Baby eczema- nothing is helping!

[Riverrushing21]

As the title of my thread says, my baby has eczema that isn’t improving no matter what I try :( Hoping for some advice from anyone who has dealt with this before.

I only use non-bio washing powder (no fabric softener).

He has a bath every 2-3 days, water on the cooler side and something similar to oilatum in the bath water, prescribed by the doctor. To be honest I don’t think it does much as he only spends 5-10 mins in the bath so it’s not exactly soaking in.

Things I have tried:
-Breast milk
-Dream cream (from Lush)
-Tamanu balm (from Tropic- supposedly completely natural ingredients)
-Aveeno baby moisturiser

I have taken him to the GP twice. They have given hydrocortisone cream, then ointment when the cream wasn’t working. They also gave me a moisturiser to put on daily.

I am finding that the hydrocortisone clears everything up but then once I stop using it, the eczema comes back even worse. I have heard that the skin can react in this way to steroid cream, almost like withdrawal symptoms.

The worst patches look almost like burns and he is really sore. Whenever I take his clothes off he starts frantically scratching all over, even in places where there is no visible eczema, sometimes until he bleeds. I try and keep his nails trim and put mitts on him but he has now worked out how to take them off!

Now the weather is getting warmer I want him to have the option to wear shorts and t shirts but at the moment this isn’t possible because as soon as his skin is exposed he just tears it to shreds!

DP wants me to go back to the GP but I think all they will do is up the dosage of steroid ointment :(

Any suggestions?
Thanks for reading.

Could he have a sensitivity to something, a bit like an allergy? A friend of mine has a daughter who they suspect has a milk allergy - she can tolerate it when it's been processed as it were, but if she has too much straight milk she gets eczema. Might be worth a thought.

I would also go back to the GP and push for further investigation -0 there must be something triggering it. Hope you find a solution soon and babe feels better!

DS doesn't have eczema, but is a bit prone to clawing his face so we put socks on his hands at night. They're much better than mitts because they are stretchy and come over his elbows. He rarely gets them off. He's six months old though, so maybe older babies would manage to get the socks off too! Might be worth a try if you haven't tried already 😊

Have you seen a dermatologist? Or just GP? We needed stronger creams than hydrocortisone. We were advised to really zap in then tail off gradually so down to once a day, then down to hydrocortisone, then just to emollients. If it flares up at all go back up in frequency/strength.

Also the found out about multiple food allergies which were coming through my breastmilk and cutting those out helped massively.

It's horrible isn't it, I hope you can get it under control. Putting suncream on today gave us a flare up so I share your warm weather concerns

My daughter was covered in eczema from head to foot, also looked like burns, people avoided her as it was all over her face, poor thing.

We had endless creams and dermatology appointments but it never cleared up beyond a tiny amount, so it seemed to me there was something underlying it. I googled and on here there were parents saying similar and it turned out to be caused by a dairy allergy. So I cut out dairy and within 2 weeks it had entirely gone. At the next dermatologist appointment she said - “oh yes, I hear parents saying that a lot, but there’s no evidence for it.” Would have been helpful if someone has at least mentioned it as a possibility!

My daughter had it for a while as a baby, hydrocortisone and various moisturisers prescribed by GP didn’t work but when doctor finally prescribed a stronger steroid cream it cleared up within a few weeks. We then stopped using the steroids and it’s has never really come back. She’s now 3 and we’ve been able to keep it under control by moisturising and using steroid cream occasionally on back of knees etc when it flares up.
Hope you find something that works.

My DS's was called send by an egg and milk allergy. Luckily cleared up by 18 months old. Our GP sent us for allergy tests at hospital.

