My son was born in March 2008. He was born with very dry skin, three weeks later he developed red rashes on his back, we were told by HV that it was heat rash. A few days later he had cradle cap and eczema. When he was about 5 weeks old I ate prawn and he had a very serious flare up with crusty weepy rashes all over his body. his face was so swollen up I could not recognize my sweet little baby. Now that he is 9 months old, his eczema is pretty much under control. As with many moms with eczema babies, I have tried many things and went through trials and errors when taking care of him. I just want to share our own story with you who have eczema babies and hope this helps.
-
Creams we have used:
Epaderm: This does not help much. I feel it only stays on top of skin and is not absorbent.
Aquarous: my baby developed an allergic reaction after I applied it to his face.
Dermol 600 Emollient: does not do anything
E45 Cream: okay but not moisturising enough for baby?s extra dry skin
Eucerin Dry Skin Replenishing Face Cream With 5% Urea: may be too strong for baby. He had rashes on his face afterwards.
Oilatum bath additive: not helping, and making bath tub very slippery
Sudocrem: helpful when baby?s skin weeps or bleeds
Doublebase: did not help
Burt?s bee: baby bee skin crème: was helpful during first few uses only
Aveeno Skin Relief Body Lotion: very good for baby?s skin. have been using it for 5 months
Fucidin H (with hydrocortisone 1%): only use it when flare ups are out of control
Boots Expert Baby Sensitive Scalp Conditioning Shampoo: it helped to remove baby?s cradle cap. Applied olive oil after washing his scalp.
One cradle cap cream bought in boots but I forgot its brand: very good when baby?s cradle cap was very serious
Diprobase: not very helpful
Vaseline: too greasy and seems to cause allergic reaction, so stopped after one use, although many moms told me it helped their babies
Eucerin Dry Skin Bath & Shower Therapy: baby?s skin feels so smooth after using this. But very smelly like dead fish
There are some others that GPs gave us but do not remember their names. They did not help much at all.
-
Diet
I do not eat much meat, so some people say baby?s eczema is a result of me not having enough meat during pregnancy. Well you never know, maybe yes maybe no. But I watched a video on youtube the other day, a paediatrician says that babies could be allergic to foods that moms have eaten a lot during pregnancy. This sounds true in my case. I had a lot of milk and fruits and sugars. I have eliminated milk ( and chocolates, cakes, some crisps and everything with milk as an ingredient) and many fruits from my diet and baby?s eczema has improved. Also, I found that it helps if baby drinks a lot of water. I also breastfeed him exclusively.
-
Climate
I came from China and eczema was not a big problem in infants in China. My GP said it is because of the climate. When my son was three months old his eczema went out of control and he was not sleeping much because he was so itchy at night. His weight gain was not satisfactory either. So I made the decision to take him back to China. It was summer time and within one week after we landed in China, eczema totally disappeared. Well we applied some steroids cream first and then it was just gone. When we came back to Britain after 40 days, Eczema came back too.
-
Environment
I removed the carpet in my flat and changed them to laminate flooring, and it helped a lot. I guess the dust mite in carpet made his eczema worse. Before this we bought an air purifier, it did not help. We now have a humidifier in our room, I feel it is only a little bit helpful, but if I turn it off for a few days, nothing better or worse would happen to my baby?s skin. So, not VERY helpful, just make me feel better I guess. Also, our room is kept at around 22 degrees. And baby is only covered with a thin cotton blanket when sleeping at night. 2.5 ton sleeping bag is too heavy for him; heat makes eczema worse. Windy and cold weather makes eczema worse too. I did not notice this until a patch of dry skin on his face got weepy after we went out for a walk everyday for a couple of weeks in a row. Now my baby is kept in door most of the time, and his skin has improved.
-
Alternative therapies
I used some Chinese herbs to bathe him daily but it did not help. A traditional Chinese doctor told me that some herbs are not suitable for certain babies because of their body type. For example, my baby is hot all the time, so some herbs with heat elements do not suit him they only make things worse... not sure of these theories, but have given up the herb bath thing.
I went to a pharmacist the other day for some antibiotics for baby because his weepy skin got a little infected. The pharmacist told me his nephew had very bad eczema when he was little. He is about 20 years old now. His eczema was cured by Some Chinese medicine. The Chinese shop is in China town. The road is little Newport street. There are two Chinese medical shops there, he cannot remember which one it was. Since my son?s condition is under control now I feel little need in visiting the Chinese shops. But any moms who feel desperate could try them... The only thing is that it is likely they give babies very bitter medicine to drink...
Oh, another thing to warn you, be careful when you go to high street Chinese medical chains. They are not as good as the ones in Chinatown. I went to one Chain store the other day and they sold me a cream. On the package it says natural ingredients, but through an online search later, I knew that it was not natural. So if you do decide to try Chinese medicines, make sure you go to a reliable one.
Some claim that potato mash helps eczema, but my baby is too active. So i can never put anything like it on his face/body without him rubbing them off in two minutes.
Hope our story helps your baby if he/she has eczema.