Does your child, with any PDD, have eczema?
By sylviekitty
@sylviekitty (2083)
United States
January 8, 2007 8:40pm CST
I'm curious how many of your children with Autism have eczema? My son has been suffering with this ever since I can remember. He's been taking Elidel for it, but frankly, I don't think it works very well. Obviously (it would make sense) that my child is allergic to something he has in his environment, although I'm not sure what. He has not yet had any allergy testing done (I'm hoping to learn more about that this week, at his big appointment), so I'm not sure what may need to be eliminated- like milk, etc.. and I'm not going to start any special diets for him until we speak with a doctor. But children with Autism have so many other issues with their environment- (my son has sensory processing issues)- that I guess it wouldn't be surprising to find a high number of children with Autism (and other pervasive developmental disorders) suffer from Eczema (or other abnormal responses of the immune system).
1 person likes this
6 responses
@CheckNitout (853)
• United States
10 Jan 07
Hi sylviekitty, My son also has ecsema. The pediatrician gave us a steroid cream mixed with eucerin lotion to use but for the most part the Eucerin lotion takes care of it. I am also interested to see if there is a connection between these two things. I never even thought to ask if other children with autism frequently have ecsema. Good question.
@CheckNitout (853)
• United States
10 Jan 07
I personally have tried the Casein free diet with my son since Thanks Giving and the changes have been tremendous. His ecsema is usually worse in the winter because of the dry heat, he hasn't had one break out. I don't want to go into a drawn out description of how my son was before but he said less than ten words never made eye nontact never waved or anything. Since his change in diet he has 20-39 word vocabulary, hugs and kisses, he actually held our hand during grace one night, he claps and sings, it truely has been amazing. Our developmental pediatrician or any doctor I don't think can even reccommend this treatment because it hasn't been proven but I say what are you gonna lose by trying it. I was worried that my son would have a hard time adapting to new foods and things but I have found there is a wide variety of foods that he regularly ate before that are made caien free. It's not easy to find them but they are there.
@sylviekitty (2083)
• United States
10 Jan 07
Would you say you are spending a lot more money on food now because of this diet? And does any of the financial resources you may have cover this? It's something I'm looking into.. because spending a lot more for groceries is not a pleasant thought. LOL
1 person likes this
@CheckNitout (853)
• United States
16 Jan 07
I wouldn't say I spend that much more. The gluten free diet would be very expensive but just the casien free diet isn't that bad. Soy milk and rice milk is about the same for half a gallon as a whole gallon of regular milk is. That is the biggest change is price. Only because we all have changed our diet so we don't have to buy special food just for him. There are tons of things at regular grocery stores that are milk free/casien free. You just have to look for them and they taste just as good as other products. I have yet to find casien free cheese which was one of my sons favorite things so I guess I'll keep looking. I wish you the best of luck with your son. I would definately try the diet I mean you don't have anything to lose by trying it ya know.
@blueskies (1186)
• United States
9 Jan 07
Hi Sylvie. My son is 12 with an autsim spectrum disorder (PDD-NOS). He has suffered from excema since a few days after his birth. I've found that the only topical medication that will clear it right up is Elocon cream (not the ointment). You simply apply a very small amount to the spot and rub it in. I usually only have to apply it once to any flare-ups and they disappear overnight.
You may want to check into a gluten and casien-free diet for your son. I've heard that it benefits many children with autism.
@sylviekitty (2083)
• United States
16 Jan 07
I've never heard of Elocon cream. Thanks for sharing. :) I will have to look into that. My son's Pediatrician basically suggested with the Elidel, to use Aquafor (sp?) to keep that area hydrated, or some vaseline.. the flareups don't disappear overnight, though. :(
I was just telling my husband about the GF-CF diet the other day, and he started looking into it. I think he's interested enough to start switching all of us onto it. LOL
@clownfish (3269)
• United States
1 Feb 07
Hi! Oddly enough, my daughter, who is PDD-NOS, has eczema. I haven't taken her to a doctor for it because I just found out. Her teacher's daughter has it and told me that that's what we've been seeing on my daughter's scalp. The strange thing is that my daughter's hands seemed to have it before school got out for the holidays. Since she was home for the break, it has gone away. So, I wonder if it was eczema or something from one of the other kids. ??? :-)
@sylviekitty (2083)
• United States
7 Feb 07
Both of my kids have really flaky scalps, I think left over from whatever that stuff is kids have when they're born. It just hasn't completely gone away, and they're 3 and 4 1/2.
@Swinghi (53)
• United States
6 Feb 07
Yeah, my son has it on his hands and I think it is because he sucks on them sometimes. It looks like it is really painful sometimes but we just put some lotion on it and it seems to go away. I wonder if it is because it doesn't taste good so he doesn't put his mouth on it. Hmmmm
@sylviekitty (2083)
• United States
7 Feb 07
Aww, poor guy. My son's been doing that a lot lately himself. i have no idea why.
@hellokittiemama (39)
• United States
6 Feb 07
Yes, my son (PDD-NOS) has eczema, asthma and got a lot of ear infections (until he got tubes).
@sylviekitty (2083)
• United States
7 Feb 07
Wow, that's rough :( My son doesn't have asthma, but oddly enough I have learned that statistics show that 40% or so of kids with eczema go on to develop asthma. That's a staggering amount!
