Eczema Creams

[melon1]

I have found out loads of useful information from Mumsnet regarding eczema and I need some more help! I've posted this message in the health and allergies section - can anyone give me any feedback on these creams - calendula cream, tea tree cream, aloe vera gel, lush dream cream and sk cream?

Pennies - you can get it 'over the counter' in Boots but you may have to ask for it at the pharmacy counter. We get ours on prescription as its not cheap, especially if you have to use it everyday.

presto, i think elidil is only available on perscription, and its only for severe ezcema. IIRC its a protopic, tho i could be wrong.

HandleMeCarefully, just read your post from this afternoon. I was in the exact same situation as you - dd developed eczema at 2 months, she's now 6 months - have tried loads of different creams but always had to resort back to the hc every 6-7 days - the whole point with emollients is to keep the skin as moisturised as possible to avoid flare ups - if you find the right cream to suit your childs skin (can be a long hard slog!) then this should reduce the need for hc - btw - a lot of people on here have found that acqeuos(sp?)cream is rubbish - doctors prescribe that first because its so cheap - we use doublebase and aveeno, which you can get on prescription.

I stumbled across something the other week....my ds 8 months has eczema on his face and forehead and I tried several creams and lotions...a pretty good one was "salcura gentle" spray, quite pricey though...however I tried dabbing some of our Aloe vera juice on his patches, just to see what happened and it virtually cleared it up in 3 days! It only comes back now when I forget to "dab" him for a couple of days.

Ps..thats the pure Aloe Vera that you drink...not the gel with added chemicals

My little girl developed excema at around 4 weeks old.It became very severe- she had it covering pretty much all of her body with varying degrees of severity.The worst affected places would bleed and weep.Countless visits to the GP and Dermatologist after referal from the GP seemed pointless and upsetting as we were getting knowhere.But eventually we tried Epaderm and this really worked.For about 3 weeks on the advice of the dermatologist we used hc all over her twice a day aswell as moisturising 4 times a day with epaderm, and this seemed to work wonders.We never use soap in the bath, we wash her with emulsifying ointment.She is now 2 and her skin is amazing.We never use hc anymore and moisturise once a day with Epaderm.Epaderm is really expensive to buy but is available on prescription.Hope this helps>

p.s I totally agree with shirleyvalentine- Johnsons baby products are terrible for children with excema.My daughters excema first started when I used their baby all over bath wash.

Handle me carefully. when DS was 4m old I was bathing him with Oilatum and applying aqueous cream 8 times a day and still going dry with in an hour! With Eucerin I only needed to apply it twice, same for Aveeno.

A note of warning about Tacrolimus, is a serious medicine that has not been tested in infants, can only be prescribed by a dermatologist specially for the under two's but a GP may re issue the prescription once the dermatologist has prescribed it.

When I say serious I'm refering to some of the possible side efects:

• Kidney damage if used in conjunction with Ibuprofen (Children Neurofen) and the likes. BTW Calpol is safe.
• This medicine reduces the immunological reaction therefore it has to be stopped several weeks before vacines and for some time afterwards. -Never use it over infected (weeping) eczema it can make the problem worse.

It was prescribed to DS when months of HC didn't worked a all (He had been in HC 2.5 for two months when it was prescribed). I would leave it as the last resource. The paper with the list of warnings that accompanies the medicine is as long as an A3. Considering most medicines use only an A5 page that made me a bit wary of it. It's worth every penny BUT it's the last resource.

Regarding HC. It's better to apply it as directed for a week rather than to apply half doses that don't work for several months.

HC is like antidepresants: Everybody, from the useless GP to your dog will tell you about the damage it can make to the skin and that's better not to use it. Curiously enough very little people acknowledge that the damage caused by eczema in untreated skin is far worse than the thining that may be caused by years of using HC.

As I mentioned previouly, DS went from HC 0.5 to 2.5, then Mometasoane, this went on for months. Now the skin is perfect and believe me, no doctor could notice any effect of the HC on his face now, a year later. It was a bit thin while on treatment but babies' skin regenerates beautifully. Don't be afraid and follow you doctor's instructions.

Not got time to read all posts (dd2 asleep and I want to read as many threads as poss on my precious 'me-time') but dd1 had really bad patches on her face from around 4 months and we had every cream under the sun. They would work and then it would come back.

Best thing I ever did was to pay to see a private dermatologist. It cost £120 and any other appointments could be referred through the NHS.

He prescribed 3 creams and within 2 weeks all the patches had gone, her face is now clear.

Wish I had done it months before I did.

The only cream you will need is Tea Tree Cream, you can buy it in Bodyshop. It smells very bad but I am telling You it is working. About 15 years ago I was 10 I had very bad eczema on my bottom and upper leg, my mum tried every single cream, special doctors ..... nothing was working. I was scratching myself when I was sleeping and my hands were covered in blood in the morning and the eczema was worse. Then she heard about Tea Tree cream, after 1-2 weeks the eczema was gone (I had it for several years) and I just used it a bit longer and the eczema never came back. It also works on spots, rashes .... the only cream you need in your house trust me. I have a 1 year old daughter and she has never had nappy rash, if there been any sign I just put a pea size amount of Tea tree cream on and that it all sorted.

what were the creams????

