3 month old bad eczema

[Pinkstuffs]

My 3 month old DS is developing bad eczema on his arms, elbows and knees. We’ve been putting coconut oil on it on the advice of the health visitor but it’s not doing much.

Can anyone advise a good emollient for a baby this young? How often would you bath your baby? He’s very sicky so is bathed daily as he also has a lot of hair that gets sick in it and I’ve read conflicting advice about how often to bath a baby with eczema!

Also wondering if you have experience of this being linked to CMPA? He also has reflux. DH cannot have cows milk and I had bad eczema when I was little so he’s getting bad genes!

My DS had bad eczema but had CMPA. The eczema cleared mostly after I eliminated dairy from my diet (EBF) but we also got a soap substitute and dermol from the GP which sort of helped a bit. There's a child's farm unscented cream which is good and the aveeno overnight for extra itchy skin is nice for flare ups!

Yes - was linked to allergies for my kids, had to cut out of my diet (EFB). Used dermol like the commenter above which helped - really you shouldn’t be using anything food wise on the skin as has potential to develop an allergy so would stop coconut oil straight away. Get script for Epaderm, epimax, zerobase, zeroderm etc etc from doctor and try see which suits your child best. Look at itchy scratchy wheezy website - they have very good advice. You should be doing through a tub of emollient a week so make sure it’s going on at least 3 times a day. Steroid cream may be needed to get flare under control so get referral to dermatologist in. Good luck, it’s horrible seeing them so itchy and miserable but you can get it under control. Obviously only cotton clothes and use something like ecover as washing powder. Keep room cool at night as much as you can!

He is formula fed, I’ve been wondering about switching to goat milk but haven’t been keen to do so as if he doesn’t have CMPA I feel like cutting out dairy will mean he can’t tolerate it at all anyway?

He isn’t gaining weight as he should be as he’s so fussy at mealtimes I can barely get 3oz into him a lot of the time.

With symptoms of; reflux, being fussy at the bottle, vomiting, eczema and not gaining weight would you push for CMPA being investigated?

DD2 is currently 4months and we are in a study that is looking at baby skin to determine what impact frequency of bathing can have. We are in the group that only bathes once a week (although we can top and tail as needed) and despite her being a bit sicky and having lots of hair, it doesnt seem to be causing her any bother. The other group bathes whenever they want and at the end of six months, the skin of the babies in each group will be compared as well as any diagnosed skin conditions and allergies. Its very interesting! Anyway, thats a long way of saying that I think you could potentially cut down on how often you are bathing him as well. You could potentially wash hair in the sink or a small bowl without giving him a full bath if needed?

On the basis of what you've said, yes i would be asking about CMPA. What are his nappies like? Any mucus?

That sounds like a lot of the symptoms yes! Goats milk is pointless as the composition is so alike - you’ll need a dairy free formula. Are you UK based? You’ll get them prescribed but the taste isn’t great but definitely sounds like it’s worth pursuing. What is your GP saying?

No to coconut oil, you don't want food need broken skin it'll increase the risk of allergies.
GP for proper creams and CMPA formula prescription.
Read up about the risks of ezcema and food allergies especially with family history, some early weaning of allergens may be recommended. Your GP/HV probably won't be much help on that front and allergery services are so oversubscribed.
If it is CMPU they are very likely to outgrow it, good luck

I really feel for you as I have been through this with my baby (7 months) since she was 3 months old. I have researched so much, so here are some things that have helped us, but eczema is so unique to everyone and you’ll need to find what works for you. We tried a few different creams but now use epaderm cream 2-3 times daily whilst the skin looks ok. We have both the cream and ointment, and during a flare up we would use both and apply about 4 x daily. Personally my LO is bathed every night, which seems to work for us. No soaps or baby wash in the bath, we just use epaderm to wash with and also keep the temperature a little on the cooler side, around 36 degrees for us. We’ve used steroid cream given by the GP on several occasions. The main thing I would say is if you do end up using steroid cream make sure you ask about weaning off of it, rather than just stopping it. So many GPs don’t seem to know this or inform people about this, but luckily the first GP we saw actually knew lots about eczema. If the steroid cream is abruptly stopped then the eczema can just come back worse. I can’t comment about the allergies because luckily, my baby seems to be ok with the allergens she’s tried so far, and her skin hasn’t worsened since weaning.

I really hope you manage to get on top of it and if not then push for a referral to dermatology.