Parents of babies with eczema, how do you cope?

[Hope54321]

How do you cope with the lack of sleep? The constant stress and anxiety? I feel like I’m so overprotective as my baby reacts to a lot of things and when I put him on the floor in someone else’s house he scratches like mad. I don’t take him anywhere other than my mum’s, but I really want to take him to play group and feel like I can’t as he just can’t stop scratching.

We are under a dermatologist at the moment and the eczema always returns after we stop using steroids as my baby has multiple triggers. He’s been booked in for allergy testing next month.

Hi. My lo eczema cleared once he was diagnosed with cmpa. Its a quite common symptom of dairy allergy, his pediatrician told me that. Dairy or soya or both. Has he got any allergy?

@Tbird5

Hi. My lo eczema cleared once he was diagnosed with cmpa. Its a quite common symptom of dairy allergy, his pediatrician told me that. Dairy or soya or both. Has he got any allergy?

He doesn’t have dairy and soya in his diet and neither do I as I’m breastfeeding, but he still flares up.

How old is he @Hope54321. Sounds really tough. We are still early in the steroid journey and hoping it helps.

I've been using aveeno colloidal lotion and it's worked a dream for my DS (diprobase only worked for small areas).
Still has patches but they are under control, I use the cream morning and night quite thickly.

Also been using Oilatum and Oats in a sock in the bath which seems to be helping a lot as well (if very messy), the Oats create this slimy emollient.
I've stopped using shampoo as it caused his skin to flare up, but I do use body wash if he's very dirty. I also only bathe him twice a week unless he's had a nappy explosion or something and make sure that the water is not too hot.
It's just one of those things you have to keep on top of.

It was hard. Really hard. Poor baby trying to scratch the skin off herself.

Anyway, we moisturised every nappy change, got loose organic cotton clothes with flat seams to reduce irritation and scratch sleeves. The doctor prescribed hydracortozine for really bad flare ups, which worked well. Eventually she grew out of it and only has occasional flares since.

I used Piriton with ds when his excess was bad, stopped him itching and sleepiness is a handy side effect as he was so much more irritable with it when it kept him awake. Also did wet bandaging on erras where there were deep cracks ( loads of emollient, sports tape( to keep it moist) then guaze. It can be breeding ground for infection if not careful so I'd get a wound care nurses advice ( that tip came from a nurse)

@Shamoo

How old is he *@Hope54321*. Sounds really tough. We are still early in the steroid journey and hoping it helps.

He is 9 months old. It’s extremely difficult.

@NotMyselfWithoutCoffee

I've been using aveeno colloidal lotion and it's worked a dream for my DS (diprobase only worked for small areas). Still has patches but they are under control, I use the cream morning and night quite thickly.

Also been using Oilatum and Oats in a sock in the bath which seems to be helping a lot as well (if very messy), the Oats create this slimy emollient.
I've stopped using shampoo as it caused his skin to flare up, but I do use body wash if he's very dirty. I also only bathe him twice a week unless he's had a nappy explosion or something and make sure that the water is not too hot.
It's just one of those things you have to keep on top of.

I used aveeno dermexa for months before.

I use oilatum in the bath and have used oats. Oats seem soothing.

@PleasantBirthday

It was hard. Really hard. Poor baby trying to scratch the skin off herself.

Anyway, we moisturised every nappy change, got loose organic cotton clothes with flat seams to reduce irritation and scratch sleeves. The doctor prescribed hydracortozine for really bad flare ups, which worked well. Eventually she grew out of it and only has occasional flares since.

We are using eumovate when he flares up and betnovate if eumovate doesn’t work. We also use scratch sleeves and have to even cover his hands during the day. We also moisturise at least 8 times a day with hydromol.

@kitkat463

I used Piriton with ds when his excess was bad, stopped him itching and sleepiness is a handy side effect as he was so much more irritable with it when it kept him awake. Also did wet bandaging on erras where there were deep cracks ( loads of emollient, sports tape( to keep it moist) then guaze. It can be breeding ground for infection if not careful so I'd get a wound care nurses advice ( that tip came from a nurse)

We use allerief when I think he’s flaring as a result of food or touching something in his environment. It takes away the inflammation on his face usually.

I don't have eczema or a child with it, but I can only imagine how tough it would be. The constant itching and scratching must be really awful.

Lots of hydracortisone twice a day. 0.5% face and 1% body. GPs tell you that you should use it sparingly but if you speak with a consultant paediatrician, they will tell you that it is very weak so you can be liberal with it. Aveeno 30 mins afterwards and put it on many times over the day. It generally improves with age. Mine did and my 14 mo baby's has too. Good luck!

@FingersXssd83

Lots of hydracortisone twice a day. 0.5% face and 1% body. GPs tell you that you should use it sparingly but if you speak with a consultant paediatrician, they will tell you that it is very weak so you can be liberal with it. Aveeno 30 mins afterwards and put it on many times over the day. It generally improves with age. Mine did and my 14 mo baby's has too. Good luck!

My dermatologist told us not to use aveeno as it has additives. I thought it was better than most of the ointments prescribed by the gp.

