Baby sleeping badly due to eczema

[Cindyloo20]

If you have seen my previous posts you will know that my DD suffers from severe eczema. I just want other people’s opinions on how to cope at night. She sleeps terribly and is up every hour due to waking herself up itching. She goes to bed between 7-8pm and goes down fine for about an hour then that’s it, we’re up and down the stairs trying to settle her again. There’s been a few times when we just brought her downstairs and let her cuddle on the sofa with us, but I don’t know if I’m making matters worse! She’s 10 month. Do we persevere running up and down the stairs when she first goes down to re settle her or do we just bite the bullet and keep her downstairs with us? It’s been going on for months now.
Would really appreciate some help/ideas thanks

Our DS suffered from bad sleep as a baby when his eczema was really bad. Didn't improve til we managed to get it under control - it was due to a milk allergy and we also used steroid cream to help. Our GP prescribed piriton if it got really bad though we tried not to use this.

I was going to suggest piriton if you haven’t already tried it (under GP advice of course). It didn’t work for our baby when he had eczema, but a lot of friends had success with it.

Do you have scratch mitts? I would definitely keep her down with you if it comforts her and allows her to sleep better. Needs must! It must be knackering to be resettling her every hour.

We’ve tried 2 different antihistamine which both don’t work. We also have scratch mitts/full body prescribed and they don’t seem to make any difference at all I wouldn’t mind having her down with us but she’ll only settle being cuddled then we put her down again she instantly starts scratching, I’m so tired and need some time for myself and my husband. I think I will try just having her down with us until we go up to bed, maybe trying putting her down on the sofa! Thanks for the advice!

My Dd was smaller than yours when her eczema was worst, but I sewed scratch mitts onto the end of her baby grow for night time, otherwise she just pulled them off. I also had some pjs with fold over cuffs which helped.

Dd was prescribed a nightly dose of zirtek for a food allergy and (as this is a antihistamine) I think it helped the eczema too like piriton would have . However this was prescribed by an allergy specialist who completely reassured me about it being fine for her to have - I wouldn’t have just given it to her without taking advice. If your GP is doing phone consultations, it might be worth a call??? Or a local pharmacy??

Aveeno baby cream and a mild hydrocortisone are the only things that keep my DS's under control.

Eczema is really, really itchy. Your baby is miserable and in pain!
I think until you find something that works you will just need to comfort her.
I am not sure how to deal with eczema in little ones, but I sometimes use old fashioned anti histamines that make you drowsy to knock me out over night. Speak to your pharmacy and see if that might be an option. Also make sure she doesn’t get too warm in bed, heat makes the itch worse.

I've started using this moisturiser on my dd, she is 3 months old and her face gets really sore and itchy. This really seems to help, childs farm and aveeno seemed to make it worse. She is definitely rubbing her face less and sleeping better since we started using it

Following with interest as my 5mo is currently very itchy with his ezcema. We moisturise before bed and use mitts but he wakes up scratching and can have dried blood on the mitts. Currently looking into a possible cmpa allergy so I'm seeing if eliminating dairy and soya from my diet helps (he's breastfed).

Ah I really hope it helps your little one @GetTheSprinkles it’s awful isn’t it!
Thankyou everyone for the advice! I’m going to ring the hospital that she’s under tomorrow and see if she can try a different antihistamine. Her skin has been a lot worse than it is now but her sleep is actually 10 times worse, which is difficult to understand.

My ds had awful eczema was the reason he was given formula for cmpa it was pretty much gone within 24 hours of being dairy free.

What wraps have you been prescribed? The best ones at that age I found were wet wraps because they kept the skin cool and reduced the itching massively. Otherwise viscopaste is excellent but quite difficult especially on a baby and very messy. We are currently using skinnies which are 100% silk and antimicrobial to help stop infections along with viscopaste when it gets bad.

My sons eczema is so bad he gets DLA for it. Has been like this for 10 years.

Breaking the itch/scratch cycle is a nightmare but there are loads of options out there. Sadly it's trial and error though.

There are literally dozens of antihistamines on the market. The only one that works for my son is chlorphenamine (piriton). It makes him drowsy though but at night that's not a bad thing. You need to give it regularly though and keep it up as one or 2 doses here or there won't be effective when it's bad.

Can you get a telephone consultation with the dermatologist to discuss other medications?

Also increase moisturisation as much as you can. Hourly if possible because the more hydrated the skin the less itchy it will be.

Also OP I only put my DS in 100% cotton pyjamas and he only wears shorts and short sleeves to reduce heat build up behind his knees and arm creases as they are usually the worst affected! His skin is great at the moment due to that and the Aveeno cream!

I also tried childs farm and it didn't work for him, I tried diplobase too,that didn't work. I tried an oil with burdock in it...didn't work.
The Averno works for him but as a pp said it doesn't work for everyone.