Share your tips and tricks for managing your baby’s eczema-prone skin. - £200 voucher to be won

[EllieSmumsnet]

Are you struggling to manage your baby’s eczema-prone skin? Perhaps you’ve discovered some fantastic tricks along the way, or maybe you’re still on the lookout for that perfect solution to soothe those dry patches. Whether it’s finding the right bath time routine, dealing with flare-ups, or searching for the holy grail moisturiser, we’d love to hear your questions, tips and experiences! Skincare expert Rebecca Bennett will also be getting involved in the discussion.

• Share your tips and tricks in the thread below to be entered into a prize draw
• One lucky MNer will win £200 voucher

About Rebecca Bennett:
“Rebecca Bennett has worked with skin and skincare for over 25 years, listening to and learning from key skincare experts including dermatologists and paediatric dermatologists about baby skin and how best to care for it. "

Here’s what AVEENO® Baby has to say:
"AVEENO® Baby is the UK’s No.1 Recommended Baby Skincare Brand by Pharmacists (1) and is Paediatrician & Dermatologist tested.
AVEENO® Baby products nourish, soothe & protect sensitive* baby skin from the first use and are specially formulated with high quality oats specially selected to preserve their protective, moisturising and soothing properties. We unlock the power of oats with our science and transform it to provide daily to soothing care to help keep your baby's skin feeling healthy."

1. Online survey of 200 UK retail pharmacists, conducted by IQVIA for Kenvue, May 2023. Participants were self-selected with geographic quotas to ensure national spread.

*AVEENO® Baby Calming Comfort range is suitable for delicate skin.”

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

Insight T&Cs apply

Short T&Cs:
UK residents, 18+. No purchase necessary. Enter from 3:50pm on 16/09/2024 to 11:59pm am on 14/10/2024. To participate, share your tips and tricks to be entered into a prize draw. Only 1 entry per person. Prize available is 1x £200 VEX voucher (available to use in selected retailers, subject to its own T&Cs: vexgiftcard.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360021492600-VEX-Gift-Card-Terms-Conditions-Of-Use*).

Water is enough to wash a baby in no need for bubble bath or body wash.

My tip is don't be afraid to use too sparingly, you need to apply a generous amount and make sure you get into all skin folds and creases (behind ears/knees/armpits can be eczema hot spots).

I use an oatmeal bath. My DC also hates heavy emollients and this really helped with the itching. Also wearing cotton socks on hands overnight to stop scratching in the night.

Cetraban has been fine, and we use this on flare ups. Oilatum and E45 weren't.
Stronger steroid creams in short bursts prevented longer flare ups.
A protopic cream was a game changer for dd - she was referred by her GP to the hospital dermatology unit and it was prescribed there.
Over the years I've tried various 'natural remedies', creams etc - none improved my eczema. What has helped though is minimising the number of products I use. With dd we've always used Aveeno body wash.

I was recommended to try baby Dermexa emollient, it's make a difference to us. but I would shop around for when it's on offer and buy what you can afford - it's really worth it.

I was recommended Aveeno soothing oat bath soak for my DC's - It seemed to really sooth the skin, a barrier cream once the skin was fully dry, before dressing is a must too.

My tips are after the emollient always dress in cotton, nothing man made. use a very mild detergent. and add an extra rinse to your washing cycle.
Use oats in a muslin new dishcloth and soak this in the water before bathing baby.

Non bio washing powder for a start.
No shampoo on the body, wash with a mild shampoo over the bath.
Nothing with perfumes in touches skin, an emollient in the bath such as Cetraben to wash skin.
Try not to let baby get too hot, or too cold this can cause heat rash or the cold will make eczema worse.
Keep nails short because no matter how hard you try the poor thing will still be itchy.
Keep a steroid cream handy to tackle persistent patches and keep on top of applying it sparingly. Sometimes you do need to use it.
The eczema may be related to allergies to something so keep an eye on clothing that irritates, or a correlation between something in the diet that aggravates skin. My son was allergic to eggs.
I am a lifelong sufferer of eczema and unfortunately one of my sons inherited the gene so at least I knew what worked for me.

I added a couple of drops of lavender essential oil - diluted into milk - into the bath, as I find that helps with my eczema

Keep trying different creams until you find the one that works. Its been years of trial and error for us. Also bath less often as to not dry the skin out.

Once baby’s skin is clean and dry - let them kick and be nude on a dry bath towel after drying. carefully moisturise their face, arms, legs, hands and feet with Oilatum or Aveeno - I find both are equally good, and tend to buy what is on offer. Pay special attention to very dry areas and apply generously. Monitor their skin at every nappy change and apply cream when needed. As my toddler got older, we made moisturising fun; ask them to stand up with their arms out and feet apart, just like a scarecrow while you apply the cream – explain that the aim of the game is they cannot move a muscle, no matter how much it tickles.

Minimise the amount of baths no need for everyday.

Knowing the difference between a moisturiser and an emollient was a key point for me in managing my baby's eczema.
Another top tip was keeping the emollient by the nappy changing mat and applying it every time we change a nappy as it helps us remember to do it.

We had special cotton suit on prescription with mittens as well as Aveeno and emollient, steroid cream. They changed it now from Aveeno to Zeroveen as a cost cutting. It was fine for us. Keep nails short is a must as well

Tried lots of prescribed creams and the best one I used was QV cream, QV bath oil and body wash.
Bath was every other day (limit time in the bath) and make sure to coat her in cream within 20 mins of getting out of the water. There were these Dreamskin sleepsuits from Asda at the time which also used. Cleared up her skin amazingly, she suffered head to toe breakouts and you wouldnt have known she had ezcema after that, kept moistiring to mangage it and hydrocortisone on any breakouts. Hope this helps someone 🙏

See a GP and you are better using generously for fewer days than sparingly fir much long when it comes to steroid creams.

stop using disposable nappies my child cleared up within 2 weeks of being dry and the eczema was all over not just nappy area. also had egg intolerance so suspect egg related chemicals in nappies

Oats in muslin/or even a cotton sock soaking in every bath with DD works incredibly well for us - best tip I ever got

We love Aveeno here. But for eczema prone skin, use an emollient as a soap substitute

Moisturise several times a day - every nappy change worked well for us - and Aveeno was our saviour cream. Non-bio washing powder, no fabric softener. No need to bath / shower every day. AND Scratch Sleeves were the only thing our eczema baby couldn’t wriggle out of and so were the only thing that stopped him scratching himself with fingernails and toenails.

Goat milk, not dairy.
Don't use any petroleum based moisturiser (eg Diprobase)

We tried all the prescribed emollients, nothing worked apart from one off treatment with steroid cream then maintaining with dream cream from Lush. Washed every other day, as was mainly arms & legs. Both of mine grew out of it by the age of 2-3 x

Less is more with products. Non bio wash, and look at foods, as sometimes can be an intolerance/lacking something in diet.

It's truly heartbreaking to see a baby with inflamed skin, what helped me was having the bathwater not too hot, wearing cotton, and washing it in a non bio (I buy a bottle and use half a dose instead of pods) and an extra rinse after washing. Tumble and don't line dry, and a good soothing cream, sudocrem, aveeno or oilatum does help. I also let the skin dry really well after bathing by letting them be naked for around 20 minutes before dressing. I try to buy foods with as little additives as possible, and make my own bread as I find this has the most, I use rice flour instead of wheat flour.

My tips are don't forget to wash your clothes in the same gentle detergent you wash your little ones clothes in, avoid external pollutants with an air purifier, ask you HV which cream they would recommend, I used Neal's Yard and Aveeno baby dermexa emollient and found both to be effective.