Homeopathy for eczema

IMI stands for Integrated Medical Institute. www.imi.com.hk

i've been seeing their practitioner for over 10 years. i highly recommend Dr Sonal who's a homeopath & specialises in children & a mom of 2 yo herself. so she's very empathetic.
 
Emma, you are the best judge of your son's condition. Try out IMI if you wish but be mindful not everyone's experience is a pleasant or positive one.

I am sorry to know abt your son's eczema. I still pained when I looked at my daughter's baby photos which, yes, she was covered nearly head to toe with rashes esp at 7 months, 2 months after she started solids. Her mouth was most affected, rashes were in the outline shape of her saliva, prompting me to realise it must be something she consumed which she was allergic to. Be mindful when you first introudce solids, that is my recommendation. Highly suggest you run a search on past threads on this topic (I myself has posted qutie a few on management / prevention tips) and try everything and see which works for your son. Something that works really well for one child might have no effect on another child.
My child was allergic to my breastmilk too (I cried when I dumped litres of frozen stock). In the end my vigilant observations deduce something I ate went into my breastmilk cos she was always reacting after a breastfeed. I was eating PURE chicken and nothing else for 8 months. and that helps. Not suggesting you should try this but be observant (keep a journal if needed) to see if he reacts when say you drink milk or have eggs etc. Turned out ,my daughter was allergic to many things including pork and beef, milk and eggs, but not to chicken!
The skin prick test or any test is not accurate when young. My daughter was negative for 16/16 items tested at 4 months but was 15/16 items positive when re-test at 1 year old. She will repeat the test when she hits 2.
Dont be disheartened cos the children do get better (almost all whom I ahve come across with or make friends with). You need to find out what causes the rashes. Often it is the water (I used filterhead to rid of chlorine, which my daughter reacts to), or the food that the child eats (or you eat). And there are 6 main culprits for food allergies: eggs, fish, milk, wheat, and two more I can;t remember. Maybe your son is allergic to just one of these common items elimination of which would cure him once and for all. This is exactly what ahppened to the son of a friend of mine. Poor baby was covered with scabs on the head but after doctor asked her to switch milk (to neonate; BTW my daughter takes Pepti Junior) and applied one week of topical steriod, her son's skin never broke out as bad again. he was allergic to milk, that is all (very common for infants; they outgrow it after 1 year old). Or maybe your son is allergic to his moisturiser. Does it have perfume? Many eczema children use Mustela Stelatopia, you might want to find out mroe abt it.
BTW I recommend Dr. Adrian Wu in Princes Building, can't rememebr his phone number. He was recommended to me by other mummies in this and other expat forums.
Do run search on past threads in this forum, AND in other expat forums, and you will be surprised how helpful they are. There is hope and the worse will pas after his first birthday. Promise. Meanwhile, I find it helped me a lot when I made friends with ohter mummies with eczema kids.
Good luck.
 
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Hi thanks for your replies. I'm not sure whether to try a homeopath or not after reading everyones threads. Right now my son is better than before so I don't want to make him worse. I'm not sure if what I'm eating is helping or not but I tested drinking milk 3 times and I think thats what started his last out break. (Every doctor I have seen has told me that his eczema is not affected by diet and that I should just eat and drink what I like). Having said that now I have completely cut out milk but his skin has not gone back to what it was at 3 months. I am basing my diet on known food allergies in the family so thats milk soya citrus and eggs. My grandmother suffered from really bad eczema her whole life and she was allergic to eggs. I am allergic to chocolate and citrus they always give me really bad headaches. I am wondering if there is anything else I can cut out that he could be allergic to but I guess I will wither away to nothing. I find it really difficult in HK to control the diet as everytime you go out to eat there is a whole ton of stuff added to the food which I think makes him worse. Every monday tuesday his skin is worse and I am guessing this is related to what I have eaten on the sunday. However his skin could also be worse because of the heat every time he gets hot his whole face goes bright red and even though I stay in shopping malls they seem to be too hot for him. I am considering going back to UK in september to see if this could help him. Some people say the dry air will make him worse and some people say it helps as you can go outside in the fresh air. Did anybody find their babies skin was worse when they travelled?
 
