Oozing Eczema HELP!

[C is for Cookie]

First of all, I'm really shy so... bear with me. lol. it's kinda my first post.

So my 4 month old DS has eczema that is oozing on his left cheek and his elbow & knee creases. He also has very dry skin. we've been battling this for the past 2 months or so (secretly hoping that it would heal by itself but obviously, that didn't work out too well). So I tried some home remedies like oatmeal bath, coconut oil, desitin (i had to let go of the fact that it had parabens :/), nature's baby organics diaper ointment, and organic baby powder (without talc and is fragrance-free). I also did a breastmilk bath. Also, I've taken out dairy, wheat, gluten, and meat out of my diet since.... i had DS. (I am raw vegan) so it's definitely not something to do with my diet when breastfeeding. Nothing Works. All of the above just makes it worse. I don't want to resort to hydrocortisone or a bleach bath. I'm  really really against chemicals. Is there anything else i can do to heal this nasty eczema? Everytime his grandpa sees him, he says "aw, you poor thing... " and stares at it the whole time he's holding him. And I'm also kinda tired of explaining it to my friends who have perfectly smooth-skinned babies.

All I can think of that could be a possibility (based on my thousand of hours of research lol) is either:

a) the hard water when taking a bath

b) not giving him a bath enough (i give him a bath once a week)

c) using the wrong lotion (i use nature's organics face & body moisturizer for sensitive skin. it has 24 ingredients with some icky preservatives in it and some questionable ingredients. DH picked it up and thought he was proud of himself because it was vegan.)

d) cat and dog dander (i was allergic to dog dander when i was younger and developed something that was similar to eczema. it oozed like crazy) unfortunately, i can't kick the cats and dog out cuz it's not my home and they're not my pets (i live with DH's dad aka DS's grandpa)

e) laundry detergent (I use ALL free & clear laundry detergent for me, DS, and DH's clothes but it wouldn't make sense to break out now because of it because i've been using this detergent ever since he was born)

f) Just the cold weather mixing up with the hot weather? I live in the midwest so there's one day where it is 30-something degrees and then it heats up to 60 degrees the next day.

That's pretty much all I can think of. Any suggestions? I'm open to anything. I want this thing to be gone or at least to look a little better than it is now.

[Mammajamma]

Wow! please do not under any circumstance give  your four month old a bleach bath!!! that is so very toxic and I can only imagine it would make his situation ten times worse. . Anyway, do try olive oil, and continue the oatmeal baths and such- I have heard that eczema is an immune system response to something ( like an allergy or something) but I am no expert. Though, I do know from experience that a person can be allergic to bleach ( and  many times the chlorine is already in your household water.) Another thing to rule out would be whether or not you vaccinate your little one? The reason I ask is because sometimes ( depending upon the type of vaccine) the vaccine comes into contact with certain allergens like eggs and such ( I guess in the production process- growing the virus etc) .  This could then cause severe allergic responses and one way of that response showing itself is through eczema. Anyway, just my two cents...I hope you get it figured out.

[C is for Cookie]

Originally Posted by Mammajamma 

Wow! please do not under any circumstance give  your four month old a bleach bath!!! that is so very toxic and I can only imagine it would make his situation ten times worse. . Anyway, do try olive oil, and continue the oatmeal baths and such- I have heard that eczema is an immune system response to something ( like an allergy or something) but I am no expert. Though, I do know from experience that a person can be allergic to bleach ( and  many times the chlorine is already in your household water.) Another thing to rule out would be whether or not you vaccinate your little one? The reason I ask is because sometimes ( depending upon the type of vaccine) the vaccine comes into contact with certain allergens like eggs and such ( I guess in the production process- growing the virus etc) .  This could then cause severe allergic responses and one way of that response showing itself is through eczema. Anyway, just my two cents...I hope you get it figured out.

Yeah, I thought it was toxic. DH suggested it after looking through a couple websites and saw that some parents submerge their kids in bleach baths and I gave him this look "" and I responded "you have got to be kidding me?!" but according to some parents, it works.

DS is not vaccinated so that rules it out. I might try the olive oil though. Can it be any kind of olive oil? I have olive oil that i use for cooking DH's meals with. Can that work?

The oatmeal bath seemed to have work but it started to get bad after about an hour.

Thanks for responding!

[elisheva]

There is actually some recent evidence of the success of using a bleach bath with eczema starting at age two. You can google for the study as I don't have it to hand but was published in 2009 in Pediatrics IIRC. 

The cause of eczema is unknown. Some can be cleared up with dietary changes (in mom if baby is exclusively nursing) but we never had success with dietary changes with my ds1. He also has it in the creases of his elbows and knees. When it's really dry (like right now) it spreads to his torso and buttocks. Poor kid. We also tried all the creams and natural remedies (including homeopathy and acupressure) but the only thing that works? Visits to the local pool followed by lotion (we use calendula salve which is beeswax, olive oil, and calendula extract/essence/whatever). This basically amounts to a bleach bath. It's the ONLY time I see improvement. I have a friend whose son is in the same boat and they also do pool/bleach bath.

