Is this eczema? Does anyone have any tips for me please?

[sorrynotreally]

This is my 2 year old. We've had a diagnosis of eczema for a year or so tried cetraben, diprobase, zerobase, aveeno, hydrocortisone, e45, aqueous cream. Aveeno helps when it is at its best but when it gets to this point nothing will do. Please help me. We had a phone call from gp on Thursday who just suggested carrying on with moisturiser. Not massively helpful. Also now it is so bad she is less happy to let me put cream on her. She's crying with pain, bleeding from her hands, arms, neck. Does anyone have any ideas of what I can try next? Would a gp give her oral steroids?

Photo here

This looks like a food allergy reaction to me. My son was the same for months before we got to the bottom of the 'rash'.

Really? What was he reacting to? We are actually on week 3 of cutting out dairy but is showing no signs of being that at all. I'll have to move on to try something else.

I am an adult with bad eczema. If it is that, it will need treatment first. Moisturiser is there to prevent re occurrence.

Good luck

Thank you, by treatment are we just looking at steroid cream or will there be anything else?

At this s5age, it needs a moderate steroid cream to get it back under control. Poor thing, that looks really uncomfortable.

My son gets terrible eczema. I have tried endless creams, but once things get bad the only option is steroid cream. It's not ideal, but important to remember that eczema itself is damaging the skin. Plus some studies indicate the better eczema is kept under control when young, the better the chance of less issues in later life.

If it's routinely this bad you should be under the care of a consultant.

That is discoid eczema and needs a steroid cream. In my experience elecon is the best cream but if any of those are infected you may also need a topical antibiotic. This is a non medical view from someone whose 6 yr old has had terrible eczema in the past which is now under control with a variety of flare ups but at its worst when he was 18 months.

Agree, the hydrocortisone cream is the essential part to getting this under control, and is the weakest steroid option. Discuss a stronger steroid cream and/or an ointment with your GP.

That's not to say you stop using the moisturisers, but it's ok to be selective as to which moisturiser she seems to be able to tolerate on her skin right now. I remember talking with my two about using the "magic cream" when they had flare-ups, though they were never bad like this.

Have you ever tried oatmeal in the bath? (you put a small handful of oats in a piece of stocking and hang it under the tap while you run the bath) Can be soothing.

Hope you can get some improvement for her soon.

That looks more like psoriasis than eczema with it being red blotches in defined sections. My middle child has both and they are very different visually.
He is so bad we even get DLA for him.

You do need to moisturise loads. Keeping the skin as hydrated as possible is the only way to keep it clear and ease the pain with it's bad. You need to be applying hourly. Have you got wet wraps? That will make a huge difference. They are out on damp over a thick layer of moisturiser at night (and during the day if it's really really bad) and keeps the skin cool and allows plenty of time for the moisturiser to work. It helps stop the itch/scratch cycle too. You can get long sleeve vests, leggings, gloves, socks and even balaclavas.

What steroid have you got? That needs to be applied twice a day and wait at least 30 minutes before putting on moisturiser to allow it time to sink in. Once the area is clear you need to carry on with it for another 2-3 days to ensure it's properly cleared in the underlying layers of skin.

You won't get oral steroids for the skin. My son has asthma too and when he is on them for his asthma his skin is amazing but they won't prescribe it because the length of time required for proper treatment and dosage not suitable.

It's trial and error with moisturisers and steroids. They work for a short time then stop.

As well meaning as people are they always trot out 3 things on these threads and parents with children who have properly bad skin conditions (inpatient treatment and dermatologist diagnosis/testing etc) are fed up of hearing - aveeno, that shite lush cream and e45. None of these will work for someone with bad skin conditions. Mild to moderate maybe but not severe. As you say yourself aveeno only works when it's good. It's good for maintenance.

You need a moisturiser that is very thick and greasy. Doublebase is a good one. It's a gel so easy to apply for wriggly toddlers. We are using hydramol ointment at the moment. It's like thick Vaseline and very heavy. It works wonders though.

Keep a list of what you have tried because it's easy to forget because there are so many. Press for a proper steroid (hydrocortisone won't cut it, betnovete or eumovate would be the better options at this stage) along with a thicker moisturiser, antihistamine to help with the itching (chlorphenamine is brilliant but it is drowsy) and wraps for night time after a bath (daily bathing is ESSENTIAL when wrapping and when the skin is open to prevent infection so ignore those saying to stop bathing).

