Visiting Edinburgh Zoo

 

Every time I went to blog this week I found a boy doing homework on the computer!

 

My blogging is usually done late at night when the boys are in bed, well the younger ones anyway, but with a teenager in the house who keeps late hours when assignments are due that hasn't been possible so far this week!

 

I think his work is all done now, but he's at Army cadets just now anyway so before it gets too far past the event I have jumped online to share our photos of a lovely trip to the Zoo we had at the weekend.

 

We went with the charity Eczema Outreach Scotland, who I have written about before. They organise events for families of children with eczema, where children and parents can meet others in the same situation and are able to support and learn from each other. They released the details of the Zoo trip before Christmas and we jumped at the chance of signing up. For the both the chance of a visit to the zoo as well as for the workshops they had planned.

 

Ally (5) was counting down the days for about 2 weeks running up to the day. Every morning he would ask how many more beds it was until we were going to the zoo. His excitement was mounting as the day grew closer!

 

The other boys were also looking forward to the trip, especially Calum (12) who is a huge animal lover - as we were walking round the zoo he said how it was one of his dreams to get one of those 'Zoo keeper for a day' experiences.

 

Once everyone had met up at the zoo, the children were put into groups and taken to see around the zoo by some volunteers. Each group was of five children so our boys made up a group of their own! While they were seeing all the animals the parents watched a presentation by a dermatologist which was followed by the chance for questions and discussion. Then a couple of dermatology nurses showed us a selection of creams and pastes.

 

By the time this was finished the children had returned and we all had lunch together.

 

They had been away for two hours and although I knew Fraser (1) would be fine with James (15) I didn't expect him to last the full two hours without James having to bring him back to me but I was wrong! He loved being shown all the animals by his brothers.

 

After lunch there was an art workshop for the children. They were asked to paint their favourite dream on a pillowcase. Calum, Ally and David (9) all did paintings but chose to do what their favourite dream would be rather than one that they have had.

 

Ally chose to draw superheroes - Ally's Avengers.

 

 

 

Calum drew a Landrover, some sheep and a collie dog in the countryside.

 

 

 

David drew a shinty match.

 

We were finished all of this before 1pm and so had the rest of the afternoon to see more of the zoo.

 

A couple of highlights of the afternoon were the high ropes walk that Calum and David did...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...and of course the penguin parade!

 

 

Rather than post the rest of my photos here I've made another Flipagram of them below.

 

It was such a fun day for everyone. Despite dealing with eczema in children for 15 years now I still enjoyed the talk from the dermatologist and meeting the nurses. If you have children with eczema and haven't already joined up with Eczema Outreach then I highly recommend it. The days out are fun but the support and advice are even better.

 

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Hitting the headlines...

Well we didn't quite hit the headlines, but last week I received an email from a reporter at one of our Scottish newspapers asking if she could interview me about our experiences of living with eczema. It was National Eczema Week last week and they wanted a topical article for their Women's section.

 

I was only too happy to help out and so later on in the day completed an interview over the phone.

 

At tea time the same day a freelance photographer came out to take a photograph of our family to accompany the article. He took lots of fun shots of the boys as well as the eventual family photo that appeared alongside the article.

 

The article appeared in the paper on Friday and you can read the online version here.

 

Overall I'm quite pleased with the article. They only made a few mistakes - Alasdair was never in hospital for three months but AT three months, and the baby photos they used were all of Calum, not Alasdair like they said. I did send them some photos of Alasdair as a baby too, which showed even worse eczema, but to be fair to them they did look very similar!

 

I'm hoping that someone somewhere who might be struggling with a child suffering from eczema might take some help from the article and at least know that they are not alone, because on those long itchy nights it can certainly feel that way sometimes! I'm also glad that the local eczema charity, Eczema Outreach Scotland, are given a good mention in the article as they are a really friendly help for families dealing with eczema.

 

What I really loved about the article though was the excellent family photo that was taken! I don't know when we last had one taken of all of us and I love the way he caught James looking at Alasdair.

 

 

 

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Eczema Outreach Scotland

Last year I heard of a new Scottish charity for supporting families of children with eczema. Eczema Outreach Scotland is based quite near us. It was set up by a mum of a girl with eczema who became frustrated at the lack of support available. Now, about 18 months after the charity was set up they have around 150 families on their books.

 

We joined last summer and received one of their lovely welcome packs. Younger children are given a cuddly toy along with a little set of some of the bandages that are used for eczema and some moisturiser. The theory is that to encourage the children to put their creams on they can help put them on the teddy too. Alasdair absolutely loved his teddy, and still does about 9 months later. He has called him Scratch and likes to put the bandages on him.

 

Back in November I was invited to accompany Magali, the founder, as she collected an award for the charity. We had a nice dinner at a hotel and chatted about all our experiences with eczema. A little explanation of what the award was for can be found in the latest charity newsletter here.

 

One of the things Eczema Outreach do is organise family days out every few months. These are a way for children to meet other children in a similar situation to themselves as well as for parents to support each other.

 

Last weekend one of these events took place in our town so we all went along.

There was a dance workshop for the children, which our boys politely declined, but they also had the option of joining in with the craft organised for the adults, which they did, and really enjoyed!

The craft was decoupatching boxes and here we all are hard at work. Alasdair was a bit camera shy at this point!

 

At the end of the day each family had a Polaroid photo taken of them with their boxes so that they had a nice momento to take home with them.

Alasdair was very willing to smile this time, and to show off his box that he had made entirely on his own. That's his box at the front left of the photo below.

It's such a good idea to get together with others who understand what hard work it is living with a child who suffers from eczema (or three of them!). Especially how difficult the constant sleepless nights are!

It's also really helpful to talk to other parents about different creams and medicines, distracting from scratching techniques, how to help your children cope with managing their condition at school etc.

There are a few more photos of the day on the Eczema Outreach website here.

 

And finally, my husband wrote his own account of living with eczema (he has had it since he was a small boy) on his brand new blog which I have been promising to plug for the last few weeks! You can find this here. Do pop on over and say 'hi' to him or send your other halfs over - Thanks!

 

 

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