Baby with problem skin

[PissedOffNeighbour22]

Has anyone found anything that significantly helps problem skin on a small baby? He's 5mths old and for the last 6wks or so his skin has got progressively worse.

He rubs and scratches at his skin constantly and won't leave it alone. The GP has been useless, just said keep his nails short etc and prescribed an ointment. The problem was that the ointment was out of stock and the chemist & GP wouldn't give anything else for a month. Finally got the doctor to re-prescribe but they didn't know what to prescribe so told me I needed to find out myself and they'd do another prescription. I'm not a pharmacist so spoke with one and they said it's the doctor's job to work it out, not theirs. So now I'm stuck again.

Its now spread to his arms and legs plus his chest is getting worse. His face is terrible as both cheeks are rubbed away and raw. We go through the same cycle every few days - he rubs it raw, it starts to heal, scabs over so we feel positive, then scab comes off and he rubs it raw again.

Had anyone found if it helps to bath more or less often? It always seems irritated after a bath (he's also been prescribed oilatum bath stuff). And does anyone have experience of a cream that works wonders? I've tried a few off the shelf creams and nothing has improved it much.

Is it eczema?

The dryness is the thing that's making him scratch raw, if so.

Baths can be very soothing but essential to use an emollient in them. Boots has lots.

For skin on his body, wet a onesie and wring out. Plaster him in emollient - squeous cream, e45 or diprobase, put on the damp babygro and then a dry one over the top. (Not in this heat obv.) Leave on overnight- will be amazed at how much his skin rehydrate and sooths next day.

If its infected - spots and pus- it will need antibiotics though.

Good luck, eczema is miserable.

*aqueous cream 🙄

Ds had terribly dry skin which turned into eczema, covered in scratches and had bad reactions to several things recommended by hvs and gps. Eventually we got an appointment with a skin clinic who prescribed aproderm, which is an emollient as pp suggested above. Kept bathing every day but only with plain water, used the cream all over every day, then every other day, now he hardly needs it at all. He gets along ok with aveeno in the bath now, aproderm now and then or aveeno cream, and baby oil on his head/hair. We were also prescribed a steroid cream for any particularly bad patches which worked literally within hours.

@MyBottomDecides not aqueous cream. That should only be used as a soap substitute.
what was prescribed?

Are you using baby bath/shampoo?

You need to stop using all washing detergent and fabric softener, re wash everything and switch to Surcare.

If you use Aqueous cream makes sure it's thoroughly rinsed off.

Aveeno is excellent at soothing skin.

One of my baby's had this and it was caused by a cows milk protein allergy, he was also allergic to soy. He moved to a hypo allergenic baby milk and the rash went away.

@MyBottomDecides Don't know if it's eczema or not. The GP just said it's normal for babies to have awful skin. He was prescribed fucidin H just in case of infection but we only needed it on one patch (face). The sore patches just seem to be spreading to more and more places. I really hope it isn't eczema.

He has a bath emollient and that is all we use other than a cradle cap shampoo that he's been using since birth.

I'll try your tip re the onesies once the weather cools down, thank you.

Epaderm works lovely for my boys. A GP told me that during a flare up you should be using the cream four times a day. Putting it on when they’re wet from the bath works well.

Aveeno also works great but is expensive and not on prescription

@Wolfiefan The prescription wasn't a specific name, just a % of X and % of Y etc.
we have another prescription as of this afternoon but it's gone straight to pharmacy so not sure what they've prescribed - but surprise surprise, it's also out of stock.

One of my sons had Eczema from being 2 weeks old. (He's now 38, still has it but controls it well). I used to use SURCARE liquid for his clothes, no conditioner. SIMPLE products, also Aveeno. If the problems persist after a couple of weeks of using these things, tell your doctor you want a referral to a Dermatologist. The heat makes it worse, so keep your baby cool with wet flannels placed on him, very regularly.

Incidentally, we found that the usual things that doctors recommend actually made things much worse - one was Oilatum, the other was E45 products (perfume and Lanolin)

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor He uses oilatum bath emollient (prescribed) and a cradle cap shampoo.
My mum has given me a bottle of Aveeno today to try so will give that a go until the prescription is in stock.

