to think there must be SOME cream that works on dry itchy toddler skin !

[CheshireDing]

PFB is 20 months and had lovely skin until she got Chicken Pox in May, since then her ankles, wrists and elbows are just a mess :(

She has been to the walk-in centre and the GP and has various vaseline type creams, a steroid (but we can only use that sparingly) and the GP gave her E45 (which did nothing).

Tonight she has been trying to get to sleep but scratching and saying "ankles, elbows, sore, more cream, a little bit". I feel really sorry for her but am also losing my mind over the scratching too and the lack of GP help. He just said it's eczema and she will grow out of it.

I honestly cannot believe there is not SOMETHING out there that actually works, surely she (and I) don't have to put up with this until God knows when?

If DC2 wasn't due in December I would seriously be on the wine :(

could try some piriton too to stop the itch scratch bleed cycle

Avoid SLS, wash her only with an emollient, and stop the showers, way too drying. Try and cover her with some kind of barrie cream before the swimming, though to be honest you should give this a break until her skin has improved.

I have found FSC Vitamin E Cream with Calendula to be fantastic for skin issues as well as for general moisturising. I buy it from health food shops, but it is readily available online and not expensive.

It's basically a moisturising cream, but very gentle and good for ezcema and other skin issues. Randomly tried it on son's cradle cap about 10 years ago. Worked a treat, and have been using it ever since as a moisturiser and also for kids occasional ezcema (which they have pretty much grown out of).

OP, please do not try anything with nut oil in it, if you rub nut bases oil on broken skin, you may well end up with a nut allergy.

La Roche Posey do a cream for dry itchy skin, it is called Lipikar Baume AP, is safe for babies , and you can get it from the garden pharmacy (www.garden.co.uk) .I use it on my dds if they have dry patches, and on my legs.
Homoeopathy is slated on Mumsnet usually but my friend's todder's excema disappeared after seeing our local homoeopath, and another child I know had the same great response, so worth a try maybe?

Rosehip oil and bath her once a fortnight max.

I always recommend this range from Simple. It's better, kind of thicker than their usual range, I found it in Boots once but they seemed to have stopped selling it so get it from Amazon.

I had really bad eczema which nothing was helping, personally I found E45 aggravated it even more, where as this genuinely did work in 4 days.

I buy the big bottle and use it everywhere as it's great for face and body.
www.simple.co.uk/our-products/category/374530/derma

I see its already been mentioned but second (third?!) Lushs Dream Cream...

Coconut oil. I use it for everything and it's never failed me yet!

Ds got eczema on the back of his arms, his face and his ankles after a virus and it persisted for a while until we got into a routine. Firstly clear it up with hydrocortisone then aveeno oil in bath. A bath every second day as we found not bathing him was worse than a bath with the oil. Then Aveeno cream, morning and night and after bath. At the very first sign of a flareup use the hydrocortisone as then you only needed to use a little once or twice to knock it on the head. It started when he was about 18months and basically by 4 he had totally grown out of it and in that time he only really had bad flare ups until he was 2.5. I still won't use any sort of bubble bath in the bath just in case.
When it was winter I used to take the aveeno cream round with me and slap it on his face when we were outside.

I use intensive hand cream from Bee Fruitful - it's all natural ingredients, works wonders on my lot. You can buy it online.

Try some oats in the bath for a starter...put some in a pop sock and let the tap run through it....then when in the bath squeeze out the goo form the sock onto the skin..it works wonders.

Then like otehr poster have said its trial and error as to what works best for your DD. I use Cetraban as a wash and also in the winter as a mouusteriser. In summer when my skin isnt as bad I will use Doublebase as I feel its lighter for my skin

Oilatum Junior cream (not Oilatum) was the only one which worked for DS1.

Aqueous cream and diprobase made him worse.

And make sure your DD isn't allergic to lanolin, lots of creams contain it (Oilatum junior, which I have just recommended, does).

Dream Cream from Lush worked very well on DS, and on my detergent hands. It has been the only thing that did. All natural hippy ingredients. HOWEVER, my sister used it on DN and it made her worse, so she prob reacted to one of the essential oils. Again, trial and error.

Another Lush Dream cream fan here - amazing stuff and the only thing which heals the bad eczema I have on my hands.

Avoid anything with perfume in it, and soap - use something like Dermol cream (which is anti microbial) as a soap substitute, as soap really dries the skin. E45 is actually very bad for eczema as it has lanolin.

Ones which have worked for me & DS are Dermol cream (better than the lotion), Cetomacrogol, Unguentum (this is expensive so the drs don't often offer it til they have tried everything else, but mine gave it to me when I asked after it was recommended), and & emulsifying ointment put on after a bath when the skin is still slightly damp).

Also my dr has been quite relaxed about the use of steroid cream, and was happy for me to use 1% hydrocortisone on DS, which helps when it is really flared.

Good luck, as I know how miserable it can be.