my daughter's been to Dr Sonal for her allergies & eczema. in homeopath, there's sth called a miasm, which means a person has an inborn tendency to some "illness", say eczema, or respiratory problems, etc, in my duahgter's case, both. she's been taking the homeopathy for anti-miasm for nearly 3 mths now. the first time, she took the anti-miasm, there were small blotches of red spot where her eczema usually starts. it went away after 3 days. she takes a different anti-miasm remedy every 2 weeks. the 2nd time, the blotches cam back for only 2 days. the 3rd time, only 1 day. and this last week, no blotches at all. the theroy is to let the body get rid of the inborn "toxin", so that it won't recurr so easily. i am staying hopeful that she will be fully cured by the end. i'm doing this mainly because she has a cold every 6 weeks, and apparently it's one of her miasm.
 
Emma, likely your son inherited ths condition from your side of the family then. Allergy has a strong genetic link. My husband, and his brother and mother, suffer from food allergies and so far, 3 out of 3 grandchildren born into this family have allergies, to varying degree. The older one, aged 4, is now showing symptoms of asthma (poor child!).

Since you are a sufferer of allergies yourself, you shd come to the reaslisation that there is unlikely a cure (western medication/homeopathy) and all you can do is to ease and make your son as comfortable as possible. In my opinion, miasims are only applicable to cases where BOTH parents are free from allergies - the child tends to outgrow their allergies by 3 anyway. for cases like us where family members have allergies...hmm, I am not too sure....the child may outgrow some allergies but some are for life (eg for yourself it is c'late and citrus fruits, my husband to soy and shellfish, his brother to beef and onions(!))....

Yep, my PD in Australia AND HK refused to believe me when I said something in my BF caused my child rashes. But i know something was wrong when she reacted EVERY DAY at 11am. Yes, everyday at precisely 11am rashes would come and attack her face. This first occurred when she was 4 months. I told them it was my breakfast of either eggs, bacon, bread, strawbery spread that were the culprit. Not a single person (except hubby) believed me. Then, at one year old when they did the skin prick test, lo and behold, she was severely allergic to eggs (she will get analphaytic shock), wheat, pork and berry family. So moral of the story: you are the mother of your child. Trust your instinct. My PD in HK now believes me, and even told me to watch what I eat as early as pregnancy of our 2nd child.

Yes, sacrifices are hard. I totally understand. Eating chicken for 8 whole mths was not a plesant feeling. Will you consider ending BFing and switch to allergy-free milk for your son? Alternatively, you might not be able to eat most outside food (eg chinese) but you can try my method: explain to restaurants and see if chefs would cater to your needs. we had fantastic comment of Jaspers on Staunton (hope you are living in mid levels!). Chefs here cleaned wok and fry/steam/grill salmon/lamb/chicken (all least allergenic food) with side vegetables (mash potato/peas/carrots/asparagus (all allergenic begs) AND they were even kind enough to make a made-to-order grilled banana desssert. Life is not that bad, promise....

weather? My daughter is BETTER in HK. In australia her skin was dry they sometimes crack and bleed. The humidity seems good. BUT water wise, HK water sucks - hence the use of shower filterhead now. If she were to bathe with water straight from the tap, her skin becomes pigmented. Pollution wise - yeah, after we move to Clearwater bay area, her eczema clears significantly.

You mentioned his skin was not recovered to past condition ? ok, my suggestion: put a dose of mild steriod on skin with rashes/rough. You must apply continuously (in proper dosage ie thin layer) till his skin is back to normal baby soft. then stop. my guess is, so long as you eliminate the common culprits from your diet, you will see his skin will remain babysoft and not go downhill again. the trick is: you must shed the eczema skin from apst flareups, get the new healthy baby skin to grow, then maintain this baby soft skin.

heat is imporatnt - never overdress him and turn on air-con (i often leave one window slightly ajar to get humidity in). eczema skin overheats easily and sweats easily. once he sweats, he will itch and scratch like crazy esp neck and behind head area.

good luck
 
I think that you may be right the person who I know who has had good results from the homeopath has no eczema herself and I am sure her husband does not have. I also know her sons condition is not that serious he never had any out breaks on the face.

