I have a son now 6 and he had "severe" infantile excema from 4-10 months
which finally subsided at about 1 1/2-2 years old. I was a nightmare.

For severe excema the hydrocortisone creams are necessary just to keep him
from scratching. And we found other good things. Don't bath him in water
(use Cetaphil.  Also, creams we found helpful were Aquaphilic, a Vicco
turmeric cream and a homeopathic calendula cream put out by Boericke &
Taffel. By the time our son was 10 months old we could give up the
hydrocortisone cream, and keep him quite comfortable with the other more
natural things. This barely scratches the surface of our experience but
feel free to ask questions.

I've read that people with multiple allergies and (which our son had and
still has some, primarily to milk) need extra calcium. We took him to a
good health professional as a baby and he recommended calcium for me and
him as I was still breastfeeding. The excema did seem to get much better
after that, but since we were also trying so many things we never knew for
sure if it was that or what?

Also, the below information tells about an excema discussion group, which I
only found information about but never have belonged to since our son's
excema was over by the time I started using discussion groups.

>PART 8: THE ECZEMA MAILING LIST
>
>8.1 What is the Eczema Mailing List?
>
>The Eczema Mailing List is an automated mailing list which allows people
>with Eczema to share their experiences of living with and managing
>Eczema.
>
>The discussion on the list varies from people sharing their own
>experiences of or questions about orthodox and alternative treatments to
>people discussing the emotional and social aspects of eczema. The
>quality of the discussion of course depends on what people are prepared
>to contribute.
>
>The list works rather like a USENET news group or a CompuServe forum.
>The difference is that you receive all the messages by e-mail.
>
>Any member can send a message to the list server and this message is
>then re-distributed to all members. At any one time there are a number
>of discussion threads going on.
>
>There is no charge for subscribing to the list and if you do not want to
>remain on the list you just send a message to un-subscribe.
>
>At present membership is screened manually so if you send the
>"subscribe" message you will get a message back from a real person
>asking for a few details about yourself and your interest in eczema.
>
>8.2 How to I subscribe to the Eczema Mailing List?
>
>To subscribe to the list send a message to:
>[log in to unmask] with the following in the body of the
>message:
>
>    subscribe eczema Your Name
>
>You do not need to enter a subject for the message.
>
>You will get a message asking about the nature of your interest in
>eczema. After you have replied to that message, and have received
>confirmation that your subscription has been accepted, you can send
>actual mail to the people on the list by using the address:
>
>    [log in to unmask]
>
>If you later want to remove your name from the list, send a message to:
>
>    [log in to unmask]
>
>with the following in the body of the message:
>
>    signoff eczema
>
>and you will be taken off the list.
>
>8.3 How do I get help on the Eczema Mailing List?
>
>To receive a "reference card" for all the functions available send a
>message to:
>
>    [log in to unmask]
>
>with the following in the body of the message:
>
>    get listserv refcard
>
>The reference card is full of incomprehensible computer gobbledegook,
>but if you stare at it long enough you should be able to decipher some
>useful commands. And you can always ask on the mailing list for help if
>you get stuck.
>
>For more information on commands to the LISTSERV software, there is a
>good if somewhat verbose manual which explains everything a listserv
>user might want to know, and maybe more, called "LISTSERV for the
>Non-technical User".
>
>To retrieve a plain text version of the file send a message to:
>
>    [log in to unmask]
>
>with the following message text:
>
>    get nsc93.memo
>
>8.4 How do I stop myself getting overwhelmed by messages?
>
>You can find you get overwhelmed by getting a dozen or more messages a
>day from the list. If so you can request the list server to just send
>you one large mail message per day, containing all the day's messages.
>
>To do this, you set the "digest" option by sending a message to:
>
>    [log in to unmask]
>
>with the following in the body of the message:
>
>    set eczema digests
>
>If you later want to go back to regular messages, send a message to:
>
>    [log in to unmask]
>