I recently had an AHA! moment when reading up on bleach baths. I was (still am?) ready to attribute ds1's predisposition to eczema to a) toxins in the body or b) an inherited trait that could be treated via constitutional/miasmic homeopathy. BUT, I can't argue with results. The causal mechanism the bleach bath study described goes something like this: dry skin itches, gets scratched, gets infected with staph (possibly community-based MRSA?), gets scratched, gets more infected...creating a cycle that is hard to break. My DH picked up a patch of eczema on his finger (he's also prone to it) when ds1 was born in the hospital. He treats it with bleach as well and it does reappear in dry weather which points to an underlying predisposition or some other factor...anyway. Results. Babes who aren't miserably itchy. I'd take bleach baths/trips to the pool over steroids (our docs best offer) any day.

I'm not sure what I'd do at 4 months. They say at 6 months it's safe to take them in the pool but obviously nothing magical happens when they turn 6 mo...

Good luck, mama. There is no good answer - just a lot of trails to follow which may or may not lead to success.

[Mammajamma]

I forgot to mention that Vitamin D is also supposed to be good for helping with eczema, as well as  giving probiotics. I would really be very careful with bleach as it is still a carcinogen and a very unsafe chemical ( regardless of studies that show that it kills staph ) because hospitals have used it to try to control staph infections for years and now they are having to face superbugs that are extremely resistant and hard to get rid of. Anyway, I figure the probiotics would help with fighting off infection as well ( if he has a staph infection due to the eczema). Something I have used on my youngest ( as he has allergies to dairy and gets eczema from that, though it does not ooze or anything really anymore) is Alba jelly. It is a very soothing jelly ( similar to petroleum jelly) that is made without petroleum. I get it at whole foods and love it- plus we have really dry skin and it works wonders for a lot of other things as well ( lip balm, makeup remover, hand salve. )

[C is for Cookie]

I'm actually taking probiotics every morning (just because...) Can he get it via breast milk? I just ordered some Alba jelly and did some more research and found some moms swear by dead sea salt baths so I got that too. Oatmeal baths were drying out his skin real bad. :( Hopefully, I'll win this round. lol.

Originally Posted by Mammajamma 

I forgot to mention that Vitamin D is also supposed to be good for helping with eczema, as well as  giving probiotics. I would really be very careful with bleach as it is still a carcinogen and a very unsafe chemical ( regardless of studies that show that it kills staph ) because hospitals have used it to try to control staph infections for years and now they are having to face superbugs that are extremely resistant and hard to get rid of. Anyway, I figure the probiotics would help with fighting off infection as well ( if he has a staph infection due to the eczema). Something I have used on my youngest ( as he has allergies to dairy and gets eczema from that, though it does not ooze or anything really anymore) is Alba jelly. It is a very soothing jelly ( similar to petroleum jelly) that is made without petroleum. I get it at whole foods and love it- plus we have really dry skin and it works wonders for a lot of other things as well ( lip balm, makeup remover, hand salve. )

[Karamom]

I don't know about a 4 month old but for older children there is a lot of evidence that beach baths can be very beneficial in treating eczema that has become infected. If your sons skin is oozing than from what I understand it is infected and will only get worse. The bleach bath is very diluted. It is essentially the same as a swimming pool. The infection will need to be cleared up because otherwise it will only exaggerate itself and then your other option would be to use oral antibiotics but personally I feel more comfortable with the bleach baths. You might find this thread interesting: http://www.mothering.com/community/forum/thread/1300330/eczema-please-help-with-next-step#post_16299218

[*MamaJen*]

I thought my DS had eczema, but it turned out he was allergic to his car seat. He broke out where ever his skin touched the car seat. Really horrible raw oozing rashes. It cleared up as soon as we put a cover on the car seat. 

[MoonWillow]

My experience with eczema is that its always diet related. Check out the Allergy forum there's tons to read.  

[MoonWillow]

Oh and welcome to MDC! 

[maryamb]

My almost two year old son had eczema from 6 months to 20 months and it ended up being directly linked to his diet.  We had to remove gluten/corn (hard one to remove as it's in almost everything)/dairy from his diet.  His eczema was completely gone within a week of the new diet and has not come back yet. We live in Michigan which is rarely sunny!  We noticed that when we went on vacation to Florida his eczema would go away. His doctor said that it's because of the extra vitamin D.  We supplement with probiotics and cod liver oil every night.  Based on my experience, I would try an elimination diet and maybe start with the biggest causes which are corn/gluten/dairy.  My son's eczema however did not go away until all three were removed from his diet, removing them individually did not make a difference.