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When she was a toddler, Lula Balmond’s eczema was so bad that she had to be bandaged every night to help her sleep. And when Great Ormond Street children’s hospital said they wanted to admit her for two weeks, her mother Natalie was at her wits’ end. So in desperation she concocted her own cure in kitchen –and it worked.

Young teenagers who use acetaminophen even once a month develop asthma symptoms more than twice as often as those who never take it, a large international study has found. And frequent users also had more eczema and eye and sinus irritation. Other studies have linked acetaminophen (often sold as Tylenol and in other over-the-counter remedies for pain, colds, fever and allergies) with an increased risk of asthma. But the new study’s authors cautioned that the findings did not mean children should stop using it. “Acetaminophen remains the preferred drug to relieve pain and fever in children,” said the study’s lead...

A jab that could provide a "one size fits all" approach to tackling hay fever, asthma and eczema could be available within a few years, a conference heard.Swiss researchers claimed allergies that blight the lives of 10 million British sufferers could be largely eradicated with a single vaccine. An allergy conference in London heard the “one size fits all” injection that wards off asthma, eczema, hay fever and even peanut allergies could be on the shelves within four to five years. Experts say if the jab, known only as CYT003-Qbg10 which has been tested on humans, is properly developed it...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – For children at higher-than-average risk of asthma, having a dog around the house may increase the chances of developing the lung disease, a new study suggests. The study, which followed 380 children at increased risk of asthma due to family history, found that those exposed to relatively high levels of dog allergen at the age of 7 were more likely to have asthma. In contrast, there was no relationship between cat-allergen exposure and a child's risk of asthma, according to findings published in the journal Pediatric Allergy and Immunology. > "Dogs tend to have a...

SOMETIMES, late at night, little Samantha Rodriguez cries in her bed. The 3-year-old's skin cracks and burns from the eczema that has plagued her since birth. And her weak, small lungs wheeze and cough from chronic asthma. Her mom, Regina Rodriguez, just holds onto her daughter, helplessly. Regina, 25, is three months pregnant now with her second child. And what her growing family needs more desperately than anything, she knows, is fresh air. Perhaps a dash of sunshine on their faces. But living in the South Bronx, bunched up amid a bus stop, factories and the malodorous traffic of the...

Government scientists, concerned that two prescription creams used widely for a common skin condition may increase the risk of certain cancers, especially among children, will propose adding strong new warnings to the product labels. A handful of cases of cancer have been reported among adults and children using the creams, sold under brand names Elidel and Protopic, and animal and laboratory studies suggest the drugs could be to blame, according to a new Food and Drug Administration analysis. "The evidence raises serious safety concerns in children regarding the potential for carcinogenicity in humans treated with these agents," wrote Jean Temeck...