Baby w/dry skin, lots of scratches...

[JHopesMomma]

My daughter (13 months) has pretty sensitive skin, which I'm sure she gets from DH and I. It first started with a couple dry patches on each arm when she was 3 months. I took her to the dr because it was so red/bright pink and circular that I thought it was ringworm, but he said, nope just dry skin, use lotion. We use lotion literally every night, but it doesn't do anything long term, just soothes it for a bit. She now how dry patches all over her back, arms, and thighs. She'll scratch so much that sometimes she breaks the skin, and I know it must be painful (although she doesn't seem bothered by it) and I also worry about it getting infected. Besides trying to keep her nails super short and putting on lotion, any other suggestions?

[mom61508]

Originally Posted by JHopesMomma

My daughter (13 months) has pretty sensitive skin, which I'm sure she gets from DH and I. It first started with a couple dry patches on each arm when she was 3 months. I took her to the dr because it was so red/bright pink and circular that I thought it was ringworm, but he said, nope just dry skin, use lotion. We use lotion literally every night, but it doesn't do anything long term, just soothes it for a bit. She now how dry patches all over her back, arms, and thighs. She'll scratch so much that sometimes she breaks the skin, and I know it must be painful (although she doesn't seem bothered by it) and I also worry about it getting infected. Besides trying to keep her nails super short and putting on lotion, any other suggestions?

You sure it's not eczema?

[balancedmama]

It sounds like eczema. Does she have any food allergies?

[JHopesMomma]

Well, she was super sensitive to dairy whenever I ate it and she was breastfeeding, but by about 8 months or so, I was able to add dairy back into my diet and it didn't seem to bother her. Could dairy be causing this?

[balancedmama]

Oh yeah. Dairy is a really common eczema trigger. You might try an ED and see what happens. Make sure you're using cleansers and lotions and detergents that are scent-free and free of allergens. CA Baby works pretty well for body wash for us.

I know with DS, who is soy and egg allergic...he gets a flareup within 12 hours of getting tiny bits of soy or egg. If no contact, within a week after he'll be looking so much better. It might take a while to get fully out of your systems but I think you'll be able to tell fairly quickly.

For lotion we like ShiKai Children's lotion for all over, and then we've been putting eucerin on the really rough spots. I'm not a fan of the conventional eczema lotions but that one works really well for his bad dry patches.

ETA: if it's an allergen, it's never going to clear up until you remove it from her diet, you know? you'll be fighting it with lotions and not winning.

[JHopesMomma]

Thanks! I'll try cutting out dairy from her/my diet again...I guess I was hoping it was just because of the winter and dry air, but it's definitely not getting better. Thanks for the lotion and body wash suggestions too!

[cheryllynn]

I make a point of getting good healthy fats into baby's diet like unsalted organic butter, organic ghee, avocados. My dd is 11 months old at this time.