Sunscreen for eczema-prone skin

The sun’s out and summer is well on it’s way – so how do we protect skin that is eczema-prone?

I’ve found that my daughter’s skin reacted to any kind of chemical absorber-based sunscreen and so I have been using mineral-based sunscreens on her (i.e. zinc). It’s also a preference that we use a sunscreen that provides a protective layer to our skin, rather than a chemical absorber sunscreen which gets taken in by our skin! (A quick summary can be found at Discovery News and also at this Australian beauty site The Glow.)

There are lots of mineral-based sunscreens on the market nowadays, but I’ve stuck with these two for the moment as they were the main ones around a few years+ ago:

Soléo

Soléo All Natural Sunscreen is an all-natural, organically produced skin care solution that is suitable for the whole family and the environment. Soléo has been innovatively formulated according to Naturopathic principles without the use of any chemical UV-absorbers, titanium dioxide, or synthetic preservatives.

I like this brand as it’s totally natural! The business:

chooses not to use any of the following: parabens or any other synthetic preservatives, chemical UV-absorbers, petrochemicals, mineral oils, artificial fragrances or colours, synthetics surfactants like sodium lauryl sulfate, genetically modified ingredients or ingredients containing synthetics by-products.

Invisble Zinc

They have a SPF 50+ sunscreen for those needing much stronger sun protection!

For the ladies: I absolutely recommend Invisible Zinc’s Tinted Daywear SPF 30+. It’s a high SPF rating, affordable, easy to apply, and the right amount of coverage if you are ok with a fresh dewy-skin look rather than dried powder look 🙂

Online price drop for Hopes’ Relief Cream!

If you frequently use Hopes’ Relief Cream (mentioned in this post here) and wouldn’t mind buying it at a cheaper price, some good news for you: The Chemist Discounter in Christchurch has reduced the pricing and it’s only $23 a tube now! No more bulk buying 🙂 Well, you still can if you want – buy 6 tubes, and get them for $22 each per tube.

http://www.chemistdiscounter.co.nz/hope-s-relief-cream-60-gm.html

A milestone reached: no eczema at all! : )

Thought I’d write a quick but very happy note to say that after using Hope’s Relief cream that I had reviewed last year, my older daughter has been eczema free for the past couple of months, and we’ve stopped using the Hope’s Relief cream so frequently now. It’s wonderful, that after all the hard work and constant moisturing, to finally reach this milestone. We are still moisturising with Essenchi Aquaderm behind the knees, inner elbows and under the eyes, and at the first sign of any pink/redness, use the Hope’s Relief cream again to combat bacteria… but it’s all clear! 🙂

If you’re itchy and you know it… stop your hands? (from damaging skin more)

Your child is really itchy and scratches throughout their sleep / the night. You both wake up to find bloodied, raw, inflamed skin, worse than before. And the cycle keeps going…

I used to get so grumpy at my daughter at the beginning of our eczema journey as I just wanted her to STOP scratching and she wouldn’t and couldn’t. I soon realised that eczema is such an unbearable itch, you just HAVE to itch. I now think those sleep time products that force a baby’s/child’s arms into such a manner that they can’t move them at all or to itch themselves is just torture. How grumpy and pent up with frustration one could get! I know I would be peeved if someone tried holding my arms back and my body was itching like crazy 😦

The solution to get through itchy bouts is to:

Trim their nails and file them smooth so that they cannot break the skin. Broken skin just encourages more inflammation, bacteria, and more itch. Short, smooth nails maintained most times will make a huge difference. They also carry less bacteria.

AND

Use TubiFast bandages (thin, flexible, breathable fabric tubular bandages) to:

a) cover and protect the itchy areas from the hands that want to itch, also known as “dry wrapping”. Before putting the bandage wrap on, apply steroid cream and then pile on the moisturiser. (“Wet wrapping” is another option in extreme cases, that involves wetting the bandages before putting them on over the steroids & moisturiser – but you will need medical advice and assistance before starting this as it can  encourage bacteria growth i.e. make things worse if it’s not the right thing for you / your child!)

b) wear as gloves at night for the younger ones e.g. <4 years (get a longer piece that can fit over the hand and wrist, and knot one end) . Older ones could probably wear thin cotton gloves . The less direct contact the nails have with the skin, the better!

