Eczema and Asthma

My son's eczema flares up just before getting sick. When he gets sick, he develops a dry cough and shortness of breath. His oxygen intake drops and he has to have breathing treatments along with steroirds to open his lungs. My ped says its the illness that flares up a virus in his chest...I haven't had him tested for allergies, yet. I plan on doing that next, as well as seeing a pulmonary specialist. My husband and I do not have eczema or asthma...I think there is a connection, along with an allergy. I just haven't pinned it down yet, but am on a mission to do so...

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I have not experienced this. My son had eczema due to food allergies until recently, and it has now disappeared, along with the food allergies. My doc told me that in 80% of eczema cases, another family member has the condition, as well. My husband's mother and niece both had childhood eczema, which resolved on it's own, and neither developed asthma. I feel pretty confident that my son won't either due to family history.

Interesting. My son is 8 and has terrible eczema but no asthma what so ever. No one on either side of our families has asthma, but I do have a cousin with eczema. And the comment about the chemicals is a little over the top seeing as we're a chemical free family (and house!) and it doesn't seem to affect his skin for the better in any way.

I would talk to your pediatrician. I think it depends why the child has eczema... mine both had it as kids b/c of food allergies, which they have outgrown... they are still too young to see if asthma is something that is related. Talk to your ped - like most thing, it may be related, but not a cause.

I will dis agree...
As my doctor explained it Asthama is the eczema of the lungs or that eczema is the asthama of the skin..

When there is an allegy in the body it comes out in the larges organ in the body with is the skin. Most people ( doctors included will fight the eczema of the skin with Steroids . All steroids do is curb the eczema and doesn't actually help the body build an immune system. hence over time the eczema from the skin moves on the to the next largest organs in our body which are the lungs. Hence get Asthama.

So please fins a way to get to the root cause of the eczema first rather than just putting steroids on it and hoping it will go away ....
I tried 7-8 diffrent things before i found what works for my daughter.Please feel to Pm me if you have addional questions.
I worked witha homeopathic doctor and diet change, allegy testing etc etc all worked.

I did not do steroids creams at all and my daughter eczema is now very very mild .just like a dry skin and she doesn't not have asthama...

I had eczema and asthma until I was about 12 when I "grew out of it". I never really thought much about the two being related until I had my son. He has mild eczema now (it was a lot worse when he was younger). I took him into the dr. for his 2 month check up and asked him about my son's skin, and one of the first 5 questions the dr. asked me was "Who in your family has asthma?". He didn't come right out and say that my son would develop asthma later on, but hinted at the fact that they could be related. My son did end up developing some asthmatic issues but they are not labeling him as "asthmatic" yet. Also, my nephew has had ridiculous eczema since birth and has definite asthmatic tendencies. He receives breathing treatments weekly. We have no major allergy issues in the family. Just my story.

Yes, my nephew had eczema as a baby and he now has asthma at 10yrs old.

A really good friend of mine has had really bad eczema all over her arms all her life ( I have known her for 14 years) and to this day she does not have asthma just a bad case of eczema that doesn't respond to any medications or treatments. The only thing that has helped a little is shaving her arms...I suppose its a form of exfoliating maybe thats why it helps. Anyways as long as I have known her she almost is never sick (in the past 14 years she has been sick with a cold maybe twice). I on the other hand get colds quite frequently my diet is better than hers so it doesn't make any sense unless that one multi vitamin she takes every day (since she was a child) keeps her healthy and illness free. I have a little eczema on my upper arms but no asthma...when I was 11 months I was hospitalized for an asthma attack due to bronchitis. I got better and never developed asthma even though I have one aunt with asthma. My mom and brothers and sister all suffered from eczema as babies (none of them have ever suffered from any asthma symptoms). They still have very sensitive skin but none have asthma. So personally I don't think eczema is a definite sign that asthma will develop in a child.

I disagree with this. I do think both can be and alot of times are caused by allergies and so alot of kids will develop both. My son did this. So if you can get the allergies under control, good possiblity of not having either issue or just minor problems with them.

My father had asthma as a child, my mom has eczema. My sister and I were "lucky" enough to get both. I never thought of a connection other than genetics. Did the article say anything about what the parents had?

Yes, my son and daughter have both, and so did my brother. I found in my son, that his eczema was worsened by food allergies.

Eczema runs in my family and most of us have it and none of us have asthma.