To think that emoliants should be prescribed in far smaller amounts initally

[ReallyTired]

dd has really bad ezcema and over the last few months she has been prescribed a range of emoliants to see what will help. She has been prescribed aquaous cream, doublebase, diprobase, dermol in 500g containers to try and help her. Dd has had best results with the diprobase and dermol. I can't help feeling that the sheer amounts of the emoliants we have have been prescribed has been a waste. If dd's ezcema does not clear up then we will see a dermalogist and might get prescribed more emoliants and steriods.

I would like the nhs to prescribe 100g pots when trying out an emoilant. If a patient really does not get results with a particular medication then it would be less of a waste of money. Maybe the GP could have a two part prescription. If emoliant A is a sucess then please cash in prescription B for big pot of emoliant A or make another appointment to discuss dratted ezcema.

Another gripe is that I would like better information on how to use the emoliants/ steriods prescribed so that dd's ezcema is beaten. We have no pets and use non bio washing powder. Dd wears cotton and I am not sure what is causing her ezcema.

I have had eczema my whole life. While I agree that there's no point getting a huge tub of cream if you won't use it, a 500g tub will last me a week, the smaller tubs are just pointless (except for handbags and weekends away!)

emollients are meant to be used in large quantities!

The NHS doesn't prescribe, your GP does. Ask for a smaller pack to try.

All the products you've listed are available and prescribable in tubes of 50-100g depending on the brand. Why the hell you are being given aqueous cream is beyond me - it is terrible for your skin.

Aqueous is meant to be used as a soap not as a moisturiser.

My ds had severe eczema from four months. His dermatologist told us that GPs are far too cautious about using steroids and they are the only way of getting in top of flare ups. I was reluctant to use steroids as I was worried about the side effects, especially as his face was affected. She was right though and luckily his eczema almost completely cleared up by he was one. We also used dermasilk garments which we got on prescription and are great. I think sometimes I was guilty of overusing emollient, we tried everyone and nine were very effective but are useful for maintaining moisture in the skin to try and prevent flare ups but I think getting to the actual cause of the eczema if possible is the only way of controlling it.

Does anyone know where you can buy e45 bath as boots etc seemed to have stopped selling it. Its the only thing that works on my skin.

YABU for all the reasons described. Also YABU to moan about not getting advice - as you're on the net you can just google eczema support groups and take your pick!

There is a lot of waste with emollient creams. My gran used to get them prescribed and despite using them frequently she still managed to give plenty to my mum and I just to use as moisturisers. She died in the early summer, and we will be well into the new year by the time we run out of e45.

It's not good, but when it comes it medication wastage, the NHS has much more expensive prescriptions to worry about before emollient creams.

Excess sugar is a huge problem in making my eczema flare up. Also, my eczema gets worse when the weather changes. Even from cold to warm. Right now my fingers have pretty much split over night due to the drop in temperature. So maybe that's something which is affecting your dd.

It felt like we could have opened a pharmacy as well with the number of large bottles we ended up with.
DD's eczema has gradually cleared up with time (I know we are lucky) and we are using up the moisturisers slowly just after baths now. I think she might be going to high school before either of us need to buy body moisturiser again!

I don't want to rely on Dr Google for medical advice, especially as anyone can post on the Internet. For example some people are very anti steroids, when steroids make a huge difference.

Dd was prescribed aqueous cream to wash with. She prefers Dermol.

Yanbu. trial.pots should be smaller then prescribe bigger bottles.

We had to throw out loads as none worked.

now Dds cream. only comes in 250g tubes and I can't get on prescription

Yanbu.

Ds2 had quite severe eczema from age 1-2.5, all over his legs. It was so widespread we did need big tubs of stuff. Then it cleared up completely.

Now two years later he's developed it on his chin and upper lip. We have just had a HUGE tub of cream. We'll never use all of that, even if it continues and 80% of it will end up in the bin.

I didn't mean crackpot forums, ReallyTired, I meant respected charities and associations, of which there are several.

It would not hurt for the gp to give me a leaflet with details of respected organisations for eczema or even to write down their website.

18yearstooold thank you for mentioning viruses!!! I have a flare up on my face that i couldnt figure out where it came from. I had a virus a few weeks back that i have not yet fully recovered from

Ask your Gp for smaller pots! We have thrown away massive tubs of Diprobase etc after finding that Cetraben works best for us. I use the big tubs at home and bought Baby Aveeno for the convenience of the tube size, just this week (after 6 months!) my fantastic, relatively new Gp prescribed some 50g tubes of Cetraben.
We saw a Gp who has a special interest in dermatology and when, after a 4 week spell of intense steroid treatment ds's eczema hadn't completely cleared up(as we had expected it to after so much steroid) he prescribed Protopic (lacrolimus 0.03%) ointment and it's been absolutely fantastic. Ds's eczema is more or less gone.
The constant "you need to moisturise" lectures I was getting from the hv were driving me absolutely nuts. I was applying the stuff >20 times a day. It was a relief to hear a Gp say that I could moisturise all day long and that ds's eczema wouldn't have cleared up without proper treatment.

If you can get a referral to a specialist eczema doctor or nurse then they can be so much more helpful than the gp. Ours gave us lots more info, handouts about the 'ladders' of strength/greasiness of emollients and steroids and was much more able to empathise with the reality of living with a baby with eczema. e.g. tips about how to use the emollients and steroids - for us it worked to moisturise before the steroid because it would show up extra areas as pink before they turned into a bad flareup that we could get the steroid onto early.
We are on the borders of 2 health authorities - our gp was pretty useless and said he couldn't refer, but at a playgroup a mum pointed me to health visitors that worked out of the other authority and they got me the referral to the eczema clinic and the lovely doctor that helped us