An Update on Luca’s Eczema

Our sweet little Luca is now 15 months old and is walking, talking, and filling our home with love and laughter everyday. I’m constantly thanking God for blessing us with our two beautiful babes. This past Christmas marked the one year anniversary of the onset of Luca’s eczema and it brought back a lot of memories, which led me to reflect on the past 12 months.

June 2019

To be honest, it is very difficult for me to go back to the place that I was in about 8-12 months ago. When photos from that time pop up, I cannot really look at them. It just hurts my heart so much to remember how uncomfortable Luca was every minute of every day and how I was driving myself crazy because I couldn’t help him. I hope to get to a place where photos from that time period don’t bring back those emotions but I’m not there yet.

July 2019

I last gave an update on Luca’s eczema in June in this blog post, which quickly became my most-read article ever, and has led to me connecting with tons of other families battling with severe skin issues all over the world. In the past 6 months, Luca’s skin has changed drastically and I’ve received many requests for an update on his eczema so I figured there is no better time than now!

August 2019

Since Luca was diagnosed with 3 food allergies (dairy, eggs, and peanuts) in May, his skin slowly improved. He definitely still had eczema but it went from profound to severe to moderate. His sweet little face always had the worst areas of eczema, although his whole body was covered. The dermatologist told us that his face would be the first to clear, and the body would take longer; however, this was the opposite in Luca’s case. We noticed his body was slowly improving, it went from eczema everywhere, to just in the creases and on his thighs, and then just his thighs. Every time we changed his diaper his hands would immediately migrate to his legs and he would just scratch as much as he could.

September 2019

Things were just steadily improving and we were celebrating each small victory. First, we were able to have Luca eat in his highchair without a shirt on. This was never possible before because he would itch his arms until they bled. Then we noticed, he wasn’t scratching his legs at diaper changes anymore! Then this next one was a big one, we were able to put him to sleep in his crib without his scratch sleeves on!! This is monumental because for a long time he had to have mittens, scratch sleeves, and swaddles on him to prevent him from clawing himself all night and not sleeping. All of this was restricting his movement and mildly delaying his gross motor skills as well, which was something else I was concerned about. I never knew I would be so thrilled to be able to lay my baby down in his crib, wearing just pyjamas and a sleep sack.

These small gains were happening every few months and made our family happier and more hopeful. The rest of the world didn’t really know how huge these milestones were for Luca, because his face still had moderate eczema. People continued to point it out, but I stopped letting it bother me so much. I usually just stated how much better it was and if they thought this was bad, that they should have seen it before! I mostly just want to protect Luca from the constant comments about his skin, so he doesn’t feel insecure. I think ultimately every mother wants to protect their babies from the world.

September 2019

Another turning point in Luca’s eczema journey occurred on his first birthday, September 25th. I had to work that day and was feeling guilty and sad about it, so I wanted to try to make the day special by taking Luca out for supper somewhere he could have birthday cake. I decided on a vegan restaurant, since that is pretty much the only option for dairy and egg free cake. We ordered Luca a kid’s vegan mac & cheese, which had an almond crumble on top. Within a few seconds of him coming in contact with the almonds, he broke out in hives, turned red, and his face swelled up. It was terrifying and heartbreaking. His breathing did not seem to be affected so we gave Benadryl but didn’t use the Epipen (upon discussing with our allergist, we likely should have used it). I felt awful and responsible for his reaction, since it was my idea to go to this restaurant in the first place. I still beat myself up for ruining his first birthday. Following this incident, our allergist sent us for blood allergy testing, which confirmed what we already knew, Luca is severely allergic to all 7 Tree Nuts. Although it felt like another punch to the gut, we are starting to learn how to roll with punches around here. On the bright side, we are glad we discovered this allergy, got the diagnosis, and that we were with him when the reaction occurred.

October 2019

Another major difference I noticed was how we handled Luca’s flare ups. In the early days of trying to get a handle on his eczema, it was a constant flare, each one worse than the last, progressively getting worse. So when a flare would occur, I would be so stressed, panicking, trying to figure out what caused it and how to manage it, I wouldn’t sleep. Fast forward to now when he gets a flare, I know that this too shall pass. The flares are not nearly as severe as before, do not happen as often, and do not last as long. We are also starting to pinpoint specific things that have contributed to a flare up, like nutritional yeast of all things?! Slowly learning of these triggers and eliminating them is also helping Luca’s condition. Up until about November, Luca was getting a flare up about once per month and it would usually last 3-5 days. Currently, I think we are in the longest stretch we have ever experienced without a flare up (knock on wood). It has been over 6 weeks since the last one.

November 2019

One of the most common questions I get is what we do to manage Luca’s eczema. Our current regime is baths every other day. When he is in a flare up, we will use Dead Sea Salt in the bath to control itching. Often we just use plain water, but if he needs a little extra washing I will use a tiny amount of wash like Tubby Todd, Gaia, or Hello Bello. He seems to tolerate all of these well. After the bath, as well as about 3 times per day, we apply a thick layer of Vanicream over his entire body. This is my favourite moisturizer for him, but what do I know, I’ve only tried 1,000,000 different creams :P We get ours in the states or order on Amazon. I like the original Cerave as well; it works well for Luca’s skin and is more readily available in Canada. We have not used any steroids since April or May. We still use a humidifier, cotton clothing, and give Probiotic drops and Vitamin D.

December 2019

Another frequent question is what do I think fixed Luca’s eczema. This is difficult to answer. I don’t think anyone can ever know for certain. In our case I think it’s a combination of factors: eliminating steroid use, diagnosing and eliminating allergens from Luca’s diet, his immune system strengthening, and him outgrowing it.

Overall, we are in a really good place with Luca and his eczema. His cheeks are often rosy and occasionally he has a small patch of eczema on his face but it is totally manageable and under control. It no longer affects his everyday life. He is happy, healthy, and thriving, and because of that, so are the rest of us!

Thank you to everyone who has taken time to ask about Luca, send kind words, or check up on us!

Xo Kelsi