urgent advice needed on how to wrap or protect seeping bleeding weeping itchy ?excema skin in a baby

[BiscuitStuffer]

Friend has dermatologist appointment for her baby next week but he's waking every 3 mins or so at night just miserable.

his skin is seeping, bleeding and itchy to the point of craziness from him and the mum is wondering if there's a good way to bandage him up - ie what's the proper stuff to use - to help reduce the tickle factor of clothes, stop him getting at the raw patches and also not rip his skin off when it's taken off the next day.

Can anyone help?

Ive heard that oats added to bath water are very soothing to skin conditions..

There are proper wet-wrap bandages available but they are hideously expensive to buy so she would really need a prescription from her GP. They are made by Tubifast.

Frankly it sounds like he needs antibiotics if the eczema is weeping plus some steroid cream.

If I remember right, you are not meant to bandage weeping eczema. I would take him to the gp and get advice

Poor little one. I agree with Metella - the antibiotica/steroid cream seem good.

Our DD had bad eczema and we did battle with it for a while. It is important to get it under control and keep it under control.

Antibiotics will help clear any infection (the seeping suggests this) and the steroid cream will reduce irritation. On really bad days, DD was given antihistamine to help her sleep.

We did find that when her skin was really bad, bathing did help a lot (twice a day). Lukewarm and add some bath oil e.g. oilatum junior (may need to try different brands). Moisturise aggressively - at her worst, this was with every nappy change. As her skin condition improved, we cut back and on a good day she is moisturised twice a day (in the morning and after bathtime).

eczema society - www.eczema.org has useful info on management and treatment.

I hope that the dermatologist is useful. It may help for your friend to write a list of things that are important (I always forget to mention something) and to remember that it may take a bit of time to work out what treatment her LO responds to.

Is the LO formula or BF? Could be worthwhile trying a different formula/keeping a food diary (BF - Mum and child)

Thank you so much everyone - I will pass all this info on. Her LO has been on antibiotics and steroid cream for about 2-3 months solid on advice of GP but it's completely out of hand.

loose cotton clothes, cotton sheet - and cotton gloves to stop him scratching, keep room cool overheating makes itching work. I don't have a child with eczema but I have eczema myself and have had it since a baby and as a teenager it was at the weeping sore stage sleeping was a nightmare to be honest. Try and get the doc to give something like balneum to put in the bath. Bicarbonate of Soda in the bath is very effective at soothing itching.

i don't know the answer but i just wanted to wish your friend and her little boy well
very sorry to hear how bad it is for them

try cutting out dairy, it definately is a factor in infantile eczema.

I would get an emergency appt though, infected eczema is serious, the infection can spread and needs to be brought under control asap. Don't want to scare you/your friend but I have had eczema for 38 years and I know what I'm talking about.

She may want to look at this store kumfykids it is in new zealand but I think they post overseas, really great stuff especially for clothing.

you cant wrap infected eczema as it will make the infection worse.

cold cloths for the itchinessd work wel, turn clothes inside out to stop seams rubbing, put lonmg sock on hios arms under his sleepsuits, or sew them in.,

i used to sew mittens into all of dd1 pj's to stop her scratching.

My friend used to put her DS in a baby grow and then put him in another babygrow without putting his arms through and then tie the arms of the suit so there is not much room for him to move and scratch his skin.

Oh BS, the poor LO - 2 to 3 months and it is not clearing for LO and your friend, It is tough on the parents too.

When DD was young, we would swaddle her tightly to prevent too much movement/scratching but it started to be less efficient when she was ten months old and could 'escape'. We also put socks on her hands - minimised the damage from scratching although she would sometimes 'buff' her skin and make it red. She still thinks its normal to sleep with socks on her hands and won't go to sleep without them

DD turned out to be allergic to milk and eggs and her skin reacts to some other foods but I would not recommend a food elimination diet unless there is a strong hunch it is food related and this is where a food diary comes in useful.

Don't have an answer but it sounds awful for them.

I was going to post earlier to ask some eczema advice myself. DS has had a patch on the back of his knee which has just deteriorated so badly this last month, cracked, bleeding, weeping he scratches it whenever he can and the gp has been useless really, just told us to use Oilatum and steroid cream but it is still spreading.

My sympathies with anyone who has to put up with eczema in little ones it is horrible watching them scratch themselves raw

I didn't see how old the baby was but if he is struggling that much, I'd ask the GP to prescribe him an antihistamine for night times a) so that he sleeps and b) so that it stops him feeling so itchy (just temporarily to give him some relief)

When our DS's eczema really flared up we ended up trying to remove any of the known potential causes: we stopped putting anything in the bath; avoided using wipes; found the most inert moisturizer we could get (Diprobase worked for us); used loose cotton clothing; cut out dairy from his diet (now he is a bit older we are careful with citrus and tomatoes); stopped using fabric conditioner (the dryer balls work pretty well ) and swapped a non bio washing powder. Some of which certainly helped but it is very difficult to isolate any one as the cause especially as we were using some steroid creams as well.
Then it was a case of trying to stop him scratching at his forehead. Cotton scratch mitts worked up to the point he learnt to remove them. Socks over the hands lasted a little longer as did the sleep suits from NEXT with the fold over hands. Now we use ScratchSleeves as DS can escape from everything else.
If the eczema has got worse since the last visit to the GP it may be worth going back to see them and/or talking to the National Eczema Society helpline.