Grandaughter Ruby is now nearly 3... as most of you know she had a very poor start in life and is now considered completely 'dairy' intolerant... her diet is virtually non-existant owing to the fact that she will not eat anything remotely lumpy... she is under the care of the hospital dieticians and at the moment her main 'food' is soya milk and water (she doesn't like juice) with stage 1 baby food (pureed mush ) with the occasional piece of special bread.... despite her virtually living on 'thin air' she continues to grown properly, has the most beautiful teeth and chatters away constantly (her favourite saying at the moment is 'simples nanny' after the meercat advert )
We have both 'asthma and eczema' in our family and unfortunately Ruby has now developed both of them East Anglia (where we live) is the worst part of the country for Asthma probably due to the fact that we grow 90% of the worlds 'Rape flowers' to make oil etc...)
Rubys' asthma is 'under control' but her eczema has started to rear its ugly head again and at the moment she is covered in bleeding cracks where she can't stop scratching My Daughter Claire is taking her back to see the doctor (again) this morning as poor Ruby has only had a couple of hours sleep this weekend owing to the itching... Claire has tried everything from Aqueous cream, Piriton, special emolliants for the bath etc...etc... I think the Doctor may suggest hydrocortisone this time as a 'quick fix' but I was wondering if any of you girlies have any experience of eczema and if you have any suggestions....? The weather is so hot and humid here at the moment which makes her skin more itchy and I feel so sorry for her...My Son Jordan (now 26) had the most terrible eczema as a child and has been left with awful scars on his legs but he did grew out of it when he was 7... any advice would be gratefully appreciated Girlies xx

Poor baby girl
Pressure bandages! Sounds odd, and definately fetches some odd looks from passers by when they see a baby in a pram/pushchair with them on. But they really do help.
My family is cursed with A/E too and my neice really did suffer as a baby and smaller child, they recommended the bandages to not only keep the itching down (something to do with air contact) and to help prevent her from scratching non stop. Ask your Doc about zinc paste and ichthammol bandages.


As she grows older she will develop a kind of 'ignore' thing and won't be so inclined to keep ripping huge chunks of her skin off.

Oilatum in the bath helps too and you will no doubt have creams such as Betnovate or Eumovate (or similar) and E45 anti itch will help too.

The dairy intolerant bit I can sympathise with too, I am lactose intolerant myself and until you really start to look into every single component of foodstuffs you don't realise just how you can be poisoning yourself but I'm certain that the docs will have told her Mum what she can and can't eat as she grows up. There are lots more soya based products now to what there used to be. I will have a look and see what I can find on dairy free diets and see if I can find more things to offer her to eat.


Please give darling Ruby a huge big cuddle from me too Batty

Thanks Jo Ruby is lactose AND milk protein intolerant so wheras I was able to bring my boys up on goats milk (they both had a milk allergy) Ruby can't have this as it contains the wrong sort of protein ...she doesn't miss normal everyday things like biscuits or chocolate (shudder the thought ) as she's never had them... I used to buy her the 'dairy free' chocolate buttons but she wasn't interested in them so.......I ate them! She does love the 'Alpro' soya desserts (as they are smooth) and is particularly partial to babies 'squash & chicken' 4 month baby food in jars but if we try to puree ordinary food she's not having any of it! (stubborn like her Nanny ) she gags and chokes before the spoon even gets to her mouth ...she's had her throat and swallowing reflex checked but so far no reason can be found

We are hoping that once she starts school properly and sees the other children 'eating' that she will want to try...she will need to wear a badge 24/7 to inform any 'well meaning' people that she can't have choc/sweets/milk etc....My Claire isn't looking forward to that!

I'm busy looking for these special 'tea' leaves at the moment that are supposed to be really good at clearing childhood eczema, I remember reading about them somewhere but for the life of me can't remember what they were called

It may be Oolong tea Batty... see this article http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NA...32/ai_85174689/

I don't know if it works or not though, merely reading up on it. If I were you and her Mum, I'd get her checked to see if she is also Gluten intolerant too. Often people that suffer from lactose and other allergies cannot tolerate Gluten either, if she is, you really need to get bread/pasta and any other wheat/malt/oats based foodstuffs out of her diet as they will make her much worse.

Poor Ruby, she's such a pretty little thing and so full of joy and giggles, she certainly doesn't deserve this hassle in her life. But I'm sure you all make up for that

If you do find out she suffers with Gluten intolerance on top of her dairy probs do let me know and I can pop you lots of sites over via pm that may also be of help. For now, here is a site with some fabby recipes on and 99% of them are both diary and gluten free too http://gluten-dairy-sugarfree.com/ (might come in handy)


p.s glad to see you forced yourself to eat those dairy free choc buttons Batty saves wasting them hehe. (I'd have done the same thing)

I found this link http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/archives20...ar/03glick.html

its says about acupuncture being useful too as well as listing the chinese herbs. You need a chinese herbalist probably though. I see squash is a recommended food to help eczema so Ruby obviously knows instinctively what is good for her

When you puree home cooked food for her is it served differently to the jar food she prefers - ie does she see the jar ? I wonder whether if you cleaned them out and added your own puree to the jar without her seeing that bit of the process, whether she would feel more comfortable trying something different, as she won't know its different until she tasted it. Might help stop her getting worried before she even takes a mouthful. I guess you can not blame her being like that when so many things in the past have made her ill, it must make you mistrust most foods, and make you want to stick to those you know.

