Graham's eczema

We still haven't quite figured out what is triggering Graham's eczema.  It's been going on for quite a while now.  I want to say... before Thanksgiving?  We're wondering if it had anything to do with the Covid vaccination.  I guess we will never know!  He still has some trouble with it but nothing like what it was before. 

Here's a look at it when it first started out, in early December of last year.  This is one of his thighs:

Just sort of bumpy at first.  And Graham has had eczema when he was a baby too. It just hasn't flared up much until now.  By the end of December, the eczema was really "angry"!

Especially the back of his legs:

The colder and dryer weather probably didn't help.  We did make our trip to MN before Christmas as well.  And of course, Graham was never quite been the type of person to lather up in lotion.  Until now, of course.  I went out and bought a few different ones to try out:

And eczema lotion is not cheap!  Each bottle was at least $10 if I'm not mistaken.  

Coincidentally, we had an appointment scheduled (this past December) with a new pediatrician for Graham's annual physical.  And she recommended a prescription cream.  It unfortunately does have steroid in it, so we try not to overuse it:

But look at the difference!!

Especially the back of his legs... so much better now!

Graham did end up seeing a dermatologist as well, and she recommended another prescription that's non-steroid based:

And also another new bottle of lotion that was prescribed as well.  This one is $20, but thankfully everything else has been taken care of by insurance:

We are still struggling to find out what the trigger(s) is/are for Graham's eczema.  Some spots are coming back again.  We'll just have to spot treat until it all gets under control.  Poor kid!

But in the meantime, it's just life as usual for Graham.  He gets his hair brushed occasionally while we watch TV at night.  As you can sort of see, he doesn't like it too much because of all those knots and tangles. Ha ha!

He is still working on his Panda bear project that Santa got for him:

He still has to grow quite a bit to fit into a size Small pajama pants that we just bought from school. Well, I did sew it up so he can wear them for his school's Movie Afternoon (instead of Movie Night) this Friday.  He is so excited!

And Graham made it into the school's newsletter last month!  He loves his red Chinese New Year outfit:

Graham still has his quirkiness which I guess makes him Graham I suppose.  Just hope he gets better at some of his old habits as he continues to mature. He is going to be 12 years old this May.  I think we were supposed to talk to him about "the birds and the bees" in 5th Grade as the school district had provided some sort of video.  But since we never did do that, I guess it might be time by this summer.  Yikes!!