advice needed to combat very dry flaky skin on 4 month old's face

[BrandonsMummy]

Hi all, DS1 is 4 months and has extremely dry flaking skin on his forehead, eyebrows and now spreading down to cheeks, the dry patches often look sore and blotchy. I only wash his face with cotton wool and warm water. Baby lotion seems to make his skin worse. Baby oil applied to wet skin after his wash or bath seems to help temporarily but the skin is dry and flaking again within hours. Any suggestions???

Olive oil from the chemists (not the cooking kind)

My son's skin on his face has always been like that (5 mths) and it didn't improve with just normal washing, or with using baby oil or E45/Oilatum.

The doc has given us Dermol cream and now each morningI firmly but gently wipe/exfoliate his skin with wet cotton wool pads to remove the dead skin cells/flakes from overnight and then put on the Dermol cream, and then apply several times a day and then in his bath at night I wipe his face firmly (but gently!) with a wet flannel.

As long as I keep this routine up his skin is (touch wood) virtually back to how it should be.

The baby lotion is very highly fragranced so will def irritate his skin. Olive oil tbh doesn't have the staying power required for this sort of thing : )

try coconut oil; its almost eradicated my dd's flaxy scalp and dry skin on her face; easily absorbed and non-irriating.

baby oil has lots of nasties in it so not fit for dry skin conditions.

Your DS might have eczema. I got Doublebase cream on prescription for my DDs eczema. We also use pawpaw ointment, which has made a huge difference (available from www.pawpawshop.co.uk)

brandonsmummy

HAve you bee to the GPs about the rash - or shown it to your HV? It does sound like eczema. I am wondering if it is the shampoo you are using? I would suggest you just bathe your ds in water - we didn't use any soap on dd2 until she was a toddler!

I now use Halo & Horns products which work for us - but used diprobase when dd2 was a baby.

Thanks for the tips! I got some olive oil and its working better than anything else I've tried. Showed dry skin to our nurse at DS's vaccination appointment and she said to make GP appointment if olive oil does not improve skin condition within a week.