Excema in 3 month old - what's best?

[PurpleDana]

My dd has recently been diagnosed with both excema and reflux, I have no doubt the reflux makes the excema worse by irritating it ( she has it on her face & neck, now spreading down her chest and up into her head). In some areas it is just like dry skin, but the majority of it is very red rashy skin. So awful.
We have been prescribed aqueous cream which I am using 4/5 times a day, but also using sudocrem once a day to try and soothe it. It isn't getting better. Any other suggestions?

Firstly aqueous isn't a moisturiser, it's a soap so you shouldn't have been given it to use as a cream as its been shown to thin the skin.

If the skin is inflamed you need a steroid cream to put on it to dampen down the inflammation. It's perfectly safe at that age, my DS was given steroid creams at 4 months by the dermatologist.

Who have you seen? If its your GP I bet you they won't know how to treat baby eczema, you need to get referred to a dermatologist. Our GP told me that there was nothing I could do for my eczema covered baby, just to moisturise him and he was too young for steroids. This isn't true and our dermatologist was really annoyed.

You also need a good emollient, we use diprobase for dry patches. We also use oilatum bath and shampoo and we wash with the aqueous. We also have three steroid creams for flare ups. All this came from the dermatologist and his skin is now great.

My DS also has reflux and a milk allergy btw. Are you sure your dd doesn't have a cows milk protein allergy too? The three are often connected.

You need to get her eczema treated properly. I can't believe you got given aqueous on prescription as a moisturiser! Please get a referral to see someone who knows what they are talking about.

Sorry to hear about your DD. What milk is she having?

Sorry I'm being picky, Nutramigen AA is the one that's free of the milk protein. Nutramigen Lipil is hydrolysed so the milk protein is broken down further so it's meant to be more easily digestible.

Neocate is protein free as its amino acid based. DS was on it as a baby, it's £30 a tub, mind.

Meant to say, we got it on prescription.

Would you consider breastfeeding?

Thanks ladies.
It was the GP we saw on advice from the HV, reflux and excema diagnosed at the same appt. I'm not convinced it's not an allergy but when I said I was concerned it may be an allergy as it only really got bad when we switched to formula, GP dismissed it straightaway.
I breastfed til 5wks them mix fed for a week before my supply stopped completely. I would have loved to exclusively breastfeed for longer but it wasn't to be.

She's 3 months old (15wks) by the way.

Is she on reflux meds?

I would talk to your hv and go back to a GP, is there a different one you could see? I found that finding a GP that actually had an interest in babies made a real difference.

Tell them the eczema treatment is wrong.

Here is a link from the eczema society about aqueous cream. If it says it in the NICE guidelines not to use it, the GP should really not have given it to you to use as a moisturiser.

www.eczema.org/aqeous

Have a read of their website. You can also phone them for advice.

It could well be a cows milk protein allergy, your GP should not have dismissed it. I would go back and tell them you want a referral to someone who knows what they are doing, a dermatologist, or an allergist or paediatrician. We have seen all of them and we also see a dietician.

Just to add, we had to pay to see a dermatologist but it was the best £200 we ever spent. We then used this to go back to the GP to get an NHS referral to see everyone else.

It shouldn't have to be like that, but if you live in London I can recommend people. Unfortunately GPs don't have enough knowledge to treat baby eczema.

Just to say going back to breastfeeding can be a realistic option. With good support it can be achieved, if it's something you would like to consider. It's only a matter of weeks since you last lactated, so getting your supply going again would not be hugely difficult.
I have seen it happen with much older babies who have never breastfed and even women who have adopted and never given birth.

I'm not sure what your point is msmiggins? If its a dairy allergy OP, you'd have to cut out dairy and soya from your diet if you bf.

You sound a bit like me OP, my supply dried up at 4 weeks, despite expressing and trying to bf every feed. It was exhausting and I ended up with a miserable screaming baby who refused to latch. Even the midwives at the bf clinic I went to tried. I'm not sure I could have gone back to bf, although I desperately wanted it to work. He then ended up on dairy free formula at about four months and I had a happier baby.

I'm not hammering a point and whether going back to breastfeeding means then cutting out dairy would remain to be seen- but if so it would be a small price to pay.
I am just suggesting an alternative option, that's all.
If that's not something the OP wants to do, then fine, I just wanted her to be aware that it could be a possibilty that's all.

