Eczema and suncream

[JollyShortGiant]

NDS 26mo has had patches of eczematic skin since birth and nettle rash reactions in the past (cause unknown). We are waiting on an allergy clinic appointment.

His eczema is bad at the moment and the two suncreams we've tried so far give him hives on the bits that have eczema.

Which factor 50 suncreams are worth a try?

Also, what can we do to improve his eczema? I think the heat is probably making it worse at the moment. We are using 50/50 cream morning and night but it doesn't seem to have much effect. He doesn't use soap or shampoo, just water and I try to dress him in short sleeves and shorts whenever possible - his skin is worst on his wrists, inside elbows and backs of his knees, but his whole forearms and thumbs are affected just now too.

Will make a GP appointment this week but it would be useful to know what might work.

That should be DS, not NDS, sorry.

Everyone is different but I stick to Boots own brand sun cream Soltan. I used their sensitive child range when my DDs were little as this was the only brand I could put on them without DD1 or I reacting. (Other brands I would have to wear gloves to apply it to them to stop my hands reacting.)

You can put sun cream on over emollient cream, so there is a barrier between the sun cream and the skin.
Alternatively, loose cotton long sleeves/ trousers will protect arms and legs from the sun, broad-brimmed hat protects head and neck, then you only need to sun cream hands.
Try to keep him in shade, especially between 11am and 3pm (easier said than done).

We also apply emollient approx 20-30mins before suncream. It's trial and error unfortunately with suncream as what works for one doesn't for another. However, after reading advice from eczema society, we now use Sunsense Sensitive factor 50 on DS and so far no reactions. It's not cheap and as far as I know only available online but worth it in my opinion. Problem is, eczema tends to be bad in the warm weather anyway due to heat and sweating. Sounds like you're doing everything you can to keep him cool. Make sure there's also a cup of water on a shelf in his bedroom to stop the air drying out. Stick to loose cotton clothing and apply a cool wet flannel to backs of knees/inside elbows etc when he gets sweaty. You probably need to use steroid ointment on the bad patches too. We use Eumovate for a few days then drop down to hydrocortisone for a few more days. You need to keep applying it for a few days after it's disappeared as it will still be lurking under the skin.

Nivea for sensitive skin is fine for ds. I also put emollient on under the suncream. His wrists were really bad recently and the only thing that helped was putting wrist bands on him with a very thick layer of emollient cream underneath. They are clearing up nicely now.

Thank you everyone. We have a gp appointment for tomorrow and I think a steroid cream is likely just to get this cleared up.

Will try out some of these suncreams and see what works. His reactions tend to be pretty immediate so it shouldn't take us too long to work out which are good. DH uses factor 50 too so any DS reacts to won't be wasted.