my 7 week old was diagnosed with eczema - when i took her to the dcs she only had it n one side of her face - i bough e45 cream

today when she woke up she had it all over her face and on her neck too - i just started to cry - i don't think it is itching her yet

has anyone had a similar experience and what have you used? does the condition go away with age? does treatment cure it or does it just maintain it? what about bath times what should i use?

my doc didn't seem that bothered by it but i am

any advice would be great?

thank you

Hi, Freya has had eczema on her face for about 2 months now, I have tried various creams from the doc including Epaderm, Aqueous cream, Hydrocortisone and some baby moisturisers.

After all that the only thing that works for us is Sudocrem, lol.

I think you should try a few different creams to find the one that suits your baby best, as they all react differently.

I cut out bath products/soap, I only use non-bio washing liquid, I rinse her clothes and bedding after washing twice, I make sure she is outside a lot and we don't use the central heating often.

I don't know if you are BFing or FFing, but either way, dairy can sometimes cause eczema in babies, so consider that if you are FF and mention it to docs and if you are BFing try cutting it out of your diet for a week or two to see if it helps.

for the face we found a barrier of vaseline overnight helped loads.

^ Good point, I use vaseline around her eyes and mouth as she dribbles a lot! Also when we go swimming.

My LO has it, he got eczema around 2 months old on face and body. We took him to the docs a few times for it. It became quite sore and he was prescribed a steroid cream for a week to clear it up. I always use Epaderm around 4 times a day and it keeps it at bay. I think it's alot of trial and error and different thing work for diff babies. (others didnt work for us)

I don't bath him everyday as it can dry out the skin and use Oiltum junior in his bath. We wash all his clothes and bedsheets in Fairy and don't use any kind of fabric softener as even fairy conditioner irritated his skin.
If it gets worse just take her back to the docs, they should prescribe you something better than what you can buy in the shops. If the doc you had was rubbish, try ask to see a different one.

Oh and another thing I just remembered, anyone who held Theo while wearing perfume or body spray would make his skin flare up, so we had to ask relatives and stuff to avoid it if they were seeing him.

Hope you find something that works for your LO soon x

thanks for your replies

i've heard that vaseline doesn't let the skin breathe so wouldn't this make it worse? i did put vaseline on at first but wasn't sure whether it would help so i stopped using it

It wouldn't let the skin breathe, but also, tears and dribble can irritate the skin, so I just put it on small areas that are affected by this.

You can try it for one night to see if it works or not!

I've heard really good things about cream with borage in it, like the following product:

http://www.shikai.com/publications/borageSkin.htm

It's marketed for cradle cap, but I've heard it works for eczema as well.

Harry developed eczema when he was 5 weeks old. It was awful. No one knew what it was and it got really bad before it was finally diagnosed. I've attached a pic of him when it was at full force.

We began with hydrocortisone on Harry's face which was the worst affected area, and would use emollients. We tried almost all emollients available on the market before finally finding ones that work for us (Oilatum Junior). We also used Oilatum bath emollient and only dress Harry in 100% cotton. Harry never has the radiator on in his bedroom as heating dries out the air (we just dress him warmer at night and use extra blankets and he's always warm enough).

Harry had eczema on his face, elbows and the backs of his knees, but would also get small dry patches everywhere, including his chest and back. We would put emollient on his whole body 3/4 times a day, and on his face as often as poss. He's since "grown out" of the eczema on his body, but because his face was so badly affected, it still gets very dry and has regular flare-ups (we're having one at the moment). I no longer use hydrocortisone on his face - only when absolutely necessary, which really isn't often. For Harry's face I use aqueous cream with a heavy/greasy emollient over the top (forget the name of it right now) twice a day, and throughout the day I find Avent Magic Cream very good.

My advice would be to try not to get too upset about it. I cried and cried and was terribly concerned. I gave up dealing with the doctors in the end as I felt they were just delaying things, and began trying various emollients and finally found ones which worked for us. Once you find them, things soon calm down, and then it's just a case of managing it which becomes second nature.

thanks for your replies

i went to the docs again cuz it looked worse and she gave me 0.5% hydrocortisone cream - however i am a bit scared to use it

i'm going to try other creams mentioned before i use the hydro - fingers crossed

thanks again everyone