Ezcema help please

[Fourlittlepiggies]

My 5 month old has terrible ezcema. I have been to the GP twice and 2 different pharmacies and we are getting nowhere. Does anyone have any suggestions as to things that actually help/ work.

She is ebf and I have given up all dairy and oats for the last 3 months (we had her allergy tested privately). We wash her clothes in 60c water (no washing powder). What else can we do? Her body is covered but her creases (leg and arm rolls, behind her ears etc) are red raw and weepy, and in the last week her belly button has gone the same. She has it round her mouth which cracks/ bleeds/ peels off every few days, and I’m worried she will end up with scarring on her face.

I feel like I’m letting her down by not getting it sorted, so any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

I use Aveeno baby cream on my dd. Keeps it under control

Back to GP and request a referral to a paediatric dermatologist. GP won't want to prescribe the usual steroid-based options at such an young age - ours was the same, but did agree to refer since they couldn't prescribe themselves. The dermatologist gave us something called protopic, a tacrimolius ointment, and it cleared the eczema in months. You can't get it from GP, so you need to see the consultant.

I'd also recommend scratchsleeves - ScratchSleeves | Scratch Mitts That Work For Babies & Children https://share.google/0biJyf3wQMK2SQnhT

I promise she won't scar. My DD is 7 now and she barely ever even flares up, no scarring - the photos show her face at 6 months Vs now

Thank you so much, this gives me hope. I will order some scratch mitts! Did it take a long time to see a dermatologist? I am wondering if we should pay the excess on our private health care to see someone sooner.

@Nibletmum I tried aveeno but think it’s made with oats (?) which she has an intolerance to as well.

https://hollowoakstores.co.uk/product/all-over-balm-honey/
i got this balm for my 12 year old on a whim and it’s been brilliant. We were in a cycle of using a steroid cream which cleared it up, spent a few weeks in the clear, then it would come back worse, back to the doctors for more steroid cream and repeat.
Now that he’s a teenager he obviously has to shower every day, but when he was little we found only bathing him when necessary helped, so he would have a quick dunk in the bath a couple of times a week.
I use non bio washing powder, wash everything on a 40 then do a rinse and spin cycle so there’s less chance of soap powder residue. We also only dry his clothes/bedding inside so there’s less chance of his clothes picking up anything that might be irritating (he also gets hayfever so this help with that).
I really hope you find something that helps, eczema is the worst thing we’ve seen our son deal with, worse than any of the typical childhood illnesses-at least most are a week of being poorly then they are done, eczema seems to be never ending!!

Moogoo helped here, definitely eased everything and we used le roc posay lipikar wash. I would say specialist though x

If you can, pay to see a private dermatologist. They will explain/prescribe you what is needed and create a management plan.

We still have occasional flare ups but these are now well managed and disappear quickly. We use double base dayleve as a moisturiser (depending on the situation either once per day or more often), then for severe flare ups a steroid cream, and elidel cream for maintenance where necessary.

Thanks everyone. I will get onto the GP in the morning/ see if we can see someone privately if needed.

My first girl had severe discoid eczema and they prescribed her steroid creams at 6m old until she was 18m. I will be honest and I’m not saying there is any link, but she had no eczema at all (also ebf) until she had her vaccines which she had a bad reaction too and subsequently had awful eczema. Childs farm helped but eventually she outgrew it at around 3. I was only 21 with no support so just followed docs advice.

My youngest also started developing it around 2/3 months however she did have a dairy intolerance. Cutting back made no difference though and doctors refused to test her. We got scratch sleeves which were a god send, used aveeno oat bath and only bathed her once a week, then used the baby oat cream with sudocrem mixed in and hers started to look better. When I started weaning her however, she had a severe reaction to eggs; a staple in my diet so it was probably that. Along with allergies to tomato and blueberries. Also, we can only have her in cotton. Any other material sets her off. We also have moved as our house was quite old and we believe had mold, as we always had snotty noses etc. None of that since either.

Could you go private for testing to see if your little one has allergies? My youngest does have the odd flare up but it’s manageable with things listed above.

sending hugs as I know it’s awful to see them in pain 🫶🏼

If it is weepy then back to the GP asap. When my daughters was like weeping she needed antibiotics as it became infected.

In terms of the eczema I am afraid I think at the stage it is now, I think only steroid cream will help.

Weeping should see a prescription for a mild steroid.

Epaderm junior works wonders on my daughter

My son had full body, weeping, bleeding ezcema from 4-6 months of ag3. It was torture for both of us. This was during Covid and no one would see him and I was crying down the phone for help.

The NHS GP was utterly useless and kept recommending different moisturisers. I would apply a thick layer and it would genuinely be gone in 5 seconds. I applied it every 30 minutes (day and night) for 3 days and the skin was worse.

All this to say, we saw a private derm who issued topical steroids and his skin was normal in 2 days. I genuinely wept with relief.

Sadly he does have several IgE food allergies, likely caused by the amount of time he had the open eczema. New research suggests when the food enters the skin before the mouth, this causes the allergy.

Current advice is to start weaning from 17 weeks if baby has bad eczema. Introduce all 'top allergens' early and keep giving them.

I’m sorry you went through this too. Could you tell me the name of the steroid cream that worked please? We’ve had lots of moisturisers from the GP and 2 different body washes and they all seem to make it worse. The body ezcema was much better when I changed my diet but something has sparked it in the last couple of days and I can’t figure out what.

Also, does anyone have a recommendation for a paediatric dermatologist? We are in S London.

Just querying the private allergy testing OP.
Was it IgE testing? Skin pricks and blood tests?
That’s what you need, done by medical professionals.
Patch tests may also be used if contact dermatitis is suspected.

Some of the private testing looks at things like IgG instead and gives false results!
It’s very important to get the correct type of testing done. And as pp said, children with eczema are more prone to developing food allergies and it’s often advised to introduce allergenic foods earlier rather than later to try to mitigate this. This can help reduce the chances of developing food allergies.

Hydromol twice a day the waxy stuff you can buy over the counter. Then hydrocortisone 1% but that is prescribed.

It is a few years ago but I think it was the Elocon that worked really well for us

I remember being reluctant to use steroids on such a yoing baby but felt silly after, when it worked so well.

I think the main risk with steroids is when people use them for months and months with no break. We would use teeny amounts for short periods, as needed.

When my 2nd baby developed her first patches of eczema at 3 months, I put a teeny bit on and she never developed more eczema!