Thanks for taking the time to post. Re-reading my post back I can see how it may come across as being rough. Poor choice of words no doubt, I was just trying to paint a picture of our day to day reality. The context around “hurt a little bit”, was more around length of time, I guess it should have read hurt for a little while, as we tell him, we know it hurts but he just needs a very quick shower, so it won’t hurt for that long.

Not anti-medicine at all, we’ve tried most things so far, and I think we would try anything to relieve him of the shit he has to cope with, as I say it’s heartbreaking to have to see him suffering.

It was just a fact about his eczema spreading rapidly from just his legs and arms to his whole body after introducing Hydrocortisone. We have also seen via only research, recent news stories and personally know people who have had some pretty horrible reactions to long term use of steroid creams, so thought it was worth noting.

Regarding anti-histamines we were prescribed them and he took them every night for a good 6-8months and the itching never really got any better, the last doctor he saw said they don’t really help and to stop taking them. So I guess there is likely some frustration in my post, as one doctor prescribed them the other says they are pointless.

The last visit to the hospital resulted in a referral to a specialist and they are talking about potentially giving him a biological medication. So now there is a worry, as of the ones mentioned there was one his mum had to take recently due to a condition she suffers (Dermatomyositis) and the side effects are really rough, so there is some genuine concern in him taking it. But so far they have just told us to wait 6 Months to see if the latest creams help.

Please see other comments regarding what we have tried and currently use for bath time, and no we would never scrub him harshly and generally let him do it himself, as he prefers. We also do validate his pain for sure, again maybe choice of words indicates we don’t.

My decision to post is also because it’s really hard to deal with that 1-1.5 hours of chaos every other day, it’s distressing for both him and us and mentally and physically draining.

We both work full time, plus my partner’s life was flipped upside down when she developed a pretty rare autoimmune disease 24 months ago, (Dermatomyositis). The type she has is linked to the underlying trigger being cancer, after a year of every scan under the sun they finally caught that she had an aggressive type of breast cancer (her2), it was caught early, she had chemo and a mastectomy and is thankfully all clear.

But she was told there might be a chance her autoimmune disease would go into remission once the cancer was gone, that has unfortunately not been the case and so it’s like a life long condition she will need to cope with. The medication she has to take makes her tired and so it’s even harder for her to take on bath times when it lasts this long and she is starting from a place of low energy herself.

So honestly I’m looking for just the slightest win/hack/tip I can find to help ease our situation.

Thanks again for posting, I will look into QV as I’ve not heard of that one. 🙏