eczema

Picture says it all.

The horror of eczema.

Day has had eczema pretty much since he was a newborn, and always concentrated around his left ankle. It got worse after I stopped breastfeeding him (breast milk is supposed to have protective qualities against allergies) and he started eating all sorts of nonsense.

In the last few months, it's been its absolutely worst.

The damned family-inherited (from me), incurable skin disease gives him chronically dry skin that itches and flakes. Everything and anything (from sand and swimming pools to peanuts and cow's milk) triggers it off.

Once it flares up, there is no turning back. He scratches incessantly, every minute, without thinking. Sometimes his fingers get bloody and he sticks them into his mouth when he eats a biscuit, we catch it too late. Self control is about the only thing that stops me from scratching but what does a baby know about self control?

The skin bleeds, and the only thing I can do is to apply steroid creams, which are not the long-term solution as it has scary side-effects like permanent thinning of the skin and even retarded growth.

When the bleeding got so bad it started staining the socks we make him wear at night and the eczema started creeping upwards, towards his knees and arms and even a spot on the face, that was it.

I brought him to the doctor yet again.

This time, the paediatriciation gave him an arsenal of medication: Oral and applied antibiotic creams, antihistamines, mild steroid creams, everything.

For the record, this is the first time in his life that Day is eating antibiotics. Damn and double damn. (ironically, he slurps up the antibiotic and looks forward to his nightly "sweet" because I think it tastes very like a sweet fruity milk shake)

But while I'm sure the eczema monster will be beaten down for now, it is far from dead. Then what do I do?