3 year old son’s severe eczema

[Cazzie1979]

My son (age 3) has suffered from eczema since he was born and it’s recently been getting worse. It’s mainly on the backs of his legs (in the creases of his knees) but also in creases of his elbows. We’ve had steroid creams and emollients prescribed but nothing seems to work so I asked to be referred. 7 weeks since the referral to the dermatology dept at the hospital and not even had a letter acknowledging we’re on the waiting list let alone an appointment. In the meantime the redness is getting more and more sore, often bleeding. I’ve looked into private consultations and but they are costing £250 which we can’t afford. Does anyone have any miracle creams that you’ve found worked on severe eczema or other skin conditions? Getting desperate now the weather is getting hotter and sweat is irritating the skin more.

Antibiotic or antifungal cream that should say!

Really sorry you're experiencing this.

We went privately at Great Ormond St for my newborn as drs adopted a wait and see attitude. Her eczema started patchy but rapidly was covered head to toe, in creases, raw etc.

We were given the following advice:

Steroids initially (thin layer) once per day in the morning after a bath (see below) but to be weaned off once under control. We received Daktacort for face, nappy area and creases, with Eumovate for everywhere else.

5-10 min Baths twice per day - not too hot or cold water with with QV oil. Initially i thought I misheard but figured the consuktant knew better.

QV cream - After the baths, at nappy changes etc.

Where breakout is v bad buy baby body stockings (really weird looking things) slather up baby with cream, pop on overnight to make sure the cream is absorbed.

It took a while, but touch wood we rarely need the steroids now. I've found moisturising with the QV cream obsessively is key.

We did allergy testing as consuktant queried a milk allergy but touch wood she was negative.

Obviously the above was prescribed for us, so will not necessarily work for you. Really hope you get things sorted soon.

• when I say for newborn. We ended up going privately at around 7 months.

Have you tried aproderm? Xx

Aproderm only thing that's worked for my son, had to ask for it worked within days
My sons is servere and nothing else worked had them all xx

Have a look at reviews on Google too xx

@cathcath2 Yes I think it looks infected so actually went back to the doctor last week and my son is taking antibiotics now and I have an anti-fungal cream I can use. When you say expedite does that mean fast track? How do you usually convince a doctor to do that?

Push for a referral to paediatric allergy. They will do skin prick tests. Was completely transformative for my DS; once we cut out egg in all forms (both of us as I was breastfeeding), his skin cleared almost overnight.

GPs are often rubbish about eczema.

We’ve got this, very bad on one leg in particular. I found e45 eczema repair cream recently and tried it - I have to apply it 3-4 times a day, more if he’s getting in the paddling pool or something but was gobsmacked at the difference. I’ve also had to make sure his longer shorts are rolled up so they don’t hang against the crease at the back of his leg and rub - that seemed to be irritating it further.
ive also put colloidal oats and coconut in his baths which has always soothed it and taken out the redness.

on hot days it’s always bright red because he’s warm, but comes back down as soon as he cools down. Good luck OP hope you find something that works, steroid creams never work for us either apart from the first day or two then it comes back with a vengeance

@snowbellsxox I’ve not heard of Aproderm (was recommended Epiderm by a friend not long ago so asked doctor to prescribe that last week but he said it was not a good cream for my son as it’s a barrier not a moisturising cream).

@lamaze1 thank you for sharing the advice and routine you were given privately. I’ve not heard of some of those creams you were prescribed so will look into them. My son is 4 (I think I said 3 in my original post but he’s just turned 4!) and is at preschool 4 days a week so it would be hard to moisturise throughout the day, but he’ll be on school holidays soon so that will make it easier to keep his skin regularly moisturised.

@Solasum thanks for that advice, I’d only thought of asking for a dermatology referral not allergy referral.

@Notnowbarnaby thats really helpful to know about that cream. We are the same with steroid cream. It seems from what you and others are saying that I need to be applying cream 3-4 times a day (doc said twice), so I’ll start doing that today as his preschool isn’t opening because of the heat.

Allergies that cause eczema are typically non-ige allergies which can't be tested for. The only way to work it out is to eliminate the suspect allergen, see if symptoms clear up over a few weeks and then reintroduce the allergen to see if symptoms return.

Steroid cream they shouldn't be on long term anyway. We use Zeroveen which helps my sons eczema and derma500 in the bath

I contacted my GP and said we’d been having to use steroid creams on our baby for 6 months and that it couldn’t go on indefinitely but without them, she would be in a terrible state so we are stuck. I asked if they could please write to dermatology and request her referral be expedited as list is 4/5 months long. We’re being seen this week as opposed to Sept/Oct, which is what it would have been. They have to be seen within 8 weeks of the expedite.

I was able to speak with a dermatology nurse on the phone when I called them once and she gave me a plan over the phone for steroid creams that we already had from the GP. Our GP didn’t give us advice anything like the dermatology nurse did and things have improved a lot. Steroid creams have to be used in a very specific way as the skin has three layers and you can’t just come off them, you need to wean off them. The emollient is also super important, we cover our baby in Hyrdomol ointment 4/5 times a day and bathe her for no more than 10 mins in Hyrdomol bath and shower once a day. Advice about bathing varies, we have found that it’s worse if we don’t bathe her. We use a water temp thing to make sure it’s very lukewarm. @Cazzie1979

*hydromol

My DD's eczema was caused by dairy. She had a cows milk protein intolerance.

If it's linked to diet you should see some improvement after 2 weeks of cutting out the allergen.

Have you tried gentle salt water baths OP? They are really good for my DD's eczema. We buy the 1kg bags of table salt from the supermarket. Depending on how big your bath is, approx 1/2 to 1 cup of table salt in a warm bath, not too hot (fine to be warm, lukewarm or cold). Bathefor 15 - 20 mins, pat dry gently then apply whichever emollient you use.

If you google salt water baths for eczema, there are various guidelines/ websites about. Some suggest Epsom salts but they weren't great for my DD. Plain table salt has worked really well and made a huge difference. I imagine it's different for different people so it might be worth trying both.

If the skin is broken use a bit less salt to start with so it doesn't sting. The salt water is antibacterial and anti-inflammatory so is totally fine to use with broken skin, just a bit stingy if you use too much.

You have to be careful with steroid creams. There is a process called skin thinning. My daughter suffers extreme eczema and she has to be very careful with the steroid creams. Only for short times and always as instructed by GP.

Steroid cream isn’t 3-4 times a day, you have to be very measured and careful with it. Emollient is 3/4/5 times a day.

This sounds horribly familiar… and you have my utmost sympathy. Hopefully longer term the dermatologist will sort you out but in the meantime we found Dermol 500 was an absolute lifesaver for our son who was riddled head to toe at one point bless him. We used it as a soap and a moisturiser and I still keep a bottle in the house now as it is such good stuff ( it’s what dermatologists use on their own skin and you can buy it at boots or on Amazon). We also used hydromol as a barrier cream although I found it so greasy so was relieved when I could slowly pare it’s usage back. We didn’t get on well with childs farm sadly despite it seeming like a miracle cure for everyone else. My son was hospitalised twice as a baby for his eczema. He is now five and there is not a patch of dry skin on him, it’s been a miraculous recovery when I look back on where we were a couple of years ago. The only thing I am still careful with is sun creams but Bondi beach do a great factor 50 one he doesn’t react to at all.

How are you getting on, OP? How's DS?