Advice for managing a 6 month old’s severe eczema during the heatwave

[TheCornishGoodLife]

Eczema parents - any advice on managing my 6mo baby’s severe eczema in this heatwave?
My 6 month old baby has had mild eczema that we’ve managed since she was 2 months, but just had a severe flare up in this heatwave and it’s awful for her - really struggling to get it under control. It’s so hard watching her like this.
This is what we’re doing, but does anyone have any advice (however small)? Anything would be so much appreciated!

• we keep her as cool as we can at the moment
• Epimax emollient on her skin every hour in the day
• zero perfumed products. She is only washed in water and emollient in the bath (also apply before and after bath when skin is still damp)
• she wears specialist eczema clothes (no labels, flat seems etc)
• we keep her nails short
• reduced her number of baths a week
• We’ve had to use steroid creams as a last resort for her comfort and wellbeing. Hydrocortisone doesn’t work so we’ve been given betamethasone valerate 0.025%. But very nervous about strong steroid use on such a young baby
• We’re pushing our GP surgery for a dermatology referral and treatment plan
• it does not appear to be dietary (she’s only just started weaning and had eczema prior. I also cut out all dairy while breastfeeding and it made no difference). The heatwave seems to have been the main trigger

We’ve not made any other changes in her life to trigger the flare, but I just wondered things like what laundry detergent you’d recommend? And suncream (I’ve just kept her out the sun and plan to continue that, but asking more for future use). Nappies? She’s in Pampers but I’ve been looking at the little lamb reusables - they seem to be softer and less sweaty. Anything else I’ve missed?
Thank you so much in advance!

do you have the skinnies eczema clothing? I used to wet one layer and put a dry layer over the top so my dd didn’t get cold this was a life saver from the dermatology department. Don’t fully dry after bathing and apply the emollient quite thick

DC1 had awful eczema as a baby. Please don’t be worried about short term steroid use. Damage may occur to the skin over the course of years and years of use but using it to calm a flare is exactly what it’s there for. If you don’t get the flare under control your poor DD will not only be miserable but more likely to scratch and get an infection. I’d also ask for a referral to paediatric dermatology (or go private). We had much better results from a specialist doc rather than the GP.

Quite honestly, DC1 had eczema as a baby and the only thing that helped was steroid. Had to try a few different ones to get one that worked. I would just use the steroid you have tbh. My experience was that any amount of cream once it got so bad would not solve it.

Hi, my son had severe eczema as a baby and we were told to avoid greasy ointment emollients during hot weather as they can trap sweat and worsen eczema. We switched to a lighter creamy emollient during hot weather, which you might find helps your baby.
our dermatologist also advised daily baths and this might help to wash away sweat which can be a trigger for some people with eczema.
we use a non bio washing powder and always do an extra rinse.
for sun cream we were advised la Roche posay anthelios by the dermatology nurse. She also advised Lidl own brand as a cheaper alternative

It's interesting what @Hangzhou1234 has said, because I had childhood eczema and I was thinking that thick emollient would be very uncomfortable in hot weather. I was prescribed betamethasone which was effective. Bear in mind that you can't suddenly stop using it, you need to taper it down over a few days (using it less frequently, and a smaller amount), to avoid rebound symptoms.