Itchy and Scratchy

[Guest guest]

Poor Josh is having a nightmare atm. We've always known he's allergic to

egg - gave him an omlette at about 1yr and just touching it to his face

brought his face and hands out in huge red welts immediately so we took it

away again before he ate any! So last Monday, finally, we got an

appointment with the very sympathetic paediatrician at Stepping Hill to do

an egg challenge with him. All very nerve racking stuff...

They touched a bit of hard boiled egg to his lip, and left him an hour to

see what happened - it came up in a bright red spot, but didn't swell

significantly so they decided to feed him a piece. The tiniest bite of the

end of a quarter of hard boiled egg went into his mouth, and he declared he

didn't like it and wouldn't eat any more!! Typical! We coaxed another

small bit of yolk in, but that was it - barely a nibble after a whole year

of waiting for the appointment. The worry is that he may be anaphylactic,

so we do need to know *how* allergic he is. Anyway, because he'd eaten

some, we had to stay another 2 hours, just to make sure he was going to be

OK, though we weren't sure he'd swallowed any.

So, we made another appointment to go back in mid-August with an egg

sandwich at lunchtime, and trogged off home, wryly shaking our heads at the

impossibility of small boys.

On Tuesday (the day after) my Mum came over, and when we got him undressed

she said " Oh, what's this rash? " Well, it was very hot so I looked at a

very faint pink rash on his right breast area and said " must be heat rash " .

To cut a long story short, the rash has carried on coming out and spreading,

and now covers the whole of the front of his chest down to his tummy button

and loosely beyond, his shoulders, his back, and is spreading down his upper

arms. It's tiny red spots, some of which have white fluid in, which are

intensely itchy - he's tearing lumps out of himself. My immediate thought

was ohmigod - guttate psoriasis (which I suffer from): the poor kid's going

to have a rotten time at school and so on. In a severe attack of the

maternal guilts, I rang my consultant at Salford Hospital and said the

baby's got it - can we come? And he was brilliant - said it's highly

unlikely that's what it is: very unusual in a child under 5 and almost

unheard of in a child who also has eczema. Go to the GP and if he agrees

that's what it is, then get him to write a note, and the consultant would

see us today (I love the NHS!) By some miracle I managed to get him in

front of a GP who knows his skin (difficult - I've been told my guttate is a

viral rash which will clear up in 7 days by 3 GPs - 18 months later, I'm

still waiting for it to go completely!) who looked at him and said it's

infected eczema. Not good, but better than guttate ps!! And it's

definitely a reaction to the egg challenge, so I've to take photos of him to

show the paed. next month.

Anyway, he's got antibiotics for the infection and a pile of homeopathic

stuff for the eczema and an even bigger pile of moisturisers to keep the

itch down. And we've to moisturise him before putting him in the bath -

only tepid, never warm! - which has to have another moisturiser in it, and

pat dry, and moisturise with yet a third when he gets out, and moisturise

continuously through the day. Anti-biotics 4x a day, homeopathics 3x a day.

Poor baby!

But there are two bright notes: the homeopathic cream is beginning to clear

the eczema he has permanently on wrists and back of knees and top of toes

and inner elbows *And* the GP gave him phenergan - lovely antihistamine

with sedative effect - for night, to stop him itching in his sleep - and he

slept through till 7am this morning!!!! He's normally a 5:30 boy come what

may!!!!!

So if anyone has any brilliant anti-scratching ideas, please let me know -

it's not made easier by his refusal to wear clothes.

Sorry, this has got a bit long - I'm so relieved it's not psoriasis that

I've turned all verbose!

Vicki Portman

http://www.plushpants.co.uk