Support Group

For parents who’d like to explore support groups, there are various ways to do so:

#1 You can fill in the (sharing your eczema story) form and indicate in the last question your willingness to join the support group and I’d put you in the private google group “Best Parent for E Child”. Alternatively, you can email me at [email protected]

#2 The second last question in the form is asking if you are ok with the information you filled in to be published as an interview. The purpose of that is to let other parents who come to this blog know you (and you know them when they do the same) and to build a community of parents who support each other. You can see under the comments section below for how a published interview looks, and your email will not be disclosed.

Over the past 6 years, the comments on this page themselves have come to serve as a source of support for parents – parents read what the best moments and challenging times are like for other families, and feel less alone in their struggle.

#3 I’m involved with Singapore National Skin Centre’s quarterly support group sharing sessions; please get in touch with me if you’d like to be placed on its mailing list! Update in 2021: Activities have been put on hold due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Here is a collection of devotionals that I have created in the hope that it will provide a little comfort and joy for parents caring for their eczema child.

Marcie Mom Top 10 Eczema Tips

Top 10 tricks to keep baby’s fingers busy

Top 10 reasons why parents with eczema child have a tougher time

Top 10 Cooling Places to go with your child in Singapore

Top 5 tips to help your eczema child sleep better

255 replies on “Support Group”

Meet a New Mom! – Nana Maria

Child’s name – Jan

Diagnosed with eczema – 3 months; I’m a nana of a little eczema boy. His name is Jan, his eczema was diagnosed three months after he was born in 2012.

Thanks Maria for dropping by and hope Jan’s eczema will improve. Feel free to leave a comment here or any of the posts if you have any questions! In the support group sessions I facilitate in Singapore, there are often many grandparents who are very passionate and keen to learn more about eczema to help their grandchildren. Take care, and hugs!
Mei

Meet a New Mom! – Lisa

Child’s name – London

Diagnosed with eczema – 2 years old

Best parenting moment & Greatest challenge – 7 years old; Diagnosed at 2 year old; She never stops scratching – she never slept the entire night her whole life. Her energy is going down crying and screaming. She’s not sleeping wants to stay in bed so she can secretly scratch. We seen million doctors.

Thanks for dropping by and so sorry to hear of London’s condition. Will email you shortly to put you in the email group, take care!

Meet a New Mom! – Ming

Child’s name – Cheyenne, Owen, Galen

Diagnosed with eczema – #1 Cheyenne diagnosed at 1yo mild; considered outgrew now. #2 Owen diagnosed at 3m severe #3 Galen diagnosed at 2m severe

Meet a New Mom! – Rosemary

Child’s name – Christiana

Diagnosed with eczema – Diagnosed with eczema when she was 5 years old and now she is 9 year

Best parenting moment & Greatest challenge – when I found solution for my daughter`s eczema , I am so happy now but she only use natural products on her skin.

Thanks Siti for dropping by! Lip eczema is quite difficult to control and hope you’d find the right doctor to help with the treatment and figuring out what triggers the flare-up, take care!

Meet a New Mom! – Cecilia

Child’s name – Jaden

Diagnosed with eczema – from 2 months old

Best parenting moment & Greatest challenge – My son is almost 7 months. His doctor gave him an oral steroid (5 days) on December 2015. And until now, he is still in therapy of cetrizine (antihistamine) and probiotics everyday. When he got flare up, I use elecon cream. I am aware of the danger of steroid cream. But whenever I tried to fully substitute steroid with other creams, his eczema just got worse. There was one time, his eczema was so severe – causing him hair loss and scalp all around his body. His current situation is slightly better than before but he still got flare ups often. I even did try blood test as recommended by my paediatrician. But it came out all negative except goldenrod (which is uncommon in Indonesia). I did strict diet when I still breastfed him. No dairy products, seafood, grains, and several types of vegetables and fruits. I also moistures him 4 times daily to ensure that his skin won’t crack. He use air-humidifier in his room 24/7. But his eczema seems won’t go away from him.

As a mom, it really breaks my heart, seeing my little one suffers like that. Even imagining how it feel like to in his position, rashes and the itchiness. It really breaks my heart into pieces. And it feels like I can’t do anything to ease his pain. I feel helpless and desperate. All I want is for him to have fully recovery from his eczema. But I know and I believe as time goes by, he will be stronger and outgrown his condition.