AND, teach a new habit to develop over time for the daytime:

Rub the itchy part gently with the fingers / hand to relieve the itchy, rather than itch/scratch with nails. And where possible/available, rub moisturiser in. “Cream on  the itchy parts” : )

Do you have any other tips you’d like to share?

Review: Hope’s Relief Premium Eczema Cream

I purchased a tube of Hope’s Relief Premium Eczema Cream from Commonsense Organics in August this year. I never heard of it before, but according to the store, it has awesome feedback.

Here’s a site that talks a little more about it’s 5 active natural ingredients:  Calendula, Manuka Honey NPA10+, Aloe Vera, Gotu Kola and Licorice Root.

I tried on it my own eczema first to see what it was like, and found:

a) The product stings a little if the skin is slightly raw or inflamed. I also tried a tiny bit on my daughter’s wrist that had a bit of dry,  raw  skin and she said it hurt. To overcome/stop the stinging, I apply Hope’s Relief, rub it in, and quickly apply Essenchi Aquaderm Cream (or Emulsifying Wax) on top of it, and it works : ) On eczema that’s not raw, it has a very slight tingly/cooling feeling on application – I assume from the aloe vera etc that’s in it.

b) The product is brown in colour and there are brown stains on our light-coloured clothes (where the cream rubbed off), which will come out in the wash. If you are fair-skinned, the cream may also give a brownish coating to your skin. This can again be overcome by rubbing it in and applying your moisturiser on top.

So, then I started using it regularly on my daughter: at least twice a day (in the morning after changing out of PJs, and then in the evening straight after her shower), and anytime she felt itchy. We found that this product has been THE BEST thing for eczema ever. Why?

1. My daughter’s eczema has not only disappeared over time *see note below, but the skin has healed to perfectly normal looking skin! No discolouration / pigmentation (usual effect from steroid use), no scarring, it’s as if she has never had eczema there before! : ) The product helps encourage collagen growth and improves cell regeneration so that probably explains it.
2. A major reason why my daughter’s eczema kept flaring up was due to the Staph A bacteria getting out of control on her skin (and making it super itchy), and in combination with less than healthy skin, was a constant annoyance to get on top of. The great thing about Hope’s Relief is that it contains Hospital Grade Manuka Honey to fight bacteria. It helped stop the itch and has reduced any crazy bacteria levels right down to normal levels where there is nearly no more red bacteria spots on her skin and she doesn’t itch anymore.

So, you may be wondering “what’s the downside to all this? sounds too good to be true!”… The only downside has been the cost of the cream. Each 60g tube can range from $29 to $35+ at most health stores and pharmacies. And you need to use a lot at the early stages when you’re trying to overcome the eczema and get that itch, inflammation and Staph A under control. We went through one tube of cream each week for covering patches on the neck, entire back of the knees, inner and out elbows, and wrists (this is for a 6 year old child).

I’ve found one website / pharmacy that sells it the cheapest at $26.50 per tube, or cheaper still if you buy in bulk packs of 3 tubes: Chemist Discounter in Christchurch. I’ve ordered the 3-tube packs from them twice now. I’m thinking of contacting the Hope’s Relief wholesaler to see if it can be done even cheaper if more are bought.

I really believe this product should be more accessible to a wider range of people as it is such a life saver for eczema sufferers and achieves a result that no amount of steroids and emulsifying wax can!!!!

I’ll keep you posted if I do start finding a way of stocking it for a lot cheaper : )

* Please note: this product is NOT an instant miracle worker! You will need to be patient with it. It was consistently used for a 2-3 month period for the skin to  improve to what it is looking like now (ie. normal for the first time!). During this time, I still had to ensure my daughter’s skin was well-moisturised etc etc.

The slowness (but sureness) of it working was obvious when I observed how an inflamed patch of eczema responded to steroid cream (e.g. hydrocortisone) vs this cream.

Steroid creams act pretty much immediately and upon application, the redness/inflammation/itch subsides noticeably. But can just have to keep using it again and again each time it flares up.  The skin eventually discolours from the recurring use, and doesn’t necessarily look healthier. And my daughter still itches as the bacteria is still out of control on the skin areas.

