How often do you bathe/moisturize your eczema babe??

[goldfawn]

I was doing a nightly bath but I think this may be hurting as opposed to helping. just want to get an idea of what other mamas are doing that is getting positive results...

[Joshuasmom16]

When DS had horrible eczema, at first it was a bath once a week. When we saw the allergist he made me feel really guilty b/c he said the new thinking was daily was better if it's tepid water, and you seal in the moisture with vanicream or something like that right after the bath. We did start doing that and it cleared, eventually. Honestly, I'm not totally convinced it was that or the fact that we identified his allergens & eliminated.

[changingseasons]

We do a bath every night, but soap only once a week (even though the allergist said we should be using soap every day ). Then moisturize immediately after.

I keep meaning to add some Epsom salt in hopes that it will draw some of the toxins and stuff out of her too... but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

[mtn.mama]

We do a bath once a week or two weeks or three weeks... soap twice in 15 months, moisturizer right after baths, zinc oxide on active eczema patches then coated with Un-Petroleum. But mostly the eczema is controlled by avoiding "fragrance", sulfates, garlic, corn, eggs and ... everything else.

[ainh]

We've had good results with a nightly bath. Only use soap (Vanicream) once a week though. In the summer we don't need to moisturize, as we live in Georgia and have plenty of humidity. In the winter we use Vanicream lotion and Aquaphor (and 1% to nip eczema flares in the bud when it seems like there is a rough patch forming -- I'd rather do two days of preventative 1% than a week or more of strong stuff if it gets bad).

[Wugmama]

We tried the once per week plan and the once or twice daily plan. Didn't seem to make a whole lot of difference but the daily for at least 20 minutes then apply vanicreme was maybe a bit better. We really like a clay based lotion we got from our practitioner but can't seem to find again. When the baby was upset and scratching she would literally calm right down when it was applied and sometimes go to sleep. the clay was supposed to draw out stuff, but really, I don't think that played much of a part. It had zinc oxide in it which I think encouraged healing (really need to heal from the inside though to stop the breakouts) and camphor and euclyptus which you'd think would sting but I think it totally helped treat and prevent infection. Several times her lesions would look like they had black lint stuck on them, and I believe it was probably impetigo in there on top of every thing else. In fact, our family practice doc gave us topical antibiotics to use once, and we did for a week or 10 days until the tube was empty, and a lot of healing took place then. So I think there probably was bacteria there.

For the baths we never used soap, but would use olive oil like soap.

[*mama moose*]

DD only has it on her face so far, but I'm with mtn.mama with the uh, infrequent bathing , I think shes had maybe 5 baths in her life? (almost 4 months old) Her skin gets really dry after a bath so I kinda avoid it, plus shes so little still its not a real NEED yet....

[ASusan]

About every other day. Half of those are showers with dad and the other half are baths. Lotion twice a day - we're doing Cetaphil right now - and if he's bathed, immediately after the bath. 2% steroid cream ('script) on his hot spots, usually once a day, maximum of twice (sometimes not at all). Soap once a week (California baby).

Eh, it kinda works. Best change was a switch from oils or light lotions to Eucerin or Cetaphil. The oils/regular lotions just weren't heavy enough.

[earthmama369]

When dd's eczema was flaring up, we dropped baths to once a week and gave her a massage with either pure shea butter or California Baby's eczema cream 2-3x/daily.

[tooticky]

My sign that I was bathing dd too much was when she would cry when I put her into the tub.... She went from agitating to get into it, to crying when she heard the water running.

We dropped the bath to once a week, no soap, only shampoo if her hair was super oily (from rubbing food into it!). I shampoo her at the end of the bath so she's not sitting in rinsed off soap.

Then immediately rubbing Vanicream onto her usual dry spots (hands and feet).

This seems to be working for now.... Of course I am not sure if the success is from bathing less frequently or from eliminating problem foods/adding Vanicream into the equation.

[Chinese Pistache]

Dd's eczema has been controlled by diet for a while, but her skin is still very dry, much drier than my other kids. We bathe daily (fairly long soaks). We use California Baby body wash every other day or so and Cetaphil the other days. We use Vanicream right after the bath to seal in all the moisture.

[Sandrine]

We try to aim for every other day but sometimes it's only twice a wk. We let her soak as long as she wants, which is sometimes 5min or more. We put lotion on her asap once she's out.

[mcmwi]

At least once a day but we try for two. One w/ cetaphil wash and Jason tea tree oil shampoo and one just soaking in the water. After a.m. bath we slather on CeraVe and after p.m. bath we use Aquafor. Definitely not the most natural route but it's the only thing keeping it under control.

[karin95]

We started off, at 4 months or so, bathing our son twice a day, and slathering on Vanicreme quickly afterwards, and 1% hydrocortisone on the active ezcema.

Now we're down to 1 bath per day, in the middle of the day, with vanicream all over his body, and Emily's Skin Soother on his face (the steroid goes on twice/day, not after his bath).

We skip the bath at least once a week, but never twice in a row. He's usually fine with that schedule. It does keep his skin nice a hydrated. Sometimes I put some vanicream on his dry skin, and it doesn't soak in or moisturize as nicely as it does when he's just soaked in the bath.

We do 15-20 minutes in the bath, and I think the water is warmer than tepid. He actually likes it pretty warm.

I've heard that it doesn't matter which route you take (daily or weekly), as long as you don't let the skin dry out. bathing without quickly sealing it in is worse than not bathing at all. It all depends on your kiddo, I guess. We're not hurrying about stopping the baths. He loves them and we'd rather focus on getting him off the steroids! We're going to try again soon...*crosses fingers*.