United Brachial Plexus Network

As many of you know, Maia has been plagued with eczema from early on. Well I have been researching this new cream for a while now - waiting and watching - getting into eczema message boards all over, etc. And the word on this cream has been some great, some not. But it is a non-steroidal cream so that does have some benefit as opposed to steroidal cream which you really have to try to avoid on children younger than puberty. Anyway - the cream is called PROTOPIC. We've only been using it since Friday and Maia's skin is 90% clear. I am just praying that this continues becauae 4 months of splint and eczema is just torture beyond torture.

I put the cream ONLY on the eczema itself so as of tonight I only did the two last areas that aren't yet completely healed - which was just a smidgen of cream.

The side affects are there.... the worst being that it leaves a child very susceptible to getting chicken pox/shingles/herpes - any kind of zoster issue. But they were going ot cancel Maia's surgery had her skin not cleared up in time - and it looked like there was no way out of this last attack, so that pushed us into taking this risk.

So probably tomorrow will be her last night on any of the cream. And then we wait and see how long it keeps it away - I pray that it doesn't just come back. I guess as long as we are not using the cream, then we don't have the risk? I hope so. Chicken pox in a splint - ohmygosh - don't even want to go there in my thoughts!

So share the news.... PROTOPIC.... phenominal stuff!

-francine

Francine,
I'll be praying that the cream works. That must have been so upsetting to think of the idea of having to postpone the surgery for the excema. I know that once I decided that Josh needed surgery, I just wanted to get it over with.
That's great to have found such an effective cream!

Is this an over the counter cream? Gabrielle has very bad eczema. This has been a problem since birth. My doctor recommended Proteque skin protection lotion. It has worked better than anything else but she still has bad break-outs.

Tina,

Protopic is prescription and is very strong.

I still use Eucerin on her skin when it's wet from a bath because maia still has very dry skin.

Maybe you can get a sample of Protopic from your doctor to try it out?

I don't know about that cream. But since I have an older child with eczema, I knew to use Aveeno bath wash on the my 2nd child (bpi). Plus I rinse all her clothing twice and wash her new outfits to avoid allergy skin contact. Hope this helps.

Thanks! Maia seems to be allergic to the Aveeno. She has only done ok with Eucerin...but that just handled the dry skin temporarily and not the eczema breakout itself. The Protopic has stopped the inflammation, blistering, redness.. we still have to do Eucerin because of the dry skin though.

We were told at one point by a nutritionist that Maia does not assimilate the fats she is eating and they told us to get specific enzymes but I haven't been able to find them in a format that she can actually tolerate (liquid or chewable).

We use Arm n Hammer dye free green top deteregent and we double rinse. Maia also takes a bath and gets her hair washed too....to get rid of outside dirt, molds, pollens, etc. but this is good to clean off but bad for dry skin. It's a real Catch 22.

Protopic is the first real break she's gotten in a very long time.

Tonight she only has two little spots on her feet....everything else is cleared up. So I'd say we're about 99% clear!