Washing powder for eczema baby!!

[ShinySarah]

My 5 month old has v bad eczema and we try to manage it the best we can.

Im obviously alwas looking for ways to manage it even better. I currently use non-bio liquid tablets to wash his clothes in but was wondering if anybody knows of anything better???

i use soap nuts here

DSs skin has been loads better since i stopped using powders/liquids.

you can add essential oils to the condtioner draw to make your clothes smell nice too

You can also try the eco washing balls - perhaps same as soap nuts, but they do not have any detergent, and cleans sheets, towels etc quite effectively. They cost about £30. Its a bit harder to use when they start eating, but i used it for my dd when she was a baby and didnt want to use washing powder .......

meant to add .....if you live in London you might find the london water exacerbates it (we live in london and i have to limit baths to every second night, and don't use any soap etc; bubble bath which just irritate the skin)
salt in the water can help
also look into aveeno products that helped my dd - good luck, it takes some time and perserverence to find a regime that works (for you!)

Filetti or Fairy both used by lots of parents with eczema babies. And no fabric softener. Cotton/natural fibres only for clothing.

Echo what vuvezela says about London water and Aveeno - the bath oil is particularly good we found.

I was coming to recommend soap nuts but I see that bamboobutton got there first! They really are good. The only downside is that they don't leave the washing really fresh smelling (it doesn't really smell of anything!) which is not so bad, it just takes a bit of getting used to.

Also, have you tried oats in the bath? Put a handful of porridge oats into a the leg of an old pair of tights, or a tied up muslin and put in the bath. It really helped a lot with DS's eczema, as did Aveeno.

You probably need to strip your washing machine too, run a 90 degree wash to get rid of the build up of dergent in it and stop using fabric conditioner.

Also showers tend to be better than baths (she's a bit young at the moment though).

i found using more soapnuts than recommended increased the freshness, i live in a very hard water area though.

when i got the amount of nuts right my washing smelled like fresh air.

I switched to soapnuts when my son was diagnosed with eczema at three months. I get them from the same website as bamboobutton. I am a total convert, they are fantastic. My clothes are noticeably softer.

At the same time as switching to soapnuts we implemented a few other changes: DS bathed in plain water with a sock filled with oats in it, absolutely no products on his skin apart from those prescribed, scratchsleeves worn at night as he clawed himself otherwise, got rid of all chemical cleaning products and and now just use white vinegar, started hoovering a lot more in case dust was exacerbating the ezcema.

At 15 months his eczema is nearly gone, it is just flaring with each new tooth. It is manageable though and we now use oilatum in the bath and on his skin. I am hopeful that he may grow out of it, or at least it will be controllable.

The other bonus is that by using soapnuts and vinegar we have saved an absolute fortune. £11 worth of soapnuts lasted a year and I was washing all the time as use washable nappies!

WOW, thank you all so very much!!

I'm going to get the soap nuts now!!
HUGE THANKS
xx

| wanted to show you this shower filter system that is relatively inexpensive and supposed to be very good for excema suffers

www.pureshowers.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=29&gclid=CKH3xpnymaYCFQse4QodWT4kZg

if you had a mixer shower on the bath you could fill it up through the shower part?

Hi Cargirl,
This sounds impressive. Have you got one?

Yes I've got one, it didn't get rid of the hardness of water like I hoped it would be but it's def improved the girls skin. I think we forget how many chemicals we add to our tap water.....