Excema - how should I treat it?

[AngieL]

My 15 mo daughter has got quite a lot of excema at the moment. She has got a large patch on the side of her face near her eye and it has become infected. She has an immune deficiency and the doctor has now given her oral antibiotics.

He hasn't really told me how I should be treating the excema though and it is weeping and bleeding. Do I put any cream or anything on - I can't use the hydrocortisone at the moment. Should I cover it up, to stop dd scratching it?

Any advice would be great. TIA.

[Pagan]

Don't know if this will help but recently I visited Arran Aromatics. They make lovely smellies and toiletries. They have also just started a line in Baby stuff. Anyway whilst in their factory shop they had various letters on display from thankful, happy customers and one was from a lady saying how their baby barrier cream cleared up her child's exzema within a day. It may work for some but not others but thought it was worth mentioning. Their web site is here

[geordiegirl1]

Hi,

I'm the proud mum to a 4 month old girl, I have just recently started to wean from solely breast feeding to bottle (in preparation for going back to work .

She is still waking during the night to feed (sometimes only 2/3 hours after her last feed). I feel this is just to comfort suck more than to feed, any suggestion for getting into a routine and ending my disturbed nights sleep

[wari]

Hello,

My 5 month old son has eczema, mainly on his face(which is quite bad) but a little over his body. I have tried aqueous cream, diprobase and oilatum but none of it seems to work.

I have used a little Hydrocortisone which was prescribed to me when i was pregnant and it works but am worried to use it because he is so young and because it can cause the skin to thin and can affect the pigmentation. Has any one else used it on the face and on a young baby?

Please has anyone any suggestions on what to do or use and what are the common triggers. I am so stressed about it and it is getting me down. My doctor and HV have not been that helpful.

Am breast feeding, could it be something am eating or using?

Thanks

[mcmum]

hello, my son has had it for 6yrs i have found balneum bath oil and epaderm are fantasic both from your gp. also as summer coming (wishful thinking) you can ask your gp for suncream my gp prescribes Roc total block and have had no problems. my son was allergic to diprobase and aquaeous cream useless. hydrocortosone is fine to use sparingly when skin is red and hot to touch. good luck x

[RDJ2000]

Hi, i am 29, not quite 30 yet, i have had ECZEMA, for 29 years now, i have been hospitalised twice, i have tried reflexology, hypnotherapy, diet experts, allergy experts, chinese herbal remidies, immune suprressants (an extreme treatment), all the steroids, emolients and bath oils i have gotton my hands on, and over the years my skin has gone from fantastic to really bad and then fantastic again, i never really know why it gets better or worse, i know that nothing i ever use works for a long period of time, so i flit between creams and avoid different foods if ive been eating too much of any one thing, this seems to keep things under control, the biggest thing that sets mine off is stress, and who doesn't get stressed!!

Having had years of experience, when my son was born, and also had eczema i thought i had all the answers, no, i was wrong, after months of using all the same treatments and technics, and nothing working we tried other alternatives, only to find he has some allergies, DUSTMITES, cats, nuts etc... The dustmite bed covers, removal of all carpets in the house and anti-dustmite powder has made a significant improvement, so all i can say is you need to be open minded, if a cream works (what ever is in it) go with it!!

My sons skin now is manageable, and thankfully is 80% better than mine was at his age (4), and because we keep it under control he knows little about it and for the time-being is carefree.

On the positive side of things my second son (13m) has the most beautiful skin, of which i am very jealous.

The main ingredient in our skin management program, (doesn't that sound posh) is Doublebase Emolient, Love, Care and Attention.

Good luck to all those trying everything, Eczema is a very clever condition, but we can do it!!!

To WARI, Hydrocortisone is a steroid, but like most things they need to be used for a period of time before they work, you need to be consistent, but use just a little each time, once under control just use the emolients instead.

When feeding my son, i found that his face was triggered by the friction of feeding, so i would put vaseline on his cheek before i fed him.

You could stop using perfumes or perfumed creams deodrants etc, for a while this may not be helping!!!!

[ninamum]

hi, am new user to this.
could you please tell me what cream i should use on my 3 month old boys face for excema? also my husband has severe excema from head to toe. it has turned his skin black, could you tell me if his skin will ever return to its normal colour.

[bubbles4]

i have been using sudocream for more years than i can remember,its a great alternative to hydrocortisone and can be used on the face,it also works on acne for anybody with teenagers

[chapsmum]

sudocrem?
hmmm in that case its prpbably not true eczema they have got.
Sudocrem is not a "alternative" to hydrocortisone.
The treatment of eczeam is a multi approach one.
keep your boys skin care soap free. you can get oliatum or hydromol (emmollients) for the bath. Get these on prescription as they are extortionate over the counter.
Use an emmolient as often as you can, I use epaderm I have heard other mnetters swear by aveno (sp??) these contains no steroids but give continuous moisturisation.
If needs bee ask your gp to prescribe a mild steriod. you can buy 0.5% hydorcortisone from the chemsit (H45) but as your wee one is so young I should think it best a dr cast an eye on his skin if you feel it warrents that.
eczeam will be irritated by aqueous cream and I actually found that sudocrem made the chaps skin worse. puls you dont want him to be smearing that in his eyes.

