Clarification

To be clear, a lot of nice people that I love have sweetly and gently suggested that the dog might be the problem because they're sweet people. I don't mind that. Goodness, I couldn't have even begun to imagine all the things a human being could be sensitive to or that could cause eczema, so I depend on people's ideas and suggestions to know where to begin treating Diana. If there's one thing I've learned for certain, it's that everyone's eczema is different, so it becomes a little disheartening that avoiding (or using) the same foods, soaps, and lotions that completely cured other people's eczema hasn't healed Diana's, and I suppose that leads to a good amount of skepticism whenever people give me suggestions. But hey, the people who gently suggested that she might have been allergic to the dog  ended up being right in the end. ;)

I still don't know what this means for Diana's eczema. We'll go see the allergist again soon. Her skin has on its own gotten much better. Sunshine and the Aveeno Eczema Therapy Cream seem to help with that up to a certain point. Right now it's just incredibly dry- covered with layers of super dry skin that's almost like light sandpaper. It's not very red, though, and it seems to be healing overall. These breaks are always so nice. She does still seem to be moderately itchy, but it's not as bad as it has been. She's also getting to the age where we can begin to suggest substitutes for scratching. We ask her to rub her skin instead of scratching it. Or if we can, we rub her legs, neck, or wrists ourselves and she seems mostly satisfied with that. I'm hoping there are very few more years that her eczema will be a serious problem. Growing up does seem to help even just a little bit.