What Do You Use to Treat Your Child's Eczema?

http://www.nationaleczema.org/
http://www.easeeczema.org/product_directory/personal_care...

You need to find out what triggers her eczema.
It is different for everyone.
For my Mom, it is Oats/Oatmeal and citrus that triggers her eczema. If she avoids these things, she does not get eruptions.

Renew lotion, handwash, bath wash, and oil. We don't have Eczema but several associates have told me it has worked wonders for them and/or their children.

My son takes an EFA supplement orally (over the counter vitamin that is mostly fish oil I think).

I apply Coconut