First of all - I know this is a medical question and I need to follow GP‘s advice, but I have spoken to a GP and following a call last week, I am now confused.
3yr old son has had eczema for the past 18months or so and has a prescribed steroid cream. Now recently I was aware that we have been using the steroid cream a lot. So we‘d have a break for a few days, or so, or cut down to just once before bed, then leave it a day before using it again etc, but it always comes back red and itchy (waking him up in the morning) so then we use it again. I mentioned this when I requested a new prescription and then had a follow up call with a GP, who asked what I had been using when I wasn‘t using the steroid cream and I mentioned the Aveeno cream for eczema (light blue one). He said I should try an ointment instead, which he prescribed. I should use that for two weeks or so and then we would review. So this is what we have done. It turns out he prescribed something similar to Hydromol, which we‘ve had before and I stopped using because it seemed to make the area rather clogged / spotty and stopped working after a while. We‘re now day 7 of no steroid cream. Son is itchy and uncomfortable and grumpy with it. It looks red and uncomfortable and he has also got little pimples from it too. Not an allergic reaction I don‘t think, but just spots from being doused in thick mineral oil… He said, and any health professional I have spoken to says the same, that I should just be using the steroid cream for acute redness etc. but they don‘t seem to respond when I tell them that the acute redness comes back a few days after discontinuing use of the cream, even if I’ve phased it out gently or the eczema was practically gone when I stopped it. So I wonder, if I could speak to him today, what the doctor would say I should do today? Please see also, the attached photos - although I think it looks a bit worse in real life. Is this an acceptable level of eczema to just power through with the ointment, until I see the doctor again in a week’s time, or should I put some steroid cream on? Can anyone help? Photo is what his neck & leg looks like this morning, but he has patches on his inner elbows, around his anus, armpits too…. Sorry for bad picture quality - he was wriggling!