Wet wraps for eczema

I'm ashamed to admit I have been putting off this post for so long.  It's one thing  I could post that could potentially help people more than just about anything else I could write.  Someone emailed me about the National Jewish hospital and was thinking about taking her little one there.  When she told me about how her child scratched and itched and was in pain I felt ridiculous for not doing this sooner.  So here is to all the kiddos out there who shouldn't have to scratch so much.

My Cheyenner Nanners has eczema.  Lots of it, all over her darling little body.  The annoying thing about eczema is that you can't heal it.  You can make it go away, but it's just in hiding.  Your skin can be baby butt smooth, but the eczema is still there waiting to flare up.

There are zillions of things that can cause eczema flares.  Stress, sickness, weather changes, fragrances, food allergies, dust mites, or pet dander, just for a start.

The most effective way to make eczema go into hiding (as I like to call it), is with wet wraps.  Wet wraps are time consuming but very easy and from what I hear, most kids don't mind it at all. Cheyenne sure doesn't.

Here is what you will need: 2 pairs of pajamas,  1 small towel, 2-4 pairs of knee high socks, Vanicream or Aquaphor and your eczema creams.  National Jewish Hospital recommends the Vanicream. I personally saw better results with the Aquaphor.  The eczema creams I have are prescription but you can get over the counter ones. Prescription ones are stronger and will work faster.

I recommend going to a doctor for your eczema to get the prescriptions that are right for you or your child.  Also, eczema can be a side effect from food allergies so it is very important that you look into this.

Instead of pajamas you could use long johns or anything light weight and tight fitting and a pair of something looser such as sweat pants and a sweat shirt.  If you have eczema on your neck make sure the tight layer is a turtle neck.

Once you have all your stuff together, take a bath.  Soak and play for a minimum of 15 minutes. A towel around the shoulders will get water to soak all into the upper back and shoulders.  For older children and adults, a shower will do just as well as a bath.  A shower also needs to be a minimum of 15 minutes.  In severe cases stay in the water for up to 30 minutes.

Don't use any soap in the bath til the very end. You don't want to be soaking in the soap.  Make sure your soap is sent and dye free. 

After you get out of the tub pat the skin with a towel. The goal is to not be dripping wet and also too keep as much water on you as possible.  Put the eczema creams where you have eczema and the Vanicream or Aquaphor everywhere else,  do not layer them.

Next you need to soak the tight pajamas and two pairs of the socks in warm water. If you use soap in the bath do not use the bath water to get em wet. You can put the socks on first or the pajamas.  Doesn't matter.  Cheyenne likes socks on second so she can do sock puppets.

See what I mean about the turtle neck for neck eczema?

Now layer your looser pair of pajamas and a dry pair of knee high socks on the arms and legs.  I like using footie pajamas cause then you don't need the second pair of socks on the feet.  All you have left is one hour of sock puppet shows.  Stay in this get up for up to two hours but a minimum of one hour.

The fabulous thing about wet wraps is that you don't have to do all of that if you don't have whole body eczema.  Just wet wrap the parts that do have it.  Just make sure you have a light weight tight fitting wet layer followed by a medium weight looser dry layer (and your creams and lotions). 

We currenlty use wet wraps less than once a month.  You can use them 3 times a day if you need to.  This heals eczema very quickly.  I have seen children who have eczema so badly that they look like they have black eyes and within 5 days it is 95% gone!

A big thank you to National Jewish Health for teaching this to me.  It has saved my Nanners from countless sleepless nights scratching til she bleeds.  If you have a kiddo with food allergies and or eczema, the eczema and allergy program is a Godsend!  Read about our experience in the program here and our allergy testing results here.

Up next:  How to wet wrap your face.

The National Jewish Hospital is an amazing place

Upon the first tour of the pediatric day program ward I realized I over-packed and worried a lot more than necessary.  I had pictured us being put into a doctors office and left there for two weeks while I try hopelessly to control my children, while feeding them a hundred packages of fruit snacks on a daily bases. 

I even pictured myself leaving the two week program early because of it being to hard to handle...looking back I'm embarrassed of that thought.  How could I be so weak? I hadn't even started and I could envision myself being a quitter! What a horrible example to set for my children.  Thankfully that was not what transpired.

