said don't put it on sores. The sores that he had had scabbed. The scabs kind of got knocked off today. We had been putting Neosporin on the one sore. Really, he only had one. But what really helped it heal was Burt's Bees. It hasn't looked this good in a month. He did scratch his neck today until it bled. His regular doctor said we should use bactine instead of Neosporin in case we need it again because, if you use Neosporin a lot, and you are prone to allergies, I guess you can develop an allergy to Neomicin.
ReplyDeleteThe first dermatologist hydrocortisone cream. Used it twice made Tyson's skin worse. So, I stop using it.
ReplyDeleteTold the second dermatologist that I didn't want to use anything that could possible be bad if ingested. Tyson tends to touch his face constantly especially when I'm applying the cream or lotions and then sticks his hands in this mouth or rubs his eyes. If you read the labels of many steriod creams it says not to ingest or get it in your eyes. So she prescribed Mimyx. It works but it did take a while, seems like a month or so. his skin seems to be doing a lot better. One thing I found out is that keeping his skin moisturized is very important. I just started using CeraVe Cream on his driest spots as well as the lotion for most of his body whenever it looks like its drying out. Sometimes every hour or two. Doctor only reccomends Mimyx twice a day morning and night. Also I apply CeraVe lotion/cream over the Mimyx. I wonder if you should try after you apply the olive oil to Ben skin.
Other things she reccomend:
Keep him cool.
100% cotton or Silk (don't think they make silk clothes for babies) clothes, towels, bedding anything that touches him. Wool is bad!
Loose fit clothing is better.
Use Dreft for baby clothes or anything that touches baby. Wipe down wash or dryer after using regular detergent for you own clothes.
Keep him out of the element as much as possible, too much wind or sun is not good for his skin.
Other things in the environment might also be irratating his skin, like Vog in Hawaii. But you can't keep him in a bubble.
Remember in the end you are the person that knows your baby best.
R,
ReplyDeleteWe tried Cerave again last night. The Burt's Bees was helping but started to irritate him. This happens often with lotions. We bathed him and then put on a little bit of Cerave. This caused an immediate irritation, so we had to wash it all off. We can't really use a steroid anyway until we find a moisturizer that doesn't irritate. I also tried Borax cream. It irritated. We washed it off. I then looked through our huge stockpile of lotions and settled on Aquaphor. Although it contains Lanolin and I had thought that Lanolin irritated his skin, I needed to try something. Also, we discovered yesterday that these travel wipes that we had been using, which never seemed to irritate him, contained Lanolin, so maybe it's not the Lanolin. The way we usually know if a lotion is not irritating is: Does he develop a rash or start scratching worse? So, it's Aqauphor today, and hopefully, this will work.