Has anyone with a child with eczema tried.....

[Jonut]

Pure Potions Skin Salvation cream? Have ordered a trial pot for DD3 who has pretty severe eczema. We're waiting for an appointment with a dermatologist. She's had it since birth but it really flared up around four months ago. We've tried cutting out milk products from her diet, swapped washing liquid to washing balls but nothings helped. She's been smothered in Eumovate (and huge amounts of moisturisers, obviously!) twice a day for four months. Desperately hoping this will work but thought I'd see if anyone had tried it on here and what they thought of it.

I tried it when my skin was bad due to hormones going crazy during pregnancy and breastfeeding DD1. To be honest it didn't do much for me despite being desperate to use natural remedies. My homeopath at the time (who didn't help much either!) said it had alcohol in it which may dry out skin and I stopped using it at once.
What I recommend is using Green People products as they don't use Parabens, Lanolin, Sodium lauryl/laureth sulphate, Phthalates, Ethyl alcohol, Petrochemicals, Synthetic fragrances or colourants.
Sodium laureth sulphate (SLS) in particular is absolutely dreadful and every time I use soap containing it to wash my hands, my eczema flares up. It is in most 'gentle' baby products - check out the ingredients list and you'll be surprised. Cut it out and I bet you will notice a huge difference.
www.greenpeople.co.uk/Babies-And-Children-Products.aspx
I only use their products and Weleda nappy cream on my DDs and their skin so far, touch wood, is fine.
Hopefully your DD3 will grow out of it. Good luck!

Didn't do much for my DS although open pots are an infection risk for him as he keeps needing antibiotics for infected skin.

I agree with RedundeeMummy on the SLS - although it made little difference to my skin when I stopped using products with it in. But I found it really difficult to buy non-SLS toiletries in the high street as even the 'gentle' stuff all has it in.

have you tried waitrose baby bottom butter? It's basically solidified olive oil, and is VERY thick, but very soothing!

My experiences of my DD eczema took me away from using natural stuff which I have previously been a big fan of. I discovered that anything we might use as a food ie olive oil, sesame oil etc may make eczema more prone to infection. On the other hand though lots of people find such creams useful. My DD had discoid eczema which acts quite differently to the more common eczema. It is good that you are going to see a dermatologist. I would really try and montitor her eczema to work out any patterns and write down all your questions for the dermatologist so that you are prepared.

My DD has been using strong steroids and now a protopic cream which seem to have helped break the itch cycle and infections but it took us a while to get to see someone who understood how to prescribe steroids.

I also went to an eczema workshop at St Thomas hospital in London that was v useful in explaining how little things can make a massive difference.

HTH a bit!

We tried the pure potions, it's hard to say wether it did anything for us as it was at the time DS's skin was really infected and so we had to stop using it. & throw the pot away.

I second everyone else's experiences with SLS (our Derm nurse was really anti SLS products, then proceeded to prescribe us Epaderm which is full of the stuff ), for us what has worked the best with both of my boys is Bioforce Vogels Neem Cream.

Its often trial and error, what works for one won't work for another. I've spend a fortune over the last 4 years on different creams, but this is definitely the best one I've come across for my boys.

Hi, seems like everyones experience is different, so much of it is finding something that works for you. I have read good things about the pure potions cream too but haven't tried it so would be interested to know how you get on. Apparently is is also available on prescription so if it works that should save you some money. My middle son is now 5 and though his eczema not been extreme we did try a lot of different things. The best cream on prescription that we have is Aveeno cream which is made from oatmeal. It has been the only cream to work long term as all the other creams we were given (not steroids) worked for a short while and then stopped working. Aqeous creams are not meant to be used as creams to moisturise as they are water based and are actually designed to be used as soap substitutes, but aveeno is not an aqueous cream an not water based and is really lovely and creamy to put on to moisturise but needs to be used at least a couple of times a day. We also only use pure olive oil soap without fragrance and this works great as anything with any perfume upsets his skin really badly. Hope some of this helps and that you find some things that help your little one lots :)

Another cream that is free of absolutely all the nasties is Dermasalve Baby and Infant cream. DD1's skin used to flare up terribly with Green People, Aveeno, etc etc and this was the only one that she didn't react to. So she just had plain water baths, and loads of this cream four times a day - and that, with the occasional application of hydrocortisone - kept it under control. (and once we worked out what her food allergies were it almost disappeared!)

Good luck, I've had eczema all my life, and it takes ages to figure out the triggers for each individual and what works and doesn't work.