Exzema in babies - more advice please!

CurryKing_2

So heres problem number two after the breast feeding one...... ::) ::) ::)

Little monkey Asha is now 8 weeks old and has had really bad exzema. She developed a fever and went to hospital in week 5 for a whole week.  :'(

She was on antibiotics and it cleared up but now it still comes back on her ears and on little spots around her 'warm bits' like her armpits and the folds on her neck.

Mum gave up dairy products for a week to see if it made any changes to her breast milk but no difference.
We try and keep her in 'loose' clothes at moment and she wears a vest at night with exposed arms to keep her cool.

She also has canesten for her bum, hydrocortisone for her red sore areas and an all over body cream (some big tub with a green lid!) - all prescribed by the doc....

So anyway after all the success we had from the sore nipples thread i thought i'd gather the wisdom from any other mums and dads out there who've had similar problems and can offer advice.

Many thanks in advance.....

Neil, Dips and Baby Asha  :-*

Spendless

my baby daughter also got it - tho not severe and at a lot older age (about 10 months) we too got a big tub of cream from doctors but also some oilatum to put in the bath - via a perscription -

zain

I can sympathise fully with you. Our boy has had excema since he was 3 months old . It appears to have finally cleared up ( fingers crossed) at the age of 2.5 years. We had frequent hospital appointments and tried virtually every ointment on the market.

My advice would be not to give up as parents. There is a lot you can do to minimise the impact even if it doesn't finally clear up until much older. It is very distressing to see a baby in so much discomfort but persist with what the doctors suggest and keep trying different products.It might disappear for a few days but the chances are it will come back so don't expect quick results.

We moved over to non-steroid creams quite quickly. Protopic and elidel are two - i suspect which will have to wait until your child is much older before you use these.
Keep moisturing and try this link:

http://www.healthy-house.co.uk/products/information.php?prod_gp_id=31

The mitten t-shirts ( although expensive) really helped in breaking the itch-scratch cycle. We found our boy slept bettter at night.

Good luck and pm if i can help anymore

aussielle

Switch your washing powder and fabric conditioner to something suitable for sensitive skin..like Surcare

Lulubells

Hi,

My little girl has ezcema, but not severe - it is linked with her milk intolerance. The best advice I was given was from my sister - she recommended Boots "skin therapy" cream - I am now an avid user of this - it seems to really help and it's pretty cheap too - hope this help your little one !

sarahlouise210

My daughter had very bad excema from about 6 months until she was 3 - we had all the creams..oilatum in the bath (have you EVER tried getting the bath clean after that stuff!) washing powder for sensitive skin.. everything. When her entire body(including her face ) was covered in crusty sores , I as a very last resort in my "try anything frame of mind" contacted a faith healer! I was aware with my science head on that this was clutching at straws but the heartache seeing her like that made me willing to try. I will never know if she made a miraculous recovery naturally or because of the faith healing but within 1 week her excema had gone and has never returned...strange but true

Sarahsaver

My son has eczema which hes had since 8 months.
Cutting dairy products helped, and you are doing the best thing by breastfeeding. He had to have 'wet wraps' which were a nightmare to get the doctor/nurse/consultant to agree to, but once we had them they helped no end.
Theres a cream called protopic which works like a dream but i dont know if its ok for small babies as it works on the immune system.
Keep heating down - great for saving money!
I make my own detergent, and used washable nappies most of the time.
For a small babe ONE drop of lavender and geranium in the bath water.
Neem cream or soap works.
Any more questions ask away because Ive dealt with this for ages and used to cry when I saw the pain my son was in - now his face is as soft and smooth as a peach ;D

rushnowt

we have some sufferers in our house although must admit it's getting better as they're getting older, we also had the oilatum stuff for the bath on prescription, and these big tubs of petroleum stuff that stank to high heaven, thank god i dont have to use that anymore. we also found that changing to surcare washing powders etc helped and no conditioner, even went to the extreme of using only water to wash clothes for the youngest. some of it was also down to diet etc, when we stopped my little boy drinking orange juice it completely cleared up.

Sarahsaver

Another thing you will face, Gadget_freak, is people asking you in the street 'have you tried x y or z as a treatment'
This gets a bit annoying after 4 years.
I have reeled off lists of all the prescription medications/creams etc my son has had and they usually go before I have finished.
The main thing is that you ARE doing something and us folk here are helping in whatever way we can.
Watch out for too many antibiotics in babies as it can sometimes affect teeth (my daughters premolars were discoloured). Keep babe away from people with cold sores because eczema sufferers are more vulnerable.
Take plenty of photos, im sure some people dont take pics of their kids if they have eczema, but I look at pics of my son when he was 2 and i thought he would never get better. Now aged 4 and a half, he mainly has eczema on his hands/wrists, and his feet - including the soles of his feet, which is apparently quite rare.
If it does get so that your babe needs more care than average, you may be eligible for Disability Living allowance, I cant remember what age you can start to claim it.
Hope you are all well.

16011996

i have suffered eczema all my life, sadly when i was a child i used to have to have my hands bound at night to stop me scrating.

some ideas to try, cut out tomatoes, these used to drive me mad, but i've grown out of that it seems, milk as people have put before (well dairy produce). put some wheatgerm in a muslin sack, and run the bath water through it, this is extremly soothing. let the air get to the skin as aften as possible. And one thing we found with my daughter was the poppers on baby grows and vests irritated her, we had to put clear nail varnish on the back of them. she still has [problems with buttons on jeans etc ittitating her, or anything with studs on.

I think the cream you have will be aqueous cream, if you ask your gp, there is and aqueous ointment, which is much thicker, and a bit greasy, but if you put it on last thing at night, it soaks in over night and really helps. (for anyone a bit older, putting this on your feet, then a pair of socks overnight leaves the skin soft as anything, and i'm sure you can actually buy it over the counter in chemists and is cheaper than vaseline if you buy the non branded one).

hope something there helps, national eczema society this website is fantastic for information or support.

love

160.

mini

I can relate to try cleaning the bath after Oilatum, it's a nightmare. If you do get Oliatum for the bath please remember it will make Asha very slippy & also the bath surface, we have found it to be quite good, the Oilatum not the slipping.

Have you ben told not to use baby bubble bath or any other 'baby' products?

Something I have found has helped my eldest is now for every load of washing I rinse it in the washing machine again, I have to reset it to the rinse & spin cycle, I read about doing that on here somewhere & it amazing how many soap bubbles you can see the second time.

Something that aggravates my youngest is new clothes make sure everything is washed first.