I have mentioned before that my son was recently diagnosed with mild eczema, around his legs. It’s really not very nice for him and I’m very grateful that he doesn’t have it worse.
Luckily our GP has three sons, all with eczema and he gave some pretty sound advice. Stop giving him so many baths, manage it with a lot of moisturiser – a tiny lick of steroid cream when things get really bad. Mainly, stop having a bath.
A reader kindly recommended to me on here a bath milk by Elemis, called Skin Nourishing Milk Bath, which she said was the only thing her son? Dad? (Sorry I can’t remember now) could bathe in.
So that is what Sam bathes in about twice a week – he comes in incredibly muddy from football on those days and simply has to sit in water to soak it all off, otherwise I’d keep it to once a week.
And it’s really helps keep things under control. As with most persistent skin conditions – and I include my own zit problem here – the most you can ever really hope for is that they are manageable and not keeping you awake at night or making you cry … and I know that it is very much within eczema’s power to do both.
Eczema is just horrible. My little boy had it very badly when he was a baby until he was about 18 months when it just cleared up magically. We tried everything and it really was just a case of managing it so it wasn’t so painful for him. The best of all the potions we tried was Epaderm ointment which is the consistency of Vaseline. It seemed to protect the bad areas and make him a bit more comfortable. Hope Sam’s clears up soon x
I have occasional breakouts and keep it under control using Child’s Farm baby moisturiser it clears it up straight away and has all natural ingredients. My cousin uses Moogoo cream and shampoo on her toddler which is an Australian product and quite pricey but she says it works every time.
Oh poor Sam, my eldest had quite bad eczema until about 18 months and was allergic to quite a few things (including grass, according to a doctor after I’d let him roll around a park one afternoon with my brother when he was about 6 months old and we had to stop by the hospital on the way home because he suddenly looked like a red jelly baby.) Anyway, he grew out of it, mostly. He still has quite sensitive skin and has occasional mild patches of eczema, and I’m not 100% confident it won’t reappear when he’s older, but this is a really long round about way of saying I was told to bath him less, I did, and it made a huge difference. Bathed him less and moisturised him more. And tried to feed him more salmon and avocados and things like that to moisturise him from the inside, which I’m aware is something I made up in my head and probably had nothing to do with the improvement in his skin, but I felt like it did and sometimes feeling like you’re doing something to help is really important. Elaine x
Sorry to hear of Sam’s diagnosis. My son used to get mild eczema when he was younger, until my father – a GP – suggested we switch from cow’s milk to goat’s milk dairy products (including goat varieties of butter, cream, yoghurt etc). The difference was immediate and dramatic. Worth a try? X
I discovered I had eczema when I took my son to the doctor for it and turned out we had the same type. It hasn’t been as bad as it is for some, we only have occasional flare ups. The thing that made the biggest difference for us is washing powder, any biological type kicks it off to varying degrees and the best non bio I’ve found is Ecover. It smells nice and still gets things satisfyingly clean (sounding like Anthea Turner now, even though I’m a domestic disaster) but doesn’t irritate. He does get a bath very regularly still and seems to get away with it but it’s either just water or Johnson’s baby Top to Toe still which seems to be fine. I heard something about steroid cream dependency being a problem for some people, so might be worth reading up on that to see what it’s all about.
Yes steroids are not the answer they can end up doing all sorts of crackers things and affect your eyes and stuff. But if you use a tiny scraping very occasionally just on the very worst, rawest patches it’s alright
Yikes – I spoke to someone of a similar age who had had a terrible time with it but I didn’t know the details, and we had only used it infrequently as you say and not for a long time now anyway. Sometimes you need something though for when it’s bad.
My son had it when he was a toddler (now a hulking 12 year old and it’s a distant memory) and Dream cream from Lush was the magic potion which sorted it out. I tried all of the usual things including steroid cream but some research on Mumsnet came up with this tip and thought I would pass it on. Not expensive and smells nice – you just have to deal with the horrendous fumes of Lush to procure it
Nightwear for kids whose eczema keeps them scratching at night, and also 100% cotton schoolwear: https://www.eczemaclothing.com
Poor Sam!! My boy has psoriasis so we feel your pain. You will get inundated with recommendations for creams and I’m so sorry that I’m one of them 😂 The only thing that works for my boy is Aveeno, cleats and calms his patches if we apply it twice a day in about 3-4days. We did have a routine of full body application twice a day every day but he’s 4 now and it’s frankly far too much work! Also I stick a Muslim cloth full of porridge tied up into a bag into his bath as oat milk is one of the ingredients in Aveeno and that’s been doing a fab job of keeping flare ups at bay xxx
My son has always suffered with it, it’s really unpleasant . One if the dermatologists advised never to use biological washing powder and to use the cheapest non bio available. It really does help
Agree with the above, and experienced this for 3 years with my daughter. Things seem to have improved recently and she doesn’t really have any symptoms, but we still only give her a bath once a week. We had really good results from a herbal cream called Bioskin Junior nourishing lotion. We used that twice a day and bathed her in Child’s Farm. We’ve also tried to cut down on cows’ milk in her diet – no going dairy free, but replacing bottles of cows’ milk with oat milk.
