Eczema

Up to one in five children suffers with eczema, an inflammatory skin condition that causes the affected area to become red, dry and itchy. It can, however, also be extremely distressing for parents who can only sit and watch their child in discomfort

Although eczema affects such a high number of people, its exact cause is not yet known. Consultant Dermatologist, Dr David Paige, from The Royal London Hospital says: "We do know that eczema runs in families and may associate with asthma and hay fever. Therefore there is clearly an inherited part to the condition. It certainly is not as simple as one gene giving you eczema."

The first ‘eczema gene’ was discovered just this year. This makes a skin protein called fillagrin and if the body is deficient in this protein the outer skin becomes leaky and can help prompt eczema. Other relevant factors are changes in the body’s immune system, which appears to be overactive in most people with eczema. As well as genes, the environment also affects eczema. Irritants such as soaps, and in some individuals allergens such as food or house dust mite, can make eczema flare up.

Treatments including soap substitute emollients and topical steroids can be highly effective. Dr Paige says: "People can be very frightened of using topical steroids often because their GP or a relative has worried them about safety issues. In fact they can be used quite safely over many years providing you follow the rules of which ones to use where and for how long."

Most eczema will pretty much clear within a few days of being on the right treatment. While it doesn’t cure it should be able to keep things well under control. About 50 per cent of children grow out of eczema by the age of five and about 85-90 per cent by their teenage years.

Dr Paige advises: "If families are having problems at primary care level they should try and get referred to a dermatologist in hospital care to get the right advice. You may have to be pushy to get an appointment as people can be very dismissive of eczema and don’t see the suffering it can cause."

Gayna Ballard suffered with eczema when she was ten years old and her husband suffers with hay fever, so she wasn’t surprised when their one-year-old son Bill began showing symptoms of eczema at just two-weeks of age. Gayna says: "When he was born his skin was fine, then after about a fortnight he got a lot of infantile acne all over his face. At six weeks that went and he was left with a really sore patch on the front of his ear and on his cheek that looked really red, angry, watery, blistery and cracked, really awful. It then started to spread up over his forehead and down the other side."

The health visitor confirmed that Bill had eczema so Gayna went to the doctors where she was given a low dose of hydrocortisone cream, which helped to clear the eczema completely, however, as soon as she stopped using the cream the eczema was back as red and as angry as before. By the time Bill was four-and-a-half months old he was completely covered in it.

Gayna experienced great difficulty while trying to improve her son’s eczema in the early days. She says: "The health professionals told me to bath him twice a day minimum but this would make his skin worse and it would make it absolutely unbearable. He would lie there screaming, red raw just trying to claw at his face. I would then put cream all over him and he would start rubbing his eyes and get the cream in his eyes so he would then scream because of that."

At night Gayna had to put mittens on Bill’s hands and tuck them into his baby-grow to prevent him clawing in his sleep. She says: "He used to scratch his head a lot and take big chunks of his skin off. It would bleed and weep and get itchy again so he would claw at it again. It was really, really horrible."

Gayna tried changing the washing powder and cutting all dairies out of Bill’s diet in search of a solution, but neither of these things helped. She also started double washing his clothes to get rid of the detergent, which helped slightly. Gayna says: "It was weird because his eczema looked terrible one day and then the next day it looked like it was going so you’d get all hopeful, and then two days later he’d be covered in it again." Bill was also allergy tested but this proved inconclusive.

Fortunately, as Bill has got older his eczema has improved. Gayna says: "He is so much better now, much happier. He used to cry all the time. He would literally start crying before he woke up and wake himself up and cry even more. It got to the point sometimes where I couldn’t comfort him because I knew it hurt him, that was horrible."

Gayna admits that the experience has been painful for her too. She says: "I used to get really bleak and think oh my god I’ve got another day tomorrow of four times a day cleaning him and making him scream. He hated me because everything I did just hurt him and it was just horrible, he would give me these horrible looks. It did get me really low, I was really depressed about it." She advises parents who are going through the same thing not to be surprised when one cream works one week and the next week it doesn’t work at all. She recommends trying every cream until you find one that works and not getting too down about it.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

The National Eczema Society runs a help line for people affected by eczema.

Call: 0870 241 3604

Monday to Friday between 8am – 8pm. Alternatively you can email: helpline@eczema.org or visit: www.eczema.org

Click to visit our Health category for health related products and services