Many of you know our sweet, wonderful second child affectionately known as 'Bunny' on this blog. What you may not know is she's had HORRIBLE eczema since she was about 3 months old. During particularly aggressive flare-ups, it will get hot, itch and bleed. Her body usually has random patches of dry, itchy skin but recently the area affected the most is where she wears her pull-up at night.
We enrolled her in a study which required us to document her eczema and record how often we apply medicine and moisturizers. It's been a good, educational experience and has taught us a lot about how to help her. About a month ago, I was informed the study is ending because they aren't getting the results they were hoping for. Upon closing her case, she was given a blood test.
We receiveed the results about two weeks ago. As I understand it, IGEs are a specific unit of measuring allergic response in the human body. Normally, a person without allergies has between 1 and 33 IGEs. Bunny's blood measured 298! I find this a bit disconcerting although I have no idea what it means. Her blood was also tested for allergic responses to eggs, wheat (which would make since because of my allergy), dairy, fish/shellfish, dust, nuts, etc.-all the usual suspects. All came back negative. This basically means her immune system is going berzerk. Something internally or externally is causing her blood to fight againt itself.
We have tried everything we could think of: elimination diets, vats of lotion, taking away all perfumes and scented soaps, among other things. Our latest effort has been to potty train Bunny at night. I found some old training pants in our rubbermaids of girl clothes and started about a week ago. We take her to the bathroom at about 11:00 and hope that by 7:00 she's still dry. We've had 2 dry nights. In the meantime, I feel like I've done about a bazillion loads of laundry.
Adding to the laundry pile when Bunny wets the bed, she comes to sleep with He-Man and I. Lately, we've been so tired that niether of us notices she's there until the morning and we need to change our own sheets. This morning, not only were the sheets wet, but so were we. She's trying so hard to keep her bed and sheets dry.
Does anyone have any ideas for eczema? Bed wetting? I would love some advice!
9 comments:
Okay, you mentioned elimination diets, but have you tried taking out ALL dairy, casein, and everything dairy related? We had a bedwetting issue with Matt. When we eliminated milk for a little while, the bedwetting stopped. We're doing it again right now because he keeps getting massive headaches, and they seem to be dairy-related. Rachel has a spot of eczema on her bottom and I suspect it has to do with dairy in my diet. :( I just need to go off it, and stop fudging. Poor kids. I hope you find what helps Bunny soon.
Matthew has really bad eczema in OR and UT. What worked best for him was OTC hydrocortizome OINTMENT applied morning and night. I saw results with in a couple of days.
As for bed wetting, sometimes little bodies grow faster than their bladders. Although it is frustrating for parents AND child, sometimes time is the best remedy. I can't even think of how old bunny is now, but when we had a child in the 3-4 age group who had a wetting problem, said child was really struggling and embarrassed about it. I came up with the idea of making them a "special bed" in another place in case they had an accident in the night, that way it wasn't suck a big deal at 2 or 3 in the morning. I could help my child get changed and then move them straight to a comfortable place to go back to sleep. This made them feel a little less anxious. The other thing that worked--the best actually--was when Ken gave said child a blessing. Sadley it wasn't the first thing we thought up, but it gave the best results.
Good Luck!
Sounds like they tested her for food allergies. What about external things? I'd take her to Vicky Lyons at McKay Dee hospital. She is a specialist and works primarily with children. She could be allergic to plastic, nylon, etc. You never know. Your rugs alone could be a part of the problem or even the adhesive in the carpet pad. We got rid of all of our candles and that has helped me. I was allergic not only to perfumes, but wax too. You might also find someone who does the whole electro-dermal computer testing. We have a place up here if you want to see it - in fact they do it along with a chiropractic office and it could be something you could add to your husband's business. Anyway, let me know what happens.
I haven't had alot of trouble with bed-wetting, but things we do to make sure it doesn't happen as ofter are limit liquids a few hours before bed, make sure the kids use the restroom right before they get in bed for the night, and for awhile there we would get Jonah up to go to the bathroom when Matt and I were going to bed, because he had already been asleep for quite a few hours. Sorry about the eczema- I don't have any tips for that.
I've got nothing. This is probably really lame, but do you use dryer sheets and perfume free detergent? Those were really hard on Noelle's system for a while.
oh--poor sweetie! i hope things get better!
If the eczema is worse in the area covered by a pull-up, she could be allergic to the pull-up itself. Try putting a pair of regular panties on first, then the pull-up so the pull-up isn't touching the skin.
I used to cover my kids bed in plastic, then put a huge fluffy towel over that, tucked in around the edges like a sheet. I could actually put a couple layers so if there was an accident, I could pull off the first plastic/towel layer, and we'd be ready for bed again. There is still washing to do, but it helps save the mattress and the towel is more absorbent then a regular sheet.
Good luck! Isn't motherhood fun?!
Hey Friend . . .The eczema thing is really hard - have you tried the good ole' standby of Tea Tree Oil. I am telling you, that was the rash miracle cure for the kids when they were litte. A couple of drops (no more) in the bath water was great at dealing with all types of rashes. As far as the bedwetting - she just isn't ready. If she is waking up wet more than dry, it's not time yet. Be patient. This too shall pass. You are a great mom! Your girls are lucky to have you.
Chris is probabely already doing this, but does he adjust Bunny's spine regularly? I have two kids in my office that had problems with bedwetting. Once their spine was aligned via the adjustments, it took the pressure off the nerves to the bladder and bingo, bewetting stopped.
~Lindsay
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