Toddler ECZEMA advice - can't keep on top of it

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GP doesn't want to know or investigate potential allergies that cause these awful flare ups. She is constantly covered in eczema all over her little body and has been like this since she was 4 months old, she is now 2 and 1/2. She has been prescribed emollients and steroid creams including one of the strongest, but nothing keeps it at bay. She is flaring up more regularly now and I have no idea what the trigger could be. Although it does calm down after nasty flare ups, it is always there and always causing her to be uncomfortable, she scratches constantly. We can't let her enjoy a bath for longer than a few minutes because once her skin is exposed she literally claws at herself. I trim her nails right down yet she still manages to scratch herself.

Does anyone have any miracle tips or ideas of what could be triggering this? I use non bio laundry detergent and softener, baths are now plain water only with child's farm unscented shampoo. Im at a loss and can't stand to see her so uncomfortable all of the time.

Photos attached from today with her latest flare up

Cut out the fabric softener. Extra rinse in the machine after initial wash.

Sorry if I missed, have you kept a food diary?

I wanted to jump on and say this brings back memories and there is hope. My youngest had absolutely awful eczema. Clawing at it during the night. Blood all over his bedding every morning. All over his body.

Now almost completely clear at age 5. He did grow out of it. We never did establish the cause or found anything that ‘worked’ (other then steroids) the only thing we did realise was that suncream made it significantly worse.

These things helped clear my DC’s eczema:
non bio ecover wash liquid, no fabric conditioner
bath every 3 days rather than every day
No tomatoes
No egg
Child’s farm cream applied every nappy change
The GP was useless, they just kept giving us the greasiest creams which were very itchy and made the eczema worse, I did my own googling and research to find the balance.
DC is now 6 and can eat tomatoes and eggs without a flare up.

Antihistamines. Sometimes you need to cycle through emollients. Eg I'd start using something new and found it worked for several months then stopped working as well so tried something different. After a while we ended up trying something we had used previously and it worked again. Also apply the emollients as often as possible at least four times a day, more if you can. With steroid creams you need to taper off usage rather than abruptly. So if you're applying twice a day drop to once a day for a few days, then every other day before stopping.

We found soltan suncream from boots worked for us. Regular no-bio detergent was also fine and didn't cause any flare ups. Dd has mostly grown out of eczema, however is prone to the odd patch of dry skin at 13.

Hydromol is good. I would also consider allergy testing.

DD had awful eczema all over just over a year ago. Thankfully our GP was very helpful and we tried a few different creams before we found one that worked - lots of them just made things worse. We now use Epimax which has been brilliant for her, and when it was really bad last year a steroid cream for short periods on the worse areas. Loose cotton pyjamas, and scratch sleeves overnight. Making sure the cream has absorbed in before dressing. We have just got through this winter with just keeping on with epimax after baths, and her skin is so much better.

I hope you find some ways to manage it, it's really horrible and they're too young to understand not to scratch.

Salcura bioskin rescue cream (child's range) and the daily barrier spray worked wonders for my little boy. Eczema started at about 5 months old and I discovered that cream recommended on a thread here. It's now pretty much cleared up with the odd flare up that the rescue cream deals with quickly. I initially applied the rescue cream 4 or 5 times with the spray on top a day for the first couple of days. It calmed down and healed really well. Now I only put the spray on after a bath and keep the rescue cream for the occasional flare up

Hi, I'm sorry to hear about your difficulties with eczema. It truly is awful. What worked almost immediately for us was something called The Aron Regime. It is a compound cream and you can get it if you book an appointment with a doctor in North London (by Zoom) called Dr Boyden. The Hill Medical centre Northfield House, Northfield Road ,rear of 117 Stamford Hill, London, N16 5RS (020) 8800 5066. It changed our life and we only needed the cream for a few weeks before our baby's eczema was completely under control.

Another one who ended up going private. Best money we spent. The GP said there was nothing they could do, the dermatologist apologised for the GP’s behaviour.

Are you applying the steroids and emollients at different times? Leave at least a half hour gap so the steroids don’t get diluted.

