My baby has eczema... advice please!

[StephB2017]

Hi all,

My son is four months old and has recently developed eczema. He has it on his body but not face, mainly elbows, lower back and legs. We've used a steroid cream prescribed by doc when it gets bad, and that works fine, but I need a cream to use on a daily basis to keep it away. A friend recommended Epaderm, is this any good? Looks it from the website...

Also, can someone recommend a good sunscreen to use on his skin? The two that I have tried have made his skin sore, so I need something suitable for eczema.

And finally, does having eczema cause any issues when swimming? Does the chlorine make it worse? Really hope it won't be an issue for him, would be really sad it we couldn't take him swimming :(

He also suffers from heat rash when it's warm. Think he just has super sensitive skin like his mama :(

Thanks so much!!

Stephanie

Epaderm is great. I find the ointment more effective than the cream. It can be applied in the bath too which can help distribute it over the skin.
Swimming will be trial and error I'm afraid. A good shower and application of the epaderm afterwards should help.
It'll likely improve with time and may clear up entirely.

Definitely try swimming but have a good shower after. Oat baths are good for relieving the irritation too. Not sure how parents would feel about it now, but my mum used to tape scratch mits on me to stop me scratching. Otherwise cold compresses help relieve the itch.

Definitely using oat baths - but limiting baths to once or twice a week here really helped.

Swimming seems to make my DS's eczema flare up, but we still go on hols as he loves it - I'm just really careful to shower him off after properly and plaster him in cream, which helps.

We use Neals Yard baby lotion twice a day, which seems to keep his at bay for the most part - this is really trial and error though -I've got eczema and Moo Goo products have cleared mine up like only steroid cream used to, but they don't work for my DS.

Sun cream has been really hard, everything I'd tried had made it worse, but we've just started using Organii and at the moment it doesn't seem to be irritating him! Whatever we use he gets a flannel down at night to take it off his skin, which also seems to help.

Socks on hands at night work great when they're too big for scratch mits!

Oddly, we found sudocream great. I put it on thickly before bed when she has a flare up and it is a good deal better by morning. It's particularly good when she's been scratching.

Washing his clothes with no detergent. If you don't like that thought, do an extra rinse and no softener.
Aveeno is great, body shop hemp cream too.
All sun lotions irritate my dd, so I don't use any where possible - sunsuits and hats.
Swimming is only a problem if her skin is already bad - like others have said, shower and cream asap.

Lots of good advice here. My dc both developed all over eczema around 4 mobygs, and we battled with steroid cream and moisturisers. We never stopped swimming though, but cut baths down to a couple of times a week. The good news is though, that they'd both grown out of eczema completely by the time they were 1.

Eucerin. Expensive but you could ask your GP to prescribe. It literally saved my nieces skin.

DD2 is a fair bit older (5) but we have found epaderm ointment by far the best of all the emollients we've tried. She gets on OK with ultrasun but it's a very personal thing, other people rave about sunsense but she can't tolerate it at all. I have heard factor 30 is better than 50 - less 'stuff' in it and also a bit of sun is good for eczema.

One thing I have learned is that you have to put the right amount of steroid on - I was being far too cautious initially but now use a larger amount, for a shorter period of time (Google 'fingertip units') and think I am probably using less overall but more effectively.

Once you're at weaning stage, try getting some omega-rich foods into his diet eg salmon. I can't say I notice a direct link to state of dd's skin but a pharmacist suggested it!

My son has had bad eczema for a few months now. I've been able to manage it with this routine so I thought I'd share it.

Morning - diprobase (prescribed but you can also buy it)
Bath in evening- aveeno baby emollient wash (only on hands, arm pits and neck, I wash the rest of him with just the bath water)
Doc also prescribed a bath oil (oilatum) works really well.
Then a thick layer of diprobase after bath.

If it gets really bad I increase the frequency of his cream and apply it with every nappy change.

Chlorine will make baby's skin so much worse. Wash it off immediately after being at the pool and apply cream.

We have also changed our washing powder to the Eco Egg. Highly Recommend!! Approved by exzema society.

Also we bought scratchsleeves for him when he sleeps as he scratches a lot in this hot weather as it aggravates it. He can remove mittens in seconds. Really recommend those too! Aveeno cream helps with the itching which a doctor can also prescribe.

Sun cream we just use the garnier kids factor 50. It doesn't irritate as long as I wash it off in the bath as soon as I get home and apply his diprobase.