Thanks Cecilia for dropping by my blog from Indonesia and totally understand about seeing our children in pain, itchy and suffering. Believe that things will get better and it’s good news that there’s no allergy involved as the likelihood of outgrowing is higher. My daughter had oral steroid at 7 month old too and I’m glad that her skin improved after – it’s a blessing cos not always the skin gets better, sometimes it worsens. Hang in there and sending you email of the online email group too, take care!

Meet a New Mom! – Anita

Child’s name – Kevin

Diagnosed with eczema – from birth

Best parenting moment & Greatest challenge – Getting Kevin off steroids. I developed Anita’s Balm to soothe the anguish of his eczema. It is all natural and we have been helping people with skin diseases for more than four years now.

Meet a New Mom! – Michelle

Child’s name – Nathan

Diagnosed with eczema – Sep 2015

Best parenting moment & Greatest challenge – My best parenting moment is when I can keep him distracted from scratching and controlling flare ups. The greatest challenge for me is to try and not get overwhelmed and keep strong.

Thanks Michelle for dropping by and sharing your best parenting moments and challenges. I fully agree about distracting our kids from scratching, I’ve always felt that for the first few years I was ‘parenting by distraction’! Stay strong, big hugs!

Meet a New Mom! – Margaret

Child’s name – Catherine

Diagnosed with eczema – At 6 months old

Best parenting moment & Greatest challenge – Clear skin and her being relaxed in it . Greatness challenge is keeping it clear and prevent the awful awful scratching!!!! Not getting angry and frustrated myself at her.

Thanks Margaret for dropping by and hope Catherine’s eczema will improve and soon outgrow, big hugs!

It’s easy to get frustrated – I get angry and frustrated too when my child Marcie keeps scratching and as she gets older, it looks more unsightly to be scratching and biting fingers.. it’s tough trying to control something you can’t!

Welcome to the group and anytime, email me or drop an email to the other parents, have a good week!
Mei

Hi Mei just wondering what did u put on little Marcie at nite??and what temp did ye keep her room? Catherine sleeps n her room 17-18 degrees celcius but des nites she whining during nite, its cold now n Ireland during nite so was thinking it mite b coldness waking her up at intervals?? She wears long sleeve vest with sctatchsleeves underneath, bottoms pj’s and knickers, anything more Im afraid wud cauce her to overheat and start the excema to rear its ugly rotten head!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi!
We live in Singapore and I know how frustrating the scratching is at night!! We have air-conditioning on at 22 deg C to 24 deg C, used to have humidifier along with the air-conditioning but I realized that it’s not necessary cos Singapore is really humid. But should take care not to let humidity fall below 50. I’m not sure if the coldness will wake a child up at night as Marcie sleeps very well in cold countries when on holiday. Maybe consider the humidity and consider trying wet wrap? I’ve recently moisturize Marcie and put a layer of Tubifast garment (without the additional wet layer, i.e. known as dry wrap) and her skin much improved and there’s less scratching.

Hopefully you find some way to cope with the scratching, big hugs!
Mei

Hi, I just need to clarify few doubts from you.Whenever i stay in my uncles house after using their water for four days i get my skin dried and some coarse coating getting formed on the area surrounding the mouth. I discussed about it with the neighbours and they are also telling some are also experiencing the same problem some get it spread to their chin. They have consulted the doctor and has been prescribed Tenovate ointnment to apply. pls help me by providing which chemical content in the water can lead to these type of problems?
Regards, Durga Jayasri

Thanks for dropping by my blog – which country is your uncle living in and is there any research on the water there? I can think of applying an ointment/cream first to act as an additional layer of protection against possible irritant in the water.

On research on water, a few chemicals may irritate but the studies are not conclusive
http://eczemablues.com/2015/04/eczema-cure-series-does-the-type-of-water-matter/

btw Tenovate is a steroid cream so it’d be best to use sparingly, and as directed by the doctor (generally no more than twice a day and only for 1-2 weeks). Especially if applying on the face, be special careful since the skin on the face is thinner.

Take care,
Mei

Meet a New Mom! – Joy

Child’s name – Abiel

Diagnosed with eczema – At 4 months old

Best parenting moment & Greatest challenge – Best moment: When my baby touched my face and looked me into my eyes. Greatest Challenge: applying moisturing cream on his face.