This is the only cream I've ever found to work in 15 years of searching for my daughter ! You can use them on babies - green cream or charcoal and oat I think are what is recommended . You can email them for advise also . Steroids for a bad flare up in conjunction with this and then this a few times a week for maintenance or daily red / dry / sore patches . zoebeebeauty.co.uk

When I went back to the gp with ds they upped the cream from cetrazen to zerobase which did the trick! He’s come up in another rash now so I might need to head back but the zerobase got rid of a horrific bit

I had chronic eczema as a child, allergic to Oilatum and loads of other stuff prescribed by GP. I have finally managed to eradicate it by bathing only in salt (Epsom usually but table salt is fine), using Balmonds moisturiser and Faith in Nature shampoo and Conditioner. That’s it. Oh, Fairy non bio, always. No fabric conditioners or other nonsense. This system appears to have not only banished my eczema but also my allergies and sensitivities.

I would stop using the Oilatum and just scale it all back to really as little product as you can. I would not hesitate to use hydrocortisone to zap break outs. My mum spent too many years agonising over this but steroid is better than the constant discomfort of eczema.

Have a read up on balmonds skin salvation. It apparently helps with baby eczema. X

My baby had very similar, I tried loads of prescription creams and ointments. Nothing worked apart from bioskin junior products. The rescue cream in particular. It's a little pricey but really worked for us. I still use the spray daily as maintenance but no flare ups.

@helloyoutoo8

Have a read up on balmonds skin salvation. It apparently helps with baby eczema. X

That’s the one I buy. It’s the best skin cream I’ve ever used. Wouldn’t use anything else now.

We had the same with my DD, cut out all dairy and gave decent probiotic powder and it's completely cleared up. We were told its often a sign of an allergy and creams wont solve the source of the problem. Also found out from the hospital allergy clinic that some suncreams have a milk protein in them which is why some can make it worse!

It’s better to go hard to clear it with something stronger to heal the skin barrier then trail off. I regret I didn’t do this with my first DC.

One thing the dermatologist told me was to continue to use the hydrocortisone for two days after the eczema cleared to - that made a difference for us.

I’d go back to GP and push for dermatologist. Healing the skin barrier and getting the eczema under control is key.

Our eldest was red raw with eczema, nothing prescribed by GP helped. Every morning the baby was glued by blood on to his babygrow and sheet :-( Than one of the GP's at our practice asked if we would consider homeopathy (he was fully qualified in it). I would have considered ANYTHING . Homeopathy completely cured the eczema within weeks.

If you're within reach of Glasgow, there's a NHS homeopathic hospital there, now renamed the NHSCentreforIntegrativeCare

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Centre_for_Integrative_Care,_Glasgow

Porridge oars in an old pair of tights in the bath water to soothe the skin.

Google steroid ladder. It's great that they worked but you need to taper off then gradually, stopping abruptly causes rebound eczema.

Once you know how to use steroids they're shaving, just a shame that GPs don't always know/explain

Our HV was score to refer DS to community dermatologist ecwho was amazing and completed sorted DS out.

I second dairy allergy. If you want to try some other products the I highly recommend Mustela products and pure jojoba oil to add to bath.

What worked for us was alternating between medicated and non medicated creams and also 100% cotton clothing especially at night (I also switched to shorts and T-shirt pjs. The heat and sweat aggravates it.

Dr Boyden at www.hillmedicalcentre.co.uk/ saved my baby son from his eczema. He looked like a burns victim. He prescribes The Aron Regime which consists of moisturiser, small amount of steroid and small amount of antibiotic. I implore you to read about it. My baby's skin was beautiful within 2 months and now we only use it on specific spots every couple of months - if that.

As someone with eczema that's kind of how it works. You calm the flare down and eventually it flares back up again.

They may prescribe pro topic to use in between steroid use which keeps the flare down without steroids. I don't know if baby's can have it though so you'd need to check.

DS gets eczema due to cmpa. I've cut out dairy and that's made a big difference. We also use body shop honey & almond milk cream on him. It's amazing!

You need to use the emollient cream a lot, as many times a day as possible every nappy change if you can.

With the steroid cream don't stop abruptly, e.g if you're using it twice a day, go down to once a day at first for a few days/a week, then every other day for a week then 3-4 times a week. Make sure you're using plenty of the emollient in between.

By emollient I mean moisturiser, it really need to be applied as many times as possible throughout the day, not just once.

Child's Farm baby moisturiser works wonders on eczema