Nothing works for my child’s eczema.

[Whatevah]

7yo DC with eczema. They also have a sever nut allergy and I suspect may have asthma too.
We did see a specialist about 2years ago who said Milton baths, slather on the hydrocortisone and emollient spray. That worked for a while.
But like with every thing it seems to stop working.
We have tried every single cream there is. Some make it worse, others work for a few days and then it’s back to square one.
We went back to the hydrocortisone ointment and emollient spray twice a day a week ago. Was fab for a few days now it’s stopped working again. Skin is literally like sandpaper.
Anyone have a miracle cure?!

Hi Op

My 6 up dd has chronic atopic eczema, urticaria and a constant itch to god alone knows what. Once this mess is over push for a referral to a specialist pedeatric dermatology dept. We are under the specialist children's hospital in a local city.

Dd uses hydramol daily as a soap and to combat the worst of the dryness, she is on 30-50 ceterizine daily and still scratches, we use sanex kids for the bath (although the aldi equivalent is just as good) she has double base gel but that is after hundreds of different ones, we have momentasone for breakouts on her trunk and protropic 0.1% for her face. We have been using methotrexate for the past year, and I swear it was drastic but a game changer.

She has had hundreds of allergy reactions to random stuff... She is massively sensitive to citrus... Have a good look at what is on your cleaners etc! She is massively allergic to grass, strawberries, tree sap, plant sap, something in soil, chlorine, some form of pollutant but we don't know what, soap, starch in oats, certain wash powders, Johnsons baby products etc. The list of reactions is endless but all the official tests have not shown a reaction... Although I don't think they worked properly as the metal discs fell off after 15 mins!

They told us not to bath dd too often, but honestly I have gone back to every day because whatever it is in the air has been really bad lately and she has to bathe daily to get it off. She suffers badly with infections in her hands and a form of eczema called herpeticum (related to coldsores) so often has blisters all over her. It is awful. You have my deepest sympathy.

Lots of people recommended the oat baths... My strongest suggestion is don't do it. Maybe try it on a little bit of his skin first, my dd has a huge reaction to the starch etc that was released and her skin literally split open at being touched as a result.

If you want to pm for more details the please feel free, all the creams etc dd is on are only able to be prescribed by a dermatologist not a gp so I would strongly suggest you ask for a referral

I've had pretty severe eczema all my life (hospitalised when I was a kid with it and was under great ormond street for all sorts of potential cures - none worked!) and of course dd has inherited it. I am currently keeping it under control with moogoo stuff (the baby bubble bath and the skin milk udder cream), also another cream I've found that works wonders is called Baby Kingdom (available on amazon, we have a monthly delivery - I was very sceptical at first but it's really worked).

She has audovate (at least I think that's the latest steroid one, she's not asleep yet or I would go and check!) for when it gets bad. All her clothes, bedding etc are cotton and she wears scratch sleeves at night.

Problem is with eczema is that literally there is no one size fits all cure... which just adds to the misery!

Moo goo skincare has been amazing for my eczema. The anti itch cream is a godsend

Aveeno was our miracle cure

Salcura dermaspray followed by salcura Zeoderm cream.

Nothing worked here either, even strong steroids. With Salcura we put the skin completely back to normal within 6 months and since then never again used steroids. Best treatment ever. And not available on the NHS :(

What a lot of people (including doctors) don't understand is that eczema is just a symptom of an underlying problem, not the problem itself. Treating the eczema alone will not work long term. My husband has had eczema all his life, and had always used Betnovate to deal with flare-ups. This would work but the eczema would always come back and he would be back to square 1. When our son was around 1 he developed severe eczema on his arms, legs and torso. I read up on the condition and found out that eczema can be caused by a not enough "good" / too much "bad" bacteria in the gut (he had been on multiple strong antibiotics at birth so this theory made sense). I ordered goats milk kefir from a farm in Wales and he drank it daily for around a year. Within weeks his skin had improved massively, and within months he had absolutely zero sensitivity and no rash whatsoever. My husband also started drinking it and his eczema is now completely gone too. I would 100% recommend something like this as a starting point, I'm so glad we tried it.

How’s it at the moment? Is it infected or just irritated?

Stuff I’ve found works for me - I still get flare ups but in my early 20s my hands were red raw.

• this tape impregnated with some sort of antibiotic. Very strong, cleared it up when nothing else would but had to use extremely sparingly
• antibiotic cream - can see it in my minds eye but can’t remember the name. Required when the skin was severely broken and really sore. Used in conjunction with cotton gloves overnight
• medihoney cream - not medicated and can be used whenever, I found it was amazing for soothing the itch when my skin wasn’t too broken or sore. When it was that bad I needed medication.

As a child I found having a silky sheet was helpful during the night as I could wrap it around the sore bits and it helped with the itching.

Try Aveeno. Our youngest had terrible eczema when he was younger (about your sons age and younger) this was the only thing that worked.

It's pricey but if it works, boy it's worth it. He's 13 now and gets it still in the summer. He pops that on and it works a treat.

