I met Michelle through my Bamboo Bubby Facebook page a few months ago now and then again through a Facebook eczema and allergy support group and her baby's eczema story was so similar to ours that I wondered aloud to her if it would be useful to write it and share it in case it might be helpful to others out there going through almost exactly the same things right now. She kindly spent the time to do this (despite being busy with an eczema baby, work and all the other things life throws at us) and has allowed me to share it here with you all - Thankyou Michelle, Kelly x

Today Ryan is 1, but thinking back to when he was 4 months old and just starting to show some signs of dermatitis, feels like forever ago. Many doctors, creams, washes, dietary changes etc between then and who would have thought that we even went through all that to be where we are today.

At age 4 months, Ryan started to show a little dry rash on his cheeks which I instantly suspected was dermatitis, if not possibly baby eczema. I myself had very mild eczema as a teenager only on my face so thought it could be possible that Ryan had something similar. A visit to the GP resulted in a prescription for Sigmacort to hopefully clear it up and all would be good. We were told should it not get better to come back and we would receive a referral to a dermatologist.

Symptoms continued of course and I tried various over the counter products. I think back now and I reckon I would have bought every sensitive skin product that can be bought in the baby section at our local chemist and supermarket.

We got our referral to the dermatologist and don't have a lot to say about her other than she was hopeless. She didn’t even touch Ryan not to mention she merely even looked at him and only went on to say that he had the eczema, asthma, allergy gene and there is no cure. She gave us scripts for Celestone and a moisturiser that was to be made up at a compound chemist. She also suggested QV bath oil for the bath. Months later I found out from one of Ryan's other doctors that she in fact didn’t bother to tell which order the cream was to be applied and for the first 3 months I was applying it in the wrong order so this explained whey nothing was working!

As Ryan grew I would visit our local clinic nurse and we always talked about Ryan's skin condition and how things were going. I wondered at this stage whether breast milk was affecting him and it was something I ate. Our clinic nurse mentioned, Dr Joshi, an immunologist who a lot of other mothers had been and had said great things about. Off to the GP again for another referral. We attended Dr Joshi’s rooms where she conducted her consultation and at the same time they did an allergy test on Ryan. Being only 6mths at the time, they felt it only necessary to test for the 12 most commons things. An allergy came up for eggs and she recommended cutting all eggs from my diet whilst breast feeding. At this stage I made a decision to give away the feeding and move to bottles to avoid any exposure at all to eggs for Ryan. During our consult I also asked about Ryans face as he is always scratching and creating sores which looked red. Ryan had a staph infection which would require antibiotics to clear up. These infections actually make them itchier so he would definitely find some relief once the medicine (Keflex) did its thing. Dr Joshi explained the correct procedure for applying cream and put us on to QV Flare Up which is antibacterial bath oil and this would help try and keep his infections away. She also got us on QV intensive moisture which is great and I continue to use this every day. The other moisturiser his skin just seems to suck away real quick!

Things started to improve slightly and then came the sleeping in the night issue. Started out small, a few wake ups during the night here and there but was able to get him back to sleep and then it worsened to countless sleepless nights with a scratching screaming baby and not knowing how to help. We tried wet washer, let him sleep with us and then came Nurofen which seem to help a little but only for the 4 hours that it works.

By about April I started doing more research on the internet and looked into antihistamines for babies. If you go to the chemist they will say the only one for under 2 is Telfast, which I can say first hand, did nothing for Ryan. We had a follow up appointment with Dr Joshi in May and she got us onto Zrytec. Recommended doses for Ryan is 2.5ml daily and it will last 12 hours. We give Ryan this does every night and around 6pm the following night you can tell when it has started to wear off.

Seeing Dr Joshi again in May, I pointed out the bulk of Ryan’s eczema is around his face, she recommended a Dermasilk mask but unfortunately this is only to be worn in the day and most of his damage is during the night so I consider this product useless. She also recommended bleach baths - using household bleach in your baby’s bath. But again with Ryan’s eczema being mainly near his face, I’m not comfortable putting bleach near his eyes.

Another retest of allergies and Ryan is now also allergic to Soy. I never realised how many food products have soy in them, who would have thought! At this time it became apparent also that we needed to adjust Ryan’s formula to goats milk. After I did that you would already begin to see the difference just from adjusting his formula.

I continued with the Sigmacort of his face, Celestone for his body and QV Intensive as his moisturiser and then attempted to explore some natural alternatives. I tried Moogoo bath cleanser and moisture, seemed to make it worse.

We were recommended to a nautropath at Bondi Junction who had some great results with children with eczema. She applied a complete change to his diet, no sugar, nothing but vegetables, herbal medicine etc. During this time we also used aloe vera directly from the plant in attempt to heal his wounds. It worked for a while and then it stopped. We did her plan for about a week a half and it was the worst time of our lives. Ryan had terribly bad eczema, horrible scabs on his face, not sleeping; it was devastating to watch him go through it. I stopped the whole program and have since emailed this lady to let her know what happened and that maybe her program was a little too radical for babies, just cutting diets back and making them have herbs etc. I don’t think that’s the answer.

In the meantime I was giving Ryan some probiotic to help his little tummy with all the drugs as he continued to get infections so was on and off with the Keflex antibiotics.

A friend of ours from the Northern Territory recommended “Crocodile Cream” as she used it for her arthritis and had great results. We gave it ago and from time to time I continue to use it now. It helps the healing process.

Our latest product, and I must say we are having success, is the Avene range. As seen on A Current Affair and Today Tonight, derives from the spring water. Applying the spray spring water definitely soothes his itchy skin and using restorative cream on his wounds. Its only early days and I'm still awaiting for my cleansing bath to arrive but are hoping for more great results. Another cream we are also using in conjunction with this and at night only, Sudocream, the nappy rash cream. My cousin uses it on his son's wounds for eczema and it clears it up brilliantly. I apply this at night only before bed together with the Avene products.

Today I wouldn’t say Ryan’s skin is 100% clear but it is in a much better state that what it has been over the past 6 months. If I can give any advice to the other mums out there who are starting from the beginning, don’t give up, lots of people will give you advice but be selective as to what you to choose to try as what works for some doesn’t always work for others. You could spend thousands of dollars (which I probably already have) trying products but over time you will get to know your babies skin and how it reacts to different products.

I stopped listening to people and starting making my own decisions a long time ago, it makes you feel better knowing you have decided what to do and not have been talked into it by someone else, to then have things become worse.