eczema in five week old

[Golden]

So my beautiful little 5 week old seems to have eczema, so far only on his face. Sigh...

Aside from a visit to a pedi for some steroid, what helps your little ones?

We use BioKleen for our laundry, all free and clear on dipes, and burt's bees buttermilk soap about twice a week.

Anything herbal? Calendula? Comfrey? Homeopathic?
What about lotions? I've read things about aquaphor, cetaphil, etc. Someone also mentioned the burts bees lotion.

Help!

[shelley4]

when my son was between 3-12 months, he had *horrible* eczema on his face, arms, legs, hands, etc. nothing the doc. prescribed ever helped, the only thing that finally worked was elimating dairy out of my diet (exclusive breastfeeding for most of that time). then i totally cleared in about a week. as long as he eats no dairy, his skin is fine. in the winter, or if he gets even a tiny bit of dairy , his skin gets very dry and itchy again we really have to watch it, and read labels well!

so anyways, i'd try elimating dairy, and see if that helps. if it doesn't, try elimating soy, wheat or even corn.

[HollyBearsMom]

My son had severe eczema that started at around 4 months. It started on his face and then traveled down his body. He ended up w/ oozing sores all over his face.

I cut out dairy, nuts, wheat and other allergens from my diet. We tried calendula crèmes, homeopathic "eczema" and "rash" crèmes. We bathed him no more than once a week at the most and ONLY if he really needed it. When he was bathed we usually used no soap but when we did it was cetaphil. We use special humidifiers.

Bottom line nothing worked. My son suffered for 4+ months. After much research and deliberation we saw a pediatric dermatologist and ended up on a steroid crème. Over night he seemed better. Within days the oozing sores dried up and within a week the rashes were gone, with nothing more than a few dry patches.

He has never had a severe break out again. In the winter he still get rough patches on his legs and arms. His face gets very dry but no eczema. I can take care of these usually w. Burts bee’s oil or cetaphil crème. I continue to limit his bathing in the winter

I would try changing your diet first as well as cutting way back on bathing your baby. But if you don't see results within a week or 2 I would go for the steroid crème. I still feel guilty for allowing my son to suffer so long.

[L.J.]

My sons eczema started around 8 weeks old. Cutting out dairy was really key.

We've battled food allergies & such for 2.5 years.

We have recently found a calendula cream that is finally providing some relief.

I would be cautious about using cortisone, especially on the face.

There are lots of threads in the archives about different natural treatments for eczema.

[Golden]

Sigh......so cuttingout dairy? I feared you all would say that.


LJ: what brand is the calendula cream? I have Weleda calendula baby creme.

What did you all do about laundry detergents? We use BioKleen now. And did it make a difference when you switched?

[shelley4]

oh, and to add, we also switched to 100% cotton for all clothing and bedding (polyester can really iritate eczema!), i think we used All Free and Clear for laundry (dye free, perfume free), no fabric softeners, used a humitifier in our room, and after the open sores healed, rubbed him down daily with Vit. E oil (bought them in capules, i think meant to be swallowed, broke them open, rubbed.. Quite Messy!). never really wore much perfume to begin with, have since eliminated it and switched to unscented deodorant/shampoo and such.

oh, and this will be a lifelong struggle, both my doctor and naturopath agree that no one really "outgrows" eczema, it's always there, just sometimes better controlled. for example, if we were to allow him some dairy in a few years, he might not even show signs of ezcema, because his body would produce so much adrenaline that it would mask symptoms... but it's still there and from what i understand, if a body is made to produce high amounts of adrenaline (when it's not really needed), it lowers the immune system.

[amnesiac]

http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/Y...-treatment.htm

[julie128]

I was just coming here to ask about the same thing. My older daughter, 3 1/2, has eczema all over her butt. Elidel and petroleum jelly will each get rid of it, but it always comes back. I have been giving her fish oil capsules (strawberry flavor!) every morning for about 3-4 weeks, but no change yet. She doesn't eat a whole lot of dairy, and I don't think it's a food problem. I'm really not sure what to do. I think I'm going to take her to the doctor and also to an "alternative" health care professional. *sigh*

[PikkuMyy]

I had horrible eczema as a child all over my body (I was EBF) and the only thing that worked was my mother doing an elimination diet to see what I was allergic to (dairy, eggs, wheat). It worked but I still had some eczema all of my life until I started to supplement with evening primrose oil or borage oil for the GLA (gammalinoleic acid - Omega-9?) and then it went away for good as long as I take the supplements.

Steroids only mask the symptoms - if there's an allergy, it will present in another form in the body and the creams can thin your skin with long-term use. I could eat dairy and eggs now, if I wanted to. I ate them from after puberty until 4 1/2 years ago, when I went vegan. I could eat them during that time, but I'd be continually plagued with disgusting patches of eczema. When I became vegan and began the supplements, it went away altogether.