I am SO frustrated with my daughter’s skin!

[AprilBaby2025]

My beautiful girl is 9 months old. She has had mild eczema since she was about 2 months. It was previously so mild that we barely noticed it (and it use to only be on her elbows and behind her knees). But as she’s gotten older, her rashes have worsened.

She has had an on and off rash on her face (around her mouth, cheeks and chin) for 6 weeks now. Some days are great, other days are horrible. This rash may be more contact dermatitis than eczema… or a bit of both. But it’s driving me crazy

She has been drooling like a faucet for the last couple months. And she also started sleeping on her tummy and refuses to be on her back. The second we put her in the crib, she rolls over onto her tummy. And sleeps like that all night which just makes the rash worse since it’s pressed into a mattress all night.

We have a good skincare routine going: moisturize with CeraVe twice a day, apply aquaphor throughout the day (usually every hour), DAB any drool immediately, apply barrier cream and moisturizer immediately after her bath, and apply zinc oxide diaper cream before naps and bedtime. And we also have 1% hydrocortisone from the doctors to use sparingly. That routine works decently to prevent severe rashes and keeps any rashes mild and brief.

But this morning when she woke up her face looks so much worse. She has a bad rash on each corner of her mouth and her cheeks. And the rash on one side is thick and dry/flakey. I applied zinc oxide diaper cream like 3 times before I went to bed last night (she keeps rubbing it off in her crib).

I am so frustrated and don’t know what else to do! I think the biggest issue is at night. I can do everything during the day, but I can’t prevent her from sleeping on her tummy at night. I apply a barrier cream several times to her face before I go to sleep (I sneak into her room and put it on when she’s sleeping).

Anything I’m doing wrong? Anything to add to the routine?

Is she teething, what do the GP and nurse suggest. Can you wedge her on her side in the crib.

Yes she’s teething. She got 4 teeth in the past month or so. And she might be getting 2 more now. We went to the doctors yesterday for her 9 month checkup. And the doctor basically said just keep doing what I’m doing and it won’t truly go away until she stops drooling. But I can use hydrocortisone sparingly for flare ups (which does work). But I’m hoping there’s something else that will work.

Here is what it looks like today

I keep seeing advice to use head and shoulders on eczema. Could try a tiny tiny bit very gently.

I had a child with eczema from around the same age. She's now nearly 4 and has just grown out of it thankfully. Yours does sound worse than my daughter's was as mine was mainly back of the knees, legs, and a few patches on her tummy/back. This is what I did to reduce flare ups:

Limited exposure to water as water is drying and makes it worse (bathed her only once a week).

No products in the bath so no soap (only used soap for hand washing). I still dont wash her hair with shampoo regularly unless it gets dirty from swimming or a day at the beach or something. She has curly hair and I use a detangle spray and brush it every day and I feel that that keeps it clean and presentable enough.

Changed my laundry detergent to a hypoallergenic one.

Moisturize as much as possible.

Had a steroid cream which I used mainly just in summer when it was hard to limit exposure to water because of paddling pools etc.

Apparently cold weather can make eczema worse so her face might be particularly affected at the moment from this, if you are in the uk.

Sorry if you are already doing all this and I'm repeating what you already know!

Do you use a sensitive, unscented detergent? My son gets eczema when he comes into contact with anything scented so we had to change all our laundry products

I wouldn't use that on a baby tbh. It's great for sebohorric (sp?) dermatis but not sure about teething rash.

I second unscented everything, no soaps or bubble baths and definitely no fabric conditioner. Surcare detergent is great.

My daughter and I have both had bad flare ups with this cold weather ):

It sounds like you have a great routine.
What do you wash her with? A daily bath or shower with an emollient wash really helps us. Wee use Dermol 200 for the shower and 600 for the bath at the moment

I’ve always found my kids have started drooling a lot less around about the year mark so hopefully in the next couple of months that will help as well

Bathing her less often (certainly not every day, every other day at the most and twice a week only if I could get away with it) and putting Oilatum junior in the bath water and the cream on after. Non-bio detergent.

Been here... done this...

Allergy test. Full panel.
If you are near London or herts contact Adam Fox and team....

Eczema in babies is strongly cotrelated woʻth allergies.

Once you know what she allergic to you can remove it and it will be much better.

I have suffered with eczema myself though now well under control thankfully now I know what triggers and soothes it. Everyone is slightly different and as your baby ages you’ll hopefully be able to learn what works for them specifically.

I also personally find that zinc oxide creams irritate and dry my skin more so avoid those.

As PP’s have mentioned - avoiding water, detergents, fragrance are the main things you can do. Swap to non-bio if you haven’t already.

Also being run-down with sickness/teething can be a trigger as well as the combo of central heating and flashes out in the cold. So even though it’s a rough week - hopefully things will naturally improve soon.

Has she been tested for allergies? My son had a face like your daughter if not worse and at 6 months it showed that he was allergic to dairy and eggs and further down the line cats.

In the meantime, Vaseline around the mouth to stop the drooling rash. Heat also caused flare ups for my son. No. Cotton clothing was another trigger so only cotton. I’d definitely recommend allergy testing.

The game changer for us was salcura bio skin junior outbreak cream. We found anything with petroleum jelly/mineral oil just made things worse. Also make sure you are avoiding products with food ingredients, such as oats, as that can cause allergy issues in very small ones.

I bathe her with aveeno baby wash. However, we only use it twice a week. We bathe her every night for 10 minutes or so, but most of the time it’s just with plain water. And we apply moisturizer within 1-2 minutes of getting out of the bath. Our routine is usually pretty helpful, but the past couple of days have been hard. Especially over night when she’s had terrible flareups.

She hasn’t been tested for allergies. She has never show any immediate reactions to food. We do have 2 cats.

So we’ve used Aveeno eczema cream with colloidal oatmeal several times (a couple times as a newborn and once a few weeks ago) and all 3 times she broke out in tiny red dots where I applied the cream. Could that suggest an allergy ?

It could be, but I wouldn't be able to guess on the internet. It is a known skin allergen. Worth getting her tested anyway.

My granddaughter gets eczema type flare ups due to food intolerances. Removing soya from her diet helps her skin calm down.

Applying to damp skin is what the dermatologist told us.

Think about allergies. Dairy and egg allergies are particularly common.

We were advised to not bathe just wet wipe bum and cream

also fairy non bio washing liquid

Yep unfortunately that’s life with eczema. I’ve had it 30 years. Thankfully there are more options after age 18. Sorry she’s suffering… the majority of children grow out of it if it helps.

Make sure you’re using 0 fragrance soaps, 0 fragrance non-bio detergent.

My best treatment is putting a cup of Dead Sea salts in my bath. Sounds bonkers but that was the turning point for my eczema. It was magic.