I second the recommendation for the MooGoo range of products – the name sounds a bit naf but their stuff is really good and not tooooo expensive. It’s had rave reviews for all sorts of skin conditions so definitely worth a try – some of their products smell a bit sweet (one of the moisturisers smells like doughnuts!) but if it works, I guess it’s not the worst thing!
I really feel for Sam – I hope he finds some peace from it soon and that it’s something that hopefully he will grow out of. I read an article a few years ago by Maggie O’Farrell about her little daughter Astrid’s eczema and it was heartbreaking to read. Skin problems can cause such torment.
I’ve struggled with acne for years (since my early teens and I’m now 34) and it can have such a huge impact on the way you feel. I know it’s by no means the worst health condition a person can have and maybe it’s vain to be bothered by it so much, but it’s difficult to describe to someone who has never experienced enduring acne the all-consuming sense of sadness and despair that years of not wanting people to look too closely at your face can have – there are some days where having to go out and face the world feels so overwhelming that a paper bag over the head feels like the only solution to looking presentable! Having found a period of respite in the oral contraceptive for a number of years, and more recently briefly from roaccutane, it would seem that unfortunately the two goals of wanting to start a family and being acne-free are mutually exclusive. As if all of the decisions women have to make around deciding to have a family (career etc) were not difficult enough, it seems that there are no medications that can be safely taken to treat the kind of acne that simply will not go away with cosmetics and diet alone. Sometimes it really sucks to be female!
Thanks Abi. Yes acne is the pits. Like you said there are worse things… but painful pustular breakouts all over your face that HURT and also make you feel ugly are also quite bad
Last year, I had eczema suddenly flare up in these weird patches on my forearms – still have no idea why but I was MISERABLE. The steroid cream was alright but what really, massively helped was coconut oil. Poor little Sam!
Two of my daughters have mild eczema too. I have discovered after 14 years of dealing with it, that Child’s Farm Baby Mosturiser is the best treatment when it flares up. Miracle cream. Can’t remember the last time we needed hydrocortisone.
Also, have you tried cutting out citrus fruit? That really flares up my daughters’ eczema.
Speaking of water, and because no one else has mentioned it, have you tried fitting a water filter to your bath? My husband gets eczema on his face and when we moved to a new area he got really bad flare ups. A lot of research later and he bought a shower filter. No flare ups or need for steroids since (and this was 3 years ago). Worth a try? The filters are about £20, we get ours from Aquatiere. It is a horrid condition, i get the cracked, bleeding sort on my hands. We are a lovely family 😉
Totally felt for Sam. Two children with eczema and we’ve been through it all – including horrible stages for each when they had to be wrapped in icthamol (think v sticky clay) bandages to sleep in over night.
Best recommendation is Dermol – 500 for showers and 600 for baths. We only use that and it’s amazing. Look out for sodium laureth sulphate which creates the foam in soaps and shampoos and can cause flare ups. I avoid it completely.
Dermax shampoo is on prescription but great.
I was told by dermatology to use steroids to get things under control and then moisturise like mad to prevent a flare up. Emollin spray has been the best discovery – covers them in light film of moisturiser and is so simple to apply they (now aged 9 and 11) can do it themselves. A wonder product and my saviour after years of having to ‘baste’ them every day.
Good luck.
Best non-steroid treatment I have found for excema is unguentum merck, a super heavy emollient. I was prescribed it as a child, and now use it on my kids – dr and pharmacist hadn’t thought of it til I suggested it. We use it often and liberally and it keeps excema at bay successfully. You can buy over the counter or get it prescribed.
Hello! poor Sam, eczema is horrible, I’ve always had it and one of my son’s has it too. I discovered a company a few years ago; a Mum had basically mixed together something magic in her kitchen to use on her daughter’s skin! it works a treat for us, but I also know that different things trigger it for everybody. Swimming in the sea always sorts my skin out….!
Anyway this is the company https://www.purepotions.co.uk
Good Luck!
Hope’s Relief is an amazing cream for eczema – not need for steroids, ever, with this stuff… does look and smell a bit weird mind you. And it’s not cheap.