I am new here, and want to get right to the point. Here is the case:
my son started to ahve eczema at 3 month of age, here is the original picture. He was breast-fed. And the 1st 8 weeks he was ver yellow. And then, after the yellowness was gone, his skin got red hot, and he scratched a lot. I tried to make him cool by keep the A/C on all the time (San Diego, april). But even when his skin was cool to touch, he was still scratching. After being red, hot, it would peel like flakes, mainly on scalp, upper back and face. used antihistamin but no steroid until later. It became worse after a course of Antibiotics treatment for his nasal infection. Suspecting food allergy, my diet became so limited that I could almost only eat soy bean curd. However, his condition got worse, his legs becase fully covered with dry eruptions (only on the outer side, nothing at the back of the knee etc.) I was told by the Ped. to wait it out, we basically only used moisterisers and antihistamine until he became 9 month-old and got worse. By then, he was on Prosoobee soy-based formula (he is still on that, because he does not like milk)His leg was covered with large circular streks of dry eruptions. Suspecting ringworms, I ran to the Doc. and was given cortizone 5%, I only used two days (2 times daily), and the eruptions rapidly disappeared. He was given antihistamine ever since until age of 14 month (to be more exact, 3/12th, 2001), I bumped into the whole idea of homeopathy and took him to a Homeo Doc. By then, his usual condition was rough red, hot, hard skin on the face and legs, esp. upper thighs and ankles. Forehead looked yellow. Bad sleep in the night, except for 3 new small clear-liquid-filled eruptions on his scalp. The H-Doc. gave him Sulphur 200x (1 daily for 2 weeks), and he had this violent eruption for that whole period. The eruptions were just like the new small spots that he had on the scalp, which later turn into yellow-liquid-filled. then he was put on tubculinum 200x to follow with Staphylococcus & Streptococcinum, but he only used the tuberc. Something in my guts was telling me this was too much of an aggravation, I wanted to stop the misery sooner and I applied a small quantity of cortisone the 3rd day the eruptions were gone. And then he caught a cold and was put on Nux Vomica 30x (april 9, 2001), then he had yellow nasal discharge was put on Pulsatilla and Sulphur 200x (for the skin) (4/16), he became extremely itchy that night. Since he always had bad digestion (constipation alternating with loose stool, and gassy), he was then given Graphites 200x (4/17). It worked really good in getting rid of the itch. So starting 4/17, he was on Graphites for over a month. During the period he had some colds some of which settled in the nose and had rumex, pulsatilla, mercurius etc. in different occasions. HIs skin condition was steady (not getting any worse, but not completely cured.
in the midlle of June, Graphites 200x did not seem to work anymore, he was then (6/15th) put on Graphites 1m, did not work at all. Now the sysptoms became: Happy in the day time, sound asleep till 1:00am, then restless sleep waking up every 2 hours scratching, moving about in the bed. he was then put on Dulcamara 12D, 2 pellets a time three doses a day (6/20), worked for that night ( had a good sleep) but waking up very itchy the whole following day. He was switched to Arsenicum Album 200x Single dose of 2 pellets(6/21), not much help. Discouragedd by this, I decided to stop all remedies for a whole week to see if it'll have a clearer picture of what to do next.
June 30th, put back on Dulcamara 12D (dissolved in 3 tbsp water and slightly potentised by succesion, and gave him 1 tbsp daily), had some improvement for a few days (each day with slgiht potentization of adding a tbsp of water to the solution and then stopped working again.) Now I am totally frustrated by the situation, and have stopped all remedies ever since 7/12/2001.
His current situation:
happy and playful daytime,
restlsee night esp. after midnight, wake up every 2-3 hours scratching, a bottle of formula seems to help calm him down and go back to sleep.
His back of hands and between fingers are covered with dry eruption, severly itchy. The skin is hard and rough,
Small peeling skind flakes between eyes, red spots (which peels later) above the upper lip and corner of the mouth,
rough to the touch on the cheeks,
red crack at the bottom of the ear Where the ear attach to the face.
One more thing that is more prominent is the grayish spots (penny size). They are rough to the touch and whiter then the surrounding skin. There are a bunch of them on the legs, arms and hands. a few on the shoulders, none on the face. There are also circular spots on the inner thigh much the same shape as the other ones except for the color is red esp. the edges are redder and slightly raised and these red spots are really itchy.
I have been reading into Psorinum, desperately need your expert opinions.
Aihua

