Facial Skin Peeling Off, Pus Building Up. Please Help!!!

[noisuf]

Hi, our firstborn child has just turned 11 weeks and she has been sufferring from a skin condition since she was 7 weeks old.

Over the course of the last four weeks, we have seen doctors who have prescribed the following, each after a failed attempt: 1) quarterzone cream and dermeze + sorbelene all over body; 2) oral antibiotics + sorbelene. Unfortunately, none of these have helped. I'm concerned the quarterzone cream and oral antibiotics have harmed my baby?

A followup appointment today with the doctor has rendered her without an idea as to what is wrong and it seems the trial and error approach has ended up at a dead end...well, not quite, she's now prescribed another cream but I have decided to get a second opinion from another doctor tomorrow night before embarking on the next cream/ointment.

I'm hoping some of you mummies (or daddies as I am a daddy ) have experienced this or know of someone who has who can give me some advice.

Here are the symptoms:

1) Patch of skin just in front of the ear the size of a 10 cent piece peeled away leaving the skin raw and full of pus and just doesn't regrow skin. I'm worried she may now have a scar. It's getting slightly better after I decided to put a band aid over it as mittens has not helped...she keeps on scraping it away without the bandaid. I'm assuming it's itchy for her.

2) Whole body above torso has patches of redness that comes and goes...we believe it's worse when it's hotter but may not be the case. This includes the face.

3) Started to get a bit of pus coming out from around her nipples last week.

Looking forward to your replies!!!

Cheers,

Michael.

[Trillian]

Hi Michael! it's been a long time.

The patches of redness around the torso sound a lot like eczema to me - Alister is having similar troubles.

The patch near her ear I'm not so sure about. It could have started off as milia that has now gotten infected and gotten worse? It may not be itchy as such, but it would no doubt be annoying her. have you taken her to see a dermatologist? They might be able to pinpoint exactly what the problem is.

failing that it could be an allergy?

[noisuf]

Hasn't time flown by so quickly already!!!??? I can't believe it's nearly 3 months for us!

Eczema doesn't run in our families as the doctor asked that question but she may be the first!?

The doctor we are seeing tomorrow night has many more years experience under his belt and fixed a similar issue with my sister who's 12 years younger than me many many years ago. I was going to ask him about the dermatologist tomorrow night.

I can't believe it's taken me this long to post in bellybelly, I'm disappointed it didn't come across my mind until now...

[nelly]

is she BF maybe your wife is eating something that she is allergic to?

[noisuf]

Allergies have passed our minds.

She is being BF fully. We have also thought about clothing (mostly 100% cotton), blankets 100% wool), the washing powder we use...

Where does one start or is it a process of taking one factor out at a time?

[nelly]

food is a complete elimination thing but I guess there are so many factors as well as food to consider. If she cuts the main allergy things out of her diet like dairy, peanuts, and then gradually reintroduce.... maybe start with what touches your daughter's skin first so got to hyperallergenic washing powder, cut out soap and use QV wash... my sister has contact dermatitis and her trigger is perfumes so EVERYTHING has to be unperfumed eg toilet paper, washing powder, soap, make up etc. So she uses QV, I think her washing powder is "aware" or "safe" but there is one from woolies that she can use... sorry lots of thoughts and not much concrete for you...

[Shelley B]

My DS has had BAD excema since he was 2 1/2 months, wasnt coz of food, washing powder, synthetic clothing, bath products, foods, formula, dairy, wheat or anything else people had suggested it might be. He is now 9 1/2 months and seems to be getting a bit better. He started off with red weaping patches all over his face, head and behind the ears, circular spots over his torso, behind his knees and elbows, on his ankles, so basicly every where. Heat seemed to definatly be a factor in flare ups! He doesnt have as serious break outs now though, we decided to put our cat outside so he has no direct contact with it and it seems that DS face is looking better. This is just in the last 2 weeks.
They say that allergies can present as excema in babies so, like me, I think my son is allergic to cats and will possibly suffer from hay fever too.
Try some paw paw ointment on her very sore spots. If the quartizone seems to help make sure you ask for ointment instead of cream, as the cream drys skin out alot more.
Its so hard to cope with having to see them covered in a rash that no doubt would be itchy, and very frustrating when it seems that nothing you do helps them. "Why my baby" I keep asking!

[2CheekyMonkeys]

i think it sounds like eczma too. my DD has it on back of neck and torso and we use qv wash, sorbolene cream and baby napisan to wash her clothes. heat makes it worse but not much you can do about that. i have taken her off dairy, but it didnt do anything...

the bit on the face, couldit have started out as eczma and become infected? if so i guess the antibiotics would have cleared it up.. the only other thing i can think of is.... a spider/insect bite of some descripton? or allergic reaction to the creams/antibitics you have given, only if it got worse when you used them though i suppose.

[2CheekyMonkeys]

oh i forgot to mention eczma doesnt run in any side of our family either... i guess these things have to start somewhere. just thought... maybe a fungul infection?

[Snacks]

Hey Michael. Did the antibiotics not have any effect? DD has eczema on her chest (and now the back of her neck in more recent times) that got a bit infected from all her scratching. She was put on antibiotics for a different reason, but they cleared up the infection and we used a prescription cream called Advantan and within a week it was really clear. After we stopped using it it has become dry again, but I'm not going to use that cream until it gets really bad as I've no idea what's in it!!!
You are doing the right thing by getting it checked out properly by a derm. Continual use of cortisone creams on thin skin is not good (can cause the skin to get thinner) so its good to try to find the cause rather than just lather that stuff on. But I wonder if your poor DD has a bit of a staff infection there if it is so full of pus and not getting better? Might be worth asking about some stronger antibiotics?
The only other thing I'll suggest here is that if your wife is going to do an elimination diet while bfing, please talk to a doctor or better still a nutritionist before excluding too much from the diet - it is best to have help with these things so that she doesn't become malnourished herself. It is so important that she looks after her body while bfeeding
Take care, and I'll keep an eye out here to see how you're doing. Let us know how the second opinion goes.

[noisuf]

We saw the derm today (so lucky as they had a cancellation and next appointment was not until 24th of this month!!!) and it turns out she does have eczema...so Shelly and Hollo, you are right!!!

Wow, can't believe things will need to change so much after seeing the derm but at least we now know what she has and can do something about it!

So no more Curash or Johnson's 'No more tears' bath wash...use Hamilton's wash instead (like QV)... Lubed up with Dermeze with every nappy change to keep skin moisturised... Cortizone ointment for face and body when eczema is active... Keep her cool...

It's only been a few hours since starting on this regime but I believe she's already showing signs of heading in the right direction.

[Snacks]

Great that you know what it is now, Michael, and excellent that it already seems better. Welcome to the dry skin club
There have been some great posts in the past about soap substitutes for excema-prone skin... I've tried QV, Dermaveen, oats in a stocking, even milk in Nat's bath! The wash that I prefer is the GAIA Natural Baby wash, which I found in my grocery store (and I only use a tiny bit each time in her bath) because it doesn't contain any sodium laureth sulphate (which is the frothing agent that I believe dries her skin out) and only natural oils as purfume.
GL with everything.

[2CheekyMonkeys]

welcome to the ecsma club! :-) it kinda sux! but you get through it. :-)