Upon arriving we are given a tour of our unit.  It is small but everyone has smiling faces.  There is a fridge, with snacks for the kids...whoa why am I lugging this junk food around?  I still need this bag though so my kids have stuff to do.  I spent a lot of time preparing small art projects and activities for Harlee to do while waiting.  A few small toys and coloring books and crayons, my kindle is full of new apps and there is Team Umizoomie on my phone.  I am ready for the boredom of sitting in a hospital for two weeks.  Wait...what is this, is this play room??  Only child appropriate TV allowed here, which is great for a TV natzi like my husband and I.  We are very picky about what our children watch.  There was a 'teen room' down the hall for the older kids to watch more adult TV.

Cheyenne playing in the little playroom.

We are shown to our room which not the dreaded doctors office but a real hospital room and it's baby proofed, that in it's self is a mother's dream.  First things first, Cheyenne is giving a ton of toys.

Cheyenne and some of her loot...as in they gave her more than you see here.

Every child is rewarded for all the stuff they are required to do. Everyone has a sticker chart. Each required activity has a sticker value, once your chart is full you go to the reward closet. Cheyenne loves the stickers but the overall idea is lost on her, so the nurses bring her toys every once in a while.

After her first prick allergy testing they bring her a baby! Her favorite thing!


So then they have this super play area that is sponsored by the Ronald McDonald House.  This place is amazing.  It has indoor play area AND outdoor play area.  This place is awesome!  I would take my kids here even if we weren't in the hospital.

At this point she thinks we are on vacation. 

This super play area isn't open all the time, only when a child life specialist is available to be in there to watch the children.  On another day the child life specialist came with us to Cheyenne's throat X-Ray to help distract her from the 'big scary machine'.  I had never even heard of a child life specialist before...now I wish I could hire one to come live with me. 

My husband and I went on a 'date' to the hospital cafeteria for lunch.  They happily kept both of our children even though Harlee wasn't a patient.  In fact it was their idea.  Apparently we are in desperate need of more date nights.  I don't think the girls even noticed we were gone and Harlee keeps asking me for these markers.

In the end there was no worries.  Being here was comfortable.  Being here was easy.  I feel so blessed to have been a part of this program and even more blessed after seeing the other children here and the miraculous things they do here for extreme allergies and eczema.  I would recommend this program to anyone who has a child with allergies and/or eczema.  The toys I brought went unplayed with, the projects for Harlee went undone and my snacks went uneaten, which was just fine with me. I even kept my kindle to myself and got a little reading done.  I didn't need to worry about anything before coming here. 

Now that it's all said and done  I look back at our time in the hospital and feel grateful and I see memories instead of they suckyness I imagined.

Our peanut allergy testing results

On our first day at Nationals Jewish Hospital we were able to do skin prick testing for nuts of all kinds and also drew blood for brand new blood allergy tests. 

They can get blood results back in just two days there! Fan-freaking-tastic!

The skin prick test came back positive.  I was devastated.  Cheyenne had skin prick testing and blood allergy tests done back in July and both were positive for peanuts.  If she was getting yet another positive then I felt that there was no chance of her having a false positive.  I was defeated, realizing we would be stuck with the curse of the peanut for good.





Here is my tough little nut after the blood draw.  She was such a brave girl.  She didn't even fight the nurses as they took care of business!

For the next two days I learn all about eczema treatments and food allergies.  I also realize after talking to other mothers that if I am in fact destined to be a peanut allergy mom then we are lucky.  Some children here are allergic to so many things I am left wondering what they eat. 

We do food challenges to a few tree nuts over the next couple of days but mostly we are just apprehensively awaiting the blood results.

The blood results come after an antagonizing three year wait...I may tend to exaggerate a bit now and again.  The Dr tells us that it is low enough for peanuts that we can do a food challenge! 

It seems that I have a stampede of butterflies in my stomach.  This is SCARY!  After avoiding peanuts like the plague now I'm about to force feed peanut butter to my peanut allergic child. 

