Active Treatments

[1635Mary]

Azathioprine is the next treatment the hospital are advising for my son who is 10 years old. This is taken daily with food.

It works on the immune system and you can pick up infections more easily so Eoin will need careful monitoring with regular blood tests. Scary or what!!!

This treatment is being recommended after steroids and protopic failed to give any lasting results. Has anyone else ever used this treatment or heard of it?

I'm not keen at all and intend to seek a second opinion before accepting it.

Regards
Mary

[AnnaB]

Sorry I have never come across this. I just wanted to wish you well in your choices. We are just at the top of the scale for steroids and know how tough that has been. Good luck in your research. It is tough but quality of life is important.

[Puddleduck]

Hi,

I wish you well in your quest to find the right treatment. I too would be reluctant to immediately accept azathioprine, being a teacher in contact with so many children and their viruses and infections each day, knowing that I would be more likely to catch "what's going" since the drug suppresses the immune system.

If need be, you could (if possible) temporarily homeschool your son or arrange individual private tuition for him if he has to miss some school.

All the best.

[babeshall]

I know of this, My husband has servere eczema, and has had quite a few imunosurpresants. including Azathioprine. unfortunatly he had to be taken off of it because of all the other tables he was taking, but for the time he was on it it did help. if you would like any more info just let me know. Unfortunatly if you have got this far that they are giving you this, it's because they don't know what else to do, and imunosurpresants can help.
good luck Nat.

[Puddleduck]

Hi there,

I've now been prescribed Dermovate for the neck, having already used Betnovate, Elocon and Clobetasone steroidal creams/ointments with no effect other than that they dry the skin out.

I realise Dermovate is classed as a "very potent steroid" and only to be used for a maximum of 2 weeks at a time.
I just wonder if this stuff is really OK to apply to the delicate skin of the neck/face, not least because the front of the neck is where the thyroid and parathyroid glands are located.
The neck is a nightmare as far as creams go, anyway.

Can anyone advise?

[1635Mary]

Hi

The strongest steroid I've used on my son (10 yrs) is Elecon (potent). The summer has been tough and I'm now using it every second day but I know his skin could do with it every day as by the second day it is again red and irritated. Also the sores on his knees, feet and elbows never seem to fade.

I have only ever used mild steroid on his face and neck. Eoin's face is not usually too bad, just very dry and flaky, alothough it has flared up at times. His neck does regularly need an application, especially the back of his neck.

Sorry, have never used Dermovate but am very afraid that I may have to at some point because the effect of the Elecon is in my opinion decreasing.

Regards
Mary

[seaview12]

Hi,
I use dermovate and used to use the dermovate nn which is even stronger. It has been the only cream that has helped in anyway to alleviate my hands from falling apart. I use the dermovate along with duoderm which acts as an outer skin like plaster and i leave this on for two to three days. Sometimes with great success and other times not. Docs only perscribe for a max of two weeks and then reduce to every other day for a week and then fucibet. Is the exzema on your'e neck wet? if so something that worked for me when mine was bad sounds crazy but metholated spirits put on neat, yes it will burn like hell for all of a minute and then apply normal cream such as aveeno or diprobase or liquid paraffin. This will dry it up. Hope info helps in some way

[AnnaB]

We use Dermovate on my 4 year old sons hands. Yes it is strong but the alternative is painful bleeding hands and tiny fingers that he cannot even feed himself with. This is when quality of life takes over from the risks in my book.

[Puddleduck]

Thanks for your replies.

I've tried it on my arms, but am not sure about the neck yet, with it being too near to the thyroid/parathyroid glands and the skin being so much more delicate. I will probably use it very thinly on a small area at the back of the neck to see how well tolerated it is first.

[njmclean]

Hello. I am the mother of a one-year old who has suffered with eczema on his face for the past 8 months. It is triggered mostly by food allergies, so we have made changes to his diet, however he is still having episodes.

The only time we see real results when he has a flair-up is when we use Elidel, which, obviously, we are trying to use sparingly. So we are trying to find alternatives, preferably non-prescription lotions or creams. We have been down the road of Aquaphor, Eucerin, vaseline. They do nothing for him. We have seen improvement with Epaderm to use in bathing.

We ran across the "Little Docs" product line. Has anyone has tried their products? Does anyone have any other suggestions that maybe I have missed or just not tried yet. Desonide has done nothing for him as well. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.