Eczema in Three Year Old

[Yk19]

Hi there, My little boy has suffered with eczema off and on since around the age of 2. It is normally very mild and manageable with moisturisers but since Christmas has got much worse. His face is red and dry but again Epaderm ointment generally keeps it from deteriorating too much. The real problem area is his wrists which settle down with steroids but flare up again as soon as we stop. In fact we have just weaned down after a week on Betnovate to a week on hydrocortisone and they are still sore. Better than they were but not great. Ideally I want to give his skin a break but I just don't know what to do. Not getting the right support from the GP so have pushed for feedback from Dermatologist (GP has written to them). I have tried Dipobrase, Epaderm Cream, Doublebase, Sudocrem, Aquaphor, Oilatum, Vaseline, Balmonds, Childs Farm...the only thing that works is Epaderm Ointment and it is so messy and doesn't stop the flaring on his wrists. He complains that anything else stings on his face. I bought the Avene XeraCalm Lipid Balm yesterday but he said that stung too :-( Tried just the Avene water spray and that seemed to make the eczema more red (not sure if that is just the cold shock of it and that settles??).

Oat baths were irritating to him and as his brother has food allergies I am reluctant to use Aveeno or any food-based creams. We are bathing him after nursery days when he is filthy (!) in lukewarm water with just the tiniest bit of shampoo that we rinse off immediately in a cool shower. We just use water on his body.

I have tried putting bicarb or rock salt in the bath but can't tell if that makes any difference.

Help!

You need to see a dermatologist rather than the gp. Unfortunately it won't be a quick process with the nhs- if you can afford it go private.
As far as baths go- we were advised 10 minute like warm bath a day and to only wash with dermol 500 no other products even shampoo. And to put a capful of dermol 600 in the bath- this is antimicrobial and helped massively.
With emollients unfortunately it tends to be trial and error till you find the right one.
With the steroids- you really need specialist advice here as to correct strength For ds the dermatologist recommended 2 weeks using the steroids then use at weekends only on any visible areas. Then if there was a flare up do 2 weeks again.
Also consider his environment- is there anything triggering it- washing powders, animals, pollen? Usually its external triggers but can also be food allergies particularly as his brother has these
You will get a lot of different advice on here-
what works for one doesn't always work for another, its requires such individual treatment-that is why i recommend a dermatologist.Good luck.

Thank you. Yes think we do need to investigate derm. Will see what the letter back reveals. I have looked privately and there isn't anything local but we would consider travelling if needs be. I think he is sensitive to dust and some fabrics, possibly food but there isn't anything obvious there and I am nervous of false positives. I should have added dermol to our list...it really dried his skin out so we stopped using it :-(