Wet wrapping. How often?

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Started this with the baby as his eczema is going crazy (heat possibly) and Ive had to increase how often Im putting steroids on.

So, Im wet wrapping.

At a total guess I was going to try doing it 2-3 times a week. I wonderes how often (for what length of time) did you wet wrap for if you did?

To look at his skin its smooth and soft but you can seea 'shadow' of the eczema that Im keeping at bay with steroids. If I were to go a whole week without using steroids at all, hid skin would be a state.

DS was similar.

Wet wrapping helped, but other things did more....

• pure cotton clothes, washed in water only (absolutely no perfume, detergent , bubble bath etc)
• change bed clothes / grobags etc (all must be absolutely allergen free including mattress)
• Vitamin E oil on his skin. Buy Vit E capsules from boots, snip them open and squeeze out the oil onto the skin. This worked wonders. Do this as a massage and it chills out baby too.
• Cut out obvious foods and drinks for at least 3 weeks to see what happens (keeping a diary of when it is worse and what has been eaten / drunk before is really important. If on formula, change types)

I am not a big fan of steroids, they do not solve the problem and can wreck the skin when used for prolonged periods.

How old is dc?

We wet-wrapped our dd every day for an intensive period. We were told by specialist at Alder Hey children's hospital to get skin into a good condition and then maintain it. Only way to do this was intensive wet-wrapping and steroids. It became easier to maintain from this point. We probably did this for about a month to get rampant eczema under control. Then gradually reduced steroids. Don't just stop. You can get kick back to sudden withdrawal of steroids.

We wet wrapped every day with strong steroids (consultant's advice), we weaned off steroids and wet wrapped every day with emollient (mainly 50:50 iirc - but this was 11 years ago).

Agree about weaning off steroids, ds1 was on something very strong, we switched gradually to HC 1% one day then strong the next, then two days inbetween then three, then HC 1% only then did the same but with HC 0.5%. Every time I tried to miss a stage ds1 had a flare up. Once he was on HC 0.5% we went to that every other day then emollient only. Then gradually weaned off wet wrapping as well.

Ah fun times, had forgotten all that!

This was post full body eczema herpeticum which was why we needed the really strong stuff to start with btw.

But yes you have to wean very gradually off steroids ime. The wet wrapping ust made the skin super soft in the morning, then it would gradually get dry during the day. It didn't really sort out the eczema - steroids did that but it made the skin flexible.

Thats great, thank you. I didnt consider that I needed to wean, I actually thought Id stop using steroids all together .

We were using Emouvate (sp), now its Modrasone on his body and HC1% on his face.

Food elimination wont work. His skin was utterl horrific (post anaphylactic shock) when he was just on breast milk and I was eating just rice and beans. 2 months of that and I stopped being as scared and weaned him onto fruit and veg etc. His skin hasnt got worse but better. Bad but not horrific like it was.

I like the Vit E oil suggestion, Im going to try that. His mattress and quilt are a week old, we wash his clothes with soap nuts. We use Epaderm but I want to add dermol or aveeno too. Epdaerm sits on the skin but Id like to regularly apply something in the day that sinks in (as opposed to rubbing straight off onto clothes/carpet/me as Epaderm does).

Meant to add, he's 10 months.

Do u see a dermatologist/ skin nurse? Has someone medically trained shown you how to wet wrap? I may be wrong, but doesn't applying steroid cream under a wrap increase the absorbtion rate of the steroid. I know that skin in nappy area is much thinner, but isn't that why most dermatologists will only prescribe low dose steroid for nappy area?

If you aren't already seeing a dermatologist, I would push push push for a referral. It may be that u need to use a stronger steroid to blast the eczema, and then once cleared it would only need applying when a flare up. Much better to treat it completely than just keep applying mid strength steroid every week. Or maybe the emollient u are using doesn't suit, think its a case of trial and error to find something that suits your skin. Ds has tried epaderm ointment, epaderm cream, diprobase, hydromol ointment, 50 50, doublebase, aquadrate, etc etc etc.

But, yeah, don't be afraid of steroid creams, they really aren't that bad if u aren't using them all the time. And make sure skin isn't infected before wrapping, as it will make it worse.

We were seeing a dermatologist, yes.

We are, unfortunately, applying steroid creams all the time. Have been for 5-6 months, now its getting worse with the warmer weather (?!) Im loathed to increase it or go up a strength again when we barely went back down.

We tried blasting it, to no avail.

you will have to wean off really slowly.

We wet wrapped in the day as well when ds1 was really bad (he was just under a year when he had eczema herpeticum so the same sort of age as your little chap). I found it very helpful when his skin was so dry.

Yes wet wrapping does increase steroid absorption but if you are seeing a derm you can check with them about that. A lot of people say not to wet wrap with just emollient (I think because of the faff, so they think there's no point if you're not having to use shed loads of steroids as well) but I found it really helped ds1 and stopped his skin cracking and getting infected/eczema flaring up and was worth the faff. Apart from a few patches below his knee (which has flared now as well - prob due to the weather) he really has no eczema at all now. When he was 11/12 months old I couldn't imagine that day :)