Creams and lotions that helped your child's eczema and dry skin

[GT99]

4 year old has eczema on legs and dry skin on cheeks. Please advise of any creams/lotions that have worked for your children??

I have been the doctors he’s had a strong steroid cream and epimax. The steroid cream cleared it to begin with but then it came back worse. So I don’t really want to carry on using it!!!!

Following as my son's elbow has started breaking out again. We usually use Aveeno Baby Soothing Relief Emollient Cream and that's been pretty good at keeping his eczema controlled if used every day. But it doesn't stop flares and his elbow crease can flare up badly in the warmer months so keen to know if there's other products too.

I’m sorry your little one and you are going through this. It’s horrible. I know steroids are great at clearing it up, initially, but as you’ve seen to comes back quickly and often worse! We haven’t used steroid cream now for 2 years. We use Salcura, it’s a completely natural spray and cream. It’s amazing!

My dd uses E45 itch relief. We get it at Costco because it’s cheaper.

Child’s Farm moisturiser gets rid of my son’s eczema. A friend of mine said Dream Cream by Lush got rid of her son’s eczema.

You know what cleared my son’s eczema? Two weeks in the sun in Spain. The doctor said it was probably the sunscreen moisturiser but no it was the sun and clean air! He never got it back nearly as bad.

We had the dark blue aveeno for years it was great and green cetaphil cream for his face was a game changer. Much better for Ds than anything the dr prescribed but it was never so bad it needed regular steroid cream

For BOTH my children’s skin - the week we went wild camping in summer and I forgot the pack any cream at all. River water and sun. I threw all of our creams out once we were home and it never came back

The best thing in my opinion is consistency, moisturising frequently (multiple times a day), dont continue with a moisturiser that your child finds uncomfortable.
I find adult Aveeno the best, it’s much better than the children’s one. We don’t get on with child’s farm at all. E45, Roche posay and avene are worth trying.

If it looks red and angry consider if it could be infected - Google eczema bleach baths for the body or speak to GP.

Put oats in the bath in a muslin to avoid drying while washing.

Epaderm cream.

Massage in lots of either or both Keri lotion, and/or paraffin oil. No steroids, and the end result was lovely soft skin for both of us. Thank you Cheshire GP - forty years ago! Paraffin oil is very underestimated.

eta Doublebase is similar, but slower to show results.

Aveeno helped my sons

Oilatum bath additive & oats in a sock worked well here.
Also Dr. Balsam ointments, really soothing and stays put very well.
Agree with previous poster that adult Aveeno is way better than the kids one.

Could also try pure shea butter or la Roche posay baby

My husband swears by E45. When I had eczema on my legs the doctor prescribed me a huge bottle of a moisturiser called doublebase. I decanted some for my Dad cos he had really dry hands when he was in hospital.

Childs Farm has worked well for us, and helpfully they sell a sun lotion too!

Hemp cream from the body shop. Not specifically for children but works brilliantly for us.

With the steroids the advice is to taper them. So from strong to moderate and then down to the basic one amd then phase it back to just moisturising.

Which sounds so easy until you have a child who screams and tantrums every time you have to apply anything.

Thank you for all the recommendations. I’ve started with the adult Aveeno (dark blue top) and the Salcura Spray and Cream as this is one I did a little research on before posting. I will see how these work! It’s not severe but it’s bad enough to not just leave alone.

I am staying away from the steroid cream. Don’t get me wrong I have used it on him. I used it for one week as advised by gp and then sparingly but I am making the decision to not use it again. I never applied it to his face, only legs. I’m choosing moisturisers now going forward to help.

It is hard to apply frequently as he’s at school from 9-3 but I will apply morning and night and then more often during the next half term.

no emollient will do the job of steroid cream. using it was not the reason it returned. look also at dust allergens

Ultra Bee dedicated eczema cream is meant to be good and does not have petrol chemicals in.

UV light is in immuno suppressant, often used in severe cases of psoriasis. The UV light would have reduced the immune response on his skin thus reduced to eczema.

If you can apply morning, as soon as he gets in from school and again at bedtime.

Aveeno regular or Dermexa worked well for us when DS was little and also La Roche-Posay Cicaplast for occasional use.

You will end up with lovely soft hands with all the moisturiser applications.

Also no shower gel or bubble bath, I used the mildest bar soap that I could find and as little as possible.

It’s all trial and error in my experience op, I’ve been in parenting Fb groups and on here for years and what works for one will hurt another. Dermexa burnt the skin off my ds, while it worked amazingly on my other ds. Moogoo was the only thing that soothed, e45 was another one that had him crying. We used le Roche posay lipikar for both in the shower and never had issues but it’s very expensive obviously compared to other shower gels. Another for cicaplast on certain occasions to soothe

My son had very severe eczema when he was a baby. The consultant we saw prescribed the following protocol:
Double base ointment twice a day
zero base moisturiser as often as you can (we used it every nappy change)
dermol 600 in the bath (no bubbles)
steroid twice a day x 5 days, then once a day x 5 days and then use sparingly as and when- this meant he didn’t flare back up ever to the same extent and coming down gradually was key.
Now we mostly just use the zero base moisturiser twice a day but the above was necessary for about 6 months. He occasionally needs steroids too. It’s honestly so much better though and hardly ever bothers him.