does hydrocortizone cream cause hyperactive behaviour

[Allergymum]

My baby boy (now 11 months) has had hydrocortizone cream applied for a few months and during this time i noticed his behaviour to be more aggressive than normal. Now i no longer use the creams his behaviour is much calmer - has anyone else noticed this?

i don;t believe that young babies can be aggressive, so i doubt the cream was causing any major behavioural changes......it might have purely been coincidence, with the use of the cream coinciding with a period of frustration.. but am willing to be corrected if this is a well known side effect !!

you are right, aggressive behaviour is not something that would be diagnosed until over 5 years, however the only adjective i know to describe his behavious is aggressive. e.g scratching other babies, throwing toys around, biting people and never stopping! My heathvisitor descrived him as being "wired" however since stopping the cream he is a lovely calm baby.

perhaps it was something he was eating or drinking?

Why was he having HC cream? Could it have been the symptoms that were making him 'aggressive' rather than the treatment?

No.

Are you worried that this steroid may be affecting his behaviour in the same way that, say, anabolic steroids can? They are very different.

strong hydrocortisone creams can affect the pituitary gland so it can possible affect the mood, they can also effect the adrenal gland, but those are quite rare side effects.

I do know people who have had withdrawal symptoms from using betnovate, which included feeling sick and shaking,anxiety etc so there is obviously some affect on mood.

Most topical steroids used with young children are low dose though, and the systemic absorbtion of those would be very low.
'Roid rage' is with anabolic sterois which as Dusilla says are quite different compounds

my wee boy is on a strict diet managed by a dietician so foods have not caused his mood to change as he has not had any changes to his foods. Likewise no other changes have occurres. He was on very strong HC cream as he had horrendous aczema - which turned out to be a severe allergy to cows milk and i was breastfeeding him at the time and this was the cause. He is much much better now and a lovely baby to be around but when on the HC cream he was a terror!

Was it definitely hydrocortisone? I think that is the least potent topical steroid you can get?