Reece Matthew Plane

Born 17th February 2002 - a healthy 10 pounds!!!

Reece entered this world with as much difficulty as his first few years would prove to be.  He had the cord around his neck, shoulder dystocia (means his shoulders were too wide to fit through my pelvis - but they made them anyway!!!), his head was huge and he was 10 pounds.  Suffice to say his delivery was not easy or pleasent; I had the obgyn pulling on the forceps and 2 other doctors on the hospital bed punching and pushing my stomach to get this child out.  "Should have been a ceaser that one", the doctor tells me - "YA RECKON!!"

Reece did not breath for the first few minutes and I lay there heart broken wondering if my little 'big' boy was going to be okay.  Thankfully he made it and was the biggest baby in special care...

What I did not know was how this was just the beginning of many hard and painful times to come for me and in particular Reece. 

 Reece and his little sister Samantha - even with his eczema Reece was always smiling

We launched Kumfy Cotton back in 2004 but the years go by and we still struggle daily.  Sometimes I just can't be bothered; I can't face the broken skin, the creaming, the moisturising and the bandaging.  Even when the skin looks good they still scratch.  And how awful do I feel saying, "Stop Scratching!"  I look back now and don't know how I coped when Reece was a baby.  And perhaps I didn't cope?  Some days I did not even open the curtains.  I would just hold onto my little itchy bundle of red raw bleeding skin and cry.  Cry for the pain he was in and for what my life had become.  Consumed with tiredness and confusion.  No one could tell me what to do to make it all better.

Samantha arrived in 2004 and she too has eczema.  Not as extreme as Reece had it when he was little but I still had to be very careful with foods.  She actually outgrew her eczema about 10 months old and I was so happy!  But then at 2 and a half it came back with a vengence.  I tried to ignore it and pretend it was not there...  But it was there and it continued to get worse...  So now I have 2 eczema kids to look after.  But it doesn't just stop at the eczema; its the asthma too.  And the extreme tiredness and exhaustion that comes with the eczema (not me the kids).  Reece in particular gets very affected and feels tired all the time.  A simple school trip to an animal farm can lead to a week at home for Reece.

And Samantha just won't stop scratching those arms!  Bless her little heart!

Eczema really sucks and I don't like it but it is a part of our lives.  I know I don't know everything about eczema, the treatments, management etc but I do my best.  I think that is all any of us can do.