Eczema Experts

[weddingcake]

DS (17 months) has just developed eczema - he's been lurching from one bug to the next recently and barely eating so is completely run down - could that have contributed?

Have been prescribed emollient cream/bath stuff which I'm applying liberally but just wanted some advice on anything else I can do to a) try to stop it getting any worse and b) to relieve the itching for the poor little mite. Have always used non bio - tesco's own - but is there another recommended brand for eczema sufferers?

Advice of any kind would be much appreciated!

(Am also trying to persuade DH that a holiday in the sun is actually what we all need!)

I wouldn't call myself an expert, but my DD has been prone to eczema since she was a baby (now 13).

After many years without it, she has the most terrible outbreaks, particularly on arms and face (I'm so for her).

I have discovered from the doctor, eczema is nearly always caused by some sort of allergy. And it is not cured, only managed.

I wash her clothes/bedding/towels in Persil non bio, or Fairy non bio, and use Comfort fabric conditioner in the white bottle. And I don't vary it.

My DD's current outbreak could be caused by a change in the weather, her age, hormones (unlikely for your DS!).

She's used nearly all available prescribed creams over the past couple of months, and the steroid creams clear it up but as soon as she stops with them,it comes back.

Good luck with the battle!

Thankyou - will try whatever I can as don't really want to start on the steroid route while he's so young but obviously will if necessary. Just breaks my heart (and am exhausted!) watching him wanting to scratch at night and grizzling when he can't!

ds is 2.4 years and his excema has gone. We used something called purepotions which can be bought from a health food store. It was fantastic.

I find my daughter's eczema gets more apparent when she has a cold etc also after having had vaccinations (altho this did not put me off having them).

Overnight - relief all round from super pjs with sewn in mittens - from Eczema Clothing Company - Cotton Comfort. She could still rub her head but not cause any damage as fingers/thumbs were hidden. Keep as cool as possible. Fabric conditioner for us did not help but we love Persil non bio (also Surcare in the past, and the Eco Balls). I was told by GP to rinse x 3 everything before starting a new brand so that the old brand can be washed out. I put far less of the Persil Non bio tab in the wash and use extra water with a small amount of washing in each load. Try to wash bedding etc at 60 and wash everything else as hot as poss but for most clothes we do 40 - this gets rid of any bugs which like skin.

Consider diet - watch if eczema flares after eating certain foods eg milk, soya, citrus. Is he growing OK - my daughter's growth improved once off cows milk and her eczema greatly improved. Foods Matter - fab magasine and website. Big topic!

Watch out tho for babies learning that scratching gets Mum over - my GP warned me about this! Mostly tho children scratch because they have to as the itch is so intense.

You may need to try all sorts of creams to find which one suits you best - we all here have cupboards full of creams I guess trying to find a miracle one! Our latest - Dermasalve - thanks to Mumsnetters! It has no irritants. Aqueous cream can irriate some children - my daughter's skin went redder with it and she was not happy.

Consider too environment - pets, dust etc. We live with our cats however.

We do use steroid creams - Eumovate for a few days when she starts to scratch before any skin signs and then hydrocortisone for a few days and then off - Eumovate is a strong steriod tho so need to discuss this all with GP before you use it. Hydrocortisone can come in .5 and 1%. This is a bit of a hot potato whether people use them or not!

You should find ways of coping and minimising the eczema but it may take time.

poor you and DS. I'd watch the affect of the creams you have been prescribed very carefully, as it takes - IME - a long time to find the right one. Some can make excema worse - in our case, E45 and aqueous cream were terrible.

Thankyou all for sharing your experiences - I guess it's just one of those trial and error things. Have been asking around in RL too and a few people have recommended Neutrogena Dermatological cream but no one seems to know if it's prescription only. Have any of you tried it?

I too have a baby only four months old, who is suffering terribly bad with eczema, we have tried aqueus which made her look like a tomatoe her little face swelled up so much, emolient in a large pump dispenser, this did the same and double base was terrible, a common thing in all three of these was glycerin, has anyone found this can irritate?

ive bought some aloe vera today im going to try that, also got some freederm hc from usa which im going to try, but currenlty on fucidin and anti biotics.

wash powder i have been using is fairy non bio, any ideas / hlep welcome. very tired! x

For washing I use Surcare liquid.
For cream, I found the same as jillywilly with the doublebase from the GP - they moved us to Epaderm which has fewer ingredients but worked for us. You can buy it in the chemist but obviously best to get it on prescription. It is very thick like vaseline so I think that is why they don't prescribe it straight off.

