INTERNAL ITCH? SCRATCHES THEIR SKIN?

[laura s]

HI, MY SON CAN'T EXPRESS WHY HE SCRATCHES HIS SKIN UP. IT LOOKS LIKE HE HAS BEEN IN A CAT FIGHT. HE SCRATCHES SO HARD TOO!

 

I'M HOPING ANY OF YOUR KIDS WHO CAN "VOICE" WHAT IT FEELS LIKE CAN TELL ME WHAT MY SON IS FEELING.

 

 

THANKS.

LAURA

[Megs_Mom]

Does it actually look like a cat scratched him? There have been a lot of posts lately about Lyme disease - I'm not an expert, but maybe PM Lymemom. I googled it to see what it looked like the other night. Very odd looking rash - really like cat scratches. Maybe you mean literally HE is scratching so much it looks like this, but thought I'd mention.

[laura s]

It looks like he is itching inside his body. Like he can't scratch deep enough. Legs, arms, chest, ear. It was really really bad before we started antibiotics.

Thanks. Laura

[Suzan]

Based on our experiences, I would suggest that it is a food allergy or intollerance. My dd8 had bad skin on the outside (dry, eczema, rashes, etc.). But even when her skin looked fine she was always itchy, even at night when she was sleeping and she would scratch deeply like you describe.

 

When we went gluten free, her skin cleared up and her itchies went away. She stopped scratching all the time and even at night.

 

I have a wheat allergy and before I went wheat free, I had itchy underarms that itched so bad and deep but if I scratched them I would get a huge histimine reaction so I could not scratch it and also a rash that I would get 3 times a year that I told the doctor was coming from inside even though he said it was contact dermatitis. I was sure it was coming from within because I could feel it coming out and spreading everywhere. I have not gotten that rash in 1 year since going wheat free.

 

Other than that, we have not had anything that I thought was related directly to ocd that I can relate anyway.

 

Susan

[thereishope]

Can your child take Benadryl? I would say try that and see if that helps. Alos, at a separate time, you can try Ibuprofen and see if he stop with using that.

 

The Benadryl might help if it's an allergic reaction. The Ibuprofen might help if it's a PANDAS symptom.

 

Try the on diffent days so you can tell the results of each one independently.

 

Also, with this weather, sry skin is very bad in our house. My hands are in pain and itchy. Search out the scratches and put Aquaphor on the areas and see if that helps at all or a topical antibiotic.

 

What antibiotic is he on? Have you changed detergent, soap, fabric softener, or recently been bleaching towels or anything?

[MomWithOCDSon]

My son had some bad itching, also . . . mostly his legs, his arms and his back. He has very dry skin and has been prone to ezcema in the past, so I initially chalked it up to just dryness. Topical moisturizing lotions did seem to help to some extent.

 

However, like your son, when he's agitated in general (over homework or something typically anxiety producing), the itching seems to get worse "come from deep inside." That, I see as a compulsion at work, typical of his OCD symptoms. It's as though he's feeding off the anxiety in that particular direction. When I can get him to calm down and focus elsewhere, the itching and scratching stop.

 

More advice, frankly, since you can't always be right there to prohibit the scratching: keep his nails really short! Otherwise, he may really hurt himself and make his skin ripe for infection!