Thanks for the suggestion.
We were in Hong Kong, a tropical area famous of being extremely damp and hot, when he was conceived. But we left there at 4 month of pregnancy, at that point, I developed a strange itch on my neck (front side), it was rough to the touch, but cannot tell anything by just looking at it. The doctor suggested cortisone 1%, but I did not use it. It was not too severe, it disappeared after he was born with the application of Calendula baby cream.
Here is a bit of my family medical history. My mother has always had itchy skin, and my father had tuberculosis in 1959-60 (6 years before I was born). My husband's mother had tuberculosis too, some time before his older brother was born. One of my uncles had a life time battle with skin diseases (not sure exactly what it was). I remeber that I had some itchy skin (mostly summer time, the exposed part of the skin) when I was 17 years old. And I still have some itch here and there during summer now (the exposed parts). My husband had terrible foot itch and sweat during his teenage and was cured (now his feet are always dry).
My son also had an allergic reaction to peanuts and spent his first Christmas eve (2000) in the emergency room and was treated with oral steroid and antihistamine for 3 days).
His hair is dry, lusterless. He does not sweat except for the hands and feet. He was able to sweat a little during the treatment of Dulcamara.
His eczema was probably started by being overheated in the 1st months (born January 9th), we kept the house rather warm. He started itch at a little over 2 month (not so serious, and got really bad at 3 month), I'll check his medical records to see when was his 1st vaccine.

Just checked his medical records, his 1st Vaccine was administerd at 2 month (exact) on 3/10/2000. 4 shots: DTap, Hib, Haptitis B, and Polio. He did not have any reaction in the days immediately followed. And he has been vaccinated on schedule ever since, in fact, he is scheduled to do it again in a week.

forgot to mention that his knees (front and back) are red and scratched,and hard. His ankles and back of feet are too. Those are the most itchy parts.
and he is put on Calendula baby cream by Weleda liberally every day and night. His skin does not get infected even if it's scractched to break, it dries up wuickly.
He is happy with water, bathing no problem.
He has good appetite, fruits and vegetables are on top of the menu, his stool tends to be dry but not constipated (ever since Graphites). Please let me know whatelse you need to know.
Thanks in advance.
Aihua

A difficult case and because you breast fed was not to be expected.

The way I would tackle this would be to find out what was going on when you conceived, how the pregancy and birth went. Did you have any persistent dreams during the pregnancy? What I am getting at is if we can find what remedy you needed during the pregnancy and gave it to your child it may just work.

Another thing I would look at would be to find out what happened around when the eczema started. Had the child just been vaccinated? If so it may be worth while giving that vaccine in potency.

To sooth the skin at night and stop the scratching I recommend the technique of bandaging the limbs and truck if needed. Put a layer of E45 or other bland moisturisng cream that the child is not sensitive to on the skin first.

One more suggestion is that Mahonia cream which is being hailed for psoriasis is also being found to be useful for eczema. i have recently given some to a patient to trial for me.

Please discuss all these suggestions with your homeopath. Also suggest that s/he uses the LM potency when prescribing as it is easier to stop an aggravation with this.

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RSHom - Registered Homeopath

Dear Ricky, Thanks.
He used Tuberculinum 200x for 3 days in 3/23-25. It worked great the first day, but again did not hold.
I will talk to the Doc. about the vaccine.
Another thing is that I was diagnosed gestational diabetes at 28th week of pregnancy, and had it in control by dieting. He was born normally (10 days early though), weigh a little short of 7 lb. The labor was 2 hours (he is the 2nd child of mine). wonder if this has any to do with the problem.
Aihua

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[ 27 March 2002, 16:23: Message edited by: Tomi Conner ]

dear aihua,tomi

the case here under discussion is most probably atopic dermatitis.The familial background of respiratory disease,skin diseases,allergy etc are of this.If it is not treated properly it tends to chronic and in due course asthma etc will develop due to suppression.Here what occured is frequent change of medicines and speedy repitition.With in short span many remedies are tried.
To cure a chronic effection other than indicated remedy we use intercurrent,complementary remedies ,antimiasmatic etc in appropriate time.
we should consider the factors like eruption is suppressed(cream-steroid,and during pregnacy mother had skin infection),family history(TB,skin),vaccination etc.

Graphitis seemed fine here but you didn't mention how many dose is given and the mode of repition.
when an indicated medicine exhausts we can do
1)repeat the same dose
2)if no action ,next potency(you can try 201x)
3)plussing method
4)if it is due to lack of reaction from the patient and the remedy is correct you can use intercurrent like opium etc one dose and wait.
5)to complete cure in this case in the course of time psorinum and as Tomi said Lyco ,Tub and Thuja may necessory according to the symptoms of that time.
LM potency is safe as ricky and tomi said.

pannakkal

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3 things are obvious to me.

1. the vaccinations may have brought on the eczema

2. He should not be given any vaccinations while he has the eczema so I would advise that you cancel the next lot

3. The reason why the remedies that initially worked well and then did not hold is because there is a Tubercular Miasm (layer) running through the family. Please suggest to your homeaopth that your child is given one dose of Tuberculinum to get rid of this miasm and then you may find that the indicated remedies will work!!

I will be away now until Sunday night and will check back then.

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RSHom - Registered Homeopath

Dear Tomi,
Thanks for the suggestion. But the modality of my son's symptoms couter-indicate Lyc.: His best time of the day is afternoon, worst time is midnight-sunrise, morning is a mild time. That's why I never considered Lyc. What do you think?
Aihua