Hi my son is 2.5YO and was actually born with eczema we have used many, many creams had all the blood tests for allergies and been to dermatologists at 3 different hospitals nothing works.

Although I also have bad eczema which was caused by an allergic reaction to the contraceptive injection [hm] so his could be herreditory(sp).

We use Surcare to wash our clothes NO fabric softener, aqueous or E45 emollient bath to wash with and I put Aqueious straight on him 3 times a day mainly to his face.

I find the main reasons for flare ups are daft things like change in weather, any citrusy foods and strawberries, they are a no no for us and if he is unwell it gets alot worse too.

Just keep the skin moisturised well I found if I moisturise at every nappy change it kept us in routine. We have used steroid creams and anti biotics several times due to infections through scratching it works well but as soon as we stop using it it seems to reappear

Anyway sorry for wittering on, it will get better as she gets older.

I was reccommended this site by my HV TalkEczema.com
it's quite good for advice and news about new products etc.

I found this site fab too when I was feeling down about it or when someone asked me how my son had burnt himself or when people just stared at him it does get you down Eczemavoice.com

My 4mnth old developed eczema two months ago, it is particularly worse on his face and head although it is now spreading all over. I have tried steroid creams which only appear to make it disappear whilst i am using them. i mousturise him several times night and day with emulsifying ointment and use bath oil as well as wash his clothes in non bio. nothing seems to work i'm so exhausted and feel for the poor little might. someone suggested a holiday in the sun as the cold weather makes it worse. any ideas?? anyone have any magical cures to help with the itching? i've been breast feeding but now trying to ween him of as i'm to tired. HELP.

Dubidi I know how awful it is, I was in your position this time last year, and the major flare ups did come from the very cold weather - maybe it is the dryness of the central heating as well as the cold outside.
If it gets really bad (if it is affecting his sleeping, eating, playing) then press your GP for a hospital referral - we eventually got to the specialists at Kings, by that point I was desperate and in floods of tears but they understood everything and gave us the right creams and advice, allergy tests etc.
My son didn't gain any weight between 4 and 6 months, due to his irritation and not finishing feeds - it makes you desperate as a mum if you feel they aren't thriving doesn't it.
My experience is that you have to use the steroids for as long as it takes - I didn't have the right ones and ended up with infections which needed antibiotics - not nice for 4 month olds to have antibiotics as it affects their gut.
Is he sleeping OK and feeding OK? Do you have mitts or babygrows with fold back mitts to protect his skin?
Sorry I don't have any really helpful advice but I just want you to know that it does get better, they do grow out of it (or rather it lessens and becomes manageable). If you want any specific advice please ask.

It will get better dubidi... my ds was 5 weeks old when he started on the eczema road! Now he's 7 months and its much better controlled. It just seems to take a while to get the hang of the creams / steroids etc. There was a time back in the summer when we didn't go out and I just seemed to apply epaderm all day. Come to think of it I'm still applying it v regularly but the flares are less common now. And I was told not to be afraid to use steroids to keep it under control.

Sounds like you're doing all the right things already. But its worth trying all the creams... epaderm works for us best (emulisifying ointment / hydrous ointment / cetromacrogol weren't so good.)

I agree with heliotrope... make sure you get referred to a dermatologist. We saw one and we will be going for allergy testing in a couple of weeks.

It is really exhausting and tonight it was a real struggle getting him 'creamed up'. He still itches a lot but he's not as itchy / unhappy as he was -if your having trouble with him scratching at night try snugglepaws.com - we use the all in one suit so he can't scratch.

And i do hoover like a maniac these days and triple rinse all washing. Maybe it helps... who knows! Good luck with it though. And if you hear about the magical cure let me know!

Epiderm (it is a bit like vaseline but gets absorbed into the skin) worked well for us combined with occasional use of a low level (0.5%) hyrodcortisone cream for flare ups prescribed by the doctor.

PS we have cats and when we had allergy testing done we found our son was 'sensitised' to cats, although the result was below the threshold the count officially as an allergy. If you child has recently come into contact with pets for the first time that might have triggered the eczema.

DS1 has suffered from intermittent excema since very young. We had cats and once we got rid of rehomed the cats, things cleared up a lot.

However, he does still get it sometimes - allergy to something unknown I am sure. And the best cream I have ever found after trying millions (presceribed and non-prescribed) is Body Shop Pomegranite Body Butter. It may be just for him of course............but there is no other cream that compares to it. Strange but true !

