Baby eczema, help!

[User167534]

DS (2) has developed eczema over the past 6 months. We haven’t changed anything and don’t use harsh chemicals so I’m unsure what’s caused it. I’ve tried everything to get it under control and would like to know what worked for other people. Egg and bananas seem to cause it to flare up. He’s so red and sore. We’ve tried the following:

Child’s farm moisturiser
Aveeno
Surcare
Hydrocortisone

I'm afraid for us it we had to just keep applying the topical cream and waited it out. By around 3 it started to go and now at 4 it's rarely an issue. It was hard at the time as he would scratch until it bled and scabbed.

My 2nd DC aged 2 has only just started to develop it now and we're just playing the waiting game.

Sorry, not too helpful!

Just imo; Child’s farm moisturiser was crap! Don’t understand the hype.

We:
Switched to Sainsbury’s sensitive washing tablets
Hydrocortisone 1% for flare ups
Daily moisturiser: hydromol or zerobase 2 x a day minimum

I’d say your moisturisers are still too perfumed, you need literally nothing added.

I was expecting a miracle with child’s farm but it hasn’t worked as well as I’d hoped!

I was expecting a miracle with child’s farm me too! I feel suckered in by some PR

Have you been to see a dermatologist?

Ours was on a specific child-safe (as safe as you can get) steroid cream twice a day from the age of 6 months for a long time until we could reduce it to once a day and then once every other day/when flaring up.

Then we use 50:50 cream 3-4 times a day as well.

But most gp's would not have heard of it or could prescribe it, they usually only have the harsher steroids you can only use for a limited time which was no help.

We do use the child’s farm bubble bath and just wondering whether this may be making it worse.... Stopping as of today to see if it makes any difference

If it continues you can get an emollient for the bath too from the GP.
Never noticed an issue with the farm bubble bath but ideally a kid with eczema shouldn’t have any bubble bath/ perfumes soaps etc

@Watwing Thanks, what’s the name of the steroid? Is 50:50 the name of a moisturiser?

My ds had eczema appear at this age. We used hc cream for flare ups and nothing in his bath at all (babies are not really dirty )

Diptobase/doublebase emollient in between

As he has got older his skin has improved and we only use hc when a flare up occurs. It is usually an indicator for him of having a virus- a cold for example.

On advice of specialist eczema/allergy nurse - the only product that touches his skin are emollients like epaderm/hydromol/xeroderm. Oily is better, diprobase isn't very oily. You can buy them on Amazon if it's difficult to chat to GP right now.
Wash your hands before applying cream throughout the day rubbing down away from the body, melt some of the cream in hot bathwater so the water alone isn't drying (obviously then add cold so it's safe!), if you have the option do an extra rinse cycle on clothes and bedding do that and use less washing powder/liquid, you only need a small amount. This is kind of maintenance though, GP might need to prescribe steroids for flare ups.

Be careful with topical steroid use in the long term as it weakens the cells structure/thins the skin (read hc contraindications)

Our dd reacts badly to a lot of moisturisers.
Epaderm turned out to be the best for her but it’s trial and error. We don’t use any soap at all just water. You can use emoliants as soap. The real key is moisturising, way more Frequently than you’d think. We do it four times a day and steroid cream when necc as sparingly as possible. Dd has milk and soy allergies and is much worse after any slip ups.

Our doctor gave us epaderm lotion and ointment (ointment can be used in the bath) and we apply it 3 times a day and it works wonders

We also have hydrocortisone for when he has a particularly bad flare up

It's mix of 50:50 of white paraffin and light paraffin I think. Like diprobase but is easier to spread. We also use epiderm as soap and a lukewarm bath every day.

I can't remember the steroid name. It's a strong steroid but really diluted and metabolises really quickly and it's not a standard mix which is why you need to go to a dermatologist (assuming it's bad enough to need constant steroids) who specialises in childhood skin issues.