Boy with eczema so severe he looked like a ‘burn’s victim’ is ‘cured by £4.50 miracle cream’ in just 2 weeks
FROM the age of just three weeks old, Lucas Ellis has lived in agony.
His severe eczema so bad he's left covered in red raw sores and looking like a burn's victim, mum Michelle said.
At his lowest point, Lucas was in so much pain he was unable to walk, let alone go to school.
At their wits’ end, his parents, carer Michelle Ellis, 28, and window cleaner Tom Bateman, 30, began to fear nothing would ever soothe his sore, cracked skin.
But then, Michelle, of Wells, Somerset, decided to give a £4.50 baby moisturiser she had been recommended by a family member a go – and was astonished when Lucas’ skin began to clear.
She said: “As Lucas got older, the eczema got worse and worse. It started on his face then spread to his back, belly, legs and arms. It was uncontrollable.
“There were open wounds all over his body, and they looked like burns.
"They would get infected for a month at a time. He would make them worse by scratching them.
“I think it moulded his personality. He got aggressive. You could see he was sad all the time, he was agitated and uncomfortable.
“But now, he is so much happier with his skin, and in himself.”
Michelle, who has two other children, Freddie, five, and Lilly, one – neither of whom have eczema – told how Lucas’ skin first started to get dry when he was just three weeks old, which she treated with baby moisturiser.
But then, when he was around five months old, things suddenly worsened, and the tot was constantly scratching.
“He would have big scabs on his face,” added Michelle.
Michelle took Lucas to the doctor and was prescribed a cream to treat his eczema – but she said it would make him “scream in pain", leaving her no choice but to stop using it.
Then, a few months later when he turned one, his skin erupted, with dry patches springing up all over his body.
From there, Michelle returned to the GP, and, over the next few years, Lucas had monthly appointments with a dermatologist.
He experimented with several different prescribed creams – but nothing seemed to help for long.
“The eczema would always come back,” Michelle said.
“Lucas would be scratching at night. In the morning, there would be blood under his fingernails and all over his legs and the sheets.
“People would stare at him and comment in the street saying, ‘Look at that boy’s face’.
There were open wounds all over his body, and they looked like burns... He would make them worse by scratching them
Mum, Michelle Ellis
“They’d ask me what it was. It looked like burns, and it felt like they were accusing me of causing it.
“He would get really upset and I would have to try and wipe away his tears without hurting him.”
When Lucas turned five, the eczema on his face began to clear up after he started using steroid cream, and learned not to scratch that part of his body.
But his legs and arms got worse than ever.
Michelle said: “His ankles would swell up and he wouldn’t be able to bend them or stand up straight because of the pain.
"He couldn’t walk – we would have to carry him everywhere.
“Last year, there was a period of about three weeks when he couldn’t go to school because he couldn’t walk.
“Socks would stick to his eczema, so we would soak his feet and peel them off gently, but he would still scream the house down.”
With Lucas’ skin seemingly worse than ever, last summer, Michelle began to fear she would never find a solution.
Then, a family member told her about Childs Farm, a range of vegan products specifically designed for sensitive skin.
Figuring it was worth a try, she picked up some of their £4.50 baby moisturiser from her local supermarket – and was amazed by the results.
Within two weeks, Lucas’ skin was clear, according to his mum – and now, he has been eczema-free for an entire year.
“I was pretty sceptical about trying it because I’d tried so many others and thought nothing was going to help,” Michelle explained.
“It stung Lucas a bit when I put it on because of the open wounds, but nowhere near as much as the other creams we had tried.
“Within two days, you could see the moisture returning to his arms and legs, and after about a week it really started to clear up.”
“It was no longer red raw, and after two weeks it had gone altogether,” she said.
MORE ON ECZEMA
“It’s definitely a miracle cream. We’ve been using it two times a day, and whenever Lucas gets out of the bath or if his skin starts to get dry.
“Looking back, I realise how stressful it was. It’s nice to see him happier as it was heartbreaking to see my boy in such pain.”
Dr Jennifer Crawley, Childs Farm consultant dermatologist, said: “Eczema causes the skin to become itchy, dry, cracked, sore and red.
"Some people only have small patches of dry skin, while others – like Lucas – may experience widespread red, inflamed skin all over the body.
“Lucas’ story is just a heartbreaking example of the effect skin conditions like eczema can have on individuals, particularly young children both physically but also mentally by changing behaviours.”
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