Need more moisture, how to ditch the hydrocortisone?

[IAmOptimusPrime]

My skin is terrible at the moment, dry and patches of eczema esp on eyelids. Sometimes it is so sore I feel like I have severe sunburn.

The only thing that seems to help is hydrocortisone 0.5% but I can't use that forever, although at the moment I would rather end up with thinning skin then have to endure this every day. It's much worse in the winter going hot to cold.

Anyway I've tried aveno, la roshe possay and aveene with no luck. It copes with dermalogica intense moisture balance but is still dry and at the moment I'm using the age smart super rich repair which also doesn't stop the flair ups and dry skin. The patches have now spread across the bridge of my nose, cheeks and neck. I just want to cry.

Please help me I get so sad that it looks terrible and hurts that I resort back to hydrocortisone and the the cycle continues.

I don't have eczema so may be totally wrong, but have you tried Arnica gel? search 'Arnica' here Whenever I've had any skin irritation it's cleared it up really quickly. Also, Arbonne Skincare is meant to be fab for Eczema and Psoriasis. I can't remember the name of the product but if you found your nearest rep, they'd be able to help. Arbonne

Clinique do something that calms redness- might be redness solutions- or another cream for poorly skin- used to help when I had ezcema on my face.

However, if it's bad you should ask to see a dermo as there are other creams that are not steroids which you can use safely on your face- such as Protopic - but your GP cannot prescribe them.

I really like Eucerin. Used it on my facial excezma and it cleared it up. I couldn't open one eye properly at one point- a great look. In my case it was just a flare up when I was massively stressed and overworking.

Excezma sucks OP- my sympathies.

I've been using calendula cream from holland and Barrett on my ds who has the exact same problem.
Google is quite helpful on this.
This cream has changed the feel of his skin from what he calls 'bobbly' to smooth and pretty much clear. I noticed an immediate difference and much less redness.
We use it every day but it's paraben free which is good.
The problem with excema is that it's so individual, what works for one won't for another.

Had years of excema hell and only just discovered this so excuse my slight over excitement.

Epaderm smelt frankly like petrol IMO.

Hth

You have my sympathy, I know it's horrible as I've had eczema on my face for years. At the moment I don't have any at all, however, and haven't had for some months. Now I don't know whether this is due to working less and getting a bit more sleep these days than I used to; to hormonal changes after being pregnant for 15 weeks (miscarried a few weeks ago though and eczema hasn't reappeared yet); to the products I'm currently using or to a combination of these. Will tell you the products just in case it's them:

I use Liz Earle cleanse and polish hot cloth cleanser. I then use a couple of drops of Bio Oil followed by Liz Earle skin repair moisturiser. On my eyes I've found the only eye creams that soothe rather than aggravate are Simple regeneration age resisting eye cream and Dr Hauschka daily revitalising eye cream (kindly recommended by someone on here. (I also use Dermalogica solar defense booster mixed with my moisturiser during the day.)

Good luck, hope you manage to sort it out.

I was getting very red patches and flaky skin above my eyes and down onto my cheeks. I use Sisley Confort Extreme - the first time I used it my skin calmed slightly. I would only recommend a tester first as it is super expensive (thank you mum and dad for my christmas present!). It is quite rich so I now just use it at night and I use a lighter cream for the day.

As an aside I find too much sugar in my diet really sets my skin of for some reason, have no idea why, but a week of puddings or mince pies or chocolate and my skin is starting to flake again, so I know the cream isn't magic!

That's an interesting point Mbear; I've also been eating less sugar recently than I used to - perhaps another factor in my skin being better than usual...

OP, I have exactly the same problem excema on my eyelids which spreads on to underneath my eyes and across the bridge of my nose.

This is more a preventative measure because the ONLY thing that clears mine up is hydrocortisone, even creams like eurecin and simple seem to make it worse. But I find wearing sunblock on my face everyday even dull winter days seems to stop it developing. At the moment I am using Clinique City Block SPF 40.

It might be worth using the cortisone to clear it up then trying a sunblock to stop it coming back.

Good luck and let us know if you find anything else that works

Thanks so much for the replies, I'll have a look at the suggestions. It is just so horrible and makes me feel very self conscious. I've been necking my son's piriton syrup in an attempt to calm things down, it is the most sugary substance known to man so will probably not help if sugar could be a cause!

Will make a dr appointment tomorrow for a dermatologist referal as I can't go on like this.

Thanks again

Um, don't know if this is much help but my brothers dcs had excema and she was recommended Lush dream cream and it worked wonders. apparently it is a bit of super cream ,espec for young fragile skins where you're trying to avoid steroid based creams...

Thanks groak, my ds suffers from eczema too and I bought this for him and it didn't help. I tried it too and it just really stung, but I know for some people it is fantastic.

