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.

Homeopathy worked for my son who had eczema all over. It near re appeared thank the stars

NRTFT

My dd has bad eczema. She’s 4 now and it’s a little better. We just wash her with plain water, same with her hair. Her clothes are put through a separate plain water cycle after they have been washed. She is also triggered by certain foods, milk is her main one, oranges, strawberries, tomatoes, dust and mould are also triggers. She only started developing eczema after she was given a medication for thrush in her mouth when she was a toddler. It was horrendous for a long time, bedsheets and clothes covered in blood. It was made even worse by the fact she will not let us put cream on her, even now at 4, we have to put I t on when she’s asleep.

The hospital showed me how to put wet bandages on her but she would never let us do it. The battles were just too much we gave up.

We had a point where we could get some cream on her and to stop the screaming we put put normal bandages on her with a tube bandage over the top. It was like the bandages were a comforter for her, she’d stop sobbing as soon as they were on. We stopped doing it just before she turned 4.

The only thing we use now is Eumovate, cetraban and sudocrem and always after she’s asleep. Really she needs more moisturiser but we pick our battles. She knows we put it on when she’s asleep. Last week her hands were bad and she let me put some eumovate on without crying but made me promise only to put the other cream on when she was asleep.

Push for a referral to a dermatologist also push for allergy testing if you can, though this isn’t easy, we only got allergy testing after my dd was rushed to A&E after her face & neck started swelling. The hospital were the ones who pushed this for us. That’s when we found out about the dust and mould being triggers for her eczema.

Thank you so much everyone for your suggestions- I wasn’t expecting so many responses! :)

How do you go about getting a dermatologist? Is that via GP?

Lots of you have mentioned using an emollient several times a day. The GP has prescribed Cetraben- does that count? They said only to use it once a day though?! @AliceMcK I saw you use it, do you use it more than once a day?

I will look into everyone’s suggestions/links etc. I did think about cutting back on dairy (I am still EBF him) but when I mentioned this to the GP they said if he had a dairy allergy/intolerance then the eczema would have shown up earlier- it only began at about 4 months old. Guess it could still be worth a try if all else fails.

Thanks again everyone.

Carry on with the hydrocortisone. I know the word "steroid" is scary, but it's really very mild (hydrocortisone doesn't even touch my boy's eczema - we've had to go 3 levels stronger). Like pp have said, use it for at least 2 days after the eczema has cleared up, then start mixing 50:50 with emollient, then gradually reduce.

A short bath every day helps stop open eczema becoming infected.

Even non-bio detergent can be too much. Trial just plain water or surcare if you can get hold of it (but clothes don't come out smelling nice though!)

Bear in mind that some kids are allergic to the emollients themselves! We only use epaderm ointment these days.

Good luck! I know it's really frustrating when GPs don't seem to take eczema seriously, but hold on to the fact that it's because it's so common, and it pretty much always clears up on its own in the end.

All 3 of mine have had eczema as babies/toddlers and it is hard to deal with. I feel for you!

With my 3rd we stopped bathing her. Like, completely stopped. She gets cleaned every day especially nappy area, folds and under her chin but no more baths. Even with plain water. That has been the biggest change for us.

This transitional time of year is particularly bad for eczema flare ups so it may slightly improve in the warmer weather. It may also just naturally improve with age - my 6 year old is completely clear now and my 4 year old only has the occasional patch.

My daughter’s dairy allergy eczema only came on pretty much when she turned 1 - so wasn’t triggered by me breastfeeding before then or for the first few months of her weaning onto solid food. So it seems to me that allergies/intolerances can come on (or at least develop to the point where it’s showing as eczema) at different points rather than being immediately apparent at the start.

We didn’t have much luck at the gp so I did a lot of googling and with some trial and error found a balance to clear DD’s eczema.
Ecover non bio wash liquid, no fabric conditioner and and extra rinse at the end of the wash
Bath only every 2-3 days in plain water and used child’s farm shampoo
Child’s farm cream on every nappy change
Cut out eggs and tomatoes

Have you tried Aloe Vera plant - break a leaf and rub into the skin 3 times daily - keep unused bit in the fridge as it’s soothing

3/4 days and DS eczema disappeared and never came back

DD uses Aloe Vera sun cream and has amazing soft legs in the summer.