One month ago my son got a very bad out break all over his body and we saw various doctors finally we could not control the eczema on his face and it became quite badly infected. Again we saw alot of doctors most of which perscribed antibiotics which I was very unwilling to give as I had already put alot of different antibiotic creams and none of them had done the trick. Finally we saw a new doctor and he said that there was no infection and that it was just the eczema and that the only answer at this point is to aply a steroid cream. As the area was quite large (his whole face) he dilluted one steroid and told us to apply to the whole red area 3 times a day and then when it gets better 2 times and then one time. The results were incredible after the first day the redness was all gone and by the second the whole thing was reduced to odd spots by the end of the week it was pretty much gone and I stopped the use of the cream (I did not want to use the steroid for too long). Once I stopped the cream the next day the eczema came back as if I had never put the cream in the first place. I went back to see the same doctor and he said that I should not have stopped the cream so early I should apply from one week until gone and then apply another one to two weeks to completely get rid of the eczema. I then started the cream again three weeks down the line the eczema was still not clear even putting the cream everyday the doctor told me that there must be something that has re-triggered the eczema and that I should continue to put the cream. I have now stopped the cream and the eczema has come back in exactly the old areas even in the shape of where the eczema was before one month ago. I don't think that this could be retriggering its just as if it never left. The rash originally came back worse than before and it has now subsided back to the same stubborn areas. I am now just treating the eczema as before with moisturising creams and seeing if he can clear the rash himself but as you can imagine the itching is driving him mad.

I really don't know what to do now either I just carry on with the moisturisers and hope he can clear it himself before it gets infected again or carry on to put the steriod cream. I know the steroid cream is just delaying the rash from coming back and my main concern is that if I continue to put the cream in the end when I stop the use of it the rash will come back much much worse than before. I can try to see another doctor but I have got to the point that I feel like none of them can really help and I could go back to see the same doctor that gave me the steroid cream but then he will just ask me why I have not continued to apply his cream! I feel like the steroid cream may not be the right one to help him clear the eczema I am sure that if it was going to work it would have done so by now. Now his face has got worse the rest of his body has also got worse.

How long do you need to apply the steroids to get them to work and then how long does the eczema usually go for?
 
Emma, if you check my past posts here and in other expat forum, you will find I had the same concerns as you. my daughter's rashes come back the day after i stopped steriod, and what more, her rashes were worse than ever as they attacked the exact same parts of her skin. My PD has to BEG me to use steriod on her for an entire hr cos I was that stubborn. I relented only and only when he said see, how your daughter is scratching herself so badly and losing her temper? she shd be spending that time playing and enjoying life, not scratching and feeling upset. yes, i was indeed compromising her life had i not use steriod on her. she couldn;t sleep every single night cos she scratched her neck and i couldn't sleep cos i had to scratch for her when she was too tired..... it was painful, painful, painful for me. that is why we ahve delayed having abby no 2 despite that we love children cos we are so so so scared.....

we are in a different league here, Emma. Our kids have defective genes that make them susceptible to allergies. Our kids are not like others whose parents are fine - these kidss eczema is far far far minor to my daughter's least serious flareup. theirs? maybe due to polllution, water, environment. Ours? haha, food, dust, mites, animal fur, list goes on. and when my daughter's flareup starts, it can go to bleeding stage if she scratched too much.

I dare guess your son's condition is a vicious cycle. hubby and i used to joke our life and our moods is ruled in a 5-day cycle. Why? my duaghter will get a flare-up, i put steriod for 3 days, her skin was BEAUTIFUL during third and fourth day - we are happy days. then fifth day, rashes were back, worse than ever, sad......doctor said use longer until skin is stabilised so i use for 2 weeks, see beautiful skin, then rashes back again. i swore off steriod, then i use it again when her skin was so bad, then get guilty and frustrated.

this is a battle you have to face Emma for the first year of your son's life. After first year, i promise it will get better. As an example, my daughter uses 1% hydrocortisone from 6 wks to 6 months old. her skin became immune so i have to go one grade higher to flunicolone from 6 - 9 mths then skin immune again so move to highest strength Elomet (wonder drug we call it-rid of eczema in half day) 9mths-1 year old. THEN MAGICALLY, after skin prick test and diet restriction, we stopped steriod on the 12the Feb 2007. at first stop 2 weeks, then mild rash so apply sparingly, then stop 4 weeks, then rash is milder etc. I have NOT use steriod for past 10 months. yes, that was the date we celebrated.

since your son's eczema keeps coming back, it is logical to assume that you are keep exposing him to the thing(s) he is allergic to. so no chnace for his skin to recover. once recover, you expose him to allergen, his skin gets sick again. and why do you think your son's excema broken skin will recover on its own with mositurisers?