>with the following in the body of the message:
>
>    set eczema nodigests
>
>8.5 How do I access the archives?
>
>All the messages posted to the Mailing List since December 1995 can be
>retrieved from the archives. The messages are stored by month in files
>such as:
>
>    eczema log9512 (for December 1995)
>    eczema log9601 (for January 1996)
>    eczema log9602 (for February 1996)
>
>and so on.
>
>If you want a copy of the archives of the list for January 1996, send a
>message to:
>
>    [log in to unmask]
>
>with the following in the body of the message:
>
>    get eczema log9601
>
>The server will send back to you a very long message which contains all
>of the messages posted to the Eczema Mailing List during January 1996.
>Depending on your e-mail connection and software, you may find that the
>archive will be delivered to you in several pieces.
>
>Please note that access to the archives is only available to subscribers
>to the mailing list.
>
>However, the archives are also currently being published on the World
>Wide Web and are available to anyone at:
>http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/david_hough
>
>8.6 How do I search for old messages?
>
>The list server has a built-in search function for finding things in the
>archives.
>
>For example to find all references to the word "Aquaphor" in the
>archives send a message to:
>
>    [log in to unmask]
>
>with the following in the body of the message:
>
>    // JOB Echo=No
>    Database Search DD=Rules
>    //Rules DD *
>    select 'Aquaphor' in Eczema
>    Index
>    /*
>
>The crucial line above is:
>
>    select 'Aquaphor' in Eczema
>
>NOTES:
>
>    The listserv program searches the body of each message in the
>    archives, not just the subject line.
>    The search is not case-sensitive; messages that contain 'aquaphor'
>    or 'Aquaphor' or even 'AquaPHOR' will still be found.
>    The single quotes around the search term are required, but are not
>    used in the search.
>    You can search for a phrase instead of just a word. For example,
>    select 'sleep problems' in Eczema
>
>Replies to searches usually arrive within minutes and look like this:
>
>    > select 'Aquaphor' in Eczema
>    --> Database ECZEMA, 12 hits.
>    > Index
>    Item # Date Time Recs Subject
>    ------ ---- ---- ---- -------
>    000105 96/01/19 12:20 13 Re: most effective remedy
>    000107 96/01/19 18:31 23 Re: most effective remedy
>    000118 96/01/21 13:31 25 Re: Cleocin-T etc
>    000119 96/01/21 14:14 14 Re: itching eyelids
>    000136 96/01/22 17:52 80 Re: Your most effective remedy
>    000142 96/01/24 16:28 8 Re: wool alcohol
>    000145 96/01/24 17:12 28 Re: itching eyelids
>    000146 96/01/24 15:57 14 Where can I buy Aquaphor?
>    000147 96/01/25 10:27 30 Aquaphor and Shepard's Lotion
>    000149 96/01/25 12:31 18 Re: Aquaphor and Shepard's Lotion
>    000271 96/02/12 14:25 334 Re: FAQ Addition ?
>    000278 96/02/13 16:42 315 Re: FAQ Addition ?
>
>Once you have the message item numbers, you can retrieve the specific
>files by sending another request. For example, if you wanted to retrieve
>the first and fourth messages from the above list you would send the
>message:
>
>    // JOB Echo=No
>    Database Search DD=Rules
>    //Rules DD *
>    select * in Eczema
>    Print 000105 000119
>    /*
>
>Alternatively you can add the print request to the search request and
>all twelve items will be sent to you as in the following example:
>
>    // JOB Echo=No
>    Database Search DD=Rules
>    //Rules DD *
>    select 'Aquaphor' in Eczema
>    Index
>    Print
>    /*
>
>This is a little dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. For
>example, if you search for the word "and" and request all the results
>you probably will be sent every message in the entire archive.
>
>To receive a complete manual on searching send a message to:
>
>    [log in to unmask]
>
>containing the message text:
>
>    info database
>
>8.7 What other information is available on the server?
>
>A small number of documents relating to eczema are available. More will
>added in future.
>
>To retrieve one of these documents send a message to:
>
>    [log in to unmask]
>
>with the following in the body of the message:
>
>    get eczema name
>
>where "name" is the name of the document you want to retrieve.
>
>The documents currently available are:
>
>faq
>    The FAQ file (this file)
>herbinfo
>    Information about Chinese Herb Therapy
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Home | FAQ | Archives | Pick of the List | Subscribe | Links | Feedback
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>

Rachele Shaw
[log in to unmask]