Nottingham Girls High School and eczema

[Sunflower123456]

Has any parent also noticed their child's eczema got a lot worse since joining the NGHS, like we did? Our daughter had mild eczema before she joined, and she developed moderate and then severe and infection over all her body after two terms there. We suspected it's the school lunches, and the frequent use of marker pens that caused her problems, but the school and their trust just didn't care. We changed to another school, and after a few weeks she's 'like a new girl and 100% better' - words from the Queens Medical Center.

[WaffleWiffle]

Could it be stress related?

[catkind]

Don't know the school but plenty of experience as a kid with eczema. Does your child have known food sensitivities? Otherwise in the first place with eczema I'd look to things that physically affect the skin.

Unform - is it all cotton? Tights are bad for me, even cotton ones, trousers much better. What do they do at break times, are they out on a grassy polleny field? PE habits - running around and being sweaty a lot can be bad, do they wear joggers for PE? or if they don't shower properly after PE and stay sweaty. Or equally maybe they did more PE so lots of showers and shower gel was irritating her skin. Or do they do swimming, could it be particular swimming pool chemicals?

Worth trying to work out what it was if you can so she can avoid it in future. It took me a long time to realise that wearing trousers that contain even a small amount of polyester makes my skin worse for the next week.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

Not at that particular school but dds eczema is much better since we switched to packed lunches.

There could be a number of reasons as to why this happened with your dd.

Food sensitivities- dairy can sometimes make eczema worse and perhaps it was cheap processed food (often had dairy mixed in meat slices etc) or cheese was used alot to up the protein (likely pre grated plastic cheese too). There are of course other possibilities re the food.

Uniform- was it one of those schoos where you were free to buy generic grey/black/navy skirts (and could get cotton ones) or is it ALL cheap polyester which scratches and makes you sweat?

Stress- was anything upsetting her at that school?

Air con- were the class rooms too hot? Did they allow removal of jumpers etc?

Interesting re marker pens.

Had your dd undergone allergy testing?

[Sunflower123456]

Our daughter is no more stressed before, during or after attending the NGHS, so it can't be a factor for her severe eczema and rapid recovery.

She is sensitive to dairy and nuts, which were informed to the school before she started there. We later discovered for the entire first term, she was given Flora margarine which contains butter milk. The school refused her to bring packed lunches, and for the second term, we had to bring our own dairy free margarine to their cook. Our daughter's eczema continued to go worse from moderate to severe (infected over all her body), and the school still refused our daughter to bring packed lunches for her third (final) term, even when our GP wrote a lengthy letter pleaded with them. The head even said that our daughter cannot attend the school even just the morning or afternoon, unless she eats their school lunches. She only relented, and allowed our daughter to bring packed lunches, when we asked her to put that in writing.

The (private) NGHS only have proprietary polyester uniforms, which we knew was bad for eczema suffers but there was no other option. Our daughter wore 100% cotton high street school uniforms in her previous (state) school, and brought home packed lunches, which we controlled and monitored, so her mild eczema was well under controlled. Also her new (state) school freely allows her to bring packed lunches, and she wears 100% cotton uniforms again.

We found several reports recommending marker pens should be banned in schools with young children, because it's bad for allergy sufferers to breathe in their vapours and dust. At the NGHS, each girl has her own mini white board and marker pens. There was always lots of pens dust on our daughters uniform, which we found very hard to wash off completely.

Putting our daughter in the NGHS was the worst thing ever happened to us. It was a real nightmare, especially when the school and trust was so uncooperative and so unsympathetic. We'd hate to see other children and families suffered the same way. I'm glad our daughter is so much better and happy again.

[catkind]

Oh gosh, polyester uniforms would be awful for eczema, no wonder. Would they not make an exception there either? DS (state) school has polyester mix proprietary uniforms but when we explained they agreed he could wear similar colour alternatives. (Though struggled on bottle green cotton joggers!)

Given the attitude to the margarine I'd lay heavy odds the rest of the food wasn't properly dairy free too.

Sounds like a disappointing attitude from the head. Glad you've found somewhere better for her now.

[Sunflower123456]

The NGHS have proprietary wool jumpers too, but we quietly changed it to a similar high street cotton jumper for our daughter.

The attitude of the school was very arrogant. The school head and school nurse accused us being over protective parents, and they said we should just ignore our daughters eczema. They said our daughters eczema was not serious, which the QMC reported it as severe. To this day, the NGHS insist they are 'experienced in meeting the needs of pupils with allergies and eczema' but we saw no evidence of that.

Because our daughter's eczema was so bad, we took her out three days before the Christmas break, and gave the school the required one term's termination notice. The head then contacted the social services, and made many false allegations against us. We complaint to their Girl's Day School Trust - GDST, but they basically struggled their shoulders and refused to follow their written complaints procedure for a panel hearing.

Private schools and Trusts are businesses, so profits and school results are their main concerns. They select brighter pupils, so it's little wonder why they get better grades than state schools. Our daughter's new state school is an ofsted graded outstanding one, and it's actually better than the NGHS in every way. We are so thankful that our daughter was given a place there.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

Sounds like it was the food to blame then. Their idea of dairy free probably meant not putting cheese in something or milk. And ignoring things like lactose, casin,weigh powder etc and assuming if she wasn't told then she wouldn't know and it was all psychological.

Thank god you got her out of there.