bathing babies with eczema

[dubidi]

any advice on how often to bath babies with eczema. My 5month old has it everywhere worse on his cheaks. My health visitor advised me to bath him every day, and wash him down everytime before moisurising him to make up for the loss of water.
I have read in many places though that bathing them everyday is not very good for their skin.
very unsure as to what i should be doing??

your HV is talking a load of crap Water dries out the skin terribly! And NEVER use any kind of soap, when you do bath , plain water is fine.

Keep the body moisturised with emolients.

Why are HV so bloddy stupid?

NOOOOOO! water and soap strip the skin of its natural moisturisers so what the HV has said will make things worse.

Bath him as little as possible, and use tons of emollient. Aqueuos cream is fab, be wary of E45 as he may have a reaction to the lanolin in there until he's older.

|Have you seen a doc for some steroid cream for when it gets really bad?

My 10 month old has a small patch of excema and i was told not to bathe him too often and had some stuff prescribed to add to any baths - forgotten what it's called now...will have a think and post back...

um actually, I have ben advised by two leading ezcema specialists to bath my ds at least once a day, using Oilatum Jr. in the bath and using Dermol 500 Lotion to wash with (it's a moisturiser that also acts as a soap substitute - I wash his hair with it as well). I have been doing this since he was about 3 months old. He used to have absolutely terrible eczema - we went through longish periods of steroid use. Anyway, I have been bathing him like that every day - he is now 18 months and hasn't had much eczema at all for about the last 8 months.

Please do not listen to people who tell you not to bath him much. I used to follow this advise, but frequent bathing is much better.

Another specialist, by the way, told me to use Dove SEnsitive (the bar of "soap" with the green packaging). I prefer to use the Dermol and Oilatum, but have used the Dove Sensitive on ocassion and it is also good for his skin.

Hope that helps.

my dd is 14 months now and developed eczema at 8 weeks.

Bathing is one of the worst things you can do - very drying. Little children don't get that filthy anyway. Her face and nappy area get cleaned with fragrance free wet wipes whenever she needs it. The rest of her problably gets a bath twice a week.

I found that my HVs meant well but were out of their depth when it came to treatment options. GP was fairly similar. You need to ask for a referral to a dermatologist - there you will get proper care and advice

Good luck

oh, one more thing - kids with eczema seem to respond to different creams etc. differently, so obviously what works for one will not necessarily work for another. We actually went through about four different emmolient creams before we found the best ones for our ds (as well as the bath stuff we use Cetraben to moisturise generally), so you may have to experiemtn a bit.

I bath DD2 twice or three times a week, I find baths dry her skin out and I think too much bathing is bad for childrens skin in general.

xposts with Naturopath

Oilatum and dermol 500 made my dd worse but i know others where it has been wonderful

I think eczema is something that needs to be treated by trying lots of different things - hence seeing an expert to guide you through it.

We've also found different emollients ahve worked at different times. Has been difficult to manage tbh

Have to disagree with the others. The current advice for eczema sufferers is to bathe at least once a day (in severe cases specialists recommend twice a day) BUT the key thing is to use a specialist bath oil such as Oilatum or Aveeno (never soap, bubble bath or even plain water) as these are key in replacing the oils in the skin. Not bathing can also increase the chance of infection.

Obviously some individuals will find that bathing less frequently works better for them, but in general every day with Oilatum/Aveeno is recommended.

Also, aqueous cream is NOT recommended for eczema sufferers as they are very likely to be allergic to it. There are loads of emollients available, everyone has one that's best for them so it's trial and error really.

Steroid creams will help on flare-ups. And see your GP for a referral to a consultant -- IME HVs and GPs know very little about eczema.

the advice above on Oilatum and Dermol etc. was from a dermatologist at Great Ormond St. The other two were other dermatologist consulatants at two private London hospitals.

Your HV is v. wrong. I heard a radio programme all about this and they said that the best thing was

1. less baths
2. no soap but to use oilatum jr as just water is more drying
3. to use as little washing powder and almost no conditioner - (or none) on their clothes. And to use Surcare wshing powder, a fragrance free conditioner if any at all.

also 2 friends of mine have kids skin up completely when they stopped eating food that was affecting them (wheat and milk) - though looking at the age of yours wheat is less likely to an issue (unless bf I guess)

Oilatum! That's what i was trying to think of before ^!

also my ds2 only gets his flare ups in Oxford when visiting my mum. I blame the water (and the fact that she insisits he has a bath most nights, when here it's every 3 days as it has been since he first got the problem when he was 4 months)

oh, I use Surcare as well. v good.
and Aveeno.