I haven't cut out the detergent and softener yet as he's used this from birth with no issues. Could he have suddenly developed an allergy to it?

@serafinarose Was the baby oil in hair/head just for dry skin? Do you know if that would that help with cradlecap?

I haven't heard of aproderm so I'll add that to my list of possibilities to speak to the GP about, thank you :)

@Ohsugarhoneyicetea I did wonder about allergies as he used to vomit a lot too. The GP wouldn't see us about it and it had calmed down a bit by the 8wk check so they disregarded it.

The baby oil tends to keep the cradle cap away. First I had to get rid of it with a cradle cap comb I got from amazon. The only think that worked for us, none of the shampoos did the trick.

@RockAndRollerskate Thank you. I've noted epaderm to speak to the GP about if we can't make headway. I've got some aveeno from my mum to try as she swears by it for her skin issues on her hands.

I haven't cut out the detergent and softener yet as he's used this from birth with no issues. Could he have suddenly developed an allergy to it?

Allergies can start at any time - I was 36 when I first has Asthma, and in my 40s when I developed an allergy (had hospital tests) to Nickel, Lanolin and Latex

My dd had similar - oat baths for a few consecutive nights really helped. Put a sock of oats under the running water and then use the sock as a sort of washcloth.

She was terrible at 6 months with big sore patches in her nappy area but the baths cleared it right up (the creams did nothing). She's 8 months now and it hasn't come back although I bath her fairly infrequently as I've heard that's the advice for eczema.

Hope you get it sorted, it's awful seeing them scratching and hurting themselves x

I'm going to cut out fabric softener first with the washing and try to get some surcare.
We already have some simple products for my toddler so can try those on him. Thanks for saying it's ok to push for a referral as it really does seem to be getting worse so worth another appointment (they seem really difficult to get kids appointments with - my previous GP always gave appointments for kids issues).

Interesting that you said oilatum made it worse as I'm using some oilatum cream on him at the moment and I think it's got worse since. Hadn't thought of E45 but will steer clear of it, thank you.

@DuneFan My mum keeps mentioning oats but to be honest I just humoured her. Might be worth a shot then.

Glad your DD has recovered. The only place my DS's skin is clear is in his nappy area. I also bath less frequently for the same reason as you so I'm glad to hear it's worked for you.

My DD (now 2) also had bad skin but nothing like my DS is suffering with. Hers was just dry and she had bad cradle-cap including on her eyebrows. She doesn't have any issues now.

Oats in bath are worth trying.
Dermol helps to reduce the itch.
If skin is flaring you need steroids. I wonder if that’s what was prescribed.

When my dc was small, GP was able to prescribe wet dressings, something like this for body, hands, knees etc. as well as creams and it really helped.
tubifast
My dc had eczema from a week old, he was diagnosed with multiple food and environment allergies. So it maybe worth asking for allergy testing.

Is he bottle of breastfed? If breastfed you can try cutting dairy out of your diet and see if that helps? We were also prescribed hydrocortisone, 0.5% is out of stock everywhere so the doctor prescribed the 1% but asked that we put aveeno on first and then the cream, it helped his eczema massively

@RockAndRollerskate

As an adult that has had it since childhood ( execma ) my nhs dermatologist prescribed Aveeno , the wash and the cream , I've been getting it on prescription for the past 5 years or so.

I think it was this brand, actually.
comfi

2 of mine have had awful eczema from about 4 months old - like oozing, weeping, people stopping me in the street to ask what was wrong with them bad.

I found aveeno the best for both of them, though more recently I have used adex gel (on prescription), which goes on beautifully and is anti-inflammatory too. Both of mine have needed hydrocortisone 1% (0.5% was useless) to control flare-ups,, and the worst one needed a much stronger steroid. At various times they also needed antibiotics and/or anti fungal cream.

Both outgrew the severe eczema at around 18-19 months old, and only get mild flare-ups, and both also ended up having multiple food allergies (the one with the least bad skin had milk allergy but outgrew it by 2.5 years, but the one whose skin was worse still has about 6 severe food allergies and has asthma & hayfever).