I'm sorry for the essay and I hope this was helpful xxx

Creams for eczema are trial and error. We had no luck with diprobase, epiderm or oilatum cream but double base helped a lot. Ladival sun cream is the only one ds can tolerate on his skin but it's expensive. I buy a few when it's on half price.

I sympathise poor thing. Both my children have eczema and me too that gets worse in the heat. Does he scratch at night at all? My dd have pyjamas with enclosed sleeves and feet which are covered with silk. It has really improved her skin. The company we use is called scratch sleeves.

Agree it's trial and error with this! My DS had everything prescribed by the GP for bathing & also moisturising him.

Child's Farm all over sensitive baby wash is amazing for him. I also use Aveeno moisturiser on him twice daily plus a GP prescribed moisturiser.

Swimming didn't cause flare ups as long as he had a good wash afterwards. Child's Farm do an after swimming gel which is good.

Finally I wash his clothes separately in non-bio washing liquid

I also found that Primark clothes cause eczema flare ups, even after they'd been washed. Cheap dyes I guess.

Suncream - spent a fortune on Green People stuff, but then changed to Tesco after recommendation on here, and have used it since (8 years!).

We use a combination of Dermol from the doctors, steroid creams for the bad bits and Oilatum baby bath wash for her bath in tepid water. I think the Eczema Societ recommend daily tepid baths and a full rub down with emollient straight after. Hope this helps.
DH has bad eczema and swears by normal Nivea to control his. He puts it in about twice a day. My doctor said absolutely not to use Sudocream as it is a barrier ointment and won't actually moisturise the area. He was a bit horrified that I'd used it like that.

ON! Not 'in'. Imagine

My little girl had it terribly. Got a referral to the dermatologist eventually and got hydrocortisone, eczemol and epaderm. The eczemol is fantastic (it works by killing the bugs on the surface of the skin) and it cleared her skin right up. She is growing out of it but still has flare ups but nothing like when she was a baby.

Sorry to say though that when she was small, swimming was a nightmare for her skin. Dried her out which u really don't want with eczema. Unless you can smother with a barrier cream, I think oilatum acts as a barrier

When my dad was tiny he had terrible eczema. The only thing that cleared it was to wash all his clothes, bedding and sheets without any washing powder or comfort. It was a miracle and his skin completely cleared.

My doctor said absolutely not to use Sudocream as it is a barrier ointment and won't actually moisturise the area.

Interesting. Our public health nurse was the one who suggested it and it has helped. But my daughter's is now quite mild but badly exacerbated by scratching which became a habit when it was worse, so possibly that's why we have better results with it than we've had with any emollient lately.

My son used to have excema, it was quite severe though and it was everywhere from birth and he was hospitalised a couple of times. That's when the GP booked us in an excema course with a specialist. She was fantastic, there were people ranging from mild to servere. If it's available in your area I would push to go on it.
The thing she did say is keeping the skin clean is vital, daily baths in epoderm are better than trying not to bath often. Moisture is your friend. When my son was in hospital they bandaged him in wet cloths.
We did go swimming, you just have to clean and moisturise. Also you can freeze things, so if he has an outbreak for example you can freeze teddy bears as well as wash them. It's important to keep bedding and soft furnishings clean. The only things that worked were steroids and prescription epoderm. Everything else made it worse.
My son is 4 now and his skin is washed daily in normal soap, he gets really grubby everyday, swims and goes in the sun. We've been excema free since he was about 2. Most children do grow out of it, so if it's mild you have every chance of him growing out of it.

Lots of good advice here, also have a DD with severe eczema who sees an excellent dermatologist for it so will mention what he recommends and works for us:

• 100% cotton clothing and bedding at all times, washed with sensitive washing powder
• bedding changed as often as possible
• all suncream to be zinc based- this has been a massive improvement for her in the hot weather
• bathing every night with bath additive which seems counterintuitive but derm says this is a great way to get some added moisture, so 10-15 minute soak in warm water

-no soap products used for washing, shampoo etc so aveeno baby products which are soap free are good -cream all over at a minimum twice a day with creams that work for you, or more if needed, always after contact with water(for us this is eucerin 10% combined with aveeno cream for maintenence, epaderm ointment or hydromol ointment for a flare up)

• use sterioids as soon as any flare ups begin, dont wait till they get worse.

Hope this helps! It sounds rather drastic and is time consuming but we have really been able to get a handle on it since we started doing all this.

Child's Farm products exacerbate dd's eczema. Her dermatologist said the sodiococosulfinate (sp??) in it is chemically much the same as SLS.

Thank you all very much for your excellent advice! :) xxx

My advice is to look for the cause rather than just focusing on treating the symptoms.