Having to use steroids on baby frequently.

[Hope54321]

I’m so exhausted and can’t seem to think of what else to do regarding my baby’s eczema. He grabs his skin and pulls so hard, he does this for hours, especially at night. I do all the following, but he still has itchy skin:

1. eliminates trigger food from his and my own diet as I’m breastfeeding.

2. wash bedding at 60 and change bedding weekly.

3. vaccum frequently and vaccum the mattress.

4. mop at least once a weak.

5. wet wipe furniture a lot.

6. avoid turning on central heating

7. only stick to cotton clothing

8. use a tiny amount of surecare and wash at 60

9. moisturise at least every 2 hours, even more if required with hydromol ointment.

10. keep baths very short and bath with junior oilatum bath additive.

11. allerief medicine if he’s too itchy.

Despite doing all of this, I still feel the need to use steroids on my baby at least twice a week as he just can not sleep due to the severe itching.

I avoid taking him to places as he reacts to his environment and ends up just scratching non stop.

I can’t carry on like this. Please help.

My DD was VERY eczema-y as a baby - I really recognise what you are going through - and she is now just turned 18. So here is the long perspective:

1. Your list of things you are doing sounds absolutely spot on. You can only do what you can do. Definitely don’t fear the steroid creams. We had to be quite aggressive on (a lot of) occasions with DD including on her face, but she now is an entirely normal teen and has never had any lasting issues. Honestly, you need to embrace it. For us the steroid cream was the only thing that made a difference.

1. Look for triggers, but also don’t drive yourself mad looking for triggers. We were advised to cut dairy which really helped, and through trial and error we found that the raw-er the dairy the greater the impact. Milk was a no, and cream was the most direct route to a breakout. Yoghurt was less of a problem, hard cheese ok in small quantities. That took time to establish and everyone is different. Central heating for us was another trigger, plus generally being under the weather - if DD had a cold her eczema flared badly, it was like her body could only “deal” with one thing at a time.

We had a great dr who said observe it curiously and respond to what you see, but accept that there will also be triggers you never get to the bottom of. I think that is really good advice.

1. SO: don’t drive yourself mad looking for a single problem and a single cure. It’s very likely multi-factorial. I would say dealing with dairy made it about 40-50% better. But honestly ignore all of those adverts etc saying they had one thing - Chinese herbal medicine, a new cream etc - and it was transformational. Recognise you are dealing with percentages.

1. I had to stop breastfeeding. It’s a personal choice, and i did it for about 4-5 months, but my dr said it was much easier to work out what was triggering DD from what she was directly taking in rather than from what I was taking in as well. We had to go on to a specific formula which I did not like and found a bit upsetting but it was definitely best for her. DD is now healthy, well fed, has lots of GCSE’s and is generally co operative - 12 months on a spooky formula has not adversely impacted on her health, development or our bond.

If I could offer one bit of advice it would be do what makes your DC comfortable here and now. Time really does help. My DD grew out of the acute phase by about 4, which I believe is very common. She still has occasional flare ups (surprise - her skin doesn’t love cheap fake tan from Superdrug!) and we have Betnovate available plus will always be major buyers of Aveeno, but Betnovate is really a once every 6 months occurrence - it honestly will get better.

I use stronger steroids for a short period.
Plus different emollients work for different people. I swear by diprobase. The kids by Dermol and mum by Doublebase. You may need to try different ones.

Also, make sure they understand the steroid ladder to you so you can taper off properly. Sounds like a PP may not have known it hence stopping making the eczema worse. It can rebound, that's why you should have different strengths to help bring the flare under control quickly and then use milder doses with a bigger time gap to ensure no rebound.

Another cream worth a try if you haven't already is La Roche Possay Lipikar Baume AP. It's suitable from newborn and helped massively on our little one.

Eczema not improving with treatment is likely to be reaction to allergen, was he blood tested for allergies? Intolerance to dairy is also very common and can result in bad eczema which doesn't improve with treatment, how are his nappies?
Stereoids are here to get in under control, but these will not cure the problem, if it keeps coming back it's likely he is exposed to the trigger.

@SquigglePigs

Would him sleeping in little cotton gloves help so he can't scratch himself at night so it reduces the aggravation?

He wears cotton bodysuits with mitts built in so this should prevent him from damaging his skin. My main concern is it’s so itchy he can’t sleep or wakes up from sleep frequently.

@Whathefisgoingon

No personal experience but Balmonds skin salvation is meant to be great and was develops by a mum whose kid was suffering badly with eczema. I’ve heard greet things about it.

I’ve tried balmonds, it made his skin red.

@Sidge

Steroid fear is often responsible for poorly controlled eczema. Understandably, but unnecessary. Damaged skin from badly managed eczema is far more harmful than mild steroid use, even over a prolonged period of time. Broken skin has the potential to get infected easily, and as you have seen causes distress and discomfort.

Use the steroids as necessary, and once the skin is calm continue them for a further 2-5 days. Use emollients frequently and liberally.

Restricting the diet excessively isn’t necessarily safe either and ought to be done under specialist advice, especially for an under 2 year old.

Please don’t be scared of steroids. Used appropriately they aren’t as damaging as you think, especially at the doses prescribed for babies.

I’m having to restrict his diet as he also breaks out in hives due to certain foods.

Dermol is an emollient with an anti itch effect.
MI is also an ingredient many people are very allergic to. Look at liquids. Washing clothes, bodies and dishes.

My son is now nearly 9 and has suffered since he was about 9 months old. I thought it would get better but it's got worse over the years. The last doctor we saw said that doctors seem to be scared of prescribing too much steroid treatments but actually sometimes that's what's needed. We've got a continuous prescription for 1% hydrocortisone and that had been working, we had the occasional flare ups needing a stronger steroid but over lockdown his flare ups we're getting worse and lasting months so we now have a prescription for eumovate which has really helped. He advised us that sometimes the best thing is to really blast it and then very gradually wean off it from morning and night to just night and then every other etc and then hopefully to just once a week but to basically use it in areas that get really bad even if the area looks ok as it'll prevent a flare up. So far this has worked well for us were down to a few applications a week. It was so bad basically everywhere apart from his torso and face. We had to use bandages at night and put gloves on to stop him scratching in his sleep we also tried antihistamines but they didn't work.