Just seen that @MollyMossy has said the same.

So many replies, thank you all so much for taking the time.
I think the main thing that comes out here is that everyone is different what works for one won’t work for he other.
Also, maybe to consider what’s going on inside that is causing the irritation outside. I do suspect further allergies.
I will ring the GP tomorrow to see about referrals for allergies and dermatologist. I’ve to ring to order more emollient spray anyway.
We are using hydrocortisone once a day and the emollient spray twice a day.
The Milton in the bath is for killing any infection.
It’s red and scaly all over but he has scratched it raw around backs of knees, inner arms at elbows etc. We have to keep his nails short or he will scratch himself to bits.

I can’t imagine bathing in Milton. That would set me off I am sure!
Just a note. I’m allergic to MI. Apparently LOTS of people with eczema are. Worth cutting out. (In liquids like shampoo and washing up liquid.)
I use stronger steroid but not for long. And emollient creams. Not lotion. But yes. It’s very personal.
Good luck.

If your child has proper eczema they need a consultant dermatologist who will prescribe serious medicine to knock it on the head. What is proper eczema - first time I've heard of a proper version in almost 50 years but there's always a first and I've seen many dermatologists and like other long term sufferers they have never been able to knock it on the head - it's a chronic condition!

@Wolfiefan s lot of people benefit from bleach/milton - I don't because chlorine doesn't agree with me - but google it and you'll find lots of people benefit.

@MogeatDog I’ve “knocked it on the head”. After suffering for years and spending months looking like I’ve been burnt? I found a dermatologist who could help.
It IS possible to limit and control flair ups. It won’t sod off forever (more’s the pity) but it IS under control.

Nothing worked for my baby ! We went through every emollient , hydrocirtisone , bath oils creams ... only thing that finally worked was mometasone ointment it was one of the strongest steroid creams they had , I went though years of fighting doctors and had hospital nurses out who chose it , they were scared to give it as it thins the skin apparantly but he had it on his face too and he's skin is fine years on !

Think I mentioned scratch sleeves in my post... Here's a link anyway.

www.scratchsleeves.co.uk

They aren't a miracle cure but useful for damage limitation at night!

Where is his eczema? There are different treatments for the face and body as the skin is thinner on the face (so stronger steroid creams may not be suitable). After spending £££ on every moisturizer going, we eventually paid for our son to see Dr Atherton in London. He explained that it was likely to be genetic (a filagrin deficiency - a giveaway is heavily lined palms apparently!). We are now using protopic 0.03 on his face and steroid ointment on his body along with 50/50 emollient at every nappy change, epaderm cream as a body wash and dermabase ointment (as a facial moisturizer). This regime (along with avoiding foods from the nightshade family) has worked wonders. Definitely push for a dermatology referral - there is only so much you can do with over-the-counter products.

Calendula balm burrenperfumery.com/collections/balms-oils/products/calendula-balm

Worked wonders on my dc

Many years sufferer of ezcema here - it got better when in my 30s.

Only things that worked with me: hydrocortisone cream, E45 cream, baby shampoo, non bio-washing powder, only cotton or silk next to the skin. Couldn't abide Aveno.

Rotate the creams... that's what I do. I have eczema and find if I use one cream, for too long it starts to irritate my skin... I try lots of different ones including some non medical ones.. for example the strawberry body shop body butter for so,e random reason seems to do well on my skin... and diprobase... but I just alternate between a few, I change the one I use every day.
Every person with eczemas skin will be different so you will find seemingly random creams irritate the skin and others work great.. just try as many as possible find some good ones and rotate between them

The Milton baths were recommended by the dermatologist we saw, it does help i think.
We use fairy non bio the powder only, he can’t take the liquid or any kind of softener.
I just bought Ecover zero and am doing all his things together in that. Most of his stuff is cotton anyway, including bedding.
I also started giving him piriton at night which seems to help.
It’s all over his body but rarely on his face. But he gets very red around the eyes, which is how he goes when reacting to allergy. So I do suspect it’s allergy related.

@Wolfiefan don’t know why you seen so reactive to some suggesting bleach baths - it’s a normal treatment - I don’t react well to chlorine but I know enough people who do and enough studies that recommend it’s use, not to be clouded by my experience. I’m glad you’ve found a treatment than works for you but we are all different.

Just wanted to update that I looked at Eczema UK as suggested and turns out he has atopic dermatitis. Spoke with GP via phone who prescribed eumovate which has been working a treat. It was pretty bad.
No more scratching- for now!
Thank you all.

Delighted for you OP. That's the steroid DD is on, I posted above. Her GP said that once it's under control, we should use it once a day at weekends to keep it under control. You might want to try the same (or maybe that was the plan anyway!).

Only think for was Aveeno. Regularly. Amazing stuff!

I'm glad you child is better now.

for us it turned out to be related to hayfever and other allergies. once we knew that we were able to treat by reducing exposure to allergens (feathers, pet hair, tree pollen, mould) and giving an antihistamine during allergy season.
we also have tried all the creams and steroids, but they also only gave temporary relief.