Eczema red raw babys face

[Mand1818]

I don't know what advice im looking for now, im honestly at a loss 😪

Background: 8 month old, itchy skin 4 months, eczema. Exclusively breastfed, i am on a dairy, soya, wheat, egg, nuts free diet. We have an allergy referral and dieticians refferal.

We originally used aveeno baby cream, evetually got prescribed epimax oatmeal, this has helped significantly with babys body eczema. His face eczema has been caused by him rubbing his face, we used bigger onesies with sleeves sewn up and gloves but this made his hands very dry/irritable and the cotton rubbing his face made it worse. I only ever used a bit of vaseline on his face (was reluctant to smother face in cream) Anyway, after trip to GP they said smother face in the epimax oatmeal cream which i did which resulted in very dry very irritable skin. This stressed me out i stopped using it on babys face. Used cerave as have used myself, used sparingly and felt like things were clearing. Anyway after another appt this time at Paediatrics, i got a "telling off" and was told to keep smothering him including face in prescribed epimax oatmeal. Me being completely sleep deprived and at a loss then started using it again low and behold today babys has woke up face absolutely a mess, weeping now, bright red and raw, im terrified its infected. Rang GP have appt for tomorrow.

Im at a loss because i have GP appt tomo but feel like they are absolutely useless and are just going to give damaging advice again. I have no idea what to do with his face now, im so anxious and stressed and feel at complete loss. If you read this far thank you.

Oh poor baby and you, I cannot imagine how tough this must be. Sorry if I missed it have you seen a dermatologist yet or had allergy testing?
I don't have any suggestions but hopefully the GP may be able to offer something tomorrow I am so sorry for you both 😞.

I really feel for you OP as my GP surgery was absolutely fucking useless when I was trying to get something for my son’s eczema when he was a baby. I had to get a hospital consultant to write them a letter to tell them to stop being ridiculous and see him in person to give him a proper assessment.

I think what you actually need is a steroid! I tried all the moisturising creams in the world and they don’t do anything until you actually use some steroid. Have you been given any before?

We were given 2 mild ones that did bugger all, we’re now on mometazone and that’s finally worked. Would definitely recommend it. Don’t back down!! And make a complaint if you have to, and possibly ask to see someone else.

The rubbish ones we were given first were hydrocortisone and then euvomate. Not strong enough.

My son had similar eczema as a baby and needed strong steroids. Once he had these applied, he was a different baby in a matter of days.

As he flared after the oat based cream, maybe an oat allergy?
Best to avoid creams with food in the ingredients as this can lead to allergies developing because the skin barrier is already broken.

We were prescribed Epimax to use as a soap substitute and Epaderm as an ointment (note not cream) to use. You need to moisturise a lot; go through 500g a week. Various steroids were also prescribed. Unfortunately, you just have to try a few until you find something that works. Definitely push to see a Dermatologist.

I think you should go to a herbalist. Hope he heals soon 🙏

Hi OP - can you PM me. I could have written your post, in fact, the pictures of your baby look so similar to mine I thought it was mine at first! It’s an absolutely bloody awful time. The scratching, sleep deprivation, screaming. It does get better and he is almost eczema free at 3 years old.

I can’t say anything helped - I stopped breastfeeding as I was essentially only eating chicken and vegetables by that point. Moved to Neocate and Alfamino formula. Daily antihistamine. Contraversial but I also stopped all steroids when I could as it just came back worse every time. I can show you some pictures and send you what we did x

Your poor baby, and I can only imagine how hard it’s been for you.
Scratchsleeves are amazing, like a little bolero jacket with little mits of silk sown in. Much better than scratch mits and if they do rub , the silk is much gentler on their face.
My son had similar eczema to his face, and as other posters have said it definitely needs a stronger steroid.
Our GP never gave us anything strong enough, as soon as we saw the Dermatologist they started him on much stronger , then followed up 2 weeks later to see how it was working.
They also did allergy testing as I think allergies can go hand in hand with eczema that young.
My boy ended up having milk, egg, nut and fish allergies, so we were able to avoid these when starting weaning.
Good luck, hope your appointment is soon.

Ps - as a medical professional myself, I think dermatologists are very behind in eczema research. The whole moisturising a million times a day doesn’t actually lead to any improvement, it just rehydrates the very top layer of skin. Topical steroid withdrawal is a real thing and I truly think there is a specific branch of ‘paediatric or newborn eczema’ that is just fobbed off, prescribed increasing strength steroids and endless bloody emollients without any movements towards a cure

We were referred to a dermatologist and prescribed protopic ointment as first line treatment and then 50/50 parafin cream as moisturiser. The protopic ointment worked beautifully but temporarily dampens the immune system so you can't give vaccinations for a short period of time whilst using it. I only had to use one tube and the facial excema never flared up again.

