Eczema on 4mo face uncontrollable

[Chickpea19]

My 4mo little boy has had eczema on and off for a few months which I’ve managed to control with aveeno and an odd bit of steroid cream here and there.

he now has a patch on his face which won’t go away. I’ve used aveeno and hydrocortisone 1% 2x day for a week unsuccessfully. The gp then prescribed fusidic acid which he reacted to. Then just cetraban and steroid cream (1%) for a week but it’s getting worse. The gp said he needs a break from the hydrocortisone cream now. I’m now covering him in cetraban and a barrier cream but after a day it’s already looking more angry and on the verge of cracking. We used dermol 500 to wash him with and put cetraban in the bath water. We only used Ecover washing powder and everything gets an extra rinse.

does anyone have an experience with this and have any magic potions I can try? I’m at my wits end with this and I’m not getting anywhere with the gp

Body shop hemp cream. I wouldn't be putting any steroid cream on your baby's face.

Yes. I have lots of experience. I tried out each formula milk until I found one my baby tolerated and her sore skin cleared (I think Aptamil worked). She now only drinks (un sweetened) Almond milk, no cheese, no cream no ice cream (cooked dairy is fine ie melted cheese, milk in cooking.

Definitely worth exploring allergy. Ds looked like he had been boiled - red, weeping, blistery skin - until we moved him to soya-based formula. He was dairy free for a couple of years in the end, when we reintroduced it gradually without trouble.

Cows’ milk allergy resulting in eczema runs strongly in my family, though, so it was a sensible thing to try.

We breast feed, I think the next step will be to cut out dairy though. I had the same with my first but she had a lot more things to suggest a dairy sensitivity. My 4mo only has eczema. It’s all such a guessing game! I’m glad you got to the root cause of your little ones sore skin!

apply an anti septic cream. Shampoos soaps etc can also cause skin to become sore. good luck

Could it be he's intolerant to the new creams? Just an idea.
I found Oilatum plus antiseptic bath emollient really good for the bath, still use it now. Also does he suck his fingers at all? With my DS a lot of his rash around lower face was drooling rash.
My sympathies it's awful.
A few more things, anything acidic was a big trigger for my son.. Tomatoes, strawberries, not an allergy but they irritated the skin.
I have found aveeno helpful, I applied after every meal, found anything too heavy or thick didn't seem to help/made it worse but that's my DS.

my daughter had eczema as a baby. Even though she was prescribed stuff from the GP, the only thing that actually helped was childs farm moisturiser, it would go but then come back, it turns out what was flaring it was swimming lessons. Think it was the chlorine in the water. It only clicked when we finished our lessons And her eczema pretty much got better. She still has the odd breakout but childs farm is always helpful to clear it up

definitely look into allergies as thats always the main cause.

hope you sort it out

Also just remembered your baby is 4mo so not weaned yet I imagine but something to consider for the future.

Balmonds Skin Salvation is very gentle for eczema. The company was started by a lady whose child had eczema.

It’s eczema/dribble rash. He’s a bugger for sucking on his hands. I do my best I keep it as dry as possible but it’s almost impossible!
I think it could be a reaction to the creams, maybe pulling back on everything will help? I can only hope!
thank you for everyone’s suggestions!

@Chickpea19 I'd recommend Balmonds skin salvation. Should help act as a barrier to dribble/snot etc. It's brilliant stuff. I use it on my hands before bed. You don't need much otherwise it will be greasy. It lasts ages too 😃

@bakermummy21 just seen you beat me to it 😊 Balmonds is great stuff isn't it.

Cetraben just doesn't agree with some. It always aggravated my little one's eczema a lot, as did Aveeno. I stopped using creams and tried 50:50 paraffin ointment instead. It's gentle enough to use on the face and has made a huge difference

What about that nipple cream as a barrier cream, can't remember the name but people use it as lip balm too?

Thank you @bakermummy21 @justmewithmylifetoday for the recommendation! I’ll give it a try and report back!

@chickchickpea Im sorry you’ve been through similar. I think perhaps cetraban may be aggravating it too, I’m wondering if it’s ‘too wet’ for his skin? Aveeno never agreed with my little girl but it’s been quite good so far for my 4mo. I thought I knew quite a bit about eczema and how to control it but his is so different! I’m hopeful he’ll grow out of it mostly like big sis has.

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor funnily enough I put that on him before we went to bed tonight! Thank you for the suggestion!

Kokoso coconut oil - miracle worker and not
full on horrible stuff I wouldn’t want on baby’s skin. If you go on their Instagram page they have lots of testimonials/before and afters from
parents.

Please be REALLY careful with the creams you use. Put absolutely nothing with a food base on his skin otherwise you may cause him to become allergic. Allergies are caused when food protein gets through the skin barrier and the body launches an antibody response to it as it sees it as a foreign invader. I used a moisturiser and a nipple cream that I later realized had nut oil. My DD is now allergic to nuts. I'll regret that for the rest of my life. Kids with eczema at 3 months old have a 50% chance of developing allergies.

Anyway to answer your question- you baby is probably reacting to one of the top allergens via your breast milk. Please google them and then think about which of them you're consuming the most and then eliminate that. My DD has a horrible egg allergy, when I removed eggs her eczema went away. It could also be gluten daily nuts etc too.

Lush dream cream
Grapeseed oil, jojoba oil or whipped shea butter (etsy, amazon and the soapery do these)
Maybe lay off the cetraben and hydrocortisone. Usually the treatment re steroids is a high %, used liberally (obvs not loads) for a few days/week to really get rid then preventing it building back up. Skin thinning not a huge concern with the latest sterlids apparently they're a better formulation now, but topical steroid withdrawal is a thing, sonusing hydrocortisone frequently is worse than a high % used for a smaller amount of days. reddit.com/Eczema is quite useful

Smother his neck in vaseline or an oil before and after eating and at bedtime if its a dribble rash

Could be allergic to something but dont stress it too much, my kids all had eczema and only some had food allergies. Eczema much better as they got older, same as my own eczema/dermatitis! I think babies fat necks/crevices lol and dribbling is perfect for skin conditions and fungal infections. I've used the yellow metanium (with mixed results) if i thought it may be fungal.