Getting quick relief from eczema
BLEARY-eyed, Catherine Chalmers stumbled to the cot to check on Lauren, her crying baby. It was another night of disturbed sleep for the new mum, and it took her a few seconds to realise what was wrong.
Her ten-week-old daughter's face was covered with blood, and the bedclothes were smeared with it.
Instinctively Catherine grabbed little Lauren and rushed to tend the bleeding, delicate skin, all the while trying to shake off the waves of guilt which hit her at the awful sight.
Not that she had any reason to feel guilty. The cause of the bleeding was eczema and Lauren, unable to bear the itch, had scratched herself so badly her skin was red raw.
But Catherine's guilt was sparked by the knowledge that her daughter probably inherited the potentially horrific skin condition from her and her husband, Jeff Wright.
Recalling the night when her daughter's condition escalated from a small rash on her face to full-blown eczema, the 34-year-old Musselburgh mum says: "She was about eight weeks when the rash first appeared and I did not worry about it really.
"I thought it might be a teething rash and the GP didn't say anything about eczema.
"But none of the creams we were given seemed to help and the rash spread to her legs, torso and arms. The worst part was that first night when she scratched herself until she bled. I got such a fright.
"Sometimes when she falls asleep she moves her arms and they brush her face, so when she wakes up there is a pool of blood all over her face and bed. It's very upsetting seeing your little one upset and scratching away and causing herself injury.
"When she was diagnosed with atopic eczema we were told that the condition is closely linked to asthma and hayfever and tends to run in families. It did make me feel a bit guilty because Jeff had eczema when he was a child and because both he and I suffer from hayfever."
Until recently, Lauren would have faced a six-month wait to see a specialist in Edinburgh for help and support. But thanks to the launch of new nurse-led clinics in the city she was seen within a few weeks of the outbreak - giving her and her parents much-needed relief.
It was a month after the rash first appeared that the GP diagnosed eczema and referred Lauren to one of the new twice-weekly nurse-led clinics at the Sick Kids Hospital and the Dermatology Department in the Lauriston Buildings next to the old Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
Around three weeks later clinic staff were teaching Catherine, an art therapist, and 39-year-old Jeff, a project manager, different techniques to help Lauren's skin recover.
Back at their home in Campie Road they spent the next seven days laboriously daubing their daughter in a special paraffin-based mixture and wrapping her in bandages every night, unwrapping her and washing off the ointment every morning.
They also learned to keep Lauren's finger nails as short as possible and to dress her in trousers to minimise her chances of scratching her bare legs and making herself bleed.
Catherine says: "The support we got from the GP was fine up to a point but it was so reassuring to go to the clinic and be told so many practical and positive things.
"To hear a nurse say a particular cream will make a difference after so many of them [from the GP before eczema was diagnosed] hadn't worked was great.
"Within a few days of going to the clinic Lauren's skin started feeling soft again and she didn't want to scratch as much."
Today it is impossible to tell that the eight-month-old has eczema at all, thanks to treatment and advice from staff at the clinic, although her condition might flare up again at any time.
She is among the one in ten youngsters in Scotland with eczema, many of whom suffer teasing and lose self-esteem as they get older because of the angry red patches which characterise the condition. As a result, parents of children with eczema unsurprisingly can go to extreme lengths to save their children from both the itch and the loss of confidence.
Just last week another young Scots eczema sufferer was reported to have found a miracle "cure" for her skin condition, from the healing waters of a remote French spa. Three-year-old Lucy Evans from Kingseat, Fife, has undergone a dramatic improvement after bathing in thermal springs waters at Avene-les-Bains in south-west France.
But while Eczema Scotland, the charity which uses Lucy as the face of its campaigns, says her success is "fantastic news", volunteers are unwilling to comment on the implications for other child victims, stressing that different treatments work for different people.
While most young sufferers' eczema has more or less cleared up by the time they reach their mid-teens, doctors are unable to say if or when any given child will grow out of the devastating condition.
This makes quicker access to the clinics even more important to families of children with eczema.
Childhood eczema typically appears in babies as a rash on the head known as cradle cap at about two to three months. Around 50 per cent of children have improved dramatically by the time they are five, while about 90 per cent are better when they reach the age of ten.
Specialist nurses at the Edinburgh clinic now see more than a hundred children each month. Running the nurse-led clinics alongside similar weekly doctor-led clinics has slashed waiting times for families from six months about a year ago to around six to eight weeks.
Dermatology nurse specialist Janice Lowe has played a key role in establishing and running the clinics. She says: "Before we set them up it was very distressing for parents and their children to have to wait up to six months for an appointment to see a consultant.