Sorry if I missed this in the OP (I'm v tired) but has anyone talked to you about allergies - particularly dairy and egg allergy

Have you tried salt water baths? It was really helpful for both my and my dc eczema. Very low salt to start with if the skin is very raw.
Oatmeal was an irritant for us, so was cerave, even though they worked for lots of others.

Hi @Mand1818
Could you try giving your baby goats milk? My Mum gave this to my brother when he was a baby and it worked x

@Mand1818
*Goats milk to drink not applied to the skin

I would stop using the oatmeal and I agree with salty baths. I would use absolutely no bath foams etc or washing powders (switch to eco balls). Maybe go bank to a little of the moisturiser he didn’t react to (Cerave?). I had chronic eczema as a child and still have flare ups. If that were my baby I would use some hydrocortisone to ease the angry ness there . I feel for you, I know my mum really suffered when I was a child with this. GPs don’t understand eczema, I’m not sure anyone does. In my experience it’s a process of finding out what products you can use. For me, sometimes that’s none.

Our little boy looked like that, cheeks and head were red raw, crusted and oozing. His eczema started when he was 2 months old. Antibiotics were needed every few weeks as it frequently got infected. Eumovate cream worked for us (not the ointment - and actually any of the paraffin based ointments made his skin worse, once actually made me break out in weeping sores too so suspect we had an allergy going on as well as the eczema) but we had to apply it every single day for about 3 months.

He had thick, scaly cradle cap too, so we used prescription medicated shampoo daily.

He also wore scratch sleeves round the clock - sleeves during the day and their PJs at night. They sell their seconds on EBay at discounted prices

After the extended use of eumovate, his eczema cleared up apart from flare ups. These happened frequently at first and we needed a week of eumovate to clear it, but by the time he was a year old they were few and far between, with only a few applications of eumovate needed. We also used the colloidal oat cream.

He needed scratch sleeves at night and in the car until he was 24 months. A year later he is all clear apart from the occasional flare up on the back of his legs, this is quickly cleared by a few applications of the steroid cream. We still use dermal 500 in the bath, oat cream after baths and once a day. We have not had any issues related to the prolonged initial steroid use. He needed it and it worked for him. He can use the ointment now too.

Glad you have the allergy referral, I'd call the hospital department and say you can take any cancellation to try and speed up that appointment. My DD was like this, under dermatology at GOSH, and it was all allergy induced. The NICE guidelines say that babies with eczema should be referred for allergy testing.

Concerning food, are you introducing the major allergens into his diet? These should be introduced one at a time, so one per week, and you monitor any changes. We didn't introduce them to DD as I was terrified of causing harm and then the allergy team were insistent that we must get them introduced to try and prevent further allergies developing.

My son was covered in exzema and found we have 3 allergens removed (via allergy testing and medical advice only)
We also were prescribed Elidel for his face and Elocon for his body. The trick was to use the steroid creams long enough for the eczema to completely go and more. Then taper down the usage. And jump on any flare straight away of weekend maintenance so you aren't over using the creams. The Eczema society website is helpful.
Also my son is allergic to dust therefore we wash clothes at 60degrees and change bedding v.regular.
We are now at a place where we can manage the flares. It's very exhausting and completely sleep depriving and something we would think is simple to manage ends up taking over your life!! Hang in there, hope you get your appointments soon

Hi there,

Very experienced in red raw eczema in a baby. Terrible 😩

Bath area in breast milk if you are BF
Salt baths (increase strength slowly as it can sting) using Dead Sea salts

We found dermol as good cream

We used strong steroids but every time we stopped it came back just as bad so we weaned off those as I honestly found them useless but was effectively told off by paeds

Allergy bedding (in the end found out she has severe dust mite and pollen allergy

Silk clothing (you can get on prescription for babies and toddlers) very expensive but helped

At 7 years it started to improve especially when we were finally offered allergy testing.

Its a horrible time and I feel for you, parenting is so hard but with severe eczema on top it's heartbreaking, exhausting and frustrating. Not easy at all and people just don't get it.

@Mand1818 I hope you get a better response from the GP.

Some things that have worked for other kids and for me with eczema.

Avoid daily showers/baths. Every second day is good enough. If your baby goes to nursery make sure that they keep him away from the sandpit or sand play activities. Try changing your laundry detergent to something more mild. Stop using fabric softeners. When washing his clothes put them on an extra rinse cycle.

