Eczema 6yo DD - can you give me basic advice on caring for eczema skin?

[MarriedtoBob]

My DD has had eczema for years but its always been pretty mild and I've been able to keep on top of it with Aveeno cream. Its become much worse recently and I can't keep on top of it anymore.

She's seen the doctor today and have come away with 1% hydro-cortisone cream, more Aveeno cream, Aveeno body wash. I was advised she needed to avoid soap altogether.

I know these might be daft questions but...

• When do I use the 1% cream? Will it damage clothes and bed sheets?
• What will she use instead of soap in the toilets at school?
• Should she use aqueous cream to wash her hands with at home? Or the Aveeno body wash?
• She said to keep shampoo away too if possible, is there any alternative to shampoo?

Any advice would be appreciated xx

My DC reacts to the alcohol in Aveeno. Eczema management is very much trial and error. Try your best to not use steroids - in my opinion the side effects outweigh any benefit - they're not a cure, merely a band aid. Trust me, I had an absolute nightmare with treating my DC with the stuff! It caused so many infections and now he's off steroids, his skin is so much better.

How old is your DD? How much time has your DD spent in the sunshine lately? Is she photosensitive? Does she take an antihistamine? Have you looked into The Eczema Diet? Does she has any known food and environmental allergies? Does she have hayfever? Do you know what all your DD's triggers are? eg. citrus, dairy, eggs, pollen, house dust mite, etc

I'll tell you how I manage my DC1's eczema successfully:

• He has pure coconut massaged onto his legs twice, twice daily. At the moment he has sudocrem over the coconut oil.
• He baths daily in a bath with half a cup dead sea salts, half a cup Epsom salts and two drops tea tree oil and one drop lemongrass added to it. I wash his face with Dermol cream and that's it.
• Good gut health is key to eczema management, especially if your DD is prone to skin infections and has had to have courses of anti biotics. My DC takes a good quality probiotic, a multivitamin and a tspn of milled flaxseed (rich in omega 3) in his porridge every morning.
• As he is allergic to house dust mite, he has hard flooring in his bedroom and his room is regularly damp dusted. We've bought expensive anti- allergy encasements that seem to be working. *All his clothing and bedding is pure cotton and it's all hot washed and tumble dried separately - to kill house dust mite and for pollen avoidance.
• We're awaiting further food allergy testing, as I highly suspect egg and soya are major triggers, along with excess citrus and dairy. *He takes Benadryl twice daily, although I'm going to be putting him on Quercetin (a natural antihistamine) soon. *My DC is allowed treats, but we have adopted clean eating as a lifestyle choice, so no e numbers/over-processed foods. *He uses a clean towel at every bath time, I clean the spoon that I use to scoop the coconut oil out with, every time I scoop some out! I've become a stickler for hygiene because staph bacteria can aggravate eczema (and steroids can make you more prone to this bacteria!)

Hope this helps. I'm sure I've left out plenty, but if you have any questions, please feels free to ask.

Wow! Thank you so much for the detailed response, I really appreciate it.

Heres more info about DD, I'm going to read through all your bullet points now and make notes!! ;-)

How old is your DD? Shes 6

How much time has your DD spent in the sunshine lately? Not much, we're up North and we haven't had any yet this year!!

Is she photosensitive? I don't think she is but she is a fair skinned redhead.

Does she take an antihistamine? Yes, she has piriton and piriteze, though not everyday usually.

Have you looked into The Eczema Diet? No, I'll google it, she is already limited due to food allergies though.

Does she has any known food and environmental allergies? Yes eggs, peanuts, milk (intolerance rather than allergy), cats, dogs, dustmites.

Does she have hayfever? I don't think so

Do you know what all your DD's triggers are? We thought we did, but because the eczema has flared up we are wondering if she has a new one we're unaware of??

When you say you wash his face with Dermol cream do you just mean you put the cream on, spread over the skin and rinse off?

We're moving soon and in our new house she will have hardwood flooring in her room. We've also bought decent anti dustmite protectors for her duvet and pillow, we've seen an improvement in her asthma after getting them. I always tumble her bedding and her teddies go in the freezer frequently to kill any mites.

You're very welcome. I know first hand how much upheaval eczema can cause, so I am more than happy to give any advice if it can help someone else.