"Eczema impacts on the whole family, especially if the child is not sleeping. It's amazing how two visits to the clinic can change people's lives.
"We can show parents how to treat their children, which can be a very time-consuming process.
"There was a study which showed that the average family with a child with atopic eczema spends three hours a day bathing and dressing their child."
Like Catherine, Carol Robson also credits the clinic with helping her and her husband cope after their one-year-old son Caleb was diagnosed with eczema.
Carol, 41, who lives in Saughtonhall with husband Brian, says: "We never thought about eczema because it's not in the family. He was about three months old when he got a rash on his face which became infected.
"We were lucky because he hasn't really scratched himself until he bled but it was a few months before we were referred to the GP and then the clinic after trying different creams which did not help much.
"We were in and out of the clinic for some time and they were always friendly and helpful. Within eight weeks of our first appointment we were able to stop using steroid creams, and we still don't need to use them on him."
"We have an open appointment for the clinic for the next year so every time he needs to go we can call direct to make an appointment without needing a GP referral."
But like many parents, the Robsons are concerned about the future. Carol says: "I think it is likely that he will grow out of it because neither of us has it but no-one can tell you for sure. I don't want him to have it at school and be self-conscious about it."
Meanwhile, Lauren is doing well at the moment. Her family are prepared for another "bad break-out" though, as colder weather which can exacerbate it.
As Catherine says: "Until she grows up we won't know when she will grow out of it. We just hope she does."
The painful facts
ECZEMA affects one in ten children in Scotland.
• It is a condition which can make the sufferer's skin dry, hot and itchy, causing them to scratch and leading to broken, raw and bleeding skin.
• The most common type of the condition is atopic eczema, which often runs in families and is linked to hayfever and asthma.
• The cause is not yet fully understood but stress, house dust mites and detergents are all known triggers.
• Another type of eczema is contact eczema, which is caused by coming into contact with irritants such as detergents and allergens such as rubber.
• Treatments for eczema include applying emollients -special moisturisers - and steroid creams to affected areas of the skin and covering with bandages.
This reduces inflammation and redness, soothes severe itching and helps prevent sufferers from scratching themselves.
• If not treated appropriately the skin can get increasingly irritated and itchy, leading to more scratching and more damage to the skin, which can cause infection and emotional distress.
This article: http://living.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=1456732006
Source - Scotsman
Her ten-week-old daughter's face was covered with blood, and the bedclothes were smeared with it.
Instinctively Catherine grabbed little Lauren and rushed to tend the bleeding, delicate skin, all the while trying to shake off the waves of guilt which hit her at the awful sight.
Not that she had any reason to feel guilty. The cause of the bleeding was eczema and Lauren, unable to bear the itch, had scratched herself so badly her skin was red raw.
But Catherine's guilt was sparked by the knowledge that her daughter probably inherited the potentially horrific skin condition from her and her husband, Jeff Wright.
Recalling the night when her daughter's condition escalated from a small rash on her face to full-blown eczema, the 34-year-old Musselburgh mum says: "She was about eight weeks when the rash first appeared and I did not worry about it really.
"I thought it might be a teething rash and the GP didn't say anything about eczema.
"But none of the creams we were given seemed to help and the rash spread to her legs, torso and arms. The worst part was that first night when she scratched herself until she bled. I got such a fright.
"Sometimes when she falls asleep she moves her arms and they brush her face, so when she wakes up there is a pool of blood all over her face and bed. It's very upsetting seeing your little one upset and scratching away and causing herself injury.
"When she was diagnosed with atopic eczema we were told that the condition is closely linked to asthma and hayfever and tends to run in families. It did make me feel a bit guilty because Jeff had eczema when he was a child and because both he and I suffer from hayfever."
Until recently, Lauren would have faced a six-month wait to see a specialist in Edinburgh for help and support. But thanks to the launch of new nurse-led clinics in the city she was seen within a few weeks of the outbreak - giving her and her parents much-needed relief.
It was a month after the rash first appeared that the GP diagnosed eczema and referred Lauren to one of the new twice-weekly nurse-led clinics at the Sick Kids Hospital and the Dermatology Department in the Lauriston Buildings next to the old Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
Around three weeks later clinic staff were teaching Catherine, an art therapist, and 39-year-old Jeff, a project manager, different techniques to help Lauren's skin recover.
Back at their home in Campie Road they spent the next seven days laboriously daubing their daughter in a special paraffin-based mixture and wrapping her in bandages every night, unwrapping her and washing off the ointment every morning.
