What have you found has worked best for your childs eczema?

[Nomorerain]

DD (2.5) has it quite bad - v. itchy patches from head to toe. We're using Eumovate (and have also used a stronger one) plus emolient but it just seems to be getting worse.
I've tried switching cow's milk for Goat's but it hasn't made any difference. DH thinks it might be because of our two cats and I'm keeping them at a distance to see if there's any improvement.

Is there anything else I can try? I just feel so helpless and it's upsetting to see her so uncomfortable.

If you can get to the sea, we found that sea water worked miraculously when nothing else did - it was almost a river Jordan experience after a few days of getting in up to the neck (very shallow beach, following big brother in) my ds2's skin was miraculously cleared up.

Also found that switching to Fairy Washing Powder helped - it is more expensive than the others, but on offer at Sainsbury's at the moment in the 3.5kg packs, if that helps!

things that helped ds

he stopped drinking milk at aged 3 -major improvement
has minimal dairy stuff

With DD I had most success with pawpaw ointment (from www.pawpawshop.co.uk). It is commonly used in Australia for eczema.

DS had it all over his back for about 12 months between 1 and 2 yo. Fortunate enough to have had a skin specialist GP in our surgery, who said in his type of eczema, its not so much the type of cream you use, more the amount and regularity. I think we had Dermol but he said to apply it liberally at least 10 times a day, preferably more.

It cleared within 2 weeks.

Dream cream didn't work for mine and is also very expensive.

Yes, I wish aqueous cream worked for me - it's dirt cheap! (why the anger?)

in response to kitty it didnt work for you and yours.
lush will give out samples so you can see if it works before buying...if you ask nicely,and explain its for a childs skin problems.

I had VERY bad eczema when I was a child and was hospitalised regularly, and used steroid creams daily. As a result I know how damaging they are if used over a sustained period of time, so we have for the most part avoided steroids on our daughter.

We follow a fairly complicated and comprehensive routine which is a bit laborious but DOES manage to keep the flare-ups under control.

We only bathe her once or twice a week, and use organic oats wrapped in a muslin cloth in her bath, or Balneum (like Oilatum, but soya oil not petrochemical based).

We use Napier's Infant Starflower Cream (the product page is down at the moment, but here's their main site - www.napiers.net/
all over her body every night, and on her legs (where the eczema is worst) at every nappy change. We have been advised against using petrochemical based creams such as aqueous creams or aveeno as they don't allow the skin to breathe properly. They will have petrolatum in the ingredients list.

We then use (see what I mean by laborious!!) Lavera Baby & Kinder Neutral Protection Cream on the patches of eczema - this cream is a real Godsend! It's been miraculous for us.

We also have to be very careful with animals - we don't have pets at home, but Grandma has 2 dogs, and if our daughter gets too doggy round there her skin flares up. We had 3 cats when I was little, and I'm certain that this made my skin so much worse. I am now VERY allergic to pretty much all animals !

Diet stuff - cows milk products make her skin flare up, but this is an intolerance rather than an allergy and our paediatrician told us that it wouldn't register on the allergy tests she's had, but to avoid it anyway. We use a combination of sheep milk and Oatly enriched as drinking milk (oats are very beneficial for eczema sufferers) and sheep/goat milk yoghurt and cheeses.

It really is a case of managing eczema rather than curing it, and this can be time consuming and disheartening, but it's worth sticking at it. Trial and error will tell you what works for your child.

Good luck with whatever you decide to try...

(If our daughter's eczema continues to be a problem, we'll take her to see a reputable Chinese Herbal practitioner when she's old enough - expensive, but Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine got rid of my eczema completely after 19 years of hell!)

Thank you all so much for your suggestions. I can only try some of these things and see if they make a difference. I think it probably worries me more than it does her. I feel as her mum that I should be making it better and it's so frustrating when nothing seems to be working :( Hopefully, I'll discover the right way to manage it eventually!

Aveeno is brilliant, and you can get it on prescription so it's free. We use the cream twice a day (used to be more, but his eczema's so much better now it doesn't need it) and the oil when we shower him (no bath).

Also don't bathe her every day as it dries out the skin.

We also switched detergent from Ecover to Fairy Non Bio on GP's advice, and saw a big improvement.

A lot of people have mentioend Aveeno. Will have to try it. Thanks. We do bath her everyday but that's going to stop now.

DD has very mild eczema. I have moderate eczema that gets worse depending on time of the month (it cleared up totally when pregnant!)

We tried Aveeno following advice on here and found it brilliant. Its a really lovely moisturiser and as someone who has very sensitive skin that goes bonkers with most creams, I could just feel as soon as I first tried it that it was lovely!

DD has oilatum in bath and a good moisturise with Aveeno. When she gets the odd outbreak I blast it sparingly with hydrocortisone for a while but don't overuse.

Likewise for me - most of the time just moisturise, when I get a flare up, spend two or three days applying Enocol (steroid which GP recommended in place of Betnovate - its really good) assiduously, and then back on the Aveeno regime.

Ditto minimizing dairy for both DD and I.

I do have milk in tea, DD has soya yog and soya milk, and goats' cheese.

Her eczema is almost gone and it was really bad when she was eating about a litre of cows milk yoghurt a day.

DS gets fairly mild eczema on legs and elbows. It tends to flare up in the winter. Things we found helped were cutting out citrus, going sea bathing (and then sea-salt baths), using Aveeno cream and moving him away from a school where he was being bullied and was miserable.

I support Notquitegrownup's experience with sea immersion - the impact of that was fast and it pretty-well eradicated the problem for a few weeks. However, I would be hesitant to immerse a child with weeping eczema to salt water; they would find the stinging pretty traumatic.

Anything lanolin based made him worse.

He has been pretty-much free of it this year, which makes me think that for DS the emotional aspect was probably the bigger effect.

I am a huge fan of Diprobase. I used to squirt it into the bath as an emollient.

worked a dream on my two with baby eczema, and equally well on everyone I recommended it to - childhood eczema and older people

Hi. Those who have been using Aveeno - please can you tell me which type you use? There's cream and lotion in the 'intensive dry skin' range and a moisturing lotion in the 'skin-relief range'.

We have the Aveeno Cream, can't see a range mentioned (though half the label is covered by a prescription label). The prescription is just for 'Aveeno Cream 300ml'.

Thanks Rhian. I've bought the cream today from Boots and started using it on her so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Trying soya milk too.