My ebf baby has eczema. To relactate at this stage on top of reflux and skin issues would be a monumental amount of stress not guaranteed to work. Could be dust,pet hair, soap powder or some other unavoidable thing causing it. my dd's is kept at bay with epaderm cream (not the 3in1 ointment) applied religiously twice a day.its great stuff.its horrible to see their skin like that. I would have literally sold my soul for it to disappear after the first breakout.

Thanks. I'll go back to surgery & see someone else I think. I don't live in London pobble, I'm in Derbyshire.
The reflux hasn't really improved with the gaviscon treatment and her skin definitely hasn't, it's worse.
Tbh I wouldn't want to us to go through trying to re-establish breastfeeding, I was heartbroken when I stopped and we had 2 weeks of tears, screams, soreness and stress before that (didn't know at the time I probably wasn't supplying enough).

If we do manage to get her tested for cmpa and find out she is allergic, after changing her milk how long before her symptoms reduce? Will the reflux and excema disappear completely? I can't bear to see her skin so sore for much longer

Just read that article pobble, that is shocking! My husband has just shouted he is gonna rip the doctors head off!
That's it, it's in the bin.

Try and get a hold of goats milk soap or something similar. Girlfriend of mine's daughter has eczema really bad. Her skin dries out and starts to crack after just one day of not using it. You'll need to make sure that soap doesn't get cross-contaminated (use it and put it away type thing).

There's also a brand "Simple" that my friend had luck with before she found the all natural goats milk soap.

My sisters daughter had reflux and has eczema as well. Turns out she had a cmpa allergy AND a cat sebum allergy (which is why the eczema was bad). I don't remember what the other treatments were but she bathes here in a special eczema soap and has a special moisturiser as well. I'm not sure how bad it is now (it's not something she talks about)

I've never heard of goats milk soap! I know that goats milk as an alternative milk isn't recommended as 90% can also be allergic to the milk protein and the same with soya milk, although that's 40%.

Gaviscon although it helped the reflux, it just made DS constipated so we were given ranitidine which he's still on now as a toddler but it controls his reflux. We tried three different milks until we got to Neocate which is completely milk protein free. But the biggest difference was when we started using the steroid cream for his eczema. His skin showed an improvement by the next day. I was amazed, especially as it was over his entire body. We've not looked back!

I went to pharmacy for my DS skin at similar age, and got aqueous cream, which I think made things worse. He's now 6 months and it is much much better. We have zeroderm ointment morning and night (really thick and greasy), doublebase gel to apply in the middle of the day (lighter and quicker to apply if out and about) and oilatum for bath. The creams/ointment should be smoothed on in direction of hair growth like stroking cat, not rubbed.

The other thing I did which I think made a difference was stop using laundry liquid and switched to ecozone laundry balls. They don't leave any residue on clothes. Plan to try going back to detergent soon to confirm.

I also stopped using sleeping bag went back to blankets ? less sweaty and reduced baths to alternate nights/days where pooh went up his back!

Our GP did give us a small amount of hydrocortisone cream which helped when we used it for the 5 days we used it but she was very concerned about us using it on a big area.

Good luck and hope things improve soon.

Hi grainmum. We have already reduced baths/washes, often don't use any baby bath/wash, always used fairy non-bio, cotton clothing, allow fresh air, I don't wear perfume...
Since I stopped the aqueous cream it already looks less raw! So thanks for the advice ladies :-) It's still spreading tho so will be back at docs and demand to be listened to!

You can use steroids on big areas but certain ones treat different things. So we have an all over steroid and we have one for small patches. Depends what DS's skin is like. Also, it's better to have a stronger steroid and use it for a less amount of time than a weaker one and use it for a long time.

Although one of the allergy consultants told me that the children they worried about were the ones that didn't react to steroids, i.e they were hard to treat. This was when I asked him about long term steroid use. He basically said not to worry about it as steroids work well for DS.

This is why I won't let a GP treat my sons eczema!

Allergy testing most definitely. It wasn't until my sistes bub was 6+ months old that the docs finally stopped treating her like a hysterical first time parent.

Her DD was spitting up a LOT so first she got tablets for reflux. That helped a little but still spitting up. She switched to soy, still spitting up. She was on rice cereal or something like that mixed with a little formula, still spitting up.

Finally pushed HARD for an allergy test, surprise surprise, milk allergy (cat one was a surprise though!). She felt so let down by the whole thing. She was worried about seeming like a panicky parent and now is much more "I KNOW when my girl is sick" which is excellent. Vindication gave her more confidence in her parenting (she had PND so her confidence was severely lacking).