My youngest girl had very severe eczema as a baby. I think a lot of it was food related as she does have multiple food allergies. However one thing that really helped, based on our own experience, was giving probiotics. There was a definite connection between when we started giving them and the slow improvement in her eczema. I hated using steroid creams initially and tried everything under the sun but eventually realised that in our case anyway, it worked better to use small amounts of steroid creams straight away on a flare up, rather than waiting for it to get worse, when we'd inevitably end up using more steroid cream for longer.

MG Midget...out of interest did you get rid of your cats as well? We've got 2 and I bet the allergy tests will come up positive for cats. Would be very sad to get rid of them, but would if we had to.

Fairywave- can you give 7 month old babies probiotics?? I read somewhere else that probiotics were a good idea. Also are they usually in a drink form (my ds is allergic to dairy)- so would need a different formulation.

Lizziejo, we used a baby probiotic that was in powder form, so it could be stirred into food or juice. It was fine from 7 months - we got ours in health food stores usually.

thanx i iknow how desperate it is as a parent, yes i have the all in one baby grows with the scratch mits. Had a bad night with him last night he;s all red again this morning. the doctor has referred him to see a specialist hope they come up with something.
everyone makes me feel so guilty for using steroid creams on him as he's so young so i try to avoid them.Although there the only things that really work.
epiderm is it prescription only?as the emulsifying ointment doesnt seem to make a big difference.

weddingcake, there is a non-bio brand i use from boots, its a boots own brand and designed especially for sensitive skin including exzma in babies. dont know if it works but might be worth a try, about £4 a box. good luck.

Thanks for that will have a look. Had switched to fairy non bio, emollient in the bath and the neutrogena cream which I've been applying pretty much every time the poor child comes near me and don't want to speak too soon but there's a definite improvement!

Thankyou everyone for your great advice though - I'm sure I'll be back!

Aveeno cream can help. Agree with Surcare for washing.

Aveeno is lovely cream it soaks in and is oat based which is soothing; my ds1 is now 5 and has had bad eczema since he was a baby.
We also use epaderm.

We are under the dermatologist and he is fully supportive of using eumovate / fucibet daily. If we don't it gets worse and worse, then becomes infected which means antibiotics and sometimes oral steroids too. Don't feel bad about using these creams, but do exercise caution - don't smother them in it!!

We use surcare washing powder and no fab softener.

At night he has started wearing cotton gloves to bed and this has stopped him scratching until he bleeds.

I feel very sorry for him alot of the time; he has started to realise nobody else he knows has ezcema and he just wants it to go.

There is a magic cream on the market, it is better than anything you get on prescription as an emollient. We bought it in France when we ran out years ago and have never used anything else. If we use it twice daily faithfully (and avoid other irritants) then we are able to control my daughter's eczema so that it never flares up badly. It is Aderma Exomega face and body cream and costs about £10 per large tube, which lasts us about 2-3 months.
www.garden.co.uk/php/showProducts.php?plu=0604272

I have just ordered Lush Dream Cream and the Derma cream recommended by people on this posting - i'll try anything!

Have found it a comfort reading your posts I am distressed about my 15 month old his cheeks are bright red and scaly. GP not interested and been to seem GP 5 times since March. Fuciden H and Canisten 1% seemed to work short term but now it is back with a vengence and spreading under his chin. He is teething which does seem to make it worse. GP never actually calls it anything!

Chinese Dr said definitely eczema and took him off cows milk, citrus fruits, choc, tomatoes etc. That was one week ago and no change - in fact worse I think. FOR INFO : She told me Vaseline is too HARSH for baby skin. Just her opinion tho - but bear this in mind. It didn't work for us and we used it before meals and before bed to protect skin from dribbling.

We also use Aveeno which is OK but as per other posts we need to clear it up with steriod cream first then use it.

Try Simple DERMA cream its new and for eczema and it worked wonders - rash paled down but next morning flared up again but may work for some people ??

DOUBLE BASE AND DIPROBASE - found these too oily and they made the skin redder on my son's face. DOUBLE BASE is amazing on my face tho just for basic dry skin so I use it! I use it on sons body.

OILATUM
Bloomin expensive!
I use the bath oil and have purchased the moisturiser. It hasn't cleared sons skin up but it moisturises the skin very well.

PIRITON SYRUP
Prescribed by DR but didn't clear up sons skin

I am going to reduce the amount of soap powder i use in the washing and also give his clothes an extra rinse.

It's a nightmare. STrangers stop me in the shop and say aw, eczema?? what a shame gorg boy!
Good luck everyone and keep the info coming!