Eczema in babies...daily bath or not?

[Mumcah]

my 11 month DS has mild to moderate excema which is now covering his whole body.
We use Epiderm/diprobase to moisturise.Oilatum and aqueaous in the bath and steroids when necessary.
As for bathing the nurse practitioner told me that daily baths are actually a good thing.I just wondered what other people's experiences are with regarding a daily bath?
His bath takes about two minutes as he scratches like mad once his clothes are off.
Any other general advice greatly received.

They are not, we were told to bath weekly or risk drying skin out further, so advice seems to vary according to the personal opinion of the HV, Nurse etc - it certainly seemed best for DD

Have you looked into possible food links to his problems?? - DDs excema turned out to be caused by chemical food additives, once they were cut out, it cleared up completely, others seem to have problems with Dairy, or even just lactose

We found lavender oil, epsom salt & oats in her bath did help sooth it before we realised the cause & theres an oat based cream - not sure but think its Aveeno - I'm sure someone can correct that, but whatever it is, I've read on here that a lot seem to swear by it

ar bless him
no need for a daily bath, how dirty can he be?!
Calendular cream worked for us, not a miracle cure, but it made it a bit better

Aveeno do a bath soak - but your wee one will come out smelling of porridge

DS2 has very mild excema on his elbows and Aveeno cream works a treat. We have to avoid normal baby bath stuff completely; it's horrifying how quickly his arms flare up if he's dipped in Johnsons (or Tesco) baby bath. I use Halo 'n' horns (wash his hair with it as well).

We try to only bath (or swim with) 14mo DS twice weekly as you can really notice the difference in his skin but it is tricky nowadays as he does get very dirty. I try to avoid processed food as something in them seems to set him off too but I don't know what! His excema is much better now though, more just rough than red and raw as it has been in the past but I want to keep it that way. I have dry/sensitive skin and try to shower/bath as little as is hygienically possible as it effects my skin too but I know people who swear by daily soaks with oilatum/aveeno.

Why don't you try it both ways for a month each and see what suits your DS best?

Thanks all,lots of food for thought there.

There's been a lot of information lately in press saying that aqueaous cream can actually make eczema worse. They did a study using it on people with healthy skin and found it even made their skin worse.

If the eczema could be hayfever related or your lo does get grubby for some reason then a bath can be quite important. Gets rid of the pollen and can also help to prevent infected eczema. TBH I think it depends on the child and agree that trying with and then without is the only way to really judge for your DS.

DS is 2.10 and this is what has helped him: add some of this in the bath
and use chickweed cream.
I have cut down baths to twice a week.

I agree that you can only find out through trial and error. It is probably worth keeping a simple diary, including brief summaries of food. Of course not all eczema is dietary or environmental but sometimes removing a simple trigger can make it possible to keep under control.

Another thing I do, as an adult who Should Know Better, is to keep my finger nails short and moisturise them so they are really soft if I have any itches.

Hi,
I came on here to hopefully find some tips on whether my 7 month old son could have eczema. His cheeks, arms, elbows, legs, behind his knee's and below his chest have dry scabby and some times inflamed patches. If I use absolutely anything on his skin, it all flares up and his skin feels like its burning. If nothing has irritated it then the patches are usually bright red and look sore and scabby, the patches are small but very close together and some look like they are joined. I have taken him to the doctors endless amounts of times because it got to the point where he didnt want to be touched but they kept fobbin me off with 'bath him every day' and 'use this cream..use that cream' and tried to tell me its just dry skin! I have used aqueous cream, oilatum, epiderm and E45 for toddlers and babies and everythin makes it inflamed and seems to dry his skin out more! I dont know where to turn to now, spring/summer is approachin and I'am dreadin it for his sake :(

Try and not bath him all the time as this dries out the skin and don't use bath products as this can effect the skin. Good luck I know what its' like been there with my kids.

Rather than using creams try a greasey ointment like hydromol - worked wonders for ds.