Thanks Joy for dropping by my blog and filling in the contact form; I believe that there are a lot of parents out there who are reserved and may not comment, but reading just the comments in this page and what everyone is going through gives them strength.

Moisturizing the face is very tricky.. my daughter’s eczema is seldom on her face but I think it’s tricky because we can’t moisturize over leftover food/saliva/sweat and all these tend to stay on a baby’s face. When I need to clean, I use cotton pad with water, just remember to never use wet wipes 🙂

Talk soon and take care, I know it’s a very tough period.. I had the toughest time managing the eczema around that time.

Hugs!
Mei

Meet a New Mom! – Novita

Child’s name – Jayden

Diagnosed with eczema – 4 months old

Best Parenting moment AND Greatest Challenge? – As you know every night is a big challenge for me to look after him because of his eczema

Thanks for dropping by Novita! And welcome to the email support group 🙂 Totally understand about night time, it’s still a challenge for us, in different ways now that her eczema has improved and she’s older, but scratching and habitual ‘co-sleeping’ still makes us lose hour+ of sleep.

Talk anytime!
Mei

Meet a New Mom! – Marilee

Child’s name – Chance

Diagnosed with eczema – 5 years old.

We tried EVERYTHING. From expensive creams, to treatments, to dermatologist appointments. The itching continued to worsen and Chance kept scratching until he literally bled! Although I had never heard of it before Chance had developed eczema—a skin problem that seems to affect more and more people every day. As you know, there was little information on how to help the problem, aside from trial and error. Finally, my husband’s research revealed we had been unknowingly POISIONING our family for years! Through skin care products… We made our first batch of 100% natural goat milk soap with the best nourishing oils for the skin. These, along with our farm fresh goat milk, feed and clean the skin naturally. After all we had gone through, this sounded too good to be true. But, within the first few baths, the naturally lathering soap began healing Chance’s parched and peeling legs! His eczema began to disappear and we were thrilled to have found a natural solution! Dwight and I knew so many others would need this information, too, so we started bendsoap.com and have been making natural soaps ever since.

A comment was left from Afzal, an eczema sufferer – anyone with helpful tips, do comment to this thread, thanks!

“I’m actually the sufferer of eczema, I’m 16 years old and live in England. I’ve had eczema all my life and have noticed that the eczema in recent years has got better. However I’ve always had areas on my body where eczema is more consistent and breaks out very often, these include face, neck, back of my knees as well as my arms. I was wondering if puberty had a role in my eczema and how it effected it. Also one other problem I have is that most of the time when my face gets worse, small areas of my face start to weep. Chasing fluids to come out, this happens very often signaling the decline of the skin on my face. I wanted to know what could cause that and if I can stop it from developing, giving me a longer period of time with good skin on my face. Thank you for your time.”

Hi Afzal, thanks for dropping by and yes, puberty does affect eczema. More from an interview with dermatologist Dr Lynn Chiam below:
http://eczemablues.com/2012/09/teen-eczema-qa-with-dr-lynn-chiam-puberty/
Sex steroids modulate skin thickness as well as immune function. It had been noted that under the age of 10, eczema occurs equally among boys and girls. However, from 10-18 years, eczema becomes more prevalent among girls. During adolescence, more girls develop eczema and more boys outgrow it. This suggests a role for gender-specific pubertal factors.

As they mature, it has been noted that females with eczema had more problems with issues of clothes and shoes than boys. Significant itch and sleep disturbance affected both genders. The areas of the body affected by eczema remain similar between the two genders during puberty. More studies are needed evaluate the effects of hormonal changes on eczema.

In infants and toddlers (0-2 years), eczema tend to affect the face and scalp while in childhood (2-12 years), it affects the flexures (inner aspect of elbows, neck, back of knees), wrist and ankles. In adolescents, eczema tend to affect the eyelids, neck and flexures (inner aspect of elbows, back of knees).

On the face, not sure if you have had patch testing done, could be hair/face products that irritate your skin. The other avenue to explore is non-steroidal treatment cream. If you have acne, the acne treatment cream dries eczema skin so have to be careful.

Type of water though studied to not affect eczema but many eczema sufferers find softening the water helps.. diet? another area you may want to self-experiment or seek help from allergist to figure out. In general, reduce sugar, trans fat, meat and more vege+fruits.

