Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Children's health

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Baby eczema

4 replies

FinallyFTM · 09/12/2024 21:41

Hello

my 6mo has eczema. We are dairy free, which has helped a little, and GP has done their best to help. After a few different trials we have an ointment that we apply throughout the day, as well as a soap substitute for the bath and a few tubes of steroid cream we can use for bad flare ups. This all helps mildly but she is still intensely itchy, has frequent flare ups and really struggles to sleep. We are fortunate to have some private cover through husband’s work but can’t see a dermatologist until end of January. In the meantime, I’m wondering if experienced eczema mums can offer any advice around making her more comfortable. She is in scratch mittens constantly as she scratches to the point of bleeding whenever hands are uncovered. I do daily oat baths and use coconut oil for her head, which is one of her worst areas. I know food based oils are not recommended but anything else is too heavy and brings back her cradle cap, which makes it all even more uncomfortable. Can you share what you do to help babies with itching? Seeing her so uncomfortable is heartbreaking, and we all need more sleep over here!

OP posts:
Mushroo · 09/12/2024 21:59

Just to say it gets so so much better. I remember being in tears when my little one was 6 months old because her skin was awful and it seemed to coincide with weaning so I was convinced she was allergic to everything.

She’s now 1 and I honestly don’t even think about her eczema, it’s so manageable, so have hope!

What worked for us:

She does have food allergies (peanut and egg) but food allergies don’t cause eczema, so do not cut out any food without actually confirming an allergy - exposure helps prevent allergies forming.

Don’t be afraid of steroids. We sporadically used dabs of hydrocortisone and it did nothing. You have to use it consistently and taper down very gradually. We used eumovate everyday (a stronger steroid) for about a month and then tapered back down to hydrocortisone very very slowly.

We’ve since moved onto a protopic - this is good for preventing flares. We use it once a day in key areas and now don’t use steroids at all.

In the bath we use Dermol 500, try to avoid food based products because you can get allergies through skin.

Apply epaderm cream every nappy change.

use scratch sleeves for every nap and at nap, stops her clawing at her face.

I think the key things were consistent use of a steroid, her body getting used to food as we weaned and just the passage of time. At one point we couldn’t have her in the bath for longer than 2 mins because she would just claw at herself. Now long baths, short sleeves (which was unimaginable at one point) are all ok!

Hang in there.

FinallyFTM · 10/12/2024 01:24

@Mushroo thank you so much for your reply. My husband and I literally had the conversation ‘what if she’s allergic to everything??!’ after giving her carrot tonight and then seeing her skin was so much worse at bedtime! I have been in tears many times seeing her so uncomfortable so your reply is so reassuring.

I think steroids might be key for us but need to see the dermatologist to get some that will make a difference as we only have the hydrocortisone right now.

OP posts:
Mum2So · 10/12/2024 02:13

Would you consider not bathing her daily?

FinallyFTM · 10/12/2024 05:00

@Mum2So hi yes we’ve tried that. Daily oat baths seem to soothe it and without bathing her head particularly gets very itchy but oily/sticky as well as dry. We do have bath breaks every couple of weeks but her skin always looks better with bathing.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread