Eczema in 3yo, not diet related...how do I treat it?

[atpeace]

DD has seasonal eczema all over her body every winter. By the spring time it clears up completely, and she's fine until the next winter (hence why I don't think it's diet related). It is super extensive this past week, and we haven't been doing anything differently (other than avoiding baths and showering her instead, every 2-3 days, for the past month or two).

We lotion her up twice per day with organic, unscented, dye-free lotion (the most "natural" we could find at Whole Foods), but it's not going away. I don't want to take her to see our MD since he'll just prescribe something very strong, likely with steroids, or other junk. It didn't bother her until lately, when she occasionally scratches at the patches.

Is there are more natural, and EFFECTIVE way of treating seasonal eczema?

[mama k nj]

Well we are dealing with some bad eczema on my babe (I started another thread about our drama)... possibly food related for us. But I can give you the basic advice as I've dealt this this myself for awhile and DS1 has it sometimes too.

Make sure she is drinking plenty of water to stay hydrated. (I know I struggle with this in the winter as I'm just not as thirsty.) Put a humidifier in her room. Oatmeal baths every other day. Pat dry and follow with lotion to seal in moisture. DS1 has done well with Nature's Gate Collidal Oatmeal Lotion. We also make sure we are using super gentle soap/shampoo on him. California Baby Shampoo and Bodywash has done well for us. For patches that flare up you can try a heavier moisturizer like shea butter or a calendula oil. I have found hydrocordizone helps with really itchy issues, like when they are disrupting my sleep. But not something I want to use all the time. I prefer the Exederm brand for that.

Good luck! Hopefully some others will chime in too.

[momoftworedheads]

Our son has it on his cheeks in the winter and we use calendula cream, and lots of shea butter or cocoa butter. We only use organic body wash or cocoa butter soap for his cheeks. His is not dietary caused either.

Good luck to you. The calendula cream works wonders.

The other thing is, we only give him a bath every other day and that helps too.

Take care!

[fruitfulmomma]

We found that giving our dd cod liver oil daily really helped. Flaxseed oil is also good. Externally pure oil like grapeseed or apricot. (I don't think Burt's Bee's is a good one since it contains fragrance and several other ingredients.)

[atpeace]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to try some of your suggestions. The oils everyone suggested sound good (and I might want to steal some for my own use, since they sound so luxurious!). Would regular olive oil work as well?

Other than the occasional discomfort, is there any real harm to eczema? If it doesn't bother DD, do I need to treat it aggressively, knowing that it will go away in the spring?

[Addy's Mom]

I think the new advice is multiple baths a day if it's really bad. My pedi told me to give my son two (very short, lukewarm) baths daily followed by a sealant ointment like Aquaphor. I would try a daily bath followed by the oil of your choice to start out with, to seal in the moisture from the bath. I found daily baths to almost immediately heal my son's eczema. If I tried to skip baths and use just a moisturizer, it did nothing for him.

[catinthehat]

In my experience, just because it goes away in the spring doesn't mean that it is not diet related. Hope you get it figured out.

[fruitfulmomma]

Other than the occasional discomfort, is there any real harm to eczema?

They can not be vaccinated against smallpox and/or be in close contact with anyone who has been recently vaccinated against it. The results of doing so could be fatal. See http://www.bt.cdc.gov/training/small...ns/ec_vac.html

This would be a specific concern for military families since most of the public are not vaxxed for it currently.