Mild/moderate eczema. Did it go away?

[Winehound84]

Over the past 2 months my daughter who is 16 months now has developed proper eczema on her wrists, forearms, behind the knees, thighs. I saw some small patches of dry skin at 12 months, I thought they were ringworm or something fungal at the time and they went away with some tea tree oil. At 13 months she had dry and red hands due to cold air in the mountains. It went away when we came back to London. At 14 months the hands returned and eventually spread to wrists then forearms and inside the elbows. Last week I noticed the patches behind the knees and thighs. Few days ago - rash on a belly. She is breastfed (still), I always cooked her meals, started weaning slowly at 5.5 months, I never used any soaps to bath her and generally made only healthy choices for her. I took her to a top paediatrician who said it was not food related, prescribed various creams and of course steroids. I took her to a holistic professional who said it is definitely food related and suggested I don't give her wheat, dairy, oats and many other things. For a week now she has been on this diet and some days it is better, some days it is worse. I feel like generally eating ofter causes forearms or her cheek to get red. I also suspect fish, pears (!), maybe apples? and other fruits to make it worse. Fish recently made her itchy.. but i dont know if it is because she eats it or touches it.. last time it happened immediately. The time before she got red cheek and reddish arms. I definitely think there is a link to food, but I also wonder if I used steroids and it went away completely maybe it wouldn't show anymore?
Did any of you use steroid on mild/moderate eczema and did it go away and never return? If it was food, what food was it? How quickly did you see the difference? What creams did you use?? Help I am going crazy.. keeping a diary, watching every bite she takes. I am also stopping to breastfeed in case it is something I am eating. And again I don't know if it is smart or stupid. Arghhh.

mine flared up if I had to much sugar or my mum used the wrong wash powder x
I had oilatum in my baths to as anything other would set mine off x

Yes I used the steroids, please don't avoid them as they take away the inflammation.

You can have blood tests to rule out food allergies. Moisturise as much as you can, moisturise moisturise moisturise. Leave at least half an hour gap from the emollient creams and the steroids. We used oilatum in the bath and to wash with.

My eldest was allergic to cows milk protein, he grew out of it. The steroid creams I used for a fair amount of time but we were able to cut it right down after a week or so, using as and when needed. We also switched to a dairy free formula which we got on prescription. His skin was different within days.

Piriton for itching too. Don't forget unless you cut out dairy it will be in your breast milk.

Yes, I used the steroids on my DS when he was around the same age as your DD. He had eczema patches everywhere, poor mite. The steroids combined with constant moisturising cleared it up in a matter of days and it's never been as bad since.

He's is 9 now and gets the odd patch which can be knocked on the head with a dab of steroid cream and some moisturiser, but he's never had a flare-up like that since.

Piriton seemed to soothe the itching enough to let him sleep and he seemed most comfortable in eczema pyjamas from Cotton Comfort.

My son really suffered when he was little but he's grown out of it. I got into the habit of doing his cream at every nappy change, and I think by the time he was out of nappies, I was just doing morning and night. He's 14 now and just occasionally gets dry legs in the summer, when he's hayfevery or swims a lot.