They also learned to keep Lauren's finger nails as short as possible and to dress her in trousers to minimise her chances of scratching her bare legs and making herself bleed.
Catherine says: "The support we got from the GP was fine up to a point but it was so reassuring to go to the clinic and be told so many practical and positive things.
"To hear a nurse say a particular cream will make a difference after so many of them [from the GP before eczema was diagnosed] hadn't worked was great.
"Within a few days of going to the clinic Lauren's skin started feeling soft again and she didn't want to scratch as much."
Today it is impossible to tell that the eight-month-old has eczema at all, thanks to treatment and advice from staff at the clinic, although her condition might flare up again at any time.
She is among the one in ten youngsters in Scotland with eczema, many of whom suffer teasing and lose self-esteem as they get older because of the angry red patches which characterise the condition. As a result, parents of children with eczema unsurprisingly can go to extreme lengths to save their children from both the itch and the loss of confidence.
Just last week another young Scots eczema sufferer was reported to have found a miracle "cure" for her skin condition, from the healing waters of a remote French spa. Three-year-old Lucy Evans from Kingseat, Fife, has undergone a dramatic improvement after bathing in thermal springs waters at Avene-les-Bains in south-west France.
But while Eczema Scotland, the charity which uses Lucy as the face of its campaigns, says her success is "fantastic news", volunteers are unwilling to comment on the implications for other child victims, stressing that different treatments work for different people.
While most young sufferers' eczema has more or less cleared up by the time they reach their mid-teens, doctors are unable to say if or when any given child will grow out of the devastating condition.
This makes quicker access to the clinics even more important to families of children with eczema.
Childhood eczema typically appears in babies as a rash on the head known as cradle cap at about two to three months. Around 50 per cent of children have improved dramatically by the time they are five, while about 90 per cent are better when they reach the age of ten.
Specialist nurses at the Edinburgh clinic now see more than a hundred children each month. Running the nurse-led clinics alongside similar weekly doctor-led clinics has slashed waiting times for families from six months about a year ago to around six to eight weeks.
Dermatology nurse specialist Janice Lowe has played a key role in establishing and running the clinics. She says: "Before we set them up it was very distressing for parents and their children to have to wait up to six months for an appointment to see a consultant.
"Eczema impacts on the whole family, especially if the child is not sleeping. It's amazing how two visits to the clinic can change people's lives.
"We can show parents how to treat their children, which can be a very time-consuming process.
"There was a study which showed that the average family with a child with atopic eczema spends three hours a day bathing and dressing their child."
Like Catherine, Carol Robson also credits the clinic with helping her and her husband cope after their one-year-old son Caleb was diagnosed with eczema.
Carol, 41, who lives in Saughtonhall with husband Brian, says: "We never thought about eczema because it's not in the family. He was about three months old when he got a rash on his face which became infected.
"We were lucky because he hasn't really scratched himself until he bled but it was a few months before we were referred to the GP and then the clinic after trying different creams which did not help much.
"We were in and out of the clinic for some time and they were always friendly and helpful. Within eight weeks of our first appointment we were able to stop using steroid creams, and we still don't need to use them on him."
"We have an open appointment for the clinic for the next year so every time he needs to go we can call direct to make an appointment without needing a GP referral."
But like many parents, the Robsons are concerned about the future. Carol says: "I think it is likely that he will grow out of it because neither of us has it but no-one can tell you for sure. I don't want him to have it at school and be self-conscious about it."
Meanwhile, Lauren is doing well at the moment. Her family are prepared for another "bad break-out" though, as colder weather which can exacerbate it.
As Catherine says: "Until she grows up we won't know when she will grow out of it. We just hope she does."
The painful facts
ECZEMA affects one in ten children in Scotland.
• It is a condition which can make the sufferer's skin dry, hot and itchy, causing them to scratch and leading to broken, raw and bleeding skin.
• The most common type of the condition is atopic eczema, which often runs in families and is linked to hayfever and asthma.
• The cause is not yet fully understood but stress, house dust mites and detergents are all known triggers.
• Another type of eczema is contact eczema, which is caused by coming into contact with irritants such as detergents and allergens such as rubber.
• Treatments for eczema include applying emollients -special moisturisers - and steroid creams to affected areas of the skin and covering with bandages.
This reduces inflammation and redness, soothes severe itching and helps prevent sufferers from scratching themselves.
• If not treated appropriately the skin can get increasingly irritated and itchy, leading to more scratching and more damage to the skin, which can cause infection and emotional distress.
This article: http://living.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=1456732006
Source - Scotsman
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