where to start

How do I start my blog? There are so many ways I could introduce this blog, but I figured giving some general information of what we go through may help.

My 4 year old son Sam has multiple food allergies and eczema. The food allergies are tolerable. It's easy! You just avoid the foods! (that may sound facetious but it's not, once you learn the ropes of how to adjust to alternate food options, it's not bad at all!) The eczema is awful, it affects his daily living and we try everything for him! He is a happy and playful little boy during the day, but at night, he struggles to sleep through the night. He is up at least 2 times each night, crying because he is itchy... He has slept through the night no more than 5 x in his entire life!!


Sam's night time routine without a bad flare up, just typical night:
shower
immediately put Vanicream lotion on while still wet(lately we have been using Neopsorin's eczema lotion, it works v well too!)
followed by dad's wet tube socks on Sam's legs and arms
then footed PJs.
(when eczema is out of control, we add the steroid creams and add aquaphor).

The socks truly do wonders for him! We used to do 1 pair of wet PJs followed by 1 pair of dry PJs, but we noticed the socks concentrate the water better and for some reason this works!

Right now it's the middle of the summer, which means we get to go swimming often! His skin does so much better when it is exposed to the chlorine. In fact, during the winter months we use chlorine baths 1 x per week.

Although we have a pretty good routine, it's not perfect and I am always open to suggestions and am always open to try new oils/lotions/creams any day!

I have often thought of taking Sam to National Jewish in Denver, since they are the world experts on eczema care..and when we are talking world, Denver doesn't seem that far away!

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update, I wrote that original post over a year ago and Sam's skin has made dramatic improvement. The only thing that truly works wonders, is the tincture of time.  All of those parents with children who have severe eczema, I hope that you can hold onto the fact that it almost always gets better with time!