Ask our La Roche-Posay expert your questions about eczema in babies and children - 3 x £100 vouchers to be won

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Sensitive, dry or eczema-prone skin are common skin concerns among babies and children. Some go through short periods of suffering with eczema and others need to continuously manage this skin condition. Everyone's experience with eczema is different and can vary from dry and itchy patches of skin to very sore breakouts all over. It can be especially difficult if your child suffers with eczema to know how best to help them. Consultant Dermatologist Dr Catherine Borysiewicz is on hand to answer your questions on eczema.

Here’s some more information on Dr Catherine Borysiewicz: “Dr Catherine Borysiewicz studied medicine at Cambridge University and clinical medicine at University College London. She carried out medical and surgical training at a number of prestigious central London teaching hospitals. Today, Catherine is an experienced Consultant Dermatologist working within the NHS and consults privately in central London at Imperial and The Cadogan Clinic, where she manages inflammatory skin diseases including eczema, acne and psoriasis and sun damage and skin cancers.

Being the mother of a child who suffers from eczema, Dr Catherine understands the challenges of looking after a child’s skin and is looking forward to helping Mumsnetters by answering your questions on dry skin and eczema."

Here’s what La Roche-Posay has to say: “Here at La Roche-Posay we understand how eczema can truly impact a child and their family's quality of life. To help you manage this tricky skin condition, we are working with Consultant Dermatologist Dr Catherine Borysiewicz to answer all your burning questions around eczema in babies and children.”

Whatever your questions are around eczema, post your questions below and we will choose 10 for Dr Catherine to answer.

Everyone who posts a questions on the thread will be entered into a prize draw where 3 Mumsnetters will win a £100 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw.

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

Have you heard of the Dr Aron regime and what's your professional opinion of it? Also do you believe in topical steroid withdrawal, and if so should I stop putting steroids on my daughter? They clear it up then it always just comes back 2 days later :(

Is eczema something a child can grow out of ?

when dc has a particularly bad or raw flare up what can help or what to avoid at this time?
apart from tickling it soflty for her it can be so hard to know:cream?or not?just at night?or not?let it breathe.bandages?

My dc ask me to scratch for them which I do really gently, as an alternative to them scratching hard and making it bleed. Do you think I should just persevere with reminding them not to scratch, is all scratching harmful?

Around what age do you expect children to “grow out” of childhood eczema?
Or am I fooling myself into thinking that this might happen.

Any recommendations of which suncream to use? Dreading the warm weather at the moment

We have tried different sun creams for my daughter but most give her a rash or itching. What sun products are best for eczema skin?

Berliboo there is an Australian make called sun-sense which was recommended by our dermatologist. It only comes in factor 50 though.

Is there a sun cream which comes in factor 30? This is what is recommended for my daughter’s skin as she has dark skin.

I echo the questions about bathing. My son refused a bath while we were visiting rellies for a week, and his eczema improved hugely in this time.

Also how to deal with eczema around the delicate eye area? Optician has recommended using cotton handkerchief instead of tissues as she has very watery eyes. Heavy emollients feel claggy round the eye area. Any suggestions?

My son has suffered eczema for 2 years now after having hand foot and mouth. We've tried all doctor recommended creams and steroids but they either never worked or made it worse. He suffers worst behind his knees and on his upper parts of his arms. Recently he's had a small patch of dry skin on his face. I'm scared it's eczema too. My question is, can eczema appear on a new area of the body after having had no previous signs of it there?

I find Bepanthol to be the only non medicated cream that makes eczema go away on my kids. (not just preventing, but healing)

i think it may be the vitamin B5

Do you do an equivalent?

We love to go swimming as a family but this causes a flare up of my baby's eczema. What would you suggest for this?

Can eczema clear up on its own or does it need to be treated? My son has always had dry or rash-like skin which doctors have diagnosed as eczema. He has always hated me putting cream on him and since it the eczema hasn't bothered him, I stopped trying.

why does sunlight seem to make such a difference to my son's skin? His eczema pretty much disappears in summer only to return every autumn as soon as he's not spending hours in the sun everyday.

My husband and I both have eczema, we have a four week old with lovely baby skin - is there anything we can do to prevent him getting eczema?

Can my baby be sensitive to cows milk affecting his skin, and would switching to another milk make a difference, eg goats?

I can only use aveeno on DS2. I tried oilatum junior but it caused an almost burning reaction. I had the same reaction as I also suffer. What ingredient would cause that and does your product contain it?

My daughter is under one and has red dry patches on the back of her legs. What's the best thing to use? The pharmacist has recommended sudocrem which has improved things but it's still there.

My baby has it on his face and patches on his arms and legs. Neither myself or husband suffer from it nor his identical twin. Is it hereditary or just a reaction to external factors?

How do you break the cycle of eczema on the hands?

My DS is 3 and he really struggles with eczema all over his body, but it comes and goes and is sometimes under control. His hands are a different story: they're sore all the time. We've tried every single type of sensitive soap I can find, but nothing keeps it at bay and he has to have clean hands! They never seem to fully heal before they flare up again, and they just get worse and worse. Is there a way to break the eczema cycle without resorting to using steroid cream every single day?

My son has patches of eczema round his mouth. It flares up sometimes with food being there even though I wipe it off. I wonder if I should be putting cream on as a barrier to stop food getting on directly. Also should I just wipe his face with water and dry?

Is it advisable to see a dermatologist four prolonged flare ups? 9 year old daughter got eczema out if the blue last year. Now it's over her whole arms, back torso and some dry skin on eyelids. In addition to this she had had boils and puss filled spots on and off.
Been like this two months and been seeing gp who wants to wait 4 further weeks for a referral.

How bad does it have to be to justify a dermatologist consultation?

How is this product any different to Aveeno and childsfarm products?

I have never heard of your product, I'm not sure if it would work for my son, I have tried lots of eczema products, and only found one to work for my sons skin, which is a natural product weleda skin food, but I understand eczema affect everyone differently, for my son his is more like sandpaper skin worse in winter, so I need a thick good moisturising cream rather than thin and wet, occasionally he may get a flare up and get sore eczema spots that require steroid cream, but I have prevented this happening by using the weleda cream often and he hasn't had any flare ups, so I would be reluctant to switching to another product if the one I'm using works,do you agree?

Are topical creams every fully effective, or do you have to identify the root cause of the eczema? Is that ever truly possible?

My wee boy is 17 months and has very thick (lovely) hair. We were advised not to put anything in his bath because of his eczema, to just wash his hair and body with water, but his hair has started to get greasy between washes. I’m a wee bit worried that this isn’t good for the skin on his head (which hasn’t been itchy for a while but is still dry) and, i’m afraid to say, that people will think i’m not looking after him if he looks ‘dirty’.

Is there any particular product you might recommend for washing his hair, or indeed a method for doing it which won’t result in product getting on his skin?