Take care!
Mei

Hello Mei,

A research group is forming for parents who have children with severe eczema. The goal is to create a patient-driven research agenda. Would you be interested in participating and helping us spread the word? The link to the Facebook group is below:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/parentsforeczemaresearch/

Please let me know if you have any interest. Also would you mind if I replied to all the comments notifying the other parents about this new resource?

Thanks,
Jeanette

Thanks Jeanette for dropping by! Parents who subscribe to this thread would see your comment and link so there’s no need to reply to all the individual comments (they won’t see it anyway if they don’t subscribe). Is the group founded by parents who have an eczema-related business or parents with eczema kids? I checked out the facebook page but there isn’t much info on it. Do share more, cheers!

It it sounded by two parents who both have a child with extreme eczema. I am helping spread the word about the group 🙂

Meet a New Mom! – Adrina

Child’s Name – Amanda

Diagnosed with eczema – Diagnosed at 2.5 months of age

Best parenting moment & Greatest challenge – I’m still battling with it, desperately looking for other solutions besides steroids…

Hi Adrina!

Thanks for dropping by our support group page and sorry to hear that you’re struggling with the eczema management. I find that from 4+ months to 2 years old is the toughest period to manage for the child as their fingers are strong enough to do much damage but they haven’t got many activities to distract them and they don’t understand about not scratching.

Wonder if your child have had an allergy test? That can help in managing the eczema by avoiding known triggers. I think the best way to avoid steroids is to take proactive measure like avoiding triggers, moisturizing, wet wrap (I recently tried it on my daughter, for her hand, it works!) and regular killing of staph bacteria. Diet (fish oil) can help too.

Hope you’d find some answers soon that will make family time much easier, I know how hard it is.. sometimes family time ends up being very stressful with a kid that can’t stop scratching.

Hugs,
Mei

Meet a New Mom! – Dina

Child’s Name – Mj

Diagnosed with eczema – from 1 week old

Best parenting moment & Greatest challenge – allergy towards egg and egg causing the eczema flare up. i had to breastfeed until 3.5 years old. greatest challenge being woken up 100 times every night to prevent her from scratching herself raw. My body is trained to wake up whenever i hear scratching sound which sucks.

Welcome Dina and I totally understand about body being trained to wake up when hearing scratching – mine too! Sometimes my daughter even asks me how do I know she’s scratching when I can’t see her and she’s kinda hiding her hand.

We co-sleep for 4 years and now sleep side by side, but not on the same bed cos it’s getting too squeezy as she’s grown! Do you co-sleep?

Hear from you soon!
Mei

Meet a New Mom! – June

Diagnosed with eczema – My baby’s name is Zi Wei and he started his ezcema since he was 4 mths (now he is 9 months). He is cover by his two side of chin and his back body also, his hand and leg of ankle also cover up of redness . My PD recommend me to use QV intensive moisturing cleaner, lotion and fucicort . But other doctor is recommend me to use Elomet and Aqua moisutring cream . So i am very confused of marketing there are so mant type of cream n steroid cream that which one should my son use it ..

Hi June!
Thanks for your sharing! For moisturizer, it’s easier to decide – mainly what’s without the major irritants (http://eczemablues.com/2012/02/sensitive-skin-product-series-what-ingredient-to-avoid/) and one that is within your budget. For dry skin, have to use quite a bit of moisturizer > if you’re using lotion, then have to apply more frequently. If you’re using ointment like QV intensive, then less frequent. If you can afford it, you can use creams that restore ceramides or lipids in skin but that is often out of budget for the amount of cream to use to first do the basics of protecting the skin from drying out.

On the steroids – it’s largely a matter of trial and error but bearing in mind that you get the frequency, potency, amount and duration to use correct. You can search these from the relevant tags on my blog. Fucicort has anti-fungal while Elomet is low-med potency steroid cream without anti-fungal or anti-bacterial component. Both cannot be used like a moisturizer – only for flare up. If the skin keeps flaring up, say after use, calm down but within days, flare again, it’s time to see a skin specialist, get allergy testing and work together to figure out what may trigger the flare-up.

Also, the basic skincare routine has to be correct. You can search for these on the drop down list at eczema tips menu.

Hope above helps, hugs,
Mei

Your sharing will help others!