FASD/Excema

Joseph has battled excema all his life. When he came to us he had patches on the top of his feet and would occasionally get small spots on his arms and legs. I tried to keep lotion on him so his skin didn't become to dry. The past 1.5 years have been awful. I have tried all kinds of creams, lotions and potions, well maybe not potions but anything I thought might be helpful. 2 weeks ago he broke out with a bad rash again. He scratched it till it was raw and oozing. I put creams on him three plus times a day. First aid cream, coconut oil, lotion a natural cream we bought and leftover steroid cream from a previous outbreak plus gave him allergy medication. In about three days his skin looked better than it has for a long time. 2 days ago he broke out again. Nothing has changed in his diet, I use the same laundry soaps. The only common denominator I could figure out was that he was "in a funk" again. That is the best way to describe his moods. He is irrational, unreasonable, angry, cannot follow simple commands, gets angry at everyone who crosses his path.... I have wondered before if it is possible his moods have something to do with his excema outbreaks as our bodies produce "stress hormones" when we are stressed out. Could it be he was allergic to stress? It sounded a little far fetched so I asked my FASD mom group and guess what? We were right on target! So glad to have an answer. But as usual, solving one problem means another just takes it's place. Joseph's brain doesn't work like a healthy brain and he comes up with the most absurd things to worry about. No amount of proof or talking will make him think differently once his mind is made up. For instance awhile ago he was worried the school would burn if he stretched. It took him days to be able to process his fear enough to even tell us about it. That was several months ago and he brought it up again the other day, he is still worried about it! Joseph has had a rough time of it for the past 3 days but I have no idea why. He can't or won't tell me and it is probably something like the school fear so there is no way I will be able to guess what is going on until he talks. In the meantime we hunker down, and try to defuse the tantrums, keep his world small, get him to bed in good time and talk, talk, talk.. oh, and put cream on his excema and continually remind him not to scratch. He says, "Ok mom" and the words have barely left his lips before he is scratching again. When I ask him what I just told him, he hasn't the faintest idea. When I become frustrated with his on again, off again ability to function I remind myself he is not doing this on purpose. When Braden was home he would do things on purpose just to keep up the wall around his heart. It hurts much worse when your child is acting out because he wants to hurt you so you don't become close than it does when the child is acting out because of his inability to function.