Sam's legs Day 14

Nights were intolerable. Eczema caused 3 year old Ellen to scratch herself incessantly.

A rescue came from using medicinal silk nightclothes. “Now the eczema is treated and we sleep the whole night” says her mother Louise.

Since she was a baby Ellen has had eczema on her arms and behind her knees.

“The nurse at the Children's’ Clinic explained that Ellen had atopic eczema and needed covering in emollient creams. If that didn’t work then we used topical steroids or a medicine to help reduce the itch.” continued Louise.

But the waking in the night continued. Six or seven times a night her parents were woken by their daughter’s crying. “The itch drove her crazy. We tried everything. Smothering her with cream, cooling lotions, bathing and showering her in cold water. Nothing helped” said Louse.

Ellen suffered terribly and kept asking her Louise “Mummy why does it never stop itching?” Then Louise read about a new type of silk clothing called DermaSilk which helps against eczema and ordered a pair of pyjamas to try.

“Ellen always wanted to dress like a glittery princess at bedtime but after we tried these for a few nights she didn’t want anything else on at bedtime” said Louise. “Since the very first week, nights have been calm and the sores have begun to heal. Today my daughter doesn’t need her anti-itch medicine.”

Itch is a problem. “The difference between silk and other textiles is that silk does not irritate the skin. Whereas wool, acrylic and even cotton are made of short fibres, silk fibres are longer, softer and have rounded edges – a structure which reduces friction against eczematous skin. Without itch their eczema is less of a problem. Itching at night never gives the skin a chance to heal itself.” said Ellen’s doctor.

Now Ellen wears her new pyjamas and the family sleeps soundly – most nights.
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“ I have eczema which flares up on my hands mostly. I also have Elhers-Danlos Syndrome which mostly affects my joints and to a lesser degree affects my skin.

I get something called fisheye cuts on my hands, which basically means the skin is quite thin and tears easily. For example, if my hands are a bit dry and I bend my fingers to pick something up, my skin tears on my fingers in the creases where the fingers bend and on the other parts of the fingers. My fingers then swell and the skin contracts and the splits in my skin travel to become longer and deeper. They also sting quite badly after I have washed them and moisturising them only seems to aggravate them further.

I put the DermaSilk gloves on one night when my hands were really itchy; my cream seemed to be making them worse and it was driving me crazy !

Within a few minutes the itching stopped. I was pretty amazed. I am a real sceptic when it comes to these things, so if it works on me you can be pretty sure it works !! When my hands start itching I get a bit irritable which makes them more itchy and this can go on all night ! I couldn’t believe how well the gloves worked and how quickly they helped.

Putting the gloves on stops the itching within a matter of seconds. They also relieve the stinging and actually make the skin feel less tight. The overall sore feeling goes and I can relax and carry on as normal – fantastic ! “

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Daniel has had eczema since he was 6 weeks old. He is now 22. He has been wet wrapped throughout most of his life and has regularly spent a week in hospital for intensive courses of treatment during his eczema flare-ups. His standard treatment regime includes a moisturiser, Betnovate for use on the arms, legs and trunk, Eumovate for the face and Elocon when all else fails.
Daniel’s comments:
“ Overall I'd say the DermaSilk works great, I've gone from 6 nights of heavy moisturiser/steroid (50/50 paraffin for the moisturiser) to 2 nights a week of a moderate level. I also have not had to use any Elocon, which is the strongest of the three steroids that I apply to my skin.
My skin looks and feels much better in general and I itch a lot less when wearing the DermaSilk, and even when I do, the DermaSilk helps stop any resulting irritation from becoming worse. In bad cases where I have caused an open wound, it just bleeds instead of weeping as well. Where I haven't used the DermaSilk on my face and neck, my skin becomes irritated and itchier much quicker and needs more regular steroid treatment to keep it under control.”

Daniel’s Mother commented:

“Thank you once again for the set of DermaSilk garments you sent Daniel. They have proved to be invaluable and I don't know how we would have managed without two sets of them.

Daniel wears the T-shirt and leggings during the day when he is home. He says that he finds them comfortable to wear and they help to reduce the itching of his skin. This of course means the less he itches the greater the reduction in the damage to his skin.

It would be fair to say his skin has shown a marked improvement with less swelling and redness, and at present his eczema shows no sign of any weeping or infection. Daniel continues with his daily routine of steroids, emollients and gauze suiting which he wears at night. However we are using less steroid and Daniel now has nights off from his usual routine when he now sleeps in his DermaSilk garments. Last week he had 2 nights off gauze suiting. This may not seem a lot but to Daniel its absolute bliss.

I can honestly say that the biggest problem is getting Daniel to take the suit off so that I can wash it.”

He finds it very comfortable to wear and likes the fact that he remains cool whilst wearing it. He tells me that the itching is greatly reduced and he has also noticed that his eczema is less red and swollen than it would usually be.

Daniels eczema covers the whole of his body apart from the soles of his feet and the palms of his hands, in particularly his scalp, face and neck are very severally affected. At present there is a very marked difference between this area of his body and his torso. He would very much like to be able to try the facial mask as he finds this particular area of his body very difficult to treat.”