With Hope’s Relief, it did take longer for the inflammation to disappear – the redness was there probably twice to three times longer than steroid cream application so I had to have faith in the cream at first. BUT, at the same time and over time, the skin underneath somehow built itself back up. I don’t know how it worked?? – and I was skeptical at first – but it did. Also, areas that weren’t eczema-affected but were starting to have signs of Staph A bacteria getting their party gear on, with Hope’s Relief it got all that under control before it became an itch and inflamed area.

I hope this cream works wonders for you / your child as much as it has for my daughter and I! Leave your success stories or maybe unsuccessful stories here on the comments if you like 🙂

National Eczema Association’s view on stress causing eczema

A nice piece from Dr Peter Lio at the National Eczema Association (USA):

I’d like to conclude with some thoughts about stress, the mind, and the psyche. There was a study in 2003 that showed very clearly that not only did stressful events worsen folks’ atopic dermatitis but they actually slowed down the barrier function healing of their skin. Another study of non-eczema patients found that their skin barrier function started to break down when presented with psychosocial stress or sleep deprivation.

A study that came out last year involved patients viewing a humorous film and sampling their B cells (the immune cells that make the immunoglobulin allergy proteins) before viewing and after. After the humorous film, the allergy proteins were decreased significantly. It’s interesting, this idea that your mood and your state of mind could change something so quickly. In my experience, it does seem to bear out that more optimistic patients do seem to have better outcomes and are able to get their eczema under control more easily. And this has struck me again and again as important.

Taking care of your skin and taking care of yourself from a mind/body holistic perspective, not to sound too flaky, really does seem to help. I think it helps your skin and it helps the rest of your body and mind, and that cannot be overemphasized.

On the other hand, we know that having eczema does not mean you’re doing something wrong. I want to make sure that message is clear. It doesn’t mean you screwed up, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad parent for your child with eczema, it doesn’t mean that you’re not “holistic” or “balanced.” You shouldn’t blame yourself for it. We know this is a real disease and it is not just in anybody’s mind.

Source: http://www.nationaleczema.org/articles/everyday-skin-care-maintaining-skin-integrity-and-avoiding-inflammation

National Eczema Association’s Eczema Basics

http://www.nationaleczema.org/living-with-eczema/what-every-eczema-patient-should-know

Good factual summary on the basics, what every eczema patient should know, can be found at the above National Eczema Association (USA) page.

National Eczema Association’s bathing & moisturising summary

http://www.nationaleczema.org/living-with-eczema/bathing-moisturizing

A good summary by the National Eczema Association (USA) on bathing & moisturising for eczema-affected people.

The inherited skin barrier defect

Our daughter’s paediatrician mentioned that both myself and my daughters’ father have something called the filaggrin gene mutation. He came to that conclusion from seeing the skin we had: our palms are excessively lined (“hyperlinear palms”) and our skin is somewhat dryish and scaly on the back of our hands, feet, forearms and lower half of our legs (very mild form of “ichthyosis vulgaris”).

Filaggrin is a very important protein that acts as our skin’s natural moisturiser and barrier. 

Dr Amy Stanway, Department of Dermatology, Waikato District Health Board (2004) writes on the New Zealand Dermatological Society Incorporated website (DermNet) that:

There is emerging evidence that inflammation in atopic dermatitis results primarily from inherited abnormalities in the skin – the skin “barrier defect”. This barrier failure causes increased permeability of the skin and reduces its antimicrobial function.

An inherited abnormality in filaggrin expression is now considered a primary cause of disordered barrier function. Filaggrins are filament-associated proteins which bind to keratin fibres in the epidermal cells. The gene for filaggrin resides on Chromosome 1 (1q21.3). This gene was first identified as the gene involved in ichthyosis vulgaris.

It is postulated that the loss of filaggrin results in:

• Corneocyte deformation (flattening of surface skin cells), which disrupts the organisation of the extracellular lipid (fat) – the lamellar bilayers.

• A reduction in natural moisturising factors, which include metabolites of pro-filaggrin.

