So far, no good.
Oliver’s eczema is worse if anything. We’ve been going through all the clothes, washing them without detergent, Vaselining him morning and night, changing our sheets twice as frequently, trying not to touch him with clothes that may have touched detergent, etc. It certainly doesn’t seem to be helping. I even switched shampoos.
He has good days and bad days. Some days he looks better and I think, “Maybe what we’re doing is working!” and then the next day he looks worse than ever.
The worst part of all is that he has now discovered scratching. Before, I could always pretend that he wasn’t really bothered by the eczema, even though it looked terrible. Now, however, he tries to scratch his chest and face whenever you give him an opportunity. At this point it takes two people to change his clothes; one to hold his hands back, and the other to dress him. We have to put him in a double shirt and put socks on his hands to prevent him from scratching in the night.
It makes me so sad to see him desperately trying to scratch. It wasn’t so long ago that I myself had to deal with insane, full-body itching, and I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. I certainly wouldn’t wish it on my precious baby. And I certainly can’t pretend that he’s not bothered by it anymore.
I feel very helpless, and that’s not a great feeling when it comes to watching your kid be miserable.
Shane Halbach 
I feel so bad for him!
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Wow – I was hoping it got better. I’m sure you’ve talked to your doctor but what about an allergist?
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I know you don’t use soap on Oliver, but maybe a test try on a certain part of the body with some oatmeal, goat’s milk and honey soap. I have several people who use it and say it works wonders on eczema. Just a thought….
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Actually, Shane wrote this post about a week ago. Oliver has been looking a lot better lately! We have been trying to get rid of everything with detergent in our house (laundry detergent, liquid hand soap, dishwashing and dishwasher detergents) because there is this lady with a theory (who may be a crackpot but who knows) that detergents are responsible for about half of eczema. So, for the past two weeks, I have been using soap in his bath in an effort to wash off any detergents that may be on his skin. I don’t know if this is what is making a difference, but in the past 5 days, he has looked better than in the previous 5 weeks. If we see you at Thanksgiving, we may need to buy some of that soap!
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As someone who has it, I can say it definately sucks having eczema. It
also sucks having a brother call you a lepper because you have it. 🙂
Maybe now you will realize it is not so easy to cure my hands!
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