Excema and salt water

[GooseyLoosey]

Ds has quite bad excema on his legs. Took him to the beach at the weekend and he paddled in the water. Excema has dried out and scabbed over. Mother and dh both say that we should try putting him in salt water baths to see if this works and mother and grandmother swear that salt water is a well known cure for such things.

I would prefer almost anything to steroid and antibiotic creams but somehow I'm not keen on this as it seems to me that it must hurt (rubbing salt in wounds and all that).

Does anyone have any ideas whether this will work or not?

phd - is it itchy skin on your bump? sounds like what i had when pg - murderous itching, used to make me cry at night. if so, have you tried bicarb in the bath? worked a bit for me!

can't really bear thought of a bath at the moment - water is unpleasant and rash gets much worse when I'm warm - on the other hand... ANYTHING for a itch-free night!!!

did yours break out as eczema olivo? it's not just itchy, I look like a scabby hippo!

Poor things. I have really bad eczema, started when I was a baby, and it's pretty bad at the moment.

Not sure about seawater, I grew up on anglesey and every time I went to the beach I'd come back with sore red raw legs and arms from the water, but in hindsight that could have been from the pollution...there was always big yellow foamy drifts of gunk near the edge of the waves. Anyhow, I've never been brave enough to go in the sea since for fear of triggering it all off again. Perhaps a salt bath might work?

I find when it's really bad the best thing to do is go to the doctors and get yourself sorted with the right cream and be militant about applying it several times a day, take antihistamines even if you aren't suffering with hayfever, take cool baths containing emulsifying ointment which really takes the soreness out, and try to avoid getting sweaty or using any kinds of perfumes, deodorants or body lotions which aren't absolutely basic. No amount of shea butter enriched intensive care moisture potions ever did my rashes any good!

I find oils and aqueous creams a lot of the time don't let my eczema breathe so I start up with an angry bumpy unbearable rash like hives where I had just red itchy skin Lovely!

phd, mine was kind of raised, scaly and really dry, in amongst my stretch marks - attractive!! i tried every cream going, a cool bath with bicarb helped for a bit, and i had to put ice packs and things in my bed - i was a wreck ! i also took an antihistamine ( i forget which, might it have been piriton?) at night - didnt do much - and went for accupuncture - really helped with the itching. thank god it was only for the last 6 weeks of my pg, i'd have gone crazy if it has been longer.

oh and by the way, bio oil and stuff just irritated it!

I use these to remove the chlorine from the bathwater before adding a couple of handfuls of table salt.
i find that if the solution is dilute enough, it doesn't sting

don't know if anyone's still watching this thread, but thought you might appreciate knowing - the eczema? disappeared the day LO was born. I mean the same day! There are brown marks where it was, but they have healed and no longer itch. Hope that works for someone else...