Eczema and baths

[BillyGoatintheBuff]

Hi, I live in Australia and my dd is 2.5 and has pretty bad eczema. We have been told to limit baths and bathing as this dries out the skin. But she just asks for a bath all the time now and it just breaks my heart to always say no! What does everyone else do? I have read a few things about different oat type washes/bath soaks but I actually think she is allergic to oats.

any ideas or comments gratefully received.

Use something oily like Oilatum bath oil, or greasy like Hydromol/Epaderm which can be used both as a soap in water and a moisturising barrier cream 2 or 3 times a day. Thats the combination that keeps DS1s eczema under control. We rarely have flare-ups needing steroids any more.

Im sure there must be those brands or the equivalent in Aus?

thank you for the reply i will have a look online to see if i can buy these. thank you!

www.fishpond.com.au/c/Beauty/q/oilatum+oil?rid=2116501116

i did a quick google, do you use one of these?

www.fishpond.com.au/c/Beauty/q/oilatum+oil?rid=2116501116

Yes the top one - Oilatum Emollient, 2-3 capfuls per bath.

This is the Hydromol we use. Its very good. We get it all on prescription which is free for DS in UK, I know you can buy it but no idea if its cheaper to buy or get doc to prescribe for you there.

Both Ds (nearly 4 months) and I have eczema. Current recommendations in the uk are actually to have a daily bath with something like oilatum, and then apply an emollient cream on all affected areas. If we keep up to this and apply more emollient every nappy change to his chest, back and creases then we rarely need to use the steroid cream.
The evidence In favour of daily baths is that it helps to soften the outer layer of skin so it comes off rather than hardening and cracking which can then lead to infection.

Another vote here for Oilatum bath formula in the bath water. We get it free on prescription here.

There appears to be mixed advice on how frequently to bathe children with eczema. We were told by out GP to bathe DS just once a week, but some sources recommend daily bathing to help prevent infections.

Bathing in plain water, or using normal soaps, certainly does dry out the skin. Bathing with an emollient soap substitute such as Oilatum doesn't seem to be a problem, particularly if you promptly moisturize the skin afterwards with something like Diprobase ointment.

We started also adding the bottle-recommended amount of Savlon antiseptic (cetrmide 3% and chlorhexidine gluconate 0.3%) after DS's eczema got infected for the first time last year, and it has resulted in a marked improvement in his skin. As soon as we started using it he said it made his skin feel better, even though we've had no further infections after the first incident.

Over here we can get a combination bath emollient and antiseptic called Dermol 600 on prescription, but in our case that didn't seem as effective as the Oilatum plus Savlon. Different products seem to work better for different people, so a certain amount of experimentation might be needed.

Some general advice from the Eczema Society might perhaps be useful:
www.eczema.org/documents/240

Thank you for replies!!!

Dead sea mineral bath salts -amazing !!

fossilmum thanks for the eczema factsheet, very useful. I sometimes find it all very overwhelming and I think that factsheet is pretty helpful. thanks.

I will order some of the oiltum and using it with savlon sounds interesting too.