The Reality of a Perfect Life: Infantile Eczema

It’s been a while since I last entered a post in this blog, so apologies to anyone wondering how our progress with the eczema is going.

We have been experiencing a heat wave here in Ireland for the last month! Ireland without rain for a month is really not the Ireland we are used to. I’m not complaining though :) It’s been the best summer in decades I’d say. A little rain woudn’t go astray now for the plants, but I’m sure we’ll get it sooner rather than later.

I’m still trying to research and learn as much about the eczema as I can, but time has been very limited and myself and Tom are utterly exhausted. I haven’t gotten much further with my book regarding how eczema and psoriasis affect the gut and stomach, and how to treat it with food, I’ve also gotten tips from others regarding hemp oil, black cumin seed oil, neem oil, and different strains of probiotics more specific to eczema but I will be researching it as much as time will allow. I was hoping to have more progress and information in my next post, I know anyone out there in our situation would appreciate it, but I can only blog at rare occasions. When you are so sleep deprived and need information that’s not readily available it’s handy when someone can put it together in one place.... Apologies, I will post the info as soon as possible.

Mr. T’s current state is slightly confusing. In his eight months he has never been 36 hours breakout free on his face. March and the beginning of April were by far the worst months for him, he barely had skin on his thighs and elbows, his cheeks were a weeping infected mess and the rest of his body was red, itchy, scaly, and soft skin only existed on his chin. In March we realised that he was not only just lactose intolerant, but actually allergic to dairy. The continuous vomiting ceased to that of a baby that simply has a bit of reflux, but we still had the eczema to contend with. I then discovered www.itchybaby.co.uk which changed all our lives. I cried when I read it, and we went full throttle ahead doing what the lady on the website did. Eliminating chemicals, detergents, and allergens. It’s taken lots of hard work, help from some amazing people, personal sacrifices and stamina, and a hefty electricity bill from two months of SAFE non stop clothes and fabric washing. Now, it’s the middle of July and Mr. T’s torso looks normal most days. He has skin on his elbows, thin - but it’s there and it’s soft. He doesn’t have any infected areas anymore. He still itches, I can’t leave him naked, or leave any skin showing except for his head and hands as otherwise he’ll scratch, so we’ve not conquered all detergents just yet. At night he still has to wear scratchsleeves, but at least he can now (sometimes) sleep in his own cot. Last month that wasn’t possible at all as you would have to restrain him all the time and block his hands from his face and block one leg when it tried scratching the other. His head used to always turn left, right, left, right in an attempt to itch it off anything he came in contact with, but he only does that now when he gets irritated. His body from the neck down looks and feels normal most days now. His neck and face and back of his neck still flare up at least every two days, usually everyday. He is definately looking a lot better, and feeling a lot better though. But I remember reading on one of the websites that it takes four months to get detergent out of ones home. We are now three months in. This week Mr. T went 36 hours without a flare up on his cheeks, so we are getting progress. I just still have some detective work to do.

One of the factors why I think Mr. T hasn’t recovered as fast as I had hoped is probably down to Miss J’s birthday party. There was a lot of people in and out of the house wearing detergent and allergens. When they sat on the couch they left the detergent residue, and the lint off their clothes floated around in the air. We didn’t leave anyone that hadn’t used safe products hold him, but he was still itchy and irritated for a week after as I tried as hard as I could with Astrid’s help to get the house safe again. It was an absolutely great day for Miss J, and she needed it, especially seeing as the last few months have been very hard on her aswell, but we have decided we won’t be having any gatherings or parties until Mr. T is better. Birthday parties will have to be on other premises and Mr. T will have to stay at home.

In the last few weeks Mr. T has had several breakouts. I'll share them with you, maybe then you can keep an eye out for the same triggers with your little baby
One day, while making egg mayo I gave him a hard boiled egg in its shell to hold. I know he can’t eat eggs, but I didn’t think holding one would be an issue. I was wrong. I noticed that he started rubbing his palms off his thighs and got very irritated and grumpy. The rubbing became frantic and I had a look at his hands. They had swollen slightly, and were burning red with white bumps on them. He had touched his face and chin and that was also looking burnt red in patches. I washed him straight away which took the edge off the itching and then with some cuddles he was finally a little more settled. Poor little fella.

