It appeared when he was about 4 months old. Up until then, our son had beautifully soft and smooth baby skin. When I was young, I never had eczema.  However, my husband had it for quite a long time. When he saw the red patches on Hugo’s face and elbows, he immediately thought that it was eczema. Hugo started scratching and his skin became extremely dry. His condition was finally diagnosed as being atopic dermatitis.

Yes!  First of all, it is very unattractive. When he was little, he obviously wasn’t bothered by this aspect.  However, it was very hurtful for both my husband and me when people made comments about our son in the street or looked at him in a funny way. When he got older, he developed a terrible complex because of his scaly skin.  His friends at school even started making fun of him. And at night, he couldn’t sleep very well because his skin was so itchy.  He would sometimes scratch his skin until he drew blood!

We meticulously followed all of the advice that our dermatologist gave us. We did everything we could to prevent Hugo from coming into contact with dust mites, animal fur, mold and mildew... We washed our carpets, curtains and Hugo’s stuffed animals on a very frequent basis. When we gave him a bath, we always used gentle soap and fragrance-free cleansers. This way, he was in contact with very few irritants. And, we made sure that his skin was always optimally moisturized. Luckily, Hugo’s atopic dermatitis finally went away when he was about 10. When I look back, I think: “what a nightmare that was!”