Eczema - could Aveeno be making it worse?

[MegBusset]

Also posted in Health...

DS (10 weeks) has had eczema for a little while, mainly on his hands with a few patches on his arms and legs. Saw the GP on Tues who gave us Aveeno to bathe him in, which we hae done. But over the last couple of days it has really flared up and now his arms and legs are really red and sore-looking

Obviously we are going to stop the Aveeno baths and see if that helps,but just wondered if other MNers had had a similar reaction to Aveeno?

Does Aveeno have Lanolin or protein amino based products? We found that Johnson's pruducts sudocream, oilatum, and e45 were major contributors to making my first Daughters excema worse. They all had lanolin which she is allergic to.
Try putting on cream such as diprobase and see if it clears up the redness or the dryness
It won't do any harm and will still ease the dryness. You can buy over the counter in any chemist

Try olive oil to moisturise.
Not everyone reacts in the same way to emollient creams.
Ask your GP for advice/change of emollient if you're worried

Also, stop bathing him. Maybe just top and tail and bathe every week. Sounds terrible to do that, but it will mean that he can reestablish his own oils he produces. Each bath will dry his skin out.

In australia 9where my sister lives) twice a week maximum is the recommendation for young babies!

macdog - did you have any probs with diprobase?

I have had excema since I was a bub and I have had problems with most emollients at some time .
Funnily enough, the only emollient I tolerate is Aveeno after hearing about it on MN.

Sorry Meg, didn't read your OP properly . Just realised you're asking about the Bath product, not the emollient .
Try plain, tepid water for bathing. No products or soap.
I find a handful of table/sea salt in the bath helps soothe my own skin.
Keep your ds in cotton clothes as much as you can, it'll help as well.
I found with my dd that a sleepsuit in hotter weather stopped her scratching and making things worse.

Hi, have you tried Calendula cream/bath lotion from Weleda? It was the only thing that helped my ds when he had an eczema-like rash and it worked an absolute treat. It's certainly worth a try. Hth

second the screaming - put it on and my DH came running to see what catastrophic accident had happened!

Poor little thing. DD has it and at that age we just used warm water to wash her. I did find the Aveeno cream is the only thing that worked for her though. Not the lotion. She's 16 months now and still get patches on her hands and knees. I also use the Aveeno baby sun block. I use the Simple baby wash for her bath now. Hope you find something that works, it must be so uncomfortable.

our children's eczema is worse when they eat certain foods. Infact none of them can have dairy. They have a very good milk substitute called nutramigen. We also replaced most of the carpet in the house with wooden floors as dust mites also cause problems. Also Fairy washing powder works best for them and chane night clothes every night and sheets 2 or 3 times a week.

oh dear. Our DS2 has v. mild skin dryness, and the Aveeno worked wonders, but that was the lotion. I think you can put a handful of oats in a little porous bag in the bath and that is meant to really help eczema - we have friends whose DS has the worst eczema I've ever seen and he always baths with a handful of oats in a little bag. Makes a mess, but the bath is beautifully soft.

have heard that oats are a great bath. Will try it with son whose face is a real mess after he has been out playing in grass (pollen). But I know from experience that it can be a great relief if you can find trigger/allergens and reduce exposure. In terms of hdrating creams we use diprobase, unguentum M and Epaderm. Good to have them all as they have different constitution and are good for different times. Epaderm seems to stay on the skin longest (good for nights) but can be a bit too thick for a hot suummer day. We also used vitamin E oil ate one point (very thick). www.healthaid.co.uk
watch out for link with asthma and allergies (atopic march). Worth looking into as our first has developed asthma. We controlled diets and allergens better with the other children and they have much better skin and no asthma. www.allergysa.org/journals/2005/march/the_atopic_march.pdf

We are using the lotion at the moment. It is better for ds because it doesn't block his pires and make him scratch.

I think Aveeno is great stuff (the cream) but I must admit that I think the aveeno bath stuff is a little drying, I don't use it on my children. In fact I think most of the bath things (Oilatum etc) are pretty drying and irritating and avoid them.

I'd go for the straightforward organic-oats-in-a-muslin followed by Aveeno cream if you tolerate that.

If you don't tolerate the aveeno cream, then you'll just have to try a few other options, see what works for you.

Is the cream thick? We used to use Unguentum, but it seemed to make him scratch as soon as we put it on.

For scratching at night try clothes with built in mittens on website below. We used for our third child. Wish we had these for the elder two as this would have avaoid tve numerous skin infections that they developed from night scratching. Beats sleeping with them to hold their hands to prevent scartching! Also good for limiting damage on long car journeys.

www.eczemaclothing.eu/

I used elave on my two little ones, and on their site they've got a new must see video - www.elave.co.uk/nothing-to-hide/ At last a skincare product that stands behind what they say, so much so that the Manager Director is willing to go naked to prove it.