Good luck and I'm here is you need any help or advise. Even just to moan to and virtually cry on my shoulder at 2 am when you are up for the 17th time that night.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply. I will study all you've said and hopefully get somewhere soon!

So glad to see someone else mention how crap aveeno and other commonly mentioned creams are. I honestly think some people have a little bit of dry skin and think they have eczema.

I work with eczema sufferers. You need to keep going back to your GP until you get a steroid cream that works for your child. Its trial and error with eczema unfortunately but once you have a good steroid, use it until the skin clears up and then moisturize several times a day to prevent it flaring up again. Once you do spot a flare up use the steroid on the skin straight away. Steroids should be used twice a day and on the infected skin only. Sadly many GPs are clueless about eczema (I suspect yours is if your childs skin looks like that and you have only been prescribed hydrocortisone) try a different GP if you can or insist on a dermatology referral.

You will find that everyone will ask you if you've tried the cream that works for them.. not unhelpful but please dont listen too carefully! Everyone has different skin and what works for one person wont necessarily work for another.

I think you should push for a referral to paediatric allergy. My son had eczema at about that age, and after skin tests we cut various things out of his diet and stopped using some detergents, and it disappeared more or less overnight. It is also worth bearing in mind that several of those creams contain lanolin (E45 for one) which is another common allergen, so if DC is allergic to it, when you put it on, it will make things worse not better. (My own skin was bad for months, was diagnosed with this, switched lots of shampoos etc and now my skin is fine).

GPs are often pretty ignorant about skin/immune responses, which eczema is, and they are also reluctant to prescribe decent strength steroids. There is a world beyond Hydrocortisone. Steroids aren’t great for skin, but eczema isn’t either, so steroids are the better choice.

While you are waiting for an appointment, I would also ask for Hydromol ointment (v thick and greasy but v good, and v different from the others, a bit like Vaseline in consistency). Believe you can get it without prescription too if you can’t get an appointment.

We found the greasy ointments made DD's eczema worse-it did take a while to realise this mind. Agree steroid creams will get it under control. We also had an anti histamine which we gave her when she had a bad flare up which helped take the edge off the itchiness and the drowsy one was good at bedtime. The problem with eczema is what works for one does less so for another. Perfumes in laundry products were a real trigger too- we could only use Surcare or Simply Pure.
It also did my head in when people recommend Aveeno and Child's Farm (particularly this as the ingredients aren't as nice as they make out).
Luckily it is a lot better now she's 10. She does get patches inside her elbows and on her wrists but it's manageable.

@Suzie81 I forgot one! Childs farm!

I did try it a few years ago when I was desperate before I had to take my son private to be seen because the nhs refused to class him as urgent (we started phototherapy a week later on the nhs because the private consultant kicked ass and got him where he should have been on the list thankfully) and I have never seen my son jump so high or move so fast to get in the shower and wash it off. It's horrendous stuff. Should be no where near anyone's skin but it's amazing according to a lot of people on here.

I tried it myself having not had a flare up in over 20 years and my eyes were watering as my skin burned with whatever the hell they put in that stuff!

And the lush cream uses a base oil of rapeseed oil (they call it a vegetable oil but researching it 99% of veg oils are rapeseed because it's cheap) which means people who have hay fever associated with the rapeseed season will have a reaction to it too. My son can't eat anything with rapeseed oil in it which is a nightmare since almost everything has rapeseed in it from bread and butters almost everything else!

Ouch that looks so painful. Not my type of eczema, but I see pp named it.

Finding the correct combo of creams is trial and error, plus skin changes with hormones as you age, so once you've found something which works, that doesn't mean your set forever.

As pp said, you can't go by what someone else says does or doesn't work for them. Personally, Aveeno is magic and the greasy ones don't work at all. But that's just me.

What is certain though is you will need a steroid for treating outbreaks and a moisturiser for daily maintenance to minimise outbreaks and use of steroids. Everything you named was just moisturising and not a treatment.

Def ask for something stronger, and if it doesn't work, ask again. There are a raft of creams out there. National Eczema Organisation, a charity, has a raft of helpful info on their website too.

Oh I forgot to mention that SOME eczema is triggered by food but actually not as much as people think. So yes try exclusion diets of common allergens just in case (making sure you follow doctors advice) but dont assume it is food triggered. Egg is actually quite a common eczema trigger.

I was covered in eczema as a baby and had to be fed on goats milk and washed with liquid parafin