New Here - 20month old son with Psoriasis

[hexvenus]

Hello All,

I'm Sarah, 24, mother to Tarquin who's 20 months.

Just yesterday Tarquin was diagnosed with Psoriasis. His first outbreak was when he was six months old, I had been to about 11 doctors (a paediatrician AND a dermatologist) and all of them diagnosed his condition as ezcema.

None of the ezcema treatments were working - even for a little bit - so I continued to try and find answers. Finally some progress with his new doctor.

Tarquin's doctor has him on a new diet... strictly dairy free, and fish 3-4 times a week, as well as fish oil, trace element solution, and a topical zinc ointment.

How do the rest of you cope with your child's scratching? Tarquin hasn't slept during the night in over a year due to his skin being constantly itchy.
:(

Looking forward to getting to know you all

till next time
-Sarah

[bratsareus]

Hi Sarah, welcome to the boards. You have found a wonderful place for support, friendship, and information. I personally dont have a little on with P, but I do have a 15 year old with it. So far my 4 and 6 year old dont have it.

I would suggest to deal with the itching to try warm Aveno baths or baking soda. Most important is to use a good moisturizer on him.Keeping the skin from drying out is very important. Also if hes having a real bad night, I would give him a half to 3/4 teaspoon of Benadryl.(ask your doctor or pharmacy if that dose is right)


Good luck with your son, I hope he gets it under control fast. I know its so hard watching our babies suffer. Hang in there, it will get better.
Patty

[GitOverIt]

Hi Sarah.............so sorry to hear about your little guy getting this so young....Marielle another mom on here will be on to help you her daughter got big help from the uv lamps (I'm not sure what they are called uvb or something :p )
But since it is going into summer down under I'm thinking the sun's rays might be a good place to start (we get vit D3 from the rays and psoriatics are known to be low) first off talk to your doc about this and get his input....using a sun screen is countradictive it is probably best to use virgin coconut oil as it keeps a person from burning...however remember this is baby skin...only minutes at a time.
Baking soda baths for itching ...and Desitin (40% zinc) the diaper cream if you have that brand or look for a diaper cream with zinc the higher the better) Desitin is thick and that means it is water proof...good for the diaper area...you can take a clean jar and put some Desitin in that and add Aquaphor or another soothing cream mixed to apply on the rest of the body......I really think this will get rid of the itching....prepare for messy sheets tho :D ...we all have them!

Have you heard of Manuka honey from New Zealand he is too young for honey but they do make a lotion...if you can find it...here is a link

It seems studies are being done on the healing properties and things look good...I just ordered some from a USA site........

http://www.newzealandbeauty.com/psoriasis.cfm

[MikeK]

Hi Sarah,

Welcome to the Board! :cool: Nice to meet you. I'm sorry to hear about Tarquin's. Unfortunately, the people who can give you the best advice -- the mothers of infants and toddlers with psoriasis -- don't post here very often so they probably won't see your plea for help. The good news is that I found some posts from Shana Hansen (an Australian living in Texas) that I think will be very helpful to you. (Shana's daughter Lillian was born with severe psoriasis. She hasn't posted in a long, long time.) Here's copies of some of Shana's posts:

Both of these posts date from 2003:Hi Tia,
Sounds like every one gave you some good advice but having a 3yr old with psor. myself I can totally relate to the itching when they throw a tantrum. Lillian gets so worked up and hot when she is upset that she turns red and then starts itching. Which of course I try to stop which then leads to more screaming. But really any time she gets hot, she starts itching. If possible I just give her a cool bath and this helps. Apart from that I try to dress her so she stays cool, especially at night. There has been times in the middle of the night where she has gotten too hot and the only way to get her cooled down and stop itching is to put her in the bathtub. Also keeping the skin well moisterized helps a lot. Hope this helps,
Take care,
Shana Souce: http://www.psoriasis.org/forum/showthread.php?p=43588&highlight=Lillian#post43588.

Hi Amy,
Sorry to hear that your little Ella has p. so bad right now. When Lillian was that age to help with the scratching we made her little velvet mittens and that way when she rubbed it was very soft. Also Hydroxyzine syrup is what I still give her to relieve the itching. She gets it every night before bed and every now and then I won't give it just to see if she can do without but then we are up all night itching. Sometimes she gets a dose during the day but she does well without it most of the time. On the subject of ears it might be the other way around. Lillian's ear canals started getting affected by the p. when she was about 3mo old and they would get so inflamed that at times they would be swollen shut. The thing that we found that worked the best was Tobradex drops which are actually eye drops but eye drops don't have a lot of the extra ingredients that ear drops do so we were told. Hope this helps a little bit. Good Luck.
Take Care,
Shana Source: http://www.psoriasis.org/forum/showthread.php?p=17648&highlight=syrup#post17648.

Here's a link to some addtional information about Hydroxyzine http://www.pdrhealth.com/drug_info/rxdrugprofiles/drugs/ata1035.shtml. Note: hydroxyzine will make Tarquin very sleepy.

I haven't been able to find any information regarding the availability of hydroxyzine syrup in Australia. I was able to find that hydroxine capsules are available in New Zealand. Here's a link: http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/Datasheet/s/Serecidcap.htm.

I hope this helps.

Good luck. Keep us posted. Let us know if you have any questions and please don't be a stranger.

Mike