Bobbins! Hoped that would help! MIL has been using Elizabeth Arden 8hr miracle cream on her hands which get chapped over wintr and given some for my dd in case she gets her usual badly chapped sking round her mouth at winter. It is according to MIL v good, don't know if you could blag some samples?

Pure Potions Skin Salvation has worked wonders on me, I was also using hydrocortisone round my eyes and knew it was a bad idea! I also ditched sparkly eyeshadow as I found this made it ten times worse, now I use This instead.

I would go right back to the very simplest product possible.

I can handle my eczema on my hands, legs but when it breaks out on my face I hide, so really feel for you.

I have been using rosehip oil recently which is lovely and I think would help with the horrible burning dryness.

I know that using steroids doesn't feel like the best option (I was prescribed them for years, until I was given the strongest one available). I carried on this cycle for years until I read a book called 'the eczema solution' I'm afraid that I borrowed it from the library so I don't know the author, and I don't know how to post links from my iPhone but it is available from amazon.

The best piece of advice I discovered was that after you have used a steroid cream on your skin for a few days, your skin appears healthy, so, out of fear from the dreaded 'skin thinning' you stop using the cream right? Actually, your skin has another TWO WEEKS of healing yet to do underneath the layers of skin that appear healthy. So If you carry on using the hc cream for two weeks after your skin begins to look good, you will find that the eczema should be cured. If you begin to itch say, a month from then, just zap the eczema with 3 days of hc cream, and you should not break out again. Believe me, doing this is healthier for your skin than the on again off again solution that you may be using right now and IT WORKS. Don't forget to moisturise twice a day as well. I am proof that this works, my hands were ravaged by eczema for years , and it is now hardly a problem for me. Hope this helps you, OP

I also have eczema on my face. Usually, I can keep it at bay with Dermalogica products but flare ups require a quick blast with steroid cream to get them under control and then Diprobase to moisturise. I find it works particularly well on eyelids.

Do you use any other products on your face (cleanser or eye make up remover maybe?)

I used to get it on my hands, and found?counterintuitively?that salt water worked wonders. Would be cheap and easy to give that a try.

What about cracking open an oil of evening primrose capsule and putting that on? It's very good for my super dry skin.

There are so many products I can't use on my face :(
Eucerin
Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour
Aveeno
Liz Earle
and I have to be very careful with shampoo and knitwear as well
etc etc

But once I find something I just have to stick with it. At the moment it's Boots Perform and protect - lovely stuff!

I also find I have to go back to basics quite often. Ditch as much sugar as possible and drink bucketloads of plain water. My excema is always bad at this time of year (central heating, stress)

Can you take fish oil capsules too - or the like - maybe omega 3 oils? Working from the inside out? Eat avacados and oily fish too might help.

Daktacort cleared my eyelids up touch wood. I sympathise, my eyelids went like this overnight and were like it for 18 months or so. I was using hydrocortisone and I could see it was making my eyelids thinner but I just couldn't cope with the itching and the scaliness. The crease was weeping, it was horrendous. My nose is very bad at the moment but it isn't painful like the eyelids so I am just trying to live with it.

I read somewhere that the hydrocortisone works better when the skin is already moisturised, but that wasn't an option for me as I would just hit the roof due to the stinging if I put anything else on my eyelids.

I've also read that manuka honey can help but I never got round to trying it.

It is interesting to read about the sugar because I am seriously overdoing sugary crap at the moment.

The doctor did suggest cleaning my eyelids with a salt solution twice a day and I think that helped a tiny bit but I can't be sure.

What about straight vitamin e oil or rose hip oil?

One of the best things you can use as an allrounder is Alleppo Soap..this is a lovely product, hand made from bay oil and olive oil. you can also use it as a shampoo and even a shaving soap. There is nothing to irritate the skin (like SLS or SLES) and it's great stuff.

Wow, thank you all so much for your help.

I have gone back to basics for a couple of days, I'm using an emolient called cetomacrogol, it looks like an aqueous cream but is thicker and more moisturising although still doesn't completely hydrate to the extent I need. Might try and add some evening primrose oil. The dermotologist I saw years ago prescribed it to me and my skin has calmed down a bit more.

The dermalogica age repair stuff has been ditched. I used it the night of my first post and it felt like my skin was on fire. But the intense moisture balance still seems to be ok.

Crappy I'll have a look for that book, thanks for the advice it makes me feel better about using the steroids.

I have some manuka honey so will start on that along with some fish oils and lots of water. If I find a magic solution I will let you all know.

Oh and a friend mentioned that channel 4 have a programme at the mo about diet and medical conditions and I think there is one on eczema so I'll look in to that too.

I will have good skin one day!!