"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Rachael Simpson" contains these words:


He still has the mattress from his crib - when i bought his crib I
made sure
it was one of those convertible types so we could save money in the
long run
there. the mattress a hypo-allergenic one with the vinyl covering.

One of the irritants to eczema, is sweat, and getting too warm,
especially at night. Vinyl and rubber near the skin promote sweat and
skin heating. Make sure you have a good layer of cotton (not polyester)
mattress padding between the vinyl and the pure cotton bottom sheet, to
wick away any sweat.

you know, i knew the part about the sweat - i mean I know how sweat makes it
worse, it does on myself. But i hadn't thought about the vinyl matress and
sweating from it - i do use a waterproof - hypo-allergenic mattress pad, but
i don't use it always - will start doing that. i think it's all cotton:
will have to check on that though.

I wash his, mine, and my daughters clothes all in baby detergent. I
figured that was as safe as it gets.

Not always. One of my son's allergens, was the UK's biggest and most
famous brand of baby
products at the time, (Johnstons) which is still marketed as gentle
and safe for the tenderest skin. "Baby" market products nearly all
contain perfume :-( to make babies smell nice, and a range of
petroleum-based emollients. I learned to avoid "baby" products like the
plague.



Never seen or heard of Filetti.

http://www.filetti.co.uk/filetti/about.cfm

thanks for the link - checking them out now

(Don't use any biological washing agents, on his clothes, towels or
bedding).
An extra cold rinse cycle in the machine after the normal wash, can
also help remove detergent traces.

i use dye & perfume free detergent - hadn't thought or previously been told
about the extra wash part. that makes a lot of sence - gonna start doing
that also. might have to wait til after the drought though....well's
starting to go dry!

Also gonna try getting the E45.
Don't remember hearing about that.

It's the very neutral water- base-cream used by UK pharmacists to make
up prescription ointments and salves. The cream itself is available over
the counter without prescription in every UK chemist shop )pharmacy. You
should be able to buy it from UK sources if not in the USA


You have all my sympathy. I know exactly the feeling of a desperate
mother of a sleepless, limb-thrashing child who is crying in pain and
irritation.. I had a red raw baby from the age of 3 months. People used
to look in his pram and recoil in horror. First task of the morning was
to soak the sheets off the baby where the blood and serum had glued him
to them in the night. But having said all that, I found the hard way,
that the very simplest treatments produce far more comfort and relief
than the many and complex prescribed ones we tried.

you should have seen me while i was pregnant with wyatt - oh my god! i just
wanted to hide in the closet and not let anyone see me. so bad on my scalp
that my hair started falling out. haven't had many break-out with eczema
myself since i gave birth to him. although i would rather have to have it
all myself than see him suffer from it like he does.

Another son's eczema (and behavioural outbursts) were triggered by
artificial food additives, especially food colourants in the
yellow/orange/red spectrum. I would strongly recommend a month's trial
of eliminating those from the family's diet; it means cooking from
scratch with raw ingredients, and a complete ban on all
manufactured/convenience foods especially coloured and artificially
flavoured drinks and sweets.

no soda's at all - i only let him have all natural juices and milk -
sometimes a bit of tea (decaff!). his only "junk-food" is potato chips.
already watch out for red dye food products. for some reason he can climb
walls after eating/drinking something with red food colouring in it! lol

Thanks so much for the ideas - you don't know how much i appreciate it!
Rae