help me w/ symptoms

[rossanahu]

hello, i've posted once before, and now new symptoms have presented themselves and i'd like to hear from anyone who knows anything about them. my son (5) have been getting new red spots (pea-size) on his legs and arms. they look at first like bruises, but about two days they turn browner than red and then lighter in color as the days go by. they pretty much disappear w/in 2 weeks, and they don't itch or hurt. i'm getting worried because it's happening every couple of days and it's been weeks now. any ideas???
also, some of jeremy's nails (about 6 total) are getting pretty bad. peeling from the skin, thickening, curling up, yellowing. Would steroid cream work on nails?
i have no place to go because the derm i got last week was of no use. she insists it's eczema but cannot convince me why. i'm in china now and i don't want to go near hospitals here because of SARS, so i only have you guys to help me...
also, does it sound like psoriasis when jeremy's problem flares up about every 2 weeks? they get gradually better but never for more than 2 weeks, and then they get worse, and it's the samething all over again? he's been using steroid cream and antibiotic cream twice a day for 4 months straight now. i'm very concerned about side effects, but don't know what else to do.
help!! :( :( :(

[MikeK]

I'm not a doctor, but I can help but wonder if your son has a skin allergy in addition to p and/or eczema. I've had plaque p for almost 40 years and I've never had spots come and go the way you're describing. I've had allergic reactions to detergent, which caused my skin to break out. The problem went away when I switched to a "free and clear" detergent. I'm not sure if such a product is available in China, but it's worth looking into. It could also be a problem with the soap that he's showering or bathing with. (My derm frowns on anything anti-bacterial.) See if you can get your hands on Cetaphil bar soap or even good old fashioned Ivory. It could also be a food allergy. I'm kind of grasping at straws here, but I hope I've helped in some small way.

[rossanahu]

thanks for helping. he's not really bathing much and only w/ cetaphil, and we are using an allergent-free detergent. they don't look like a skin rash but more of a bruise. actually, they look exactly like bruises, but i can't figure out how he gets them so often. i'm worried that there's more to his health problem than meets the eye--maybe there's something internal that i don't know about, and when i mention that to the doctors, they just dismiss my suspicion.