8 week baby prescribed hydrocortisone cream and nizoral shampoo for excema

[zeered]

please help, have been on this site before as my baby developed red rash on both cheeks from around 5 weeks. dr diagonosed it as excema. used liquid paraffin and almond oil on it which did help but has come back.

saw dr today who now says it is seborrheic dermatitis (my baby also has since developed a little cradle cap on his head) and that it is all linked. prescribed hydrocortisone cream and nizoral shampoo (ketraconozole). But pharmacist queried both as said are both very strong expecially hydrocortisone cream and not ideal in a baby and on the face...

any advice would really help as feel the dr's are sometimes so quick to prescribe and don't want my baby to just be a trial for different drugs, especially if they could make things worse...

thanks in advance,

[kristatwin]

I would phone in the morning, and ask for a second opion, of another doctor just to double check, my daughter had this when she was about 9 months old, a 1/4 of all babies get exzcema, did they tell you not to bathe them in anything but lukewarm water,(no shampoo or bodywash) still do this for my dd now, and also the soap powder you use, is it for sensitive skin.

[babblington]

a bit airy fairy, but homeopathy was the only thing that eventually 'cured' my daughters excema, I felt very unhappy about covering her in steroids etc etc and a year of being bounced around by doctors didn't help. Maybe give it a try.

[yomellamoHelly]

Ditto the advice to stop with all lotions and potions in the bath. I found using talc to get ds1 absolutely dry everywhere and then massaging him in olive oil helped loads too (did the oil and massage twice a day). Otherwise maybe look at what powders you use (though if your baby is suffering largely on the face, then this may not help).
Is your baby bf or ff too? Only say this as friend caused huge change by omitting dairy and wheat from her diet - though was a bit extreme route to go down!
Apart from that covering the eczema with clothes so he couldn't scratch so hard helped. Would mitts help in your situation?

[poshtottie]

This stuff is amazing, I tried everything from the doctor but nothing helped here

[kristatwin]

Thanks poshtottie, just looked at the site, will be investing in some, will let you know how i get on, is it expensive !!

[poshtottie]

its the skin salvation that I used. Buy the smallest one first to see how you get on with it. You only need to apply a small amount. I bought mine at my local health food shop.

[MegBusset]

Hi, just to reassure you a bit. The HC cream you have is likely to be very very low strength (presumably 0.5% or 1%) and is fine to use on a baby. It is FAR better to use steroid cream to treat flare-ups when needed, rather than to leave the eczema untreated which can lead to infection and needing stronger treatment.

Of course try the other suggestions here but don't be afraid of using the hydrocortisone.

In the mean time here are my top tips for controlling eczema:

• Bathing in water alone can dry the skin further -- it's recommended that you use a specialist bath lotion like Aveeno or Oilatum.

• Using an emollient two times or more a day is essential. There are many kinds and it may take a while to find the one which works best. Common ones are Diprobase, Cetraben, Epaderm, Doublebase, Aveeno. E45 and aqueous cream are not recommended.

• Put LO in only 100% cotton clothing and wash the clothes in only non-bio (Surcare is good if you can afford it). No fabric conditioner.

• Scratch mitts are good, or you can get sleepsuits with gloves built in.

• Most important: get a referral from your GP to a specialist. GPs generally know FA about eczema, a specialist can really help get it under control and look for underlying causes such as food allergies.

[ChukkyPig]

What Meg said, excellent advice. Especially trying different washing powders. I found Filetti very good. And I use high water level/super rinse on the machine to try and wash most of the detergent out.

[teenspirit]

My gp px hydrocortisone for and it was fine although only advised to use a week at a time for face - took ds to dermatologist who px stronger meds which gp was not happy to px without a second opinion. Friends dh is a gp and he says hydrocortisone 1% fine for face on babies under medical supervision.
My ds grew out of his terrible skin by 1 year and now has no problems.
You do need to treat bad skin when it flares up as you don't want it to become infected. I found once undercontrol oilatum in the bath and as a moisturiser helped a lot. I still use nothing else in his bath and he is 3!
For cradle cap I smothered head with oilatum and left over night then did the same again then I got a plastic nit comb and combed it all away - most was gone after the first time.

[williamsmummy]

no more ALMOND OIL !!!!! ahhhhhhhhhhh, please!!!

get 2nd opinon, short term mild steriods are sometimes really needed.

my son had 1% hydrocortisone for his first 5 years, and still needed stronger stuff as he got infections in ezcema at times.

had a strict moisteruser routine that did control some of his ezcema.

check that all prescribed ezcema treatments are NUT free.

infants can be sensitised through the skin to food allergens, study by LACK on peanut allergies.

