changing emollients for eczema treatment

[lighteningmcmama]

hi

i'm beginning to notice that with 2yo dd her eczema which is classified as moderate to severe seems to respond to changing our choice of emollient every so often. has anyone else found this?

we were using raw organic coconut oil which was amazing for quite some time. then pharmacist dh bought home some epaderm to try and it was really good, so good that i switched to epaderm for about a month.

however in the last 2 weeks her eczema has been really really bad and not responding to epaderm so i've switched again, this time to emulsifying ointment and diprobase and they seem to be working really well, just as well as the epaderm was before that didn't seem to help.

before the coconut oil we were using 50:50 cream which was also good.

it just seems so strange as ive always heard that the process of treating eczema is one of finding the emollient that works for you, and then if you use that you can keep it under control. but with dd even with regular applications of emollients (at least 4 times a day, more, sometimes hourly, when it's bad) aren't enough

would be great to hear anyone's thoughts!

I have found that dd's eczema is much better since we just started using aveeno. We tried all sorts of treatment but in the end that just seems to be the best for her. When she poorly though it gets out of control very quickly so we have to be on the ball worth the steps cream.
Interested to hear about coconut oil. Where do you get that from?

*On the ball with steroid cream

I can't stand epaderm though. It's so greasy and it made dd so unhappy. Plus I didn't find it very effective.

I got some raw organic coconut oil from Amazon. It's really good. The thing that is strange is that in the last few months there's no one cream that seems to work. We find one, it works for a few weeks then we get a flare up and switching the emollient seems to help. It's the last bit I don't understand.

We are using steroid creams too and are seeing a consultant dermatologist

Thanks for your reply.

We liked aveeno too but our GPs have now said its too dear and we have to use Oillatum. I think it is about finding the best cream but even then there will still be flare ups that need treating with steroids. It sounds like you would be best returning to coconut oil but that won't be available on prescription so could make it expensive.

I need to do this with deodorant. But I've also discovered that I can go back to a previously good one after a break. So might it be worth trying the coconut oil?

Suspect the occurrence comes from when the current cream can't manage one aspect of a flare up, and changing resolves that small imbalance.

We also went through your series of having to change every few months to manage flare ups, til we landed on Aveeno, which we have been successfully using for a couple of years. Tho I don't know how much is the boys growing out of the eczema as well - the GP has said she isn't prepared to try taking them off it tho.

Epiderm, dermol, oilatum etc hasn't worked for us either. I agree with walde. Two of my children have had very bad eczema and dd1 was sent to a dermo who prescribed some quite strong steroids (emirate and elecon) They really cleared it up and stopped a lot of suffering. However, I am now struggling with ds who is 10 months as go won't give anything apart emollient. (even though it keeps him awake and is often bleeding etc) Anyway, I've decided to try myself and I've just ordered some pure Shea butter to try next.
I know there is a concern about using steroid creams but DD's dermo at the time said that it was much better to give a short strong dose of steroid creams than a year or so of bleeding, uncontrolled eczema which could lead to infection.
I've been using aveeno this week actually and tbh hasn't really helped. I'm just trying to find something that will

Eumovate *

This doesn't answer your question but the Aveeno Baby Eczema range (American so only available on Amazon in this country unfortunately) is bloody amazing. So much better than the regular Aveeno range and than anything the GP prescribed us. (For toddler DD.)

thanks for all your advice. addictedtosugar its good to know i'm not the only one who has to switch, that was what i really wanted to find out about if others have experienced this. jilted would love to know how you get on with the shea butter, i've heard about this but haven't tried it yet.