Should I use hydrocortisone?

[mandler]

DS 4 months was diagnosed with eczema today. Already his chest looks much worse, not on his face yet. I am really upset mainly becasue I don;t know what to do for the best.
I have diprobase and hydrocortisone on prescription and bought (not baby) Aveeno from the chemist. Am trying Aveeno first.
His skin isnlt really dry, just very red patches, legs a bt rough to the touch.
Also exclusivey breastfeeding, and neither I nor DH has eczema.
Totally confused about how to get rid of the cause and treat the symptoms.

hydrocortisone will get rid of the red patches. the diprobase (or aveeno or any of the others available) will help then maintain clear skin once the hydrocortisone has done it's job. better to clear it up before it gets worse then you may need something even stronger.

if you are v. bothered about the steroid creams, then try aqueous cream (huuuuge pot can be bought from any chemist - very inexpensive) We use it for our DC, and it is used instead of soap in the bath too.
Not wishing to alarm you, as there are many causes of eczema, be careful what you wash his clothes and bedding in, give the conditioner (even "pure" versions) a miss, and keep track of what things you change and how his skin reacts. don't use soap, and the rather odd thing that works for my DSes is massage with grapeseed oil, which you can buy in the supermarket...yes for cooking with. This was recommended on the baby massage course i attended with DS2 and have used it for both DS's since.

Personally, I would use the hydrocortisone now if your doctor prescribed it for him. You want to get it under control in case it gets infected. Keep using the emollients too.

It might be worth ringing your surgery tomorrow and asking if there is a nurse who can discuss your ds's eczema with you and give you tips on how to keep it under control.

Both my dses had eczema as babies but have grown out of it, it is very common in babies.

I would use the hydrocortisone cream to clear the worst of it up. I have had to do this with dd on a few ocassions and it has always worked. I use Aveeno the rest of the time to keep it at bay.

BTW I did as norah says, used hydrocortisone for just a few days to get it under control, then switched to aqueous cream and stuff i mentioned in my earlier post. hope it didn't sound like i meant "don't use" steroid stuff, just that you only need to use it for a very short time. It can work really quickly, esp if you are careful with other stuff like washing powders and liquids. We use "Halos and horns" shampoo and stuff, which doesnt contain nasties, for shampoo etc - though my DC are 7,4 &2.

aqueous cream contains sodium laureth sulfate, a skin irritant. lots of eczema babies react badly to this.

best thing in the bath is a sock full of porridge oats. the aveeno you have contains oats too. it's very soothing and healing.

also, ditto about washing powders. we use soapnuts for dd's clothes. available from inasoapnutshell.com

she had eczema from 4 months old too, fully bf. all cleared up once took control with steroid cream, the oat baths plus soapnuts.

aqueous cream contains sodium laureth sulfate, a skin irritant. lots of eczema babies react badly to this.

best thing in the bath is a sock full of porridge oats. the aveeno you have contains oats too. it's very soothing and healing.

also, ditto about washing powders. we use soapnuts for dd's clothes. available from inasoapnutshell.com

she had eczema from 4 months old too, fully bf. all cleared up once took control with steroid cream, the oat baths plus soapnuts.

Personally, I woul use the hydrocortisone but you must keep using emollients as well. Dd2 used hc from a very very young age. By all means carry on looking into alterntives, though

yes, now her skin is perfectly clear i do use halos and horns stuff once a week. nothing else though. she's 20 months old now, likes a few bubbles.

Oh yes, I agree with gigglewitch re soaps. I never use bubble bath or soap on my dses. If they are very grubby I use a bit of oilatum bar (which you can get in Boots/supermarkets etc). And if you think he may be reacting to your detergent, you could give soapnuts a try (I use a combination of soapnuts and non-biological detergent. We still can't use biological detergent or certain brands of non-bio e.g. Fairy)

about SLS!!! Well norah i didnt know that. Having said that, it does work for my lot. In practice i alternate that with oilatum / just plain water and the H&H stuff. oh yes and the oats, did that when DS1 had his huge flare up. His was improved hugely when he went on to goats milk as the eczema he had was a reaction to cows milk proteins, he had tons of other symptoms too.

