Eczema woes

[Notonthisplanet]

My three year old has eczema that keeps getting infected. In the last three months she's had three courses of antibiotics with the last course of seven days worth finishing only last week and it looks like it's infected again already. The skin all calms down when she's on the antibiotics but the day after they finish the skin flares up badly again literally overnight and nothing we can do stops it. Dealing with the eczema is bad enough to control and we try everything to stop the infections but it keeps happening. It looks terrible when she's covered in the spots and other rashes as well as the eczema when infected. I guess it's another trip to the doctors this week, anyone else has experience of this? Thanks

I have personally. They need to swab it to find out what you are dealing with and then swab to test after any treatment to check it has gone.

I ended up with a referral to the derm and got put on a long (1month) course of antibiotics and also washed daily in dermol 600 daily for 9 months (!) I used dermol 500 as an emollient now (dermol is antimicrobial)

I also wash all clothing that touches affected area at 60c (it's my feet and I also had to throw away all my shoes and start again). It's been a year since I was discharged and it is now v under control.

Maybe a referall is in order. The derm nurse was great sorting out a regime to first get on top of it and then preventing further problems.

What a nightmare for you and them. My DD had problems too, though not as severe as it sounds you are dealing with. We changed all the products we were using to completely natural a little expensive but really did seem to work. Have a look at this range www.homescents.co.uk/naturalbaby.html it helped a lot in soothing the skin and we got into a really good routine in using them and it definitely helped. Good luck hope you get it sorted

My daughter had horrific eczema caused by a food allergy. Thankfully barely appears now she is not eating the food but we used to be seen by the dermatology consultants at GOSH. They advised using Dermol 600 and Dermol 500 in the bath to help keep infections at bay. When she did get infections, they swabbed them for lab testing and used the results to identify exactly which antibiotic was necessary. If your GP isn't doing this, or doesn't have the expertise, I'd be insisting on an urgent dermatology referral.

You have the right to insist on a referral by the way.

You could try tea tree oil, but only use a couple of drops in a bath not neat on small children's skin, do a dab test to see if it's ok to use but tea tree oil is a natural antibacterial antivirus and anti inflammatory this each day should help, check out essential oils online for all tea trees uses, veruccas and all manner of skin problems but use with caution not all people can use it, hope this helps you.