Help please painful eczema

[Fifivisage]

My ds (7) has suddenly started getting eczema on his hands, he has never had it before. My dd has had it on occasion on her body and when we have used the prescription creams the creams themselves have been too painful for her so I am loathe to try this with my ds. I have tried e45 but it is not working. His hands are raw red, painful and very itchy. Can anyone suggest anything to help him as he is very uncomfortable and I am at a loss - thank you

dd1 5 has the same problem, i do use E45 but use the whole range ie cream, moisturiser bubble bath and hand wash as found just using the cream was not effective as other products ie soaps seemed to make it worse, hope you get it sorted soon poor thing xx

Try soaking his hands in oaty water. Put some oats in a muslim or flannel, and run water through it into the bath or basin. It is really soothing. Then run some warm water in the basin and use vaseline as soap, the warm water helps it to melt. Dry and put socks over his hands before he goes to bed. Hope this helps.

I always had painful eczema and Vaseline was the only thing that worked for me.. E45 stuff was useless.

I find Dream Cream from Lush the best treatment for eczema for my DC's and for my own very dry hands. It has great reviews from other eczema sufferers and i think it helps because it uses oatmilk as the base for the cream.

Its not cheap at £10.75 a pot but a little goes a long way. My DD had awful eczema around her neck recently and I'd tried Dermol, E45 etc to no avail - a few days of Dream cream and she's almost back to normal!!

Hydromol is brilliant stuff to help rehydrate the skin - It isn't as irritant/itchy when first put on as things like E45 though I won't say it doesn't feel at least a but that way. It is a thick ointment like stuff so will be a bit greasy but really does the job well.

Another vote for dreamcream, is the only thing I have found that doesnt itch/sting when it goes on.

Can I suggest steroids. From long experience - dd had it and we held off the steroids for a long time but in the end we needed to give her skin chance to heal and grow back after excessive scratching. Intensive use of steroids, mittens or tubigrip mittens were essential. Let the skin re-heal and then you can maintain it with which ever creams best suit. Moisturisers won't do anything once the skin starts to be broken and damaged. Hang on in there.

Buy Vitamin E capsules from Boots, snip them open and squeeze out the oil. This is AMAZING. My ds had terrible eczema, we tried steroids, wet wrapping, the whole works, but this Vit E was told to me by a skin specialist and it worked a dream.

I agree with cejay. It needs to be brought under control with steroids first.

Yes also agree with cejay.
You need to blitz attack it with steroids and then go back to maintenance.

As a lifelong eczema sufferer I wholeheartedly agree with ceejay as well. If the skin is broken and damaged a short sharp burst with steroid cream is necessary to regain control of the situation. Then try various moisturisers to keep things under control.

When my skins really bad I find using a prescribed emollient bath product like Balneum really helps calm and soothe before applying steroid creams.

Hope things improve soon. It's miserable when your hands are sore .

Give him an antihistamine tonight if it's really bad (like piriton)