eczema tips

[Siar]

DS (age 5) has really bad eczema on his legs, which mainly bothers him at night. his sheets are covered in spots of blood from the scratching. we put aloe vera gel on his legs at bedtime - can anyone suggest any other natural remedies before we go and get some E45 cream? - I'm not sure about using a steroid cream on him. Thanks.

[Mama Mko]

My son's eczema is directly linked to his diet. When we cut corn out (corn starch/corn syrup too), it got better within days. He still has dry skin in the winters and we use Aveeno Advanced Care lotion. It helps immensely.

[crl]

We found out DS is allergic to milk. His eczema is better since we eliminated all milk from his diet--better but not gone.

You might try changing laundry detergants, eliminating fabric softner, doing an extra rinse on his sheets and clothes. We use CA Baby sensitive body wash and only do bath once a week.

Aquaphor isn't natural, but it's not a steriod. You might try that before steriods if you want.

We do use cortaid when DS' eczema is bad and then switch back to just CA baby lotion when it's not.

Good luck!
Catherine

[Siar]

corn starch/syrup won't be an issue - we are in the UK and those products aren't widely used here. will check out if we can get aveeno here. thanks.

[greenemami]

We use California Baby Calendula cream on her red scaly spots and they clear up within a couple of days. WE also use the super sensitive lotion daily (or whenever she will let me!) to prevent the ezcema from coming back and the body wash as well. Love it! http://www.californiababy.com/

She also does better when she drinks little to no milk.

[floiejo2]

I highly recommend eucerin calming cream. We use it twice a day and it's made a huge difference in dd2's skin. We also do oatmeal baths only 2-3 times a week and weleda calendula cream works really well for those breakout times.

[Dukey25]

http://well.ca/products/spectro-eczema-care_5306.html

I use spectro eczema cream and it works so well for us that I don't need to use the cortisone cream. They also have a soap but I have not found it necessary.

[FallingLeaves]

We use aquafor and I make sure her sheets and clothing are 100% cotton. I also use the Aveeno Baby Bath Wash. My DD recently had an allergic reaction to a peanut butter type snack and ended up in the ER. Her eczema has gotten much better since we have eliminated anything from her diet that contains or is processed around nuts.

[Anastasiya]

Same here with Calendula Cream (California Baby) when there is a flare up, and the regular Sensitive Lotion (California Baby) when all is well.

Also, Lansinoh Lanolin if things get really out of hand.

[AustinMom]

My baby's eczema was due to a soy allergy, and soy, is in almost everything!! We don't eat processed/packaged stuff much, so avoid a lot of it. He used to scratch himself till he made himself bleed, on the legs, head, face, everywhere.

We were at the point of a making our own laundry detergent, 20 min soaking oatmeal baths 2 times a day, eucerine lotion after, eucerine 3 times a day in addition to after bath.

Aloe Vera, of what I studied is not good for eczema, I forget why, but we never used it. We did try olive oil, and emu oil, those have really good results when studied.Maybe, at night, do a moisture treatment, and use a VERY VERY thick amount of eucerine, then wrap his legs with gauze and have him sleep in it. He may not like this as he is five and may fight it, but you can say he's going to sleep as a mummy!! That might be fun.

After everything we did, I was convinced (even though my ped wasn't) that it was an allergy, did an elimination diet, and found out it was soy.

If you do go the steroid route, the hydrocortizone cream OTC has less steroid strength than the prescription stuff. I'd start there. We also tried Sodium Hyloronate (sp?) it's by prescription, but it's gentler than steroids.

[Siar]

thanks for your tips everyone - how do I do an oatmeal bath?

[Alyantavid]

My 3 year old's eczema finally went away after we eliminated dairy.

He does have some sensitivities to things like laundry detergent, lotions, so I have a few things that I'll only use on him, Cetaphil lotion for one.

[AustinMom]

Originally Posted by Siar

thanks for your tips everyone - how do I do an oatmeal bath?

I ground up oats in the food processor till they were a powder, then ran a warm bath and stirred it pretty well till they were mostly dissolved. While bathing, get the "paste" that forms, and put that on eczema spots if they are above the water.

[Musubi]

When DDs eczema got really bad during the winter, we had to resort to wet dressings. She had to sleep in drenched pjs with dry ones on top. It did the trick and was also the first time she slept through the night!! We also used aquaphor after her baths and liked it a lot.

Good luck!!

[timberwolf]

My daughters eczema was cured 6 months ago after I started to give
her 2000 mg of flax seed oil per day. I do mean cured.
It took a few weeks to kick in but never have we seen it
since. This is what worked for us! Good luck

[AustinMom]

Originally Posted by timberwolf

My daughters eczema was cured 6 months ago after I started to give
her 2000 mg of flax seed oil per day. I do mean cured.
It took a few weeks to kick in but never have we seen it
since. This is what worked for us! Good luck

I was told by one Dr. that eczema can be a deficient amount of fatty acids, he recommended fish oil, prime rose oil, etc. Thank God it worked for you! Us, it was allergies all the way.

[eepster]

I have DS's eczema completely under control since I found his trigger. That is the key to eczema, it is an allergic response to something. You need to figure out what that something is for your DS.

For my DS, it happens to be petroleum products. All most all commonly available skin care products have petroleum derivatives in them. Some are obvious (mineral oil, vaseline,) but others are hidden (sodium laureth sulfate.) Even most products made for sensitive skin and to sooth eczema have petroleum derivatives. We stick to just a few brands of skin care products for DS, such as Avalon organics.

[LaughingHyena]

Regular swimming (at least once a week) seemed to sort DHs out. The doctor said it was probably due to the chlorine stopping it getting infected. I've since seen a study of using mild bleach in baths for children with Excema so I suppose it makes sense.

For I think allergies are definitely a trigger, he certainly doesn't tolerate cats or dogs though I haven't noticed any food related issues.

At the moment we use either aqueous cream or double base as a daily moisturiser and then we have a couple of steroid creams on hand for when it gets bad. We were recommended a low dose steroid but in a really sticky ointment (Eumovate I think) and told to switch between the aqueous and double base every couple of months.

I would like to look more into the allergies and more natural treatments but for now what we are doing is keeping him comfortable.

[MrsH]

Eczema is such a pain isn't it? I've found most docs unwilling to try to identify the culprit of the immuno response, I guess because it could be to literally anything at all! I didn't have any eczema for years after I stopped using personal care products with sodium laureth sulfate (the sudsing agent). Sadly, it just recently cropped up again and I haven't yet figured out why. However, dabbing straight olive oil on it at night seems to help.

All the best!

[AmieLynn]

We use Eucerine immediately after baths on the areas where my daughter typically breaks out. Then we use Vaseline lotion for senstive skin /hypoallergenic all over. We use Dove for sensistive skin for cleansing and All Free and Clear for laundry detergent along with an extra rinse. I liked Aquaphor but it left grease spots all over our clothes when I washed them for whatever reason.

This regimen keeps her eczema under control along with a strict diet of avoiding those things she is allergic to (nuts and dairy). She is allergic to cats also. Although our regimen is not organic or "natural" it has worked for us. When I struggled with my daughter's skin issues as an infant I couldn't find anything that was "natural" that worked for helping her with eczema. Allergies/eczema are a frustrating thing!!!