I might give oilatum another try then - it was 6 months ago that I used it.

I've definitely found that my dd seems to become almost resistant to any emollient or substance after prolonged use - they seem to stop working.

It really does appear that to only is every child different but the eczema (in my dd's case) various over time

I had this same question a few months ago and as seen from the replies there are different views! I tend to agree with naturopath and Meg.

My 8 month old has eczema (few months ago was v bad now much more controlled) and we bath every day. Its not becuase he is dirty but its to make sure his skin is clean and any open/ raw eczema areas don't not get infected.

I was told by our dermatologist (but the HV/GP said the same) that it is fine to bathe him every day as long as you use something in the bath like oilatum / emulsiderm / dermol 500 and then apply loads of cream. Don't bathe in plain water as that is too drying. Also if you are applying thick greasy creams everyday you need to wash them down. And of course never use any kind of soap.

A dr at Great Ormond Street (David J Atherton - very well thought of dermatologist - v useful book he has written - Eczema in Childhood the facts) recommends bathing every day and twice if possible if very bad skin.His reasons..

1. cleanse skin and prevent infection
2. Moisturise the skin
3. Preparing the skin for other treatments(creams accepted into skin better)
4. fun event for parent and child

But it still depends on what is right for your baby and do what seems best for his skin. But you must make sure the skin doesn't get infected.

It does take a while to get the creams right but its daily baths with oilatum and lots of epiderm for use (and no flare ups for a while now)

here is an interesting article about the effects of hard and soft water on eczema.

We took part in that eczema trial, unfortunately we were in the control group (ie without water softener) so can't say if it would have made a difference! But my dad has a softener at his house and DS's skin does feel nice and soft after we've stayed there.

I'm totally confused now!!!
yes seen docs several times using steroid creams, HC 1% tried stepping down to 0.5% when it clears up but soon as i do flares up again. Saw GP lastweek who told me to use HC 1% the ointment three times a day for as long as needed (not sure about that) so still using twice a day.
tried allsorts of moisturisers back to imulsifying ointment now. Thats why asked about bathing/washing down as it makes him so greesy so not sure what to do. ordered Aveeno and aquophor of the internet prob only ones i'ven not tried.
he was fully breastfed until a month ago weened him of as i thought might be an allergy to something in the milk(now 5mnth old)started formula not sure if thats making it worse as he itches loads after a feed, constant runny nose and sneezes which i've heard are all symptoms of a poss allergy/intolerence to food.
he has an app with dermatoligist in a week. (cant wait its sooooo depressing)
Thinking of taking him abroad for some sunshine not sure if the cold weather is making it worse.
sorry for the long response.

Hope the dermatologist helps ask for food allergy testing. DS had a cows' milk intolerance (now grown out of) and is allergic to egg at Christmas he swiped some cake off my plate before I had a chance to stop him, which had egg in it, and within a couple of hours he had a huge flare-up all over his body.

Also, I find extremes of temperature make DS's worse -- either heat or cold.

We use oilatum jr and dermol 500. Has worked well for our dd. We live in a soft-water area.

I found soft water has really made a difference. Dp has installed a water softener here as we have really hard water/ normally. Those dc's with eczema still do have dry skin in patches but NO flare ups for ages now!

Oilatum and the like never made one bit of difference with mine

We had that problem with flares the minute you stopped the HC and I used to find that stepping down never worked. But finally we are off daily steroids - I just use them maybe 3 x a week just to keep it in check. But 1% is so mild don't worry too much about using it. Our derm said we shouldn't worry about using H/c every day indefinately as it won't do any harm and its more important to keep the eczema under control.

I know each babe is different but have you tried Epiderm - we really found it the best (and you can use it in the bath to wash with).

Sounds like he may have an allergy to milk- my DS did but his reaction to formula was more immediate with lots of hives / utercaria appearing. Our derm sent him for allergy testing and he's allergic to dairy and egg (the latter quite badly). So we are now trying to get him onto neocate as I have had enough of being dairy free and bf!!

But we had to wait 8 weeks for the allgery testing and we are now waiting to see a dietician. It all takes a long time so try not to get too disheartened but I know its easier said than done!

A couple of months ago I was getting hysterical about dustmites / washing powders (changed 4 times) / differnt creams / hoovering but there is only so much you can do. It sounds like your working your way through all the creams so you'll find the one that suits in the end!