My 20 month old ds seems to have eczema. It only showed up when I weaned him and he began drinking cow's milk. The doc has told me to eliminate milk products to see if the eczema is caused by an allergy to milk. Milk has been eliminated from his diet for a few days now (we're substituting it with Soy milk). I can see a difference in the eczema, but I'm not sure if it's an improvement. Does anyone have experience with eczema and can you tell me what you've seen or send me links to pictures of how it looks when it starts to clear up? Thanks!

By Trina~moderator on Sunday, October 31, 2004 - 09:07 am:

Eczema.net

Both my kids have eczema, but now that they're older it rarely flares up. I don't know if it's because of their age or because we've been successful at avoiding the triggers. In our case, switching to perfume and dye free soaps and detergents has made a HUGE difference. I've read eczema can be triggered by food allergies as well. (Both my kids have severe nut allergies but their reactions are anaphylactic.) I would think it would take longer than a few days for you to notice if eliminating milk from your DS's diet has made a difference. More like a few weeks or months. When my kids did get eczema it often took weeks for it to clear up. It was worse during winter months due to the dryness in the air. It helps to limit baths, as daily bathing can irritate eczema. Warm baths instead of hot water, frequent use of Eucerin or Cetaphil moisturizing cream... That's all I can think of off the top of my head. HTH!

By Tink on Sunday, October 31, 2004 - 11:20 am:

Our whole family suffers from eczema. My dks actually have a much milder form of it than dh and I. We have also gone the dye-free and perfume-free route for years now. That was the biggest help for us. Heat and stress are our biggest triggers now. We haven't ever been able to find a food trigger for any of ours. There are several creams by Rx that do wonders for ours. When my dks flared up as infants, A&D ointment was the best for us. I think the only reason that was such a help was remembering to put it on with every diaper change!

I don't know what type of eczema your ds has but, when it begins to clear up, the redness and inflammation begins to disappear and the roughness of the skin or small blisters also start to fade. It also becomes less itchy, if he is scratching it. Good luck!

By Andream on Monday, November 1, 2004 - 10:30 pm:

I put hydrocortizone cream on ds's legs two nights ago and since then the patches of eczema have significantly cleared up. Though the patches seem to be somewhat increasing in diameter, they aren't red as before, but light pink, and it appears that new normal, unirritated skin is within those patches. Thanks for your advice!