Betnovate-C for 2 weeks
Trimovate for 2 weeks
Then Hydrocortisone for a month.

If (and it hasn't) it flares up again, I can try the H for a week and then go back and see him through the NHS.

Chandra - I wasnt aware of the kidneyp roblems wiht tacrolimus, thanks for that.

my son is 18 months his had eczema scince about 6 months and i have also had it scince the age of 2 years what i found was that what the doctor was prescribing wasnt working so i found a cream called freederm hc it works wonders they have a web site they also sell soap/moisturiser /shampoo/ect but it waas really good especially the soap and it stopped his itching almost overnight!! but is very pricey due to the fact that it has to be shipped from the usa.
i continue to use it only when he has flare ups but order the soap regular to use in his bath it really smooths out his skin .
i would also recommend a cream called dermatique it is also really good very pricey also £25.00 a jar!!!! but it works and i am currently using it at the moment for his face and body it doesnt contain any hydrocortisone but the freedrem hc has 1 percent. dermatique is based in the uk and they also have a website .

Hi I have just got back from the doctors and thought i would share my story. DD first developed eczema last year (9mths) oilatum and dermol cleared it up - it was only very mild. In dec a patch started on her neck - i used the same treatment, and started omitting things from her diet. Since then it has flared up and gone down (not disappeared) regularly. I took her to the doctors today as it has really spread - apparently it is infected, so she has antibiotics, she has a steroid cream (which everyone told me to avoid - not on here) and doublebase, and aqueous to wash with.
I guess my message to any one is don't leave it. I now feel like the worst mother in the world - if i had gone to the docs 2 months ago she wouldn't need half what she is on.

my ds developed eczema when he was a few months old and I tried every cream I could think of including all the prescribed ones and nothing worked. For no reason at all it would come and go for two years which I thought was interesting, so I started making a diary of when it was at its worst and I got rid of my two cats which made it improve slightly then I changed his diet to completely non dairy just to see, and within one month it vanished. He is now five and it only reapears when granny gives him Ice-cream or if he has a lot of parties to go to and eats whats on offer, within 24 hrs he get dry patches and slightly chesty. I told this to one of the mums in school and she has had the same results with non-dairy. so just one more theory.

We tried all sorts of things - Dermol 500 was brilliant at getting rid of the redness (almost overnight) but doesn't really moisturise. Diprobase v good, oilatum also quite good, but agree that acqueous cream did nothing and perhaps made DD's skin worse. I couldn't bring myself to use the HC cream properly and only put a teeny bit on particularly sorelooking bits once in a while. Best advice I got from one doctor was "keep coming back to docs until you find something that works" - I was just about giving up and assuming that all creams were much the same but I don't think that's the case. Just keep trying different things (on prescription!!).

my 15month dd has eczema and i too have tried several different creams none of witch worked, so i visited a health food shop today to buy a bag of oats as i have heard that they work wonders when used in the bath, you need to put the oats in a stocking or pop sock and hold under the tap whilst running the bath, this should apparently clear up yhe eczema as well as moisturise the skin.

Hi,

We've been using doublebase which is good for moisurising the skin however DS has had a flareup of patches on his face and around his mouth and chin which I've also been using vasilene which does work on top of DB if my mother stops wiping his face avery 5 minutes when she comes round to see him. She seems to undo my good work in 5 minutes of arriving....

so I'm going to try Aveeno though. Thanks for the recommendations.

Found this article whilst surfing tonight>>>
www.prodigy.nhs.uk/guidance.asp?gt=Eczema%20-%20atopic

i found the medula nipple cream to be brilliant for the face as its used for breastfeeding it doesnt matter is they lick it off and its not as sticky as vaseline which he hated.

My ds is 8 months and has had eczema for 5 months now, and I feel like I have going around in circles. For the second time this month he is on a course of antibiotics (which has been a regular occurance). Our life has become a religious daily routine of an early morning bath, and then covering him with various creams at least four times a day.
When he woke this morning I saw his bright red rosy cheeks and knew that the infection had set in once again so I took him straight to the GP surgery. I think this doctor saw the despiration in my face, as I poured my heart out, explaining how I dressed him in cotton clothing, washed his clothes in surecare and still gave them an extra rins.... When I had finished pouring my heart out the GP got out this little book and explained that a lot of the eczema creams containt potential irritants. Doublbase has three, oilatum has a few, and most hydrochortisone creams contain some.
She has now presgribed Diprobase ointment and bath solution (as this dose not contain any irritants apparently) I just thought that other people in my situation would like to know this. I'm sure these other products do the trick for other eczema sufferers, but if like me you think that you are turning around in circles, the products that you are religiously applying and bathing LO in might not be suitable.
I'm crossing my fingers like crazy, hoping that we can get this eczema under controll!!!

The Epaderm (on prescription from the GP) seems to be doing the trick on the existing patches - but she does seem to be getting patches elsewhere. Should I just be lathering her in the stuff rather than just treating the bits that I can see?

Sandycheeks, sorry to read abuot your LO. You must be at your wits end. You mentioning the irritants is very helpful indeed. Just wanted to ask you if you use cotton wool (does contain wool at all) and if you use something in the bath, sponge, flannel, etc. Was told by my DS's dermatologist to use a cotton gauze instead as cotton wool can irritate and that anything used in the bath must be boil washed afterwards.