(I’m not an Aloe Vera nutcase seller - it just works)

@Riverrushing21

Thank you so much everyone for your suggestions- I wasn’t expecting so many responses! :)

How do you go about getting a dermatologist? Is that via GP?

Lots of you have mentioned using an emollient several times a day. The GP has prescribed Cetraben- does that count? They said only to use it once a day though?! @AliceMcK I saw you use it, do you use it more than once a day?

I will look into everyone’s suggestions/links etc. I did think about cutting back on dairy (I am still EBF him) but when I mentioned this to the GP they said if he had a dairy allergy/intolerance then the eczema would have shown up earlier- it only began at about 4 months old. Guess it could still be worth a try if all else fails.

Thanks again everyone.

I would apply the cetraban as much as possible if you can. I know gps are suppose to know what they are talking about but sometimes they don’t. My dd got worse after we were given poor information from a gp, they told me to forget what the hospital paediatrician said as it wasn’t true, but then another gp completely dismissed them and said the hospital was right. That’s when I went mad and said I’d be making formal complaint about the practise as my dd was really suffering, all of a sudden I’ve got a dermatologist referral.

Then the dermatologist told me to forget everything the gps said 🤷🏼‍♀️

If you’ve got the ointment it’s good in the bath and putting on afterwards. The cream is good too. We were given about 12 samples of various creams to try from the hospital.

You will have to go through a gp for a referral, they can be difficult, you just have to keep pushing.

Food intolerance and switching laundry detergent worked here.

Her intolerance is a fruit so it isn't always dairy, but I've heard dairy as the most common.

Ezcema started at 4 months for us too and she has a dairy allergy, also had no other signs like being a sicky baby or bad nappies. I think they're linked more to non IG allergies and we are IG, try asking your doctor about that. And yes GP for a referral, ask for it and don't get fobbed off

You need to get a proper routine with the steroid cream, possibly a stronger one. You start of daily, then it tapers down to, by the end, just the weekend. Then down even further.

My son had horrible eczema, but we followed this and now he is essentially eczema free

Oh yeah and you need to really push the GP for a darn referral. They do not want to give them out. When I finally got one (15years after initial diagnosis) the specialist gasped at my skin (70% coverage).

Be pushy. They may want to try further steroids first as the only other main options really are steroids, protopic style creams, emollient, light therapy, methotrexate and dupilimab. The final three are not allowed for children.

There is no cure for eczema but most grow out of childhood eczema so fingers crossed yours does

Balmonds ointment is excellent and helped DS when steroids failed. You might look at high histamine and low histamine food and stick with low histamine as much as you can. With DS it's definitely related to what he eats.

Riverrushing21 my dd’s eczema first showed up at 3 months old. She is now 8 years old, severe dairy and egg allergies (needs to carry epipens). We went grouch hell with her as a baby, getting fobbed off with cream after cream that made her skin much worse. We were told it wasn’t an allergy and that it was “just eczema”. At 6 months old they did a blood test and found she was severely allergic to dairy and egg. I wanted to continue breastfeeding so I ditched those from my diet. Her skin didn’t clear up until we had also ditched the prescribed creams. She has had lovely soft and clear skin since she was about 1 year old. She has plain water baths or uses Dove soap which moisturises. We also use it on her hair:

Thank you for all of your replies and sorry to hear so many of you have had the same or worse with your little ones.

Sounds like I need to push harder with the GP to find out what’s underlying it.

Hey, hello, I have just come across your post and my son is in the same situation! He’s 6 months old and his eczema only reared its head around the 4 months old mark, it’s really severe across his back, torso and arms, the GP suggested we changed his milk from Kendamil to Aptamil Pepti 2 so we did and I really regret doing this, he never ever missed a feed, was never sick and was always satisfied after feeds, so much has changed since I changed him apart from his eczema, it’s been a month and honestly it’s no different.

have you got any advice 2 years on?

thanks in advance x