[poshtottie]

Who mentioned almond oil?

[mamadiva]

My DS had the same thing when he was born it's blardy horrible putting all those lotions and potions on them but they do help in the end up. Honestly .

My DS was given Aqueious cream which we still use 2 years on, if we even think about using soap he breaks out! Regarding the steiod cream we were given it several times for awful breakouts and were told not to put it on his face, sometimes he had serious infections in his face and back but still not to put it on his face.

[zeered]

really appreciate all of the responses. Thank you. Why is almond oil not a good idea...

[zeered]

also regarding seboorheic dermatitis...is this a form of excema? And has anyone else been advised that the excema on body or face was linked to the cradle cap on the head?

[williamsmummy]

early exposure to nuts can be via the skin.

early signs of a food allergic infant are before 3 months, ezcema, poor sleep pattern, and poor weight gain. BTW

A study concluded that peanut and tree nut allergies may be triggered by the use of nut oils in emolients on ezcema covered infant skin. ( proff Gideon Lack.)

ezcema is like an open wound, and creams are very easily absorbed.

So for a young infant with ezcema i would be pretty careful about what creams etc contain and read labels carefully.
Its also worth finding out the latin names of nuts , as these are used on labels.

[cuppachar]

Hi zeered. It's so hard to know what to do when everyone tells you different things isn't it! I would agree with the advice about avoiding nut oils just in case they sensitise your DS to nuts. There is quite a strong link between eczema and allergies. Is there any family history of eczema and allergies?

Also based on my personal experience with my DD, I would suggest trying each remedy one at a time so you can gauge what effect each one has on your baby's skin. Many creams actually made my DD's skin worse not better (but I think that's because she's a rather allergic baby!)

One last thing you may want to consider if you're breastfeeding is trying giving up dairy for a couple of weeks just in case that is the cause. Again this is only based on my personal experience but could be worth a try. If you do though, make sure you take calcium supplements as it's v important during breastfeeding to get enough calcium...

Good luck, and do try to get an appt with a specialist if you can!

[tatt]

Want to second the advice about not using almond or any other nut oil. Eczema is often outgrown but nut allergies less often. Babies may be sensitisied through the skin, nut allergy is higher in those who used eczema creams. Also probiotics ADDED to the babies diet may help the eczema. There is an increasing amount of research to support that so it should be the first thing to try.

[DunderMifflin]

My son (8wks) also had horrible eczema on his cheeks - we used Oilatum in the bath but our GP prescribed this as well as the Oilatum cream. Its been magic!

We've only been using them both for a few days and his skin already looks a million times better. Now we've got it on prescription my DH suggested we make a bit of money by selling Oilatum on the black market!

It is expensive but perhaps you could try it, if it works ask your GP for it on prescription?

I've heard other people say that Aveeno is really good.

HTH - it's horrible so I can really sympathise.

[jimmyjammys]

Hi my DS had eczema on face and neck and between joints of arms and legs from about 4 weeks old - 3 months - i used HC cream 0.5% and aveeno cream and calendula cream the one by nelsons and also cut out dairy from my diet as i was bf at the time. After 3 months he has never had an outbreak since - but i would use HC cream if it looks bad as it's better to nip in the bud rather then let it get worse and get infected.

[purpleduck]

my ds had it

Homeopathy cleared it right up

He was also sensitive to dairy, so had to take that out of my diet (was BF'ing)

Good luck, I know it sucks. I look back at ds's baby pics and cringe - I wish I would have done something sooner

[mymblemummy]

Zeered, my baby has eczema too and I can really recommend this book: "Eczema: The Treatments and Therapies That Really Work" by Carolyn Charman and Sandra Lawton.

It's written by a dermatologist and a dermatological nurse and explains the different types of eczema and treatments, in clear and simple terms.

It relieved my worries about using hydrocortisone, and it gives plenty of tips on coping with eczema and what questions you need to be asking a GP.

I got my copy from www.eczemaclothing.com who also supply wonderful sleepsuits and pyjamas for eczema sufferers of all ages. They are pricey but they stopped my baby clawing himself to pieces.

I hope things work out for you.

[kalo12]

my baby had sebhorreioc dermatitis at this age too and still has cradle cap - 8 months, the rash on his cheeks went at about 3 months on its own,
i have just started using dentinox shampoo now at 8 months cos he itches his head sometimes, but i wasn't worried about it before.

many hv gave me prescriptions for exzema all the time, but i never used them, 8 weeks is far too young. look up rashes in babies on the internet. you'll see its nothing to worry about.

i have received an awful lot of bad advice from hv and docs.

[kalo12]

i used nothing but water. i urge you not to use those steroid creams