Any Oilatum users??

[susanb]

Hi

Have just been recommended Oilatum bath formula by Ezcema nurse for my 3 year old son but after only using it once, his skin has already flared up! Has anyone else had this reaction and if so, what other bath emollients have people found helpful?

My DH has been using it for about 25 years!

He doesn't put it in the bath, but puts it in his hand and 'wipes' it all over his wet body after a shower and then lets it dry. He used to have the most awful dry skin, but it is wonderful most of the time. He used Calmurid cream as well if hi legs start to crack in the winter

Even though I don't suffer with excema or otherwise. I used to bath with a few drops of olive oil and get out feeling very silky. It's also a 'natural' product with no artifical cr*p in it. The only downside is cleaning the bath afterwards, but I guess you get that with all emollient type products.

Unfortunately, can't remember the last time I had a bath - I'm a shower girl now, but could do with a nice soak.

Ds did used to have really dry skin (obviously nothing, compared to exzema) and I started putting 'Eye-Q' oil in his milk, to 'oil' him from the inside and that really helped.

Hi Susan

What other products do you use on your son in the bath? Do you use any other soap for washing him in or for washing his hair in at all? My daughter has also been prescribed this together with some creams for out of the bath. Apparently anything that lathers is bad for a child with eczema.

My dd has eczema and Oilatum definitely makes it worse. Junior Oilatum even more so! A lot of eczema suffers think so. Ditto to E45 products - stay away. I'd advise you to get your chemist to get in some Diprobath - similar stuff but much more benign and use about double what it says on the bottle. I'd stop the Oilatum pronto if he has reacted to it already!
Also use aqueous cream instead of soap, and when washing his hair get him out of the bath and do it over the side with the shower attachment - very boring but otherwise the shampoo will cut through the emollient and all that diprobath effort will be wasted! Should notice a difference to his skin fairly quickly I hope.,..
HTH

Oh no....and thats what a locum doctor has just prescribed for my 20 month old daughter that has it quite bad at the moment!!

Princess is diprobath available off prescription?

Doctor has also prescribed a cream which has steriod in it and has suggested using a small amount but I am loath to use it as my daughter is so young...any suggestions on this one??

yes, don't need a prescription for diprobath (or any emollient really - there are no drugs in them), just get them from chemist. Cheap as well - £4 or so?

I'd use the steroid cream if yo are happy it is a mild one - put a fairly good amount on the affected bits and once they have recovered focus on the emollients and moisturisers etc to try and make sure it doesn't come back. You'll use fewer steroids that way in the long run then dabbing a little bit on the worst affected bits every so often because that way you won't really get it under control.

Does Diprobath come in a small white plastic square shaped bottle? When my daughter was younger she had a patch of exzema on her face and something was prescribed for her bath and it was brilliant. So brilliant that it cleared up and we no longer needed to use it.

However it then returned but when I visited the locum to find out what was prescribed he has said there is no record of it on her notes!

Umm... white plastic (well that white plastic that you can sort of see through) but round bottle. Burgundy label. I'm sure there are other benign emollients but I've always stuck to Diprobath because it has worked for us. So sorry can't think what might be square!

We had exactly the same thing with Oilatum (funnily enough I could say the same about everything we ever had on prescription) - but the Eucerin bath emollient (which we have to pay for) seems to work quite well for DS. We use the Eucerin creams/lotions too - you can get some free samples from here .

I'm suspicious that oilatum has never been much help to my children's eczema either. And I've definitely heard other people insist that it does more harm than good. But I still use it, because I haven't found anything better. So I, too, am reading these suggestions with interest.

We were fine with oilatum, hell on bath mats though. I agree about E45, it didn't help any of us. We found Aqueous cream the best for post bath moisturising, and I have also used it before the bath to wash them. It is a case of finding what suits your ds best, and then sticking to it.

Balneum comes in a square white bottle, this is often prescribed as a bath additive for children with eczema.

Oilatum (and Balneum) really aggravate my son's eczema. We just use plain water now, then apply lots of emollient when he gets out.

IMO it is better to use a steroid cream fairly liberally in the early stages rather than let the eczema spread. If it spreads, more or stronger steroids are inevitable needed.

I agree about the oilatum, it only made it worse for dd. Balneum has helped a little but what seems to have solved it finally is a regime of:

aqueous cream smeared all over dry body while waiting for bath to run
Bath made with balneum
aqueous cream used again for 'washing' any obviously grimy bits and rinsed off well
Diprobase cream used on worst areas once out of bath and dried gently

We do have flare-ups, usually after swimming or after trying any Johnson & Johnson product (especially the baby lotion - it's Agent Orange IMO!!), but in between times we too just use plain water for bathing and only a tiny amount of very mild shampoo. Dd has quite thick hair and sometimes it looks a little 'lardy' after a treatment like above, but my vanity about her looks is a small price to pay!

Olive oil is a good idea though - hadn't thought of using it, so will give it a go when the balneum next runs out.

Good luck, susanb, and all you mums of crispy babies!

Susanb - I had Oilatum for myself when I was a child and I dont' remember it making much difference to me. My ds has been prescribed Diprobase bath and Diprobase cream. It really cleared his excema up. And the cream was great for the nappy region too.

Yes its Balneum, that name triggered a bell. It really worked well for my daughter. Had a look at the big tub of cream I have for my daughter and that is Diprobase but so far it doesnt seem to be doing all that much.

Added to which she has a little dry skin above her mouth which is difficult to put cream on as she is always batting my hand away!

Thanks everybody for your replies. At the moment I put aqueous cream on ds every day after his bath and use Fucibet sparingly if needs be. He also has an anti histamine before bed if he's really itching alot and to top all that off, we're also trying chinese herbal medicine!! (too early to say if its a success).

Going off on a tangent, I've also noticed that high yeast products (like Marmite) sets him off. Anyone else kids have food allergies?

My son also reacts to Marmite, I assumed it was the high salt content. He reacts to contact with most ready made sauces, ketchup, baked beans etc so we tend to avoid them. His reaction is normally confined to his mouth region and hands if he has got the sauce on his fingers. Then there are the nut allergies, he reacts differently to nuts, his whole body is affected and several times he has been very ill indeed. You will find a few of us here on Mumsnet who have children with food allergies. Do a search and you will find previous threads on the subject. HTH

My ds had some dry eczema-ish patches when younger and the hv recommended E45 - what a mistake. Flared up worse straight away. I would say stick to natural products if poss. Olive oil, shea butter etc seem to work for my ds. Looking at the ingredients of things like E45 and Oilatum was enough to put me off. Liquid parafin - just sounds so wrong. Hope you find something that works for your ds.

ds has severe eczema made worse by oilatum, diprobath. slight improvement with AVEENO colloidal bath oil and cream, it's oatmeal based and seems free of nasties. Available on prescription. Icthopaste bandages give a good moisture surge, too. Good luck.

i would second the use of aveeno,only thing to work in our house.