Basic eczema questions - bear with me I'm new to this subject

[mummylonglegs]

I'm sure some of you with kids with eczema will have heard what I'm going to post a million times before.

Ok, dd's nearly 3. When she was a baby and up until about 6 months old she had a nasty patch of eczema on her cheek which got infected a couple of times. I had antibiotic creams, used oilatum in the bath and it's been mostly under control apart from the odd patch on her wrists, behind her knees etc.

Over the last week or so however she's got eczema like she's never had before. It's coincided with her also having 4 chalazion cysts in her lower eyelids (they've been there about a month so may be unrelated). She has the eczema over both cheeks, under her eyes, on her chin, her temples, round her wrists, the back of her neck. It looks very red and angry. The GP gave me hydrocortisone 0.5 cream and a soap substitute (I never used soap in the bath anyway) face wash. But it's definitely getting worse. I'm going to take her back this afternoon.

Can anyone with experience of this give me some advice? What creams work best? What should I avoid. And most of all why is this suddenly happening now?

TIA

isn't that odd? funny that the washing powder should affect her face so badly, I'd have thought it would get her on the torso or somewhere.
What else could it be? Different shampoo? (if she has longish hair that touches her face?) Some sort of food allergy? If she is 3 has she recently started at nursery - are they wiping her face with eg a wetwipe after snacks? Just trying to think what it could be...

oh mummylonglegs-wat a night mare you are having.
Ive heard putting oats(yes oats)in a stocking of some sort,&run it under the running water when bathing.Dont know how true it is,but a lady from work told me about it as her daughter suffers terrible with eczema on her face & torso.
My daughter(2.5) had it as a baby, but thankfully Ive managed to keep it under control,although it was no where near as bad as your poor dd-what a shame-bless her-how is she with it? Does she accept it or does it really bother her?

Long thread - Aveeno is the best cream on the market, if it hasn't already been said.

hiya
just to say I totally agree with the comments on Aveeno, its been a god send for my dd. We were just discussing it and she said "Mummy I like winter because of hot chocolate and dark nights but I can already feel my fingers getting tight"!
Every winter she has worse outbreaks and we have been through most creams, she is allergic to so many, but Aveeno has helped both her and dh.
good luck

Aveeno is fantastic, the only strongest one we have found is Eucerin 10% urea which we keep for the worst episodes. I have only skim read the thread but it seems to me like this is an allergic reaction, did the doctor recommended an anthistaminic?

Another nice thing about Aveeno is that one of the presentations contains something to reduce the itching (menthol?)

I got Aveeno yesterday and lathered her with it before bed last night.

I haven't changed her shampoo but does anyone know of an especially non-irritating one I could try?

I've been doing the oats in a sock thing, it does make the water nice.

So far none of the creams are working, she's very itchy and fed up. I go back to the GP on Tuesday morning ...

Try Infaderm shampoo, it's the only one I can use on my ds. Availible from boots for £4.95. Your dd's reaction could be caused by other peoples washing powder if she rests her face against their clothes. Good luck and keep going with the aveeno and the oats in her bath. I had really good results with them.

Thanks, I'll look out for that shampoo.

Ive been taking my dd2 to homeopath since she was 3 mths and covered in eczema mainly on her face..now with various remedies and using the Body Shop's Hemp body butter she looks like a different baby.
Have used Hemp on both my DD's and it is a miricle cream lovely and think so v.v. moisturising.
Good luck..
Think about takin DD to homeopath as there is usually a root cause and all the creams just surpress it.

I second the reccommendation of Hemp cream. Fantastic stuff!!

Thanks! I'm so broke I'm not sure I can manage a homeopath but I'll definitely remember the advice.

An update here and another couple of questions.

Dd's face is much better but it's still very dry and there are lots of red patches (like spots) under the surface. she's very itchy still too. I took her back to the GP for an assessment and she told me to cut the Fucidin and stick to a .5% hydrocortisone ointment and she put Aveeno on prescription. The trouble is as soon as I've cut the Fucidin it's getting worse again. I know everyone here rates it but I don't think the Aveeno is really moisturising her enough. any other tips to try?

fucidin is an anti-bacterial, so if its getting worse might be better to go back to using it for a bit longer. Suspect that's what the gp would say - you could phone and ask.

Unfortunately one of the problems with eczema is that no cream works for everyone. There is usually some trial and error to find out what helps you. If he's already having daily probiotics fish oil helps them work better and the omega fatty acids in it help the skin too.

oops - fish oil to be taken internally and not cod liver oil. Boots stock eyeQ, which is screened for mercury.

Another thing to try is doing an extra rinse on your washing machine cycle

Thanks!

Anyone found an especially good emollient other than Aveeno?

aqueous cream is great

Thanks trinity, GP gave me that to use as a soap substitute in the bath but she said it wasn't strong enough as an emollient. I bought Diprobase today from Boots, anyone tried that?

Hi

I use aveeno and previous to that aqueous cream. The aveeno is great but I also give my 3 year 1 capsule of evening primrose oil every morning. Her skin looks beautiful and very soft and moisturised. To be honest I think it is the evening primrose oil that is working although I feel aveeno is an excellent moisturiser. I used aqueous cream for nearly 3 years and that was good but she then became intolerent to it. I feel Aveeno is less messy and moisturizes more quickly. I put a little on her most days and balinium in her bath. That is all I use that is all she needs and NO she has not outgrown the eczema. At one stage I was on 1% hydrocotozone and then managed after a long time to get her down to 0.5% but she had many problem areas. I think in the early days it stemmed from a small patch on her face when she was 12 weeks old the HV prescribed olontium (ignore spelling) and she was allergic to it so her whole body became infected eczema and that basically was the start of it. Before using the evening primrose she had had red lumpy knees, thighs, elbows etc after about a week I saw a noticable difference and now you should see her. I would recommend trying it, it is not medicated and is natural, can only help.

Hi there

I use a combination on ds (now 14 months and seems to be getting better but was v bad last year). Aqueous cream as a wash in the bath, diprobase onto wet skin (stings less) in the evening, and damp skin (if his skin is bad) in the morning (I wet a clean flannel and just dampen him slightly before applying ), then 1%hc if any red bits (rare these days) and 1%hc with fucidin if cracked. Incidentally, as a nurse - best not to apply any hc or antifungal cream to skin without an emollient first. Re the baby shampoo - have been through everything on the market, and the only one my ds can tolerate is waitrose baby shampoo - its about £3.50 a bottle but is very mild and you don't need much! It may be worth considering the lactose element - my GP rubished it but we put ds onto goats milk, goats yoghurt and sheeps cheese at about 7 months and his skin is so much better now - improvide wihtin a few days. No more scratching so much I had to sew socks on to his sleepsuits to prevent him damaging himself! There's also another thread about using low doses of evening primrose oil to treat eczema at the mo - may be worth giving it a try! It is best to try what you can and keep going abck to the GP if you're not happy - there are loads of products and most of them are available on prescription - doesn't hurt to ask!

i would keep away form aqueous creams and stick natural like aveeno

i have been using it for years before it went comercial

keep using the steroids, i know they're horrible but they do work

oilatum is good aswell

you just have to keep persavering

hope this helps