• An increase in skin pH which encourages serine protease activity – these are enzymes which digest lipid-processing enzymes and the proteins that hold epidermal cells together. Serine proteases also generate active cytokines like IL-1a and Il-1beta and promote skin inflammation.

A great diagram showing all this is provided on ThePaleoMum.com’s post on “Overcoming Medical Dogma – Eczema”:

What does this mean?

Our daughters will have inherited this faulty gene and would genetically have dry skin, prone to skin reactions and inflammation. So, it is even more important (even without the eczema) to protect this poor skin barrier by hydrating it and keeping it intact as much as possible, and keep on top of it! Eczema may also be a more chronic issue for our daughter i.e. eczema will be more persistent for her than for other children who do not have the gene mutation. The American medical research  is nicely summarised on the End Eczema blog’s post “Filaggrin mutation means more persistent eczema”.

Does this gene affect you / your child too?

For more reading, see the list below:

A New View on the Roots of Itchy Skin by Ingfei Chen  (published in The New York Times, 24 April 2008)

The allergy gene: how a mutation in a skin protein revealed a link between eczema and asthma by W. H. Irwin McLean (published online, 14 January 2011)

Atopic Eczema and the Filaggrin Story by Sara J. Brown, MBChB, BSc, MRCP,* and Alan D. Irvine, MD, FRCPI (2008)

Selective Ablation of Ctip2/Bcl11b in Epidermal Keratinocytes Triggers Atopic Dermatitis-Like Skin Inflammatory Responses in Adult Mice by

Ichthyosis vulgaris

New Zealand Dermatological Society Incorporated (DermNet)

British Association of Dermatologists – Ichthyosis

Foundation for Ichthyosis & Related Skin Types (USA)

Ichthyosis vulgaris: the filaggrin mutation disease by  Thyssen JP, Godoy-Gijon E, Elias PM. (published online 6 May 2013).

Fancy helping with research? Probiotics in pregnancy

The University of Otago, Wellington is conducting a study on probiotics use in pregnancy.

The research team want to find out if by giving pregnant women a specific probiotic, they can:
– Stop infants developing eczema and allergy
– Help pregnant women’s health by preventing:
– Some vaginal infections
– A type of diabetes that occurs only in pregnancy (gestational diabetes)
If you’re interested in helping, they need to hear from you as early in pregnancy as possible, and this must be before reaching 16 weeks pregnant.

Personally, I think probiotics in pregnancy works! On the suggestion of one of the researchers taking part in this study, I took probiotics for as long as I could during the pregnancy of my second child, and she does not have the same eczema issues as my first daughter.

What does the study involve?
Study Capsules:
Participants in this study need to take one study capsule each day starting when 14-16 weeks pregnant and continuing throughout the remainder of their pregnancy and for 6 months after birth while breast feeding.
Half the participants will take study capsules containing the study probiotic. They contain one specific probiotic strain which is not genetically modified and was produced in a Halal compliant manner.
The other half of the participants will receive study capsules that do not contain probiotics. These capsules are called a “placebo”. The placebo capsules contain Maltodextran only instead of the probiotic.
Neither you nor the researchers know who is having the probiotic capsules and who is having the placebo until after the study is completed.
After birth the baby would not receive the study capsules.

Study Visits:
Participants will take part in 5-6 study visits starting when they are 14-16 weeks pregnant and finishing when their baby is 1 year old.
Study visits involve a range of questions and measures including one set of blood tests and two sets of vaginal swabs during pregnancy. We will also be testing participants, their baby and the baby’s father for allergies and checking your baby’s skin for eczema.
We will provide parking and petrol vouchers when participants need to travel to attend study visits. Home visits will be arranged for some parts of the study (e.g. just after birth).

Who can take part in this study?
Women taking part in the study need to:
1. Be less than 16 weeks pregnant
2. Either they (the pregnant woman) or the biological father of the unborn child must have had eczema, asthma or hay fever that was treated by a doctor at some time in the past
3. Live in, and plan to deliver in the Wellington area
or
Live in, and plan to deliver in the Auckland area

Full details can be found at the University of Otago, Wellington Research website section.