It sounds like you're already on the right track. Yes, I mean just that re the dermol cream - I don't wash anywhere else (he washes his personal area himself) and so far there's no sign of infection and his skin looks great! I also dab a bit of coconut oil around my dc's eyes and if they're any dry spots on his face. His eyes were flared up badly but since wearing sunglasses outside, he's had remarkable improvement.

Any bit of sunshine you get, get your DD outside, I've seen a real boost in his skin since we started getting a bit of decent sunshine. Make sure the antihistamine has no unnecessary flavouring in it as that can cause a reaction too. It is very possible there are triggers you're not aware of. We wash all of our laundry with soap nuts as detergent can build up in the machine and my DC was even sensitive to surcare non-bio.

LikeaChop Please can you tell me more about your pollen/hayfever question? My DD (8) seems to get eczema only in the summer. I used to think it was suncream/sweat which caused it, but I currently suspect pollen.

What would you advise to help with this? We currently just moisturise. It stops the itchiness a bit but it isn't a cure.

The HC cream may well bleach her clothes slightly: I'd put it on at night, and use some old PJ's until the flare up is over, and then stop a few days after the skin has cleared.

It may also be time to move from Aveeno. We have gone through phases of a cream working, and then it seems to stop working. Change cream, and the skin seems to come back under control.

If her hands are OK, I'd use soap in the school toilets, but use one of the soap substitutes at home.

Hair: we use water half the time, and a very small amount of shampoo the other times: ideally in the shower, so it doesn't sit on the skin.

Bubble bath is also BAD!

We use normal non bio washing powder, but after the wash has finished, but on an additional rinse cycle (or a 15 min super fast wash) to reduce the soap residues.

Sunshine good, sweat bad. Try to keep her cool.

Good Luck!

Thanks all. I've bought some Dermol pump action soap substitute hand wash today so she'll wash her hands with that at home and hopefully by the time she goes back to school after half term her skin will be good enough to tolerate regular soap in school.
She's had a bath tonight, we used the teeniest amount of Aveeno body wash soap substitute to wash her and her hair.
I've dug out old, soft cotton baby socks and I've cut a hole for her thumb and snipped off the end for her finger tips to poke out and that should allow her read her books at night whilst keeping her hands and wrists covered and slathered in cream.

I have seen huge improvements in my son's eczema and asthma by adding grains and sugar to the list of foods to exclude, despite these not showing up on RAST or skin prick tests. It is a real pain but now wee have no drugs, no creams, no asthma, no eczema.

We have also had a gut bacteria test done, eliminated potential pathogenic bacteria using a herbal suppliment and are working on improving gut bacteria, not just probiotic suppliments as this seems not to be enough on its own but probiotic foods too, water kefir and fermented vegetables as well as monitoring his essential fatty acids and other vitamin levels periodically.

Two years ago we couldn't stay in other people's houses or hotels and even camping was ruled out, he couldn't be near anything plastic / remotely chemical based that was new, near anyone who had been near an animal, in the same room as anything rubber (balloons, bouncy castles, rubber bands) and lots of other random unidentifiable sources of reactions.

Now, after spending a lot of money on investigations and suppliments, apart from food and suppliments, we can function relatively normally and I am not a nervous wreck.

The food regime is very hard. Sugar being the one treat we had which we have now removed as well. I just hope that things will improve to the extend that he can tolerate a little occasionally in the future.

It is utterly miserable when eczema is out of control.

DD (egg and peanut allergic as well as dust/pollen/cats) used to have terrible eczema. We have had good success with steroids, basically after being referred to local hospital dermatology/immunology - they gave us a kind of treatment ladder to use depending on the state of her skin. She has always used lots of emollients such as Diprobase; hospital dermatology advice was to get in there quickly and get skin under control. She still uses steroids from time to time when her skin flares up. When she uses it, it will be something like a thin layer applied twice a day for a week (so not long term but short and sharp).

She/we do not eat clean in the slightest but her skin is now very good. She is sensitive to too much tomato and orange, so avoids those. More recently, we realised we have to be quite careful with shampoo and bubble bath as quite a few brands use peanut oil or almond oil and she was coming out in scalp rashes.

She uses E45 bath oils/hand soap and when it was bad took an E45 soap dispenser to school. She also used to have all-in-one PJs with mitts sold through a company called Cotton Comfort (I think), and little white gloves.

If you are still struggling, skin is getting infected and your child is very miserable I would get referred - we found that advice invaluable.