When my eczema was bad I was prescribed a steroid cream and put on antibiotics. That cleared it up.

Some moisturises make me flare up. I use Cetaphil moisturiser. It’s great. (I’m not in the UK so not sure if it’s available where you are).

I hope you get to the bottom of it and find the cause and clear it up. Good luck 🍀

Moisturisers with oatmeal or with coconut oil were an irritant to me.

I also have allergy to dust mites and wash all bedding at 60 degrees.

@18daychallenge Ive send you a message! 🙂

Thanks for everyones responses some great info here 🙂

Will do an extra rinse cycle wash @ 60 and change bedding more.
I have suspected the oat in the oatmeal epimax, i removed and no change but thinking maybe i should remove for longer and stick with cerave (expensive but at this point i dont care and also was worried as was doing a great job of his body)
I have tried salt baths and do every other night wash which seems to soothe! My husband seem to think the oat baths were irritable, i didnt agree, but at this point oat is looking very suspect and i will remove!

Will wait for allergy appt referral, highly suspect allergy. Just so disappointed in the doctors response to this, im a medical professional myself and have noticed they dont follow NICE guidelines and very much feel gaslighted when i give my observations of our experience.

I have never experienced anything as stressful and heartbreaking as this (and ive had some testing times in life), i feel like people who havent lived this have no idea just how much it impacts your life and wellbeing. The doctor at one point did suggest it was just me not being able to cope with the struggles of motherhood and i should get a mental health refferal 🥴

Thank you everyone ❤

Please do listen to those who caution against steroids. My 18 year old daughter started getting eczema as a baby. Started on low dose steroids- hydrocortisone which worked wonderfully to start with. Then we noticed that the eczema would come back, so back to the gp then the dermatologist and the very usual story of "climbing the steroid ladder" - getting prescriptions for more potent steroids, used more frequently, then offered protopic (which thankfully felt like it burned her skin so she didn't use it for long - subsequent research made me realise that this has a black box warning and is linked to cancer, it also made her suspectible to eczema herpeticum).
I researched everything and started hearing stories about topical steroid withdrawal. They scared the hell out of me (Google it and you'll see what I mean). I mentioned it to 3 dermatologists and was dismissed by them all. Fast forward to 2019 when topical steroid withdrawal was officially recognised in the UK by NICE/the eczema society. Still the dermatologists refused to acknowledge it! And I couldn't ignore them - still just prescribing stronger steroids, even suggesting oral immunosuppressants. Until... my daughter reached 18 and found out about topical steroid withdrawal herself and it was a lightbulb moment, when she said mum this is me- the fact that as soon as I stop using the steroids my skin flares, I have eczema all over my body now and it burns instead of just itching. She realised she needed to stop steroids which she did- 8 months ago. It has been horrendous but she's coming through it now. There's loads of research but if you want to learn more please Google ITSAN and or join their Facebook group. It's no coincidence that in previous generations, it was normal for kids to outgrow their eczema. That was because they weren't prescribed steroids. Now, steroids are prescribed straightaway so the skin can't learn to deal with the eczema itself and instead becomes reliant on the steroids which gradually become less and less effective until they start causing terrible harm. You may all want to look up bee.thebrave on Instagram. She went through TSW and had a baby. Her baby suffered from bad eczema but following her own experience she went against doctors advice and refused steroids. Have a look at her photos of him- I guess he's about 2 now and no longer has skin issues because she followed her instincts. The photos speak for themselves. I have messaged her in the past with some questions about TSW when I was first finding out about everything and she was very responsive so hopefully she might reply if you messaged her. Sorry this is so long but I suffered so much terrible guilt for letting my daughter use the steroids (even though I was following doctors advice) that I want to get the message out there and ask people to do their own research. The only thing my daughter uses on her skin now is Cetraben cream, she finds the ointments aggravate her skin and there is research to show that they can be unhelpful in that they don't allow the skin to regenerate and learn to produce its own oils

Please put proper dust mite encasements on every mattress, pillow and duvet that get anywhere near him. Bin all the teddies (or just put them away) switch curtains for blinds and start vacuuming with a machine that has a proper medical grade dust mite filter. The cycle to get dust mite poo off your soft furnishings is tumble dry to kill the blighters, wash in hot water to loosen and rinse off the bodies and poo, then dry again..but because you dont want to tumble dry stuff that is t clean, just do two wash and dry cycles. Get a steam cleaner and steam anything you cant wash like sofa cushions. Dust mites are horrible and cause rashes just like your LOs. You have my sympathy. If it helps my DS who was as bad as yours at that age is now a strapping teen with no excema at all. He just takes daily antihistamines to keep it under control