Thanks all, will start on hydrocortisone tomorrow - how long do you give each cream before trying someting new?

You should see pretty quick results with hydrocortisone. Do you know how much to use? There is a guide based on `fingertip units' which should help. See here (actually, that looks like a really good factsheet generally, including info on how to use emollients as well as steroid creams).

I would use the steriods, as others have said, along with the emoliants.250-500g per week.

Certainly be carefull as you introduce soilds, if your child developed eczema before 3-4 months old.
as this is an idicator of possible food allergy.

eczema after 12 months is much less likely to develop food allergy.

I would really advise against goats milk.
esp the 'nanny' brand. The company has never produced any safety data on thier product.
This is one of the reasons why NHS dont prescribe this, also, goats milk has similar lactose as cows.
Is best that an allergenic cows milk formula is used.

My baby is 19 weeks and developed eczema on his forehead,shoulders,tummy,back,back of knees and front of ankles.I was lucky enough to have 2 very interested gps ponder over management-they prescribed oilatum for the bath,hydrocortisone on anything red mornings and evenings and diprobase as a moisturiser midday.The results have been miraculous and since knocking it on the head i've had to use very little steroid cream.

I find it effective to wean them off the steroid cream rather than stopping it suddenly. Go down to once a day, once every other day and so on. Ans LOADS of emollient. My DDs both react badly to aqueoud cream as an emollient but get on well with hydromol. Might be worth asking for a few different sample pots to see which works best for your baby. Take cream out with a spoon.

My DS1 had terrible eczema as a baby and the hydrocortisone really helped get it under contorl.

We were prescribed Diprobase but it made him worse. It can be a bit hit and miss finding the emolients, creams etc that work.

On the other hand, don't chop and change in a desperate search for something that works. I did this and made him worse for a bit.

This may sound a bit lentil-weavery but I have had great results with breast milk (on both my excema and DS's very occasional bits). I don't know why it works but it does. I think it's possibly a combination of being slightly moisturising and slightly antibiotic.

I wouldn't stop using whatever your doc recommends, but it's worth a try in conjunction. Just express a bit onto your hand, wipe it on the eczema and allow to air dry before putting clothes on.

Incidentally I am another one who can't use aqueous cream - I didn't know it contained SLSs but it makes sense.

habbibu - I can only speak for myself but personally I react a little bit to aqueous cream but massively to washing up liquid and soaps, so I'd say it's far more likely to be the washing up. Get the man some gloves! And tell him not to use soap or shampoo too much until it's cleared.

Thanks - he has gloves. He's an inveterate hairwasher, mind. Might suggest gloves for that...

Apologies for hijack, mandler.

This is a subject close to my heart atm too. Ds has just turned 4mths old and has had ezcema/very dry skin all over his body practically since he was born. I have tried every cream/emolient imaginable and hydrocortisone that the doctor prescribed along with a course of antibiotics and an emolient called doublebase. 2 days after using his skin cleared up it was amazing, I thought we had cracked it... since finishing the antibiotics though he has started getting bad again, the creams on there own don't seem to help. I have changed washing liquid to ecover and stopped using fabric conditioners, I have also changed his formula but nothing seems to help. This would suggest to me that he is milk intolerant but no-one seems to want to agree to that... its the only thing I can think of now. Going to see gp again tomorrow to discuss.

OP - Hope the cream on its own works for you

Oh and he screams blue murder when I am putting the cream on, I think it must really sting

hijack for habibu I would stop the aqueous cream as a study at sheffield children's hosp showed that 50% got worse using it not better

Can I ask what % hydrocortisone cream anyone has used on DCs? I am currently using 1% on DSs face in conjunction with Diprobase but it having little effect. Anyone know if I could I use a more potent one?