For all you wonderful people who helped me with Romy's eczema...

[Amy loves Bud]

It seems that it is seriously exacerbated, if not cause by ..... FLEECE!

I was wearing a fleece jacket almost daily during the cold snap we were having, and Romy was sleeping in a fleece sleepsac most nights. She was affected the worst on her face and neck where she rubbed on my jacket, and secondly on her legs, which were bare in the sleep sac. Her torso and arms were almost unaffected because she wore a long sleeve onesie under the sleep sac.

I had no idea until a local friend mentioned that fleece really aggravates her son's eczema and then it all came together. I have nuts and dairy back in my diet with no further issues. The only thing I haven't tried again is shellfish - I did have the crab bisque the day before she flared up. There doesn't seem to be any other connection I can come up with.

I hope this helps someone out there!

[Jean in Newcastle]

Hooray! You found what triggers it! Isn't that a wonderful feeling!

[mcconnellboys]

Wow, I haven't heard of this. Is it because it's synthetic? Do other synthetics bother her? Or is it something specific to fleece? What? I'm mystified......

Thanks for this,

Regena

[Amy loves Bud]

I have no idea, but the relationship is SO obvious. The strange thing is, and this is very weird I know, when I was pregnant I couldn't stand to wear any fleece. It really felt horrible to me - kind of made my skin feel achy like when I have a fever. Bizarre.

[gardenschooler]

Glad you found out what the trigger was! And that is strange that you hated the feel of it while you were pregnant. But I have observed plenty of pregnancy/baby correlations, so maybe it's not so strange.

[yslek]

I'm not familiar with the original thread, but I had really bad eczema as a girl (only occasional flare-ups now) and my mom figured out that I couldn't wear any synthetics. Don't have a problem with them now, but boy did my skin flare up next to anything polyester or acrylic!
Kelsy

[mcconnellboys]

See, I'm starting to notice this if I try to wear a sweatshirt that includes even a small amount of polyester in it.

And those rubber mattress covers they put on hospital beds? I'm like the princess and the pea - they have to put on about 8 sheets to get me away from the plastic!

I don't wear fleece, but I'm thinking that maybe more people are beginning to see autoimmune responses to synthetic materials, either because of something in the materials themselves, or because of some of the chemicals with which their processed, etc.

Thanks for the info,

Regena

[one l michele]

It could just be because the fleece keeps the body warmer, heat aggrivates eczema.

[Amy loves Bud]

Well, I don't think so because she wore a onesie under her fleece sleeper, and the part covered by the onesie was not affected, but I'm guessing it was probably warmer because it had an extra layer covering it. Plus her face - lower cheeks and chin specifically - became affected severely when I was wearing a fleece jacket. These are the parts of the face that would rub against my jacket, but I doubt the jacket was overheating her face!

It's funny, because I never heard of this, but now I'm hearing from lots of places that fleece/synthetics do cause their eczema to flare up, just like yslek mentioned above.