Eczema on face of 10 year old with DS- anyone have advice on what to use.

[Twinky58]

Hi, my daughter who has Down's Syndrome, has had very irritated red skin mainly on her chin for most of her life. We have been referred to a dermatologist and were given steroid creams, which worked to begin with, have used emollients on prescription which work for a while but then do not. I have used aloe vera cream, many other creams over the counter, dead sea creams, organic creams and nothing has fixed this. I have put vaseline on the skin overnight to stop it getting wet and the problem seems to be getting worse. Any advice please? thankyou.

Hi twinky my dd gets a sore chin through dribbling we use sudocrem on it at night.

Hi growlybear, yes I've used this which really worked for some time. Then problem returned again. No rhyme or reason for this. But will try Sudocreme again, had forgotten about it. Thanks!

Maybe try using the sudocrem for a time then something else and keep rotating them.

E45 may also help - I use it for my dermatitis. I also have a colleague who swears by something called L'Occitane 20% Shea Butter. (John Lewis and Fenwicks sell it.)

DS has eczema. He has a cream called double base we get on percription. It works really fast. Might be worth a quick trip to your GP. Careful of sudacrem I found it dried my DS's skin out more but that's just our experience. May have been his reaction to it

Ds (DS) also has eczema on his face which has been pretty sore the last few months. We were prescribed Aveeno cream and bath oil by the GP and use 1% hydrocortisone when it gets really bad. So far the Aveeno seems to be doing it's job and we notice the redness is not so bad after a few days use. Have used aqueous and E45 previously but tbh they didn't really help ds.

I think its a case of rotating them, i have suffered with it all my life, it tends to be worse this time of year due to pollen so a antihistamine may help, also gluten makes mine flair up. Aveno is good (seems to be the only thing that doesn't sting like hell when you put it on, E45 makes mine worse and sudacrem seems to dry it up (making it more itchy), i also use vasaline for around my eyes as my eyes get runny making them more red and flakey, the vasaline acts as a barier from my watery tears.

Calamine and aqueous cream is what I use on my own face for excema. The calamine (same stuff as in the lotion for chicken pox!) soothes the irritation and the cream doesn't make you look like you are auditioning for the black & white minstrels.

Use plain aqueous cream to wash instead of any soap, and olive oil afterwards to ward off additional dryness. Awful as it sounds don't wash the face too often as it's very drying. Use olive oil on a kitchen towel to wipe sauce covered chops after meals.

www.diprobase.co.uk/patient/range/range.php this stuff is meant to be good

We have good experience with urea products. You can get them on prescription
(based on filtered horse urine) or use yours or your daughters. The urea is really good as getting moisture in the cells. Maybe use it together with sudocrem
or Aquaphor? I guess the key is if you want to get the moisture in the cells
(urea, aquaphor) or keep the moisture from the skin (sudocrem). We still need hydrocortisone, but less so. [This is a sincere post, but he way - but yes, I am talking pee....]. Good luck.

Dream Cream from Lush (oatmilk and cocoabutter base) and washing with porridge oats (put them in the end of a cut-off pair of tights so you don't end up bathing in porridge) worked wonders for us.

Avoid petrochemical/mineral oil based creams, these can often exacerbate the problem.

calendula cream is good-made from marigolds so all natural

1%hydrocortisone is all that helps my ds.but this weather has done wonders for his skin.

You need to start off with a steroid cream from your GP to clear up the eczema. It should also be checked to see if there's any infection in case she needs an antibiotic cream too.

If you use a steroid cream like hydrocortisone (most commonly used one) keep her out of the sun for a couple of hours afterwards or it can bleach the skin.

You should also use an emollient cream to keep the skin moisturised. E45 can be ok but I'd recommend hydrous ointment (we get it on prescription) or 50/50 cream (50%soft paraffin/50%liquid paraffin) which is like vaseline but lighter and soaks in more easily.

Once the steroid cream has done its job you need to keep up with the emollient at least twice a day as prevention.

Different people get on with different emollients so it's worth trying a few to see which her skin tolerates best. Some people recommend avoinding products with lanolin but they've never been a problem for us. My family struggle with perfumed products.

Try to avoid washing her skin with any sort of soap which will dry it out. Your GP can prescribe a soap substitute like Dermol 500.

Doh! Sorry just re-read the OP and realised you've already done the steroid cream thing so maybe you need to see GP in case it's infected?