Baby ‘in so much pain’ due to eczema he had to be ‘wrapped up like a mummy’ – The Mirror

Chiara Berry and her husband, Jonathon, who live in Newton-le-Willows in Merseyside, discovered their young son Angelo had the condition when he was just six-weeks-old

Image: Chiara Berry)

A mum struggled to hold her young baby due to the pain caused by eczema, which left the skin on his body 'open and weeping'.

Chiara Berry and her husband, Jonathon, discovered their young son Angelo had the condition when he was just six-weeks-old.

The family, who also have a daughter - six-year-old Rosa-Maria - and another baby due in December live in Newton-le-Willows.

Shortly after Angelo, now four-years-old, was born they had taken him to Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Liverpool Echo reports.

Chiara said: "It was around his six week check-up, we noticed his skin was very dry and that's how it started out."

The mental health nurse describes her son's skin as "red and bloody, dry and flaky," with doctors warning her that the severity of her son's eczema could scar him for life.

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In photographs, the painful condition can be seen across all of Angelo's body, including his face.

Chiara said it was a struggle to hold him as a baby as the condition had left her young son "in so much pain".

To help treat the worst effects of the eczema, strong steroid creams were applied to Angelo while being wrapped in bandages.

Chiara said: "He had to have bandage therapy for three weeks all over his body.

"They have special cream they put on the skin and special, strong steroid creams in the bandages themselves.

"They wrap them like a mummy so it soaked in and it had to be changed every other day."

Now four-years-old, for the most part Angelo's eczema can be treated with steroid creams and he is no longer covered head-to-toe in painful rashes.

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Chiara said: "He still gets in behind his knees, his elbows. It tends to just be a flare up but the creams we have at home target it immediately.

"They told us as he grows older he should get better. And we have noticed in these four years massive improvements already.

"He's brilliant, he's currently off with chicken pox at the moment. He's just started school last week and we're really happy with his progress.

"We're really made up as a family because at one stage, even just holding him as a baby, he was in so much pain. We did worry about it quite a bit but he's come on loads.

"Even when we talk to people about Angelo's story, they just can't believe how bad he was.

"We've got all the pictures on my phone because sometimes his skin would be back and the doctors would say that he might be scarred for life, but we can't see any scars on him."

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Last week (September 11-18) was National Eczema Week, when the National Eczema Society called on people to talk about their own experiences living with the condition.

According to the society, Eczema is a non-contagious, inflammatory skin condition that can affect people from early infancy to old age.

The most common form, atopic eczema, affects one in five children and one in 10 adults in the UK.

The condition can cause the skin to become unbearably itchy and the urge to scratch can be irresistible.

During a flare-up it can also be red, cracked, sore and raw.

Alongside the painful physical symptoms, many children and adults experience related sleeplessness, anxiety, depression and other mental health problems.

More information on living with the condition and treatments can be found on the NHS website and at the National Eczema Society.

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Baby 'in so much pain' due to eczema he had to be 'wrapped up like a mummy' - The Mirror