It must be hell on earth for a toddler to have itchy eczema, especially when you don't understand not to scratch if possible. Although I remember seeing a program which followed a teenage girl who had very severe eczema all over her body, when it was at its worse, she itched herself with a stiff hairbrush until her skin was red raw, just to get some relief. She went to a chinese herbalist and it worked wonders within a few weeks, she really was a completely different person. This kind of weather must be the worst too, hot and sticky.

Poor Ruby, she really is very brave. Its alot to go through when you are so young.

poor dear little Ruby - she's such a little doll and no child on earth deserves such trials and tribulations - WTH are we doing to our earth? It's man's fault - pollution etc.

to you and Ruby

I like the herbal idea - and they say children respond well to homoeopathic cures too...

Thanks girlies I knew I could rely on you to come up with some great ideas to help Ruby

Claire went back to the doctors today and saw her own GP this time.., as luck would have it he has a small Son who also suffers with the most terrible eczema (not lucky for the poor boy though ) so the GP was able to help Ruby a lot more than the one she saw last week.... he gave her some cream for night times which hopefully will break the itch-scratch-itch cycle...he also gave her a different emollient for the bath and some Factor 50 sun cream especially for children with bad eczema... he wants to see Ruby again in a week and if there is no change then he wants her to see a specialist at the hospital asap .... Claire brough Ruby round to mine after the Doctors and I was horrified to see the state of her skin... her neck and chest are full of dry,cracked and raw sores as is her back and arms......the poor little love - she was showing me her reading book and all the time we were looking at it she was scratching her skin without being aware she was even doing it it breaks my heart to see her in this state...

I am pretty certain that this hot and humid weather has a lot to do with Rubys skin at the moment... never before have I prayed so much for it to turn cold and rain

Oh poor Ruby! There is nothing worse than being itchy is there? I suffer from allergic eczema myself, and suffered hugely as a teenager, as I didn't realise what I was allergic to! The doctors were no help at all! My hands and arms were mostly affected... In fact all they suggested was putting hand cream on, or prescribing cortisone cream.. neither of which helped at all! Now I know what I am allergic to; milk mostly, and pollen, but I can control it with antihistamines in the summer, and not drinking too much milk.. just in tea and coffee.. plus I seem to have grown out of it, mostly.. fingers and toes crossed! It used to occur mostly in the summer and I had NO idea why..

Ruby has my utmost sympathy! Poor little thing.. Give her a big hug from me will you.. I do hope she grows out of it too very soon.

You may also find she grows out of the milk thing too, I have a friend whose son was very allergic to chocolate as a baby, but at age 11, is now able to eat it.. so fingers crossed..

I know what you mean about the weather Batty, this humidity must drive her completely nuts! Poor baby, do pass on all our cuddles for her too please.
Hope this new cream works for her and she gets a bit of respite.

Thanks Row ...the specialist don't think Rubes will grow out of the dairy intolerance now..she has been tested and it was found that she has 2 forms of allergy, the lactose one can disappear as a child gets older (as in my boys) but the other protein intolerance is life-long unfortunately
We are just on our way back to the GP as Ruby had her worst night ever last night and the cream she was given yesterday has made the sores WORSE this morning .. It isn't hot here at the moment because of dense fog (which we have had for 3 days) but she still only had an hours sleep last night and scratched and scratched till the skin bled I have a feeling she may need to go into hospital to be treated and bandaged... I'll let you know what happens x

poor little thing!...try Cetaphil to wash her with?? I hear that some use shea butter also derma-smooth (RX eczema oil ) might be an option..I do know that people with plaque seriosis (sp) use tanning beds to keep it under control, so do some with Eczema too. Although given her age it might be hard keeping her still even for 10 minutes and and definately test her gluten allergies..(the eczema could be a result of it)

theres seems to be a corellation with soy milk prods and eczema..in fact some drs say not to even give soy as it can also aggrevate eczema in some cases..

soy milk and Eczema

There would be no way my Daughter would ever consider putting Ruby under a 'tanning bed' even for a few minutes.. she is not 3 yrs old yet and I don't think any children should be exposed to the dangers of 'sun beds'

We went to the doctors again today and he has now given Ruby a mild hydocortisone cream to be applied twice a day and there is a definate improvement in her skin tonight, he has also given her a special factor 60 sun cream, special shampoo and several emollients that contain oat meal ...we have to take Ruby back to see him in a week and hopefully there will be a noticeable difference by then, she is on 'Piriton' anti-histamine at night now, it doesn't really help with the itching but it does make her sleep for at least 2 hours.
The next step will be to test Ruby for 'gluten intolerance' but that won't be done until next week.