Eczema or allergic reaction?!
My baby is 13 weeks old and has CMPA. She is currently on Nutramigen for the CMPA and Carobel as she also has a weak stomach valve so brings up all her milk without the thickener. She has been on Carobel since she was 6 weeks old and Nutramigen since she was 8 weeks old and only in the last 2 weeks has she finally settled on the Nutramigen (no mucus or blood in her stools)
She had her 12 week jabs last Thursday and on Friday I noticed she had a rash in her creases behind her knees and she started to have diarrhoea. The rash seemed to get worse and spread along her upper thighs and the diarrhoea continued. On Monday I contacted the health visitor who suggested she may have a virus and to keep an eye on her temp and contact the GP if things got worse. On Tuesday she then came out in a rash all over her face after having her bottle of milk, I messaged the HV again, but she still said that it was most probably a virus. Yesterday (Wednesday) she woke up and both of her eyes were swollen (left worse than the right) and I knew she hadn’t been rubbing them as she is swaddled at night. I took her to the GP who said that it was eczema and they prescribed epimax & Hydrocortisone 1%.
Last night I gave her a bath without any soap & used oats in a muslin as I had read that can help with the rash, I then put small amounts of the hydrocortisone on the patches of the rash & covered her body in the epimax (as advised by the GP), got her dressed and put her to bed as normal. This morning she woke up and her eye was no longer swollen and there was no longer a rash on her face, but her whole body is covered in hives. I have contacted the HV who isn’t sure what’s caused it and has suggested we try the epimax again to see if she reacts, but the HV still thinks it could be a virus.
I don’t think it is eczema and I think she has reacted to the epimax so I don’t really want to try it again. I also don’t understand why the rash has randomly returned & why she has diarrhoea! I don’t think it is a virus as she is showing no other symptoms.
Has anyone else experienced something similar? Does she have eczema? Is she reacting to the epimax? Is she reacting to her milk again??
I have attached pictures.
Sorry this is so long, I feel like I am at a loss as the GP nor HV seem to know what’s going on so really hoping someone has experienced something similar 🤞🏼
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I'm not an expert. Just repeating what our dermatologist says: steroids should be on the whole body not only on patches so the skin can clear off to zero signs of eczema.
For me the amount of steroids you've put isn't enough. Please check FTU dosage of steroids for babies. Also you have to use steroids for at least few days on face and a week on body. And you have to then wean off.
We were so afraid of steroids and put it only sparingly and on patches that we underrated it and now we got even stronger steroid for longer time...
https://patient.info/treatment-medication/steroids/fingertip-units-for-topical-steroids
I actually ended up paying to see a private allergy consultant because my experience with the nhs has been terrible! For eczema, this is what I was told to do which has completely changed my baby from having head to toe full body eczema, to having nothing unless poorly/heat irritated.
- Change to Ecover Zero washing liquid and fabric conditioner
- Use prescribed Certraban dermatological ointment and lotion (not the same as what you can buy in shops, you can get it from your GP!) and use the lotion 4 times a day minimum, and the ointment before bed, but completely smother them with it.
- Bath only using Oilatum bath soak
Also, I follow an incredible CMPA group on Facebook where you can search key words, and I would say that 80% of people on there find that their baby reacts to carobel because of the carob bean in it, so end up having to change to thick and easy which you can get on amazon x
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