Eczema newbie - can I survey your thoughts?

[NoviceKnitter]

Hi there, DD is 5 months and a small patch of red and dry skin on her temple has now spread to the front of her scalp where her cradle cap was (the cc has recently cleared up thanks to shea nut butter.) I'm fairly sure the new patch is eczema, as she's now started scratching and the skin is scaly and broken. The onset of winter seems to have been a trigger.

I've just spent an hour searching old MN posts - incredibly useful but a bit of a minefield in terms of all the creams etc out there. So thought it might be useful to do a simple survey of what's worked for you - for me and other new mums like me?

We've moved on from olive oil and shea nut butter to (today) calendula oil, oats in the bath and dead sea salts. I've also been prescribed oilatum junior for the bath and Cetraben cream.

I know it's different for every child, but which of these have worked for you what would you try next?

The shortlist (or long list) seems to be:

Aveeno Cream
SK Cream
Dream Cream from Lush
Adermo Exomega Cream
Calendula cream (not oil?)
Epaderm
Dermal 500

Am fully breastfeeding - anything I should do dietwise?

Thanks in advance for any help

Yes, definitely. I use it all over his body, head etc. Wasn't trying to get rid of the cradle-cap that way, but noticed that it did that anyway. Probably because it moisturises it well..
HTH!

Here's what works on my DS (3.8), we worked this out with the dermatologist specialist at our GP practice. DS's exzcema was pretty nasty when he was a baby but is now just a tendency to dry patches behind his knees and inside his elbows; the doc did say that there was every likelihood that he'd grow out of it, and that there was no evidence that diet was implicated, so I never changed my diet (he was fully BF until six months) or his.
Aveeno bath oil - we started off with Oilatum and it worked fine for several months but then seemed to make things worse.
Dermol moisturiser, in the morning, midday and after evening bath, with extra applications if his skin seems dry.
Hydrocortisone if any patches get sore and itchy, HC with fucidin if it gets infected.
Re Aveeno, I do use Aveeno moisturiser too sometimes - there's not much in it, both it and the Dermol work well. But I do know that some people find that Aveeno lotion stings a bit.

By the way, did you know you can get special silk clothing on the NHS (presumably if nothing else works and you have a nice GP)? It's called dermasilk www.dermasilk.co.uk
I haven't tried it yet, but am waiting for some to be delivered..

Hello,

There's a realy good ointment/cream by mother earth (www.motherearth.co.uk or www.theremustbeabetterway.com I think). It's for adults and babies with problem skin or eczema. Very gentle. Contains among other things calendula and lavender. I used on DS in conjunction with an aqueous cream and it really helped.

for 18 month old dd we do-

clothes washed in soapnuts only, no detergents

oats in a sock in the bath, only two baths a week, three if dirty

hair washed in teeny tiny amount of halos and horns melon shampoo, again only at bath times so not often

use 0.5% hc cream when flare ups occur, usually no more than once every three months, and only on shoulders and one small patch on tummy

don't do anything dietary

also, in the house we only use ecover cleaning products, no airfreshners etc, nothing chemically.

oh and-

oilatum bath stuff made it worse stopped using that. but the oilatum cream works wonders for us, use that twice a day all over.

key thing for us was to treat the eczema properly in the first place ie hc cream until it all went (was horrendous, all over body) and IMPORTANTLY until even the yellowy dry eczema went. at first doctor said to only use it on red eczema patches, so it kept coming back over and over. when we kept using it past the red stage then past the yellowy, scaly stage until we got normal skin. then it didn't come back. only the couple of patches.

ah, see we used it until the skin was lovely and soft and completely clear ... then it all came back a week later!

(hc that is)

And what do you think about my theory that this has been triggered by cold wind/central heating as it's only on face and scalp not elsewhere on body? i'm tempted to stick with our olive oil regime elsewhere as it seems to be keeping her skin nice and supple. And then focus on these other patches with the other creams you suggest. For now anyway. Esp as some creams seem to aggravate skin - tempted to leave the well bits alone?

Many thanks for all your posts, so helpful, as always.

PS Shea nut butter worked a treat for dd's cradle cap. Was recommended by Neal's Yard for the eczema but hasn't had an effect on that really...

Hi, I have to agree with many of you, the Aveeno cream and bathoil has worked wonders on our little boy. Also, we do bath him every day as per specialists advice, but it is really important to make sure that the skin doesn't dry out so he is also "creamed" twice a day but it does keep his eczema at bay!

For us the biggest success was limiting baths to once a week (unless really needed).

ds1 used to have very severe eczema as a baby- we wet wrapped every night (providing there was no infection), used hospital prescribed steroids (can't remember the name off hand but they were strong ones) and various emollients..

Now he's 8 he gets it every year (mildly) when the central heating goes on, so you could be onto something there novice. I just use emollients now as it's not too bad. If it ever gets infeced I use fucidin or fucidin-h.

Dermatologists tell you to bath every day though. When ds1 was horrendous the hospital advised us to try and bath twice a day (then wet wrap at night). If you bath though you must use an emollient in the bath. We've used various ones over the years.

Not sure of the severity of other posters but DS was at one point more than 90% covered in eczema. He was wet wrapped for a time so pretty much as bad as it can get I guess. He was erythrodermic at one point - see here -dermnetnz.org/reactions/erythroderma.html

Sometimes I forget how bad it was but out it this way my mother asked why I got pg again after everything we went through.

I really think eczema is underated.

oh half asleep and missed a bit- the reason they say its important to bathe is because of the risk of infection. The emollient in the bath is a must though.

Yurt I know about the advice on bathing but instinct told me that water was a real irritant/ I have eczema on my hands and was very aware of how hand washing made it worse. I removed his wet wraps aginst their advice and it improved.
I found tea tree good for infections.

I don't know I'd go back to ds1's eczema in exchange for what he lives with now (he had eczema herpeticum, can be fatal- eek- and the only clear patch of skin was on his feet). I remember someone screaming 'agh what happened to him has he been scalded' . Poor babe. It was pretty vile. He was easy to wet wrap though. I tried to wet wrap ds3's legs the other day as he had bad persistant eczema down both legs and he was having none of it!

It is a blancing act on the infection front. I remember DS having a fungal and bacterial infection on his face once - terrible. Again tea tree oil worked.

DS's scalp used to weep constantly until once I used a soft brush to remove all the build up and washed him in tea tre oil shampoo and never looked back.

Honest I don't have shares in Tea Tree oil.

yeah I know what you mean- I think washing is irritating ds1's hands now (mind you he pours washing up liquid over them and bites them which doesn't help). Probably the key is finding an emollient that can be tolerated in the bath. Ds1 was fairly easy going with emollients, and his was hideously infected initially so probably the washing was important.

I used 50:50 under wet wraps- when it came out in the morning his skin was soft and smooth, like a newborn, then I'd see it dry and crack and crinkle almost before my eyes. Loved 50:50- not sure if its still around (he could do with some now with his hands in the washing up bowl all day long).

I rememeber that. You know when they tell you to patch test them for 24 hrs and the only spot free of eczema was his nappy area and his feet. I honestly thought of contacting pampers to see what was in their mnappies that protected him.

DS is 8 now and thread like this bring back the horror.

I use tea tree quite a bit anyway (you know I'm an old hippy).

Nitty gritties and conditioner work well on scalps as well (I have discovered accidentally!)

Eczema is underesttimatd don't you think?

I get nostalgic as it was during my innocent happy time.....

Have some horror photos though. One of perfect skin. One 3 days later of a weeping mess on his face, no clear skin visible.

Hope we haven't frightened the OP.