Child’s Farm, Aveeno did nothing for my DS. He had a cows milk protein allergy which didn’t show up on any testing but he was so symptomatic the allergy consultant said that was it.

Have you tried anti histamines for the itching?

We are Hampshire but travelled to London, well worth it

Hello OP, sorry your little one is going through this. All three of mine have had eczema in some form and I suffer from it as well and have had extremely bad eczema since I was a baby.

With my kids when they were younger, for flare ups I used mometasone steroid cream twice a day. And then because it's a strong steroid, slowly reduce it to twice a day and once a day alternating then once a day and then once every two days and so on.

I found weening very slowly off the cream kept the eczema at bay. I found stopping suddenly altogether would cause flare ups themselves. And then once off the steroid altogether use child's farm or Aveeno baby moisturiser to keep the skin hydrated.

Agree you need to find out if any allergies involved either from something she eats or from something external such as pollen or dustmites. Something is triggering it (though they do often grow out of it).

If external try getting an air purifier in her bedroom. Ecover Zero washing powder too. Sudocreme worked sometimes for mine as well as mild steroid cream.

Keeping notes of all of these creams and remedies so I can cycle through them and hopefully find one that works for her. Im also going to cut out dairy from tomorrow and see if that makes any difference as well as look into a private dermatologist. It's just awful seeing them so uncomfortable isn't it! She cries out all through the night when scratching and always tells me her skin is sore I hadn't heard of scratch sleeves until now so I'll be buying some of those to help her too. Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to post your suggestions x

Not if you're allergic to emollient. I wanted to point this out as many people believe that they cannot be allergic to something that’s prescribed by a GP but you can react to it, as I do. You really should not be trying a thousand different creams, this is a recipe for disaster.

Hi op, DD has the worst eczema I've ever seen. It doesn't bother her but sometimes it looks like burns on her skin. No allergies. She's seen a pead dermatologist and they prescribed steroids and epimax which we use but the best thing we have found is balneum bath oil. The bath needs a good wash out after so you don't slip but it really improves her skin.

We ended up going private and it was great - sorted out DD (then aged 16 months) and got on top of her eczema. To be fair, the GP was as helpful as they could be, but referral to NHS services had a waiting list of years. So we went private and were seen in a couple of weeks.

Ask your GP for this, my now toddler has had it so bad been in and out of hospital since she was a newborn, 2 years old now and completely gone.

I top it up every few baths or showers.

You need to put it all over the body within 3 minutes of towel drying. Very specific but works. Dont rub it in try to slather it on in one direction so as not to spread any infections. And one big scoop for the whole body don't double dip. Clothes on and ready to go. Every time you bathe yout little one until it clears.

It is messy but its the only thing that helped. We went through about 20 doctors until we were referred to specialist hospital nurses who knew what was going on with one look at her. No one told us it was excema. Its horrible can't imagine what you and your little one are going through. We've been through every treatment and cream imaginable and this is the only thing that worked. I wish you luck 🍀

Hi, my little one really struggles with eczema too. Still has massive flares despite seeing a specialist every few months. We’ve seen an allergist and they’ve found no allergies. What is working for sleeping through (like your little one they wake constantly itching) is a drowsy antihistamine that the doctor can prescribe. They are only on it for short courses but it means everyone gets some sleep for a week!

Hey sorry to jump on this post , I’m not sure how to message you can I have details of allergist please

I found a water filter for the bath massively helped! They put so much rubbish in our tap water x

Dupixent

It's an auto injection

DD had eczema for five years (yes), the creams didn't work.

We've seen a massive improvement since using Dupixent

I highly recommend Salcura. No steroid or creams, just this. It has stopped my little one having flares and it used to cover over 50% of their body.

it’s a spray and cream, but it gets to the stage where you just need the spray twice a day and the cream if you notice dryness.

we also used a drowsy antihistamine when things were so bad and they woke constantly through the night. This gave them a chance to sleep and to leave the skin to heal.

Aveeno products made my daughter's eczema so much better and eventually she outgrew it.