The first dose is barely enough to even scrap up on a spoon.  She eats it with no qualms and runs off to play.  Twenty minutes of vigilant watching later she gets her vitals taken and her skin is scoured for any sign of rash, this is done before all new doses and at the end.  There is four doses in all each increasing in size and then an hour wait.   By the last does we are mixing it with chocolate and forsing her mouth open. 

At the end of the hour wait there is no wheezing, no struggling to breath, no swollen lips, not one single tiny hive, not one hint of a rash!!

That's right! My Cheyenner-nanners is NOT allergic to peanuts.  I can't even begin to articulate what a relief this is.  Our lives are forever changed. 

Cheyenne was never allergic to peanuts.  False positives are more common than most people think.   We are proof of that.  And praise the Lord we are!

National Jewish Health Here We Come!

Two weeks in a hospital.  I signed us up for this.  I must be trying to kill us all.  All because of those #!%&^  peanuts!  We don't really need two weeks of this do we?  I mean it's only a mild peanut allergy...I think.  It's only a little eczema...covering 80% of her body and spreading.  Those mystery rashes she has been getting lately are bothersome as well. OK yes we NEED to go.  These half hour baths everyday need to stop too, but it's the only thing that helps her skin.

We are taking Cheyenne to a pediatric day program for eczema and allergies at National Jewish Health. I find myself debating this decision over and over this week.  The program sounds perfect for our needs and the reviews are outstanding.  I'm thankful to God for the opportunity, but I would be lying if I said I was excited for this.  Two weeks sounds a bit excessive to me, but hey what do I know?   

I've spent a lot of time in visioning this trip.  After a full day of packing  I'm nervous and exhausted and we haven't even started yet.  

First we have a days drive to Denver, CO.  Then for two weeks we will be at the National Jewish Hospital, 8am to 5pm.  Monday to Friday. With a 22 month old.  My four year old will be there also but I'm sure her and her Dad will split faster than a speeding bullet to go on adventures.  I've heard talk of the zoo, aquariums, museums, build a bear..and on and on.  If you listen to my husband talk, it sounds like a lovely vacation.  "I can't wait to spend time with my girls" he keeps telling me, alright alright can't fault him for that.

Eczema treatments for the first few days.  When her eczema is healed we will move on to allergy testing.  It's the allergy testing I'm dreading the most. Just how much poking of my baby do they plan to do?   

As if that wasn't enough there is classes for me to go to.  About eczema and allergies and nutrition classes(to make sure she gets all the stuff she needs while on diet restrictions).  I'm all about learning new things to help my children and the knowledge I gain could be life changing.  I can't stop wondering how I'm supposed to go to this class and pay attention with Cheyenne with me.

National Jewish doesn't believe that one positive allergy test means your allergic. False positive happen every day, or so Google tells me. I'm praying Google is right and this is all a big misunderstanding and I can bring that creamy heaven in a jar, AKA peanut butter, back into my home.

Sitting in a hospital isn't exactly a Disney world vacation.   Down right punishment for a nearly 2 year old.  The kids will likely go stir crazy and I'll pull my hair out. 

A Peanut Allergy Hurts

I took my kids to story time today, we try to make it every week.  I don't know how it is at other library's story time but here they always have a theme to their book choices and a craft that goes with the theme.  I love it, the kids love it.  It's a win-win.

Today's theme was spiders. Yes!! I love Halloween. 

Craft time! It's a spider, yes that was expected.  A freakin' food craft? Are you kidding me, you have a monterous sign that says "No Food or Drink Allowed".  Cheyenne is allergic to peanuts and your handing out M&Ms left and right.  Thankfully, she isn't deathly allergic and I eventually calmed down her tantrum and we went to look for some books, hey the kid just seen donuts and candy and was dragged away while the rest of kids went into a feeding frenzy, I would throw a fit too. 

I want to complain.  At the same time, I don't want to take anything away from the other kids.  This isn't their faults and shouldn't be left out of anything, but neither should my daughter.  I find it hard to believe that my daughter is the only peanut allergy kiddo in this town who likes story time.

This is the first time we have been left out of an activity.  So it hurts me.  It's not about donuts and candy.  It's about being left out.  It's about my child being left out.

If we were never going there again it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but this is a place we will be visiting weekly for a long time.  My question to other peanut allergy moms is how do you handle things like this?