Eczema
I have a 3 1/2 year old son who is autistic and a 7 mos. old daughterwho appears to be developing normally. Recently, however, I havenoticed dry patches of skin, slightly discolored (yellowish/pinkish)on her knees, her arms, just below the elbows, her hands, and herback (around where the kidneys are). Should I be concerned? Irealize this could be infantile eczema but with my sons autism I’mnervous.
Also, I have a friend whose 4 year old (not autistic) son has eczemaand seems to be self limiting himself to cheese. Does anyone know ifthere is a connection here? How do you treat the eczema?
This post tagged as: eczema, autistic, autism
Curtis Forrester said,
Wrote on November 21, 2006 @ 9:47 am
My son had a rash that they finally decided was eczema aftertreatment for ringworm didn’t work. They also gave me prescriptionstrength Hydrocortizone cream that didn’t work either. I finallystarted using Eucerin cream, and it went away. His rash didn’t looklike what you are describing though, but with my son, the doctorsnever seem to really know what it was. I believe they were justguessing.
Wilbur Buissereth said,
Wrote on November 22, 2006 @ 11:20 am
We also have eczema issues in my family. With our 4 year old autisticboy it all cleared up after we put him on the diet. He had eczema sobad that he had tan lines around the patches when they cleared up! Wehad switched him to soy milk, but he started drinking lots of it andstill had red cheeks so we took it away and the cheeks cleared up.
My daughter also has eczema and we can’t figure out what is causingit. She is only 10 months old and we did end up breaking down andusing the steroid cream when it got so bad it was keeping her up atnight. I felt terrible about using it, but I was at my wits end. WhatI did find out was interesting. I read the insert that the pharmacygave us for the cream and one of the side effects was that itdepletes your zinc level. The other thing I had read elsewhere wasthat when allergic people have a reaction it is caused by the raisedhistamine level in their body - guess what helps control yourhistamine level…. ZINC! So…. there is the reason for the reboundeffect after using steroid creams! What I have been doing for mydaughter is supplimenting her with zinc and also borage oil (similarto flax seed oil or evening prim rose oil) which contains GLA - whichis good for skin. Since we have been supplimenting her we haven’tused the steroid cream - however, the eczema hasn’t gone awayentirely. It isn’t as bad and we use Eucerine to keep her moisturizedand bath her with vitamine E oil in her bath (I like to call this theCleopatra treatment) and so far we have kept it at bay. I think thatshe may grow out of it, but if it persists, we will have to do anelimination diet with her to figure out what’s causing it.
The docs don’t know what causes eczema, in fact with my son theysaid “Good luck trying to find out which food is causing it.” Well,we did eventually, but it took a while.
Good luck and if we all keep sharing our eczema tips that will helpus all figure out what is causing it.
Orval Raap said,
Wrote on November 23, 2006 @ 1:43 pm
Dairy products cause eczema. My husband stopped eating them and his wentaway. If he eats any now, it does come back.
Sofia Minozzi said,
Wrote on November 24, 2006 @ 10:51 pm
Cod Liver Oil or EFA’s in general are supposed to do wonders for eczema. Itsoften a sign of insufficient Essential Fatty Acid’s in the diet. It might beworth a try if you are not doing it already.
Damien Delessio said,
Wrote on November 25, 2006 @ 8:26 pm
purified water, glyceryl polymethacrylate (and) propylene glycol,petrolatum, dicaprylyl ether, APEG-5 glyceryl stearate, glycerin,dimethicone (and) dimethiconol, cetyl alcohol, sweet almond oil,acrylates/C10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer, tocopheryl acetate,phenoxyethanol, benzyl alcohol, disodium EDTA, sodium hydroxide, lacticacid.
Both my kids got over their eczema (and dry skin) with the help of NAET.
Annmarie Perniciaro said,
Wrote on November 26, 2006 @ 8:04 pm
My almost 17 yr old son has eczema from really young age. I did lots ofresearch back then…the is a cause for eczema. It is a gene defect thatmanifests as either eczema, ashtma, or both. Over the years, I have alsolearned that it has to to with an inability to properly process animal protiens.My sons periods of absolutly clear skin were when we were on a vegan diet. Oncehe became a pre-teen, he chose to eat meat again, and continues to do so to thisday. He has had some skin problems of course; but he has chosen to treat withsupplements. He finds that flaxseed oil has helped him most and continues withthis 3X’s a day.
I hope some of this is helpful.
Roscoe Ringle said,
Wrote on November 28, 2006 @ 5:47 pm
Any food allergy can cause eczema.
Bethanie Milin said,
Wrote on November 29, 2006 @ 10:07 am
Taking away a particular food should not cause an exzema reaction butin increase in other foods can. I went GF for a month while nursingmy baby just to make sure he did not have celiac like his 2 brothers.To my surprise he stopped sleeping through the night, got very clingy,was gassy and cried alot. After some trial and error, I figured outhe is intolerant to rice. Once I went back on gluten he did betterand when I cut out rice he improved even more. A child can have amild reaction to a food that is not noticable but when the quantitiesare increased, they reaction is more obvious. I have heard of otherson this list that reacted worse to soy than dairy or to corn thangluten.