How do you treat dry skin in children and babies? £200 voucher to be won

[LibbyMumsnet]

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We know anecdotally from threads on Mumsnet that dry skin can be very common, especially in children and babies, and it can be difficult to know what to do to treat it. With this in mind, E45 would like to hear your tips and tricks.

Here’s what E45 has to say: “Skin forms a natural barrier against allergens, viruses and bacteria, so it’s important to keep skin healthy by keeping it hydrated. That’s why we at E45 have been taking care of families’ dry skin needs for over 60 years. Given the prevalence of dry skin in babies and children, we’d love to understand more about how you are tackling their skin needs.”*

What products do you turn to? And how did you choose the products in the first place? Was there something or someone who influenced your choices? Is there anything that you avoid? Or perhaps you feel something is missing from the current product offering?

Share your experiences on this thread and you will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky MNer will win a £200 voucher for a store of their choice (from a list).**

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

Insight T&Cs apply

*E45 Cream for dry skin conditions. Always read the label. Suitable for children 1 month and older.
RB-M-37776

**The prize draw is eligible to registered Mumsnet users who are UK residents, 18 years and over. It will run for four weeks after the Mumsnet opening post date and time. Following this, a winner will be chosen at random within one week of the closing date.

My child was born with very dry skin. They were three weeks overdue. Prescribed bath lotion and after bath lotion worked to a degree, but this wasnt prescribed until they were around five. Until then I would buy very expensive natural lotion that cost £28 for a small tub that I would have to buy monthly. Eventually the GP prescribed the bath cream and lotion but then the bath lotion was stopped after a few years as the NHS said children with dry skin didnt need this - however when I questioned the receptionist when she presented me with the letter, she said you can still buy it from the chemist..? Why would I still buy it if it isn't working according to the NHS?. I know use a lotion that I use on my skin and only bathe my child every other day as opposed to every day as their skin can dry out. I only use vegan products but the medicated products were vegetarian which was a big issue with me. I find that using a scrub on my child's skin helps to keep the skin soft. Covid has made their skin worse as hand sanitisers have made their skin very sore and this is what they use at school. The dry skin is leading to ingrown hairs too. There isn't enough help for this and I feel it's being treated as being vain if you're bothered by it.

Less baths and less vigorous rubbing with the towel (just gentle dabs).
No soap or shower gel type stuff.
E45 cream if there is a flare up- only on infected areas though.

Well E45 isn’t cruelty free so I certainly won’t turn to it to fix dry skin. I couldn’t use it without thinking about all the animals that have been tortured so this product can be sold.

My baby (9 months) started to get dry skin when I started to bath him every evening for his bedtime routine. I used E45 on his dry patches a couple of times a day and now only bath him 1-2 times a week. It seems to have helped

Scratchsleeves are brilliant! My LG scratched her chest silly one night and this product was the only thing that stopped her from doing it again.
I like Aveeno too, but the Dermexa range.

What products do you turn to? And how did you choose the products in the first place? Was there something or someone who influenced your choices? Is there anything that you avoid? Or perhaps you feel something is missing from the current product offering?

I limit products
I use oilatum in the bath for my children
I followed advise of pharmacist

Oilatum in the bath rather than bubble bath, really gentle shampoo/conditioner products (Child's Farm are good) and all-over moisturising with La Roche-Posay Lipikar Moisturising Body Balm - it's miracle cream!!!

Cetraben cream, three times a day when really bad and down to once a day in the "trigger" areas when not. She had an open sore from the cleaning agents used in school and from getting her sleeves wet and rubbing on wrists and this really helped. This has done the trick. When really bad the oilatum bath liquid and wash.

We've tried all sorts for my DD's eczema, but we've probably had the best results with aveeno. I've always found that "little and often" seems to work the best - I think of it as topping up the moisture levels constantly.

Biggest problem recently, has actually been getting her to stand still to have it put on (she's 4). So we've invented a story about evil Dr Eczema and she needs to use her secret lotion to defeat him. Leads to much karate-chopping of the air, but it does seem to work so far! 😂

Aveeno bubbles and moisturiser all the way here! Little splash of bubbles in the tub to make it fun and then moisturiser on before they are fully dry. Not bathing too often either, although that’s hard in the summer when they are sweaty and sun creamy

Don't bath them too much as that dries their skin out. Have used oilatum and e45 and both helped.

E45 wasnt brilliant for my daughters skin. La Roche possay seems to have the best moisturiser for her skin.

Not had too much dry skin so far but now he's crawling his knees are getting pretty dry and they seem sore. So far I've only tried Childs Farm based on a friends recommendation, it seems quite good. I wouldn't use anything perfumed. We always try to keep the area clean and dry too.

My son used to get small dry patches on his skin when he was a toddler. I found Child’s farm lotion when rubbed in, helped stopped these from coming back. Also having less baths as it dries out their skin. Child’s farm was recommended on here quite frequently.
Recently my son had really bad dry and peeling hands from using the sanitizer at school too frequently 😔 so I regularly applied child’s farm lotion and also sent him in with an E45 hand lotion. Both did the job and his hands are back to being smooth again.
E45 is a brand I trust and one I will use again in the future

I use E45 on little dry patches, but also hope a good duet with plenty of oily fish helps too. Sometimes I put little vit E in the bath water or oats if there is a flare up of dermatitis.

DD occasionally has eczema this flairs up if she's had alot of baths so I've found that only having 3 baths a week helps keep her eczema at bay

Aveeno. It just works.

Oilatum Junior wash, the bath additive when there's a flare up, pat dry, then a layer of Dermal 500 cream. I swear by aqueous lotions/oils.

I've not tried an E45 cream except on my hands and found it quite heavy and didn't absorb well, which put me off using the products on my Dd.

Stop bathing children everyday and let their freaking skin just be skin!! Too many chemicals, too much bathing.

Bath once a week max, only use childs farm products and wear gloves all through winter- this is her least favourite part but it makes a huge difference to her dry, cracked hands.

I use Cetreben from the Dr for my boys. They both have Eczema so it doesn't fix it on it's on but it definitely makes a difference.

I went through so many different types of cream and ointment but they either made the eczema worse or had no effect at all. The cetreban I could see it looked better straight away.

The best thing for my child was not bathing too often, we started out bathing every day and her skin was dry and sore looking so we cut back and it improved. also not using anything with SLS in it seemed to help.

Balneum bath oil worked for us, which contains soya oil (recommended by gp). It does leave the bath quite slippery though so needs to be thoroughly cleaned after use.

Cooler baths and showers and very mild soaps. We use Surcare for laundry and Sebamed for washing.

I use as little products as possible and avoid products with really long ingredients lists. I then use aveeno moisturisers.