Asthma in toddlers
I have a 19 month old son that was diagnosed with Asthma this year. It was tough going in the beginning because after insurance his meds still cost us almost $200.00 a month. He is not having any problems right now, but the doctor seems to be worried about the winter months and all the problems we had last year. Also his excema is so bad, we can't seem to get rid of it. We have tried every soap, every medicine that the doc has recommended and still it gets so bad that it bleeds. My questions are, does anyone have a child with asthma that it may be worse in the winter and how do you deal with it? And if your child has excema, how do you treat it?
No experience with asthma, but...
My 3 year old has struggled with eczema since he was born. Our dr. prescribed Dermatop, and it has worked great for him. This past spring, I thought I would try going without the cream, and we just started applying lotion (Gerber Grins & Giggles) every night after his bath, and so far we have avoided having to use the Dermatop. I'm really surprised he hasn't had any eczema patches since we started moisturizing him from head to toe daily, especially since he would get some pretty yucky looking patches of it.
It sounds like your little guy has a really bad case of eczema! Is it possible it's something other than eczema, since you can't find an eczema med to help it? Second opinion? I would think that is something pretty common to diagnose though. Hmmm...poor little man! Good luck in finding something that works for him!
I spoke too soon
The eczema is back! I second Julie on the Cetaphil. That seems to be helping! I hope to avoid using the prescription cream, since it was a bit pricey!
Eczema
My 7 year old son has always had eczema too, but it got really bad when he was around 3-4. The dermotologist prescribed derma-smooth for outbreaks that were causing bleeding and lots of scabs, it works well however it is made with peanut oil and might not be a good choice for a younger child since you don't know of all allergies yet. After getting the spots under control with the derma-smooth we are able to mostly control it with Cetaphil which is also what the dermotologist suggested using morning and night. In really dry months during the winter I prefer to use Eucerin cream, it seems to be heavier and it is very greasy on his skin but really gets those spots back to normal before he itches them open.
eczema/asthma
Not sure about the asthma as we are having some difficulty with it in our 6 year old. His asthma symptoms are normally brought on by a virus type thing and normally no problems until this time of the year through Feb.
The Eczema we have lots of experience with. We use a prescription called elidel cream and it works wonders. My son had it so bad one year he was nearly bleeding to. This cleared it up within a couple of days.
Good luck
asthma/flu shots
It is also advised that those that suffer with asthma get the flu shot. And anyone that lives in that same household to help prevent bringing it into the house. We had a family shot day already the first of October!
asthma/eczema
My son (4) has seasonal Asthma, it seems to come on about this time of year and last until last spring. We have to use a nebulizer at night before bed (its worse at night). We use the medicine Pulicort in it. He seems to work the best so far. Before insurance its about $200 a month. Also the nebulizer is $150 before insurance.
He also has a eczema, but that only kicks in in the winder as well when the air is dry. My doctor recommended and had us try so many things since he was born and the best thing that worked was first giving him a shower instead of bath (dont let him sit in the soapy water). Only washing his hair and let the soap run over his body. (unless he is very dirty of course). Second- every evening and morning we use aveno lotion and after a couple days its works wonders, it was better then anything the doctor called in.
asthma/eczema
It has gotten to the point that I wish the doctor would prescribe the nebulizer. We have made a couple trips to the er for a breathing treatment in the middle of the night when my son wakes up croupy and then he becomes strideris and can't breath. Its scarey. Then he panics and it makes it worse. Normally this happens before the cold and once the cold breaks loose then he is ok again. We are useing oral steriods, a inhailer-which if I catch it on the on set we do ok. This is just over the past year that he has given me the meds to keep on had because my son is getting worse and not better. His first case of it was when he was 4 months and each year the amount of times gets more and more. We do not smoke either.
For the Eczema, we tried everything -thats how we got to the point of almost bleeding. We always use dove soap, baby oil after the tub, eucrine lotion, and there is another fairly new ot waxy type lotion that we tried too. The elidile was the only thing that worked. I always use the same laundry stuff too not to change so the skin doens't react to what is used in the clothes. I have done that since I was a kid as I have trouble too. Mine was bad that I had to use commercial hair products because the cheap shampoo running down my back would make my back react really bad. My parents were not thrilled when they had to buy the more expensive hair product for me.