HTH

[bubbles4]

it is true eczaema ds is 17 years old and has had since baby.i was actually put on to sudocream by health visitor when i questioned the constant use of steroid creams.it is used to reduce the inflamation in the skin and we have found using it has cut our use of betnovate in half.but you also need a good emollient when the inflamation has gone,we use diprobase but it doesnt suit everyone and glycerine soap to wash with.

[manitz]

hi, haven't read whole thread but i had dreadful excema for the first time when pg with dd1 but only on my feet. in the end used aveeno which is oat based. also had baths with oats tied in a muslin cloth. it helped the itching. Hydracortisone also was good.

dd2 has a bit of excema or dry skin. its not in the creases but her skin is rough all over at 16months. i was prescribed oilatum and aqueous cream but i noticed someone said that doesnt work, why is that? her mild excema cleared up but i think as much because we stopped using soap as anything else. it's coming back now, poss hotter weather and sweat???

[bubbles4]

aqueos cream worksforsome people you just have to find an emollient that is right for your child. if rash comes back in hot weather check it is not heat rash, made ds worse by plastering om cream
and stopping the skin brathing

[manitz]

thanks yeah i will. it was doc who said it was excema but i thoght that was only in the creases. however it seems dryer than heat rash usually is.

[bubbles4]

my ds has at various times had excema all over his body. i have finally found awashing powder that does not irritate his skin and only use the pure fabric conditioner, which seems to help.i just find that you have to act at the first signs and dont let things get too bad.

[chapsmum]

aqueous cream in recent studies has been proven to irritate rather than treat eczema

[bubbles4]

havent seen that report but we dont use it as i find diprobase better. does it contain lanolin? my ds cant use e45 cream or anything with lanolin in as it irritates his skin

[bubbles4]

havent seen that report but we dont use it as i find diprobase better. does it contain lanolin? my ds cant use e45 cream or anything with lanolin in as it irritates his skin

[clothears]

Apologies I havent been able to read all the messages her but my dd is also 15 months and started to get little patches of excema about 6/7 months ago, I changed her bath products to Halos and Horns which contains no SLS's which is known to irritate skin (its the stuff that makes bubble bath and body wash foam up!) and started using aqeous cream, all this didnt really help. A friend of mine is allergic to cows milk cause it gives her excema so i tried dd on Goats milk (luckily she didnt notice the change at all!), i stopped yoghurts and used vegetable spread rather than butter etc, 3 weeks into this new system and her skin as soft as when she was newborn. I hope this helps you. :)

[Coolmama]

This might be stating the obvious, but try to limit bath times to every second day - read an article about a woman whose little girl had very bad eczema and so she only had a bath once a week - clearly there was some washcloth washing, but no bathing. Her little girls's skin cleared up in a matter of weeks - my DS used to get these really bad rough patches, and after reading the article I cut baths down to every second day - I use oilatum in the bath and as a cream - have had no problems at all since the new bath regime -

[figroll]

I haven't read all of this thread, mainly because it is so long and eczema no longer affects me (touch wood) - I apologise for being a bit long winded. I had eczema from the age of around 12 until I was about 35. I was covered in it from head to foot and was a real scabby louse. I have some awful pictures of my graduation from uni which I am so embarrassed about.

Anyway, when I was about 30 I joined the eczema Society who are truly brilliant. You get all sorts of advice about how to combat eczema and deal with itchy children, you also get a magazine every couple of months to tell you about the latest research. They recommended using Evening Primrose Oil because there was some research that eczema could have something to do with the metabolism of fats in the body (this is some years ago now). After my second baby I was prescribed evening primrose oil and I took large doses for around 3 months reducing gradually to just one a day. My eczema totally disappeared - and I had serious eczema that was all over me. It was like liberation - the first time ever that I didn't have to soak my bra off at the end of the day (it used to stick to me).

I just thought I would share this with you. I still don't have any eczema - just a tiny patch on one finger. I would really, really recommend the eczema society for anyone battling with this terrible complaint. (I haven't found a cure for the asthma though!!)

[figroll]

Also, there used to be a Danish/Swedish woman called Elena or something who produced creams for babies with eczema. I had some of this and it really was very good - recommend it - didn't get rid of my eczema, but I believe some young children responded very well to it.

[Sallyn2]

My nearly 3 year old daughter gets bad excema triggered by the sun. Someone told me that one of the expensive suncreams - either clarins or clinique is really effective. Has anyone tried either??