Eye 'eczema'

[CycleOnTheLEFT]

DD is 7 and has red flaky skin around one or both eyes most of the time. It doesn't bother her too much unless crying etc but it does look very fragile. She has no eczema anywhere else, though used to have patches on her legs, and gets occasional patches on her cheeks or near her mouth. We currently treat with Lush Dream Cream sparingly as required. Most other creams hurt too much to apply. At the age of 6-12 months she had horrendous sore cracked eczema round her mouth. We've seen the GP occasionally and come away with various options but never really got to the root cause.
My question is if anyone else has experienced anything like this and resolved it? And also should we persue a 'proper' causative diagnosis or is it just one of those things? Any thoughts about possible causes to consider?

options from GP, not options.

Gah POTIONS! bloody phone.

I have this as well. mostly if I cry too much (windy weather also makes me cry) or if I eat too much citrus fruit.
only thing that helps is keeping it clean and moisturised.

I used to suffer with eczema quite badly as child, but largely grew out of it, right up until I was pregnant with DS2 when I had the most horrendous outbreak, which was ultimately treated with UV therapy. Since then I get occasional minor bouts and have noticed that the triggers for me are either stress (when it comes up around my eye) or hormones (in the run up to my period I'll get a patch on the back of one or both knees, but not every month). I do get a recurrent patch in between my middle and ring finger on my left hand that will crack and get quite 'grumpy' - no idea what causes that one!

Simple (the face wash brand) do a range called Simple Derma - sometimes found in places like Boots, but also available on line - there's only a couple of products in the range - a hand cream, hand lotion, and pot of slightly thicker cream. I've used that previously and found it to be great for calming and soothing a flare up, it's not sticky, no perfume etc.

If it's an ongoing issue for your DD it may be worth investigating possible causes - by brother also suffered and a dairy intolerance was flagged as one trigger for him. He has since grown out of that too.

Good luck :)

I have recurrent eye eczema and using La Roche Posay 'Toleriane' eye cream every night keeps it mostly at bay. It's really excellent and very light for delicate skin. Is supposed to increase skin resilience with continued use which I think it really does.

It's also fragrance free etc and designed for super sensitive and allergic skin.

have a look at hayfever calendars.
dc had bad excema as baby that in hindsight was a pollen allergy.
an antihistamine sorted that out.

I had that. Pretty sure the gp recommended 1% hydrocortisone cream. Cleared it up very quickly.

Hydrocortisone is not to be used on the face unless prescribed by a GP.

I was having terrible eczema flare ups on my face, mainly around my hairline and ears but sometimes also just underneath my eyes.

I've found the MooGoo range to be great - I use the shampoo and conditioner, and then the scalp cream as a face moisturiser- it's so gentle that if the skin around my eyes is irritated I can wipe it on a cotton wool pad across my eyes and it doesn't hurt my actual eye, even if it goes in it.

It's been great, I haven't had to use the steroid cream at all since I switched over to it!

My dd only really got eye eczema with using a certain make up. She suffers with eczema/allergies anyway in general. Luckily it did go away eventually with moisterising alone. On reading about eye lid eczema it can be caused a lot by things you touch or have on your hands, even nail varnish. I notice your dd is only 7 years. Maybe change your laundry detergent too for something gentle like surecare (esp for bedding and towels used to dry hands and face) also carefully monitor all toiletries and cut out any fabric conditioners. My dd also had mouth eczema for a period of time, has now gone but did come and go for a long while. Its very tricky to pinpoint causes but we mainly moisterised and avoided any weird stuff, was once given a black box warning on one prescribed cream and thought better of that one. Doctors dont always know best. However, despite my lack of confidence in the medical field you could push to see a dermatologist and hope they can be of some help, its worth a try. Any moisterisers or soap substitutes prescribed could be helpful. We managed to avoid the steriods on the face so far but sometimes it may be unavoidable.

I have very allergic eyes and eye area eczema triggered by excessive watery eyes. I just use Vaseline which doesn't feel great going on but really helps my skin.

Wow thanks for all the suggestions. We might try swapping shampoos and should probably be more consistent with applying cream. I used to wonder if it was pollen but I don't think the time of year is consistent enough to make it that. Next time it's really bad we will probably go and see the GP again. In the meantime I'll try and update if we get any improvements.

I've really suffered with eczema round my eyes over the years: this is the only thing that I've found has worked consistently over the long term. It's very gentle; I use it on my son's eyes too and neither of us have had any problems with it at all.

www.amazon.co.uk/PapayaGold-Paw-Moisturising-Balm/dp/B00J367WC6/ref=sr_1_3_s_it?s=beauty&ie=UTF8&qid=1488789815&sr=1-3&keywords=paw+paw+ointment&tag=mumsnetforum-21

When my dd suffered, she gave up wheat for a week and it cleared up.... seemed to be a combination of stress and too much gluten.

Simple (not the brand) Eye Ointment is available from your chemist - it sorted my DC's similar problem out - I just apply a teeny amount (like 1-2mm diameter blob) with a clean little finger - morning and evening and its made them so much better!
Safe for eyes. Really cheap. Does the job. My DC doesn't have eczema normally either just really sensitive skin and the flaky eye thing seems to happen in winter when its very windy or when they're just run down. (If that doesn't work might be worth checking with the doc in case its an infection?)

My daughter had really bad eczema everywhere, including around her eyes, earlobes would get big cracks where it joins the cheek, usual elbow creases and knees. Did all the wet wrapping, steroids etc for years. Gave up gluten and dairy as an "experiment" last September after watching Dr in the House on the BBC (the GP advised a young boy with eczema to avoid wheat and dairy). Within 3 weeks she had no eczema anywhere...

Thanks again for all the replies. I think I finally tracked down what was causing this particular flare-up - Swimming Goggles!
I realised she'd had them for a while, so I threw them out and got a new pair. She has swimming lessons every week (and for a while it was twice a week), so I don't know why I didn't think of this before. There's still a bit of flakiness but it's finally healing up, the redness has all gone, and I'm making sure to put on some cream as a barrier in the morning as well as something overnight.

That's interesting CycleOnTheLeft. May pay you to be a little cautious regarding latex or was they latex free?
My dd came up clear for latex allergy but has some linking latex fruit allergies. But did have a reaction to flip flops once where the soles of her feet went hot and rashy. Just a thought...