The second allergen was wheat. Sleep deprived and not thinking, I gave him a rusk biscuit. His hands flared up again, and the bumps also appeared on his neck where the crumbs and slobber had fallen. Again, I stuck a very irritated and whimpering Mr. T into the bath and then washed it off and then he was better.

Mr. T after his wheat reaction. Hives and bumps not visible in image.

The same then happened when I was out one day and Tom had been mowing the lawn. He had changed his clothes, but had forgotten to wash his arms and Mr. T then had a reaction to his arm when he was held. I'm guessing it was due to pollen.
Another trigger is shopping bags. I returned from food shopping, and put the bags on the floor. Usually Mr. T doesn't go near them, but getting more inquisitive he decided to shuffle over. He got a reaction from the shopping bags and groceries in them. I should have been more careful as I know that warehouses, shops and delivery vans are full of grime and detergents.
The latest outbreak he had was from the couch covers. Mid heat wave a baby with severe eczema can get very irritated so we thought we'd change getting Mr. T naked and letting him play on the couch. We have covered our couch with homemade organic cotton couch covers, which I was once a week but this was a Sunday. Two days before it was due to be washed, and he got an itchy allergic looking reaction to the covers. In 5 days the covers had attracted enough detergent and grime from people's clothes to give him a reaction. Poor little fella was showered and cuddled again.

It’s incidents like this that slow down the healing process of the skin. I understand that the skin needs two months without a breakout to fully heal all its layers and become skin that is more resilient to breakouts. When thinking of this fact we still have a long way to go, but with the progress we have seen in the last two months I am confident that we will get there. Once the skin is outbreak free for two months we can stop worrying so much and work on hardening him up a little for the future.

Mr. T's couch cover outbreak. His face, belly & body red.

Mr. T's couch outbreak on his back.

About 6 weeks ago we also started taking Mr. T to an acupuncturist that was recommended to us by several people and that has a 90% success rate with eczema in babies. The practices the old type of acupuncture and looks at birth charts aswell. With someone Mr. T's age, he doesn't use needles, he uses acupressure. It seems to be working slowly but surely. I will keep you posted as the weeks go by.

When it comes to combating the detergent and allergens in the house I am still on a full time war schedule with cleaning. I will share my cleaning schedule with you in case it helps you come up with one yourself...you never know. Do whatever works for you, but this is what works for us:

By the way, by deep cleaning I mean: everything off shelves and surfaces, dust, steam clean, hoover & wash any fabrics. I usually work my way around the room and if there's too many surfaces/cupboards to tackle one day then I do as much as I can and do the rest the next week. To wipe surfaces I alternate between a homemade soapnut spray or a vinegar & lemon juice spray.

Sunday: Catch up cleaning & family time

Monday: Deep clean Miss J’s bedroom & general house clean

Tuesday: Deep clean sitting room, strip couch covers & wash, Clean high chair and walker.
Wednesday: Deep clean stairs, recycling area, and hallway. General house clean. Hoover car & wipe down interior - (for Mr. T going to acupuncture on Thursdays)
Thursday: Deep clean kitchen, general house clean
Friday: Deep clean bathroom & utility room, general house clean.
Saturday: Deep clean bedroom & family time

As well as this I regularily wash all of Miss J’s cuddly toys and dress up dresses so the dust and allergens don’t settle on them. I also get her to wash up her tea set every fortnight or so - she loves it.

All I do at the moment is clean, cook, and make sure the kids are happy and get some play time and some one on one time too. Astrid and Fabiano our friends are an immense help, it is so important to have people that can lend a hand. I could never manage it all myself. Tom would have to stop working if I had to do this all by myself. I have gone into self preservation mode and stopped doing anything else like photography, gardening or socialising but I don't mind. I am much happier preserving my energy and focusing on this period of life at the moment, and I know that in 6 months time things will be a lot easier and I can do things for myself again. Right now it's making me happier to concentrate on Mr. T's improvement and Miss J's happiness, alongside keeping Tom and myself strong. As I said to Tom, it won't be forever. I am confident we can battle this. We have already conquered the eczema on his torso. I am now on a mission to conquer the general itch, and to continue to conquer to breakouts on his neck and head. We can see a massive change on his body, and a definite improvement on his head, that's what keeps us going..... :)