Put simply, to stop his flareups, you need to stop giving/exposing him to the allergens he is reacting to. yes steriod will make his skin better but this is just cosmetic recovery. if and i am saying if your son has food allergies, his flareups will come back once you stop steriod. it is from the inside that you have to tackle. Why don't you do the skin prick test eventhough the test is not accurate at this stage if you have money to spare. why? the test might tell you even one item that your son is allergic to, maybe THE ONE he is highly allergic to, and then you stop eating this food or don't introduce it to him. Dr. Adrian Wu uses more advanced testing material for skin prick test, my daughter didn;'t even flinch.
 
haha Emma, famous last words re not using steriod for past 10 months...yesterday we gave a small piece of pork to my daughter, (cos Dr Wu said she has outgrown her pork allergy from the skin prick test) and lo and behold at 4 am last night she scratched her tummy and at 9am when i checked her skin, yes, there is a flareup, but luckily minor, all over the sides of her tummy. Haven't seen eczema for 10 months and now it is back. so i am applying the weakest strength hydrocortisone tonight. She is still allergic to pork afterall. Yes, positive skin prick test is a positive result but a negative result has to be interpreted with caution. But we tried apple (she was allergic to apple last year) and hurray, she has outgrown her apple allergy and can take it. SHE LOVES APPLES, but calls them pear cos for 20 months she only ate pear as fruit so every sweet thing to her is pear! ; )
 
emma, i had ezcema & so did my husband. but please please please bring your child to see Dr. Sonal. just give her one chance, both you & your poor child deserves it.

i don't know whether you know how steroid cream works. it's told to me by my dermatologist. steroid cream work by lowering the immunity ability of the skin. the skin is reacting to sth the skin/body doesn't like, that's why it's flaring up, be it sth from outside of the skin or from the body. by lowering the sensitivity & immunity of the skin, the flares stop. by putting more & more steroid cream onto the eczema skin, the skin no longer has the sensors to tell the body to react, hence there is no more flare-ups. it doesn't mean the allergens aren't there, it doesn't mean the allergens are attacking the body. by putting steroid cream, you stop the body's ability to fight back.

this is what several homeopaths tell me about eczema: the body is trying to get rid of sth that is irritating by flaring upat the skin. it's a signal that's sth is wrong. by suppressing the flare-up, the toxin or whatever the system was trying to get rid of goes inside. the skin is a biggest de-tox system of the body, it's linked with the lungs (cos it's part of the respiratory system). through suppressing the eczema, whatever the body was trying to get rid of goes inside the next level, which are the lungs. hence we are getting enormous amt of kids with asthma & repiratory problems, partly because of all this steroid cream we put on their skin.

another real life example: my relative who's 40 (i don't wanna say who, but someone really close to me) started a bad case of eczema on his back. it was really itchy so he went to his dermatologist. his derm gave him steroid cream (like all derms), he puts the cream on, just like everyone does, for 1 week, and the eczema went away. 1 mth later it came back in a lower area on the back, so more steroid cream. it went away. 1 mth later it came back on the lower back, more steroid cream. same cycle went on for a year. he never thought much about it. then the eczema seemed better, but blood started dripping when he poos. he though it was a hemoroid. it went on for several months. his wife finally decided to get him a body check. turned out he had a tiny tumor in his rectum. he had it removed by surgery. and the eczema never came back. moral of the story: the eczema is a sign that sth is wrong. pls don't treat the eczema on the surface, please get to the bottom of the problem & get rid of that.

re: miasm in homeopathy. it does not only work for kids who's parents had ezcema. it doesn't only apply to eczmea. it applies to any sort of recurring problems anyone has.

please give yourself & your child a chance at homeopathy. you won't know whether it will work or not if you never try it.
 
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