Avenno dermexa is the only thing I have found that works. Anything the GP prescribed made it worse and gave terrible flare ups. I don't use anything in the bath with DS and like you only try and bathe him twice a week. I use surecare washing powder and stopped wearing perfume or make up as that made him worse as well. Eczema is horrible to watch on little ones. Hopefully you will find a combination that works for you.

It's very difficult and some people really don't understand the difference between a bit of baby dry skin and the problem you describe. It nearly drove me mad. At one point I would have punched the next person you suggested bloody Childs Farm moisturiser.

The dermatologist will help you, just give it a little time. Allergy testing was the game changer for us. You are doing so well breastfeeding on an exclusion diet, I remember all to well how hard that is.

My daughter is 3 now and you would never know how hard her start in life was.

It's so so tough. I feel like I have a bit of PND from the time of not sleeping and screaming and crying all night long. It did however get mostly better.
Allergy testing helped we identified egg and milk allergies. I am completely strict with my diet (breastfeeding) we are also really strict on cleaning and creaming which when we were so tired was falling by the wayside.

You will get into a better place! We are 14 months now and he had occasional flares and a bit of a red baseline but manageable

My daughter developed excema over her whole body at 5 months, it got much worse after we started weaning. We tried loads of stuff (prescription steroid creams, changing bath toiletries so many times, all the moisturisers and emollients) but eventually realised that food set it off, bananas, carrots being the worst culprits. We cut them out and her skin calmed down dramatically. Once it mostly healed, we used moogoo bath cream and their excema moisturiser to keep on top on it. She still has flare ups but we treat with steroid creams initially, then up the moisturisers. Good luck!

@FFSAllTheGoodNamesAreGone

Avenno dermexa is the only thing I have found that works. Anything the GP prescribed made it worse and gave terrible flare ups. I don't use anything in the bath with DS and like you only try and bathe him twice a week. I use surecare washing powder and stopped wearing perfume or make up as that made him worse as well. Eczema is horrible to watch on little ones. Hopefully you will find a combination that works for you.

I used aveeno dermexa for a long time. Currently using a tiny amount of surecare and washing clothes at 60 with an extra rinse. I’ve stopped using anything scented myself.

My son had awful eczema as a baby and young child and is now a big strapping 22 year old (still with a bit of eczema). I still remember the anguish of seeing him suffer when he was little, so my heart goes out to you. I recall my health visitor trying to reassure me by pointing out a happy little boy at the clinic, and telling me he had had the same skin problems and it WILL get better. Finding the right routine for you will come. Sending you all positive thoughts and hugs

It's really, really tough and I completely sympathise with you. It's a chronic condition so not like when they have an ear infection and then are better within a week. It's constant. Applying the cream, antihistamines, cleaning to avoid dust etc etc.

People used to say 'oh, she'll grow out of it' which is all well and good but that doesn't stop it being utterly heartbreaking with bad eczema on your child!

DD was 2 when she started with it and she had improved though now she's older.

Things that we found helped were super strong steroids, antihistamines, cool quick showers, less sugar and constant moisturiser.

We did allergy testing and she has hay-fever, dust allergy and allergy to certain trees. Spring is a pain.

Using aveeno and oats soaked through socks in my DD baths were the only way we got on top of it. Hers was not food allergy related though so may be different experience from others in that way. All other products doctor prescribed aggravated it and therefore it was trial and error until I found aveeno worked for her. Have you tested products on their own only for a certain period to see it one in particular may help?

There was not the number of different versions of aveeno when my DD was a baby though and it was the standard aveeno products along with bath oil they used to do (can't seem to find this now but it was great). My Dd is now 10 and although she still only uses aveeno products, I have found some of the new product variations to be a little more harsh than what we have always used. For that reason I reverted back to using the standard aveeno products and found them to be purer if that makes sense.

Good luck and hope your baby's skin gets better and settles down soon.

My son had very severe eczema we peeled the sheets of him in the morning. He had to be seen by a dermatologist, things I think made the difference were:

• the dermatologist said “eczema is a condition that babies have and their parents suffer”. Huge element of truth there, I got stress induced eczema just a couple of years ago, had I not being so aware of the amount of scars I was creating with every scratching, I would have even enjoy it .

• the dermatologist insisting that keeping a good routine was essential to reduce stress as that would make it worse, which was true everytime that the routine went a bit lose it changed the eczema flared up badly.

• she also suggested keeping the nails very short rather than covering babies hands.

• lower the temperature, when they are too hot they sweat and when they do they flare.

• don’t be afraid of the corticoids, use as much as the doctor tells you, the sooner you break the cycle, the last damage to the skin.

• remember, young children skin heals faster and better than ours. DS got chicken pox and having eczema it was so bad I thought he was scarred for life, 18 months later he didn’t have a single scar.

• check their diet and the environment (DS eczema resolved when he went dairy free, but every child is different) but remember many grow out of it so in the mean time keep ensure they get their ointments on time and cover them in moisturiser every time you change their nappies.

Aveeno baby soothing relief emollient cream and burts bees baby bee bath and hair and avoiding soaps as much as possible as often detergents can trigger eczema, for DD, so using Dove sensitive soap bar and soap nuts in washing.

For DS private consultation with a derm consultant who had written about eczema in the times, he gave us a prescription for a cream which was steroids/emoilents/something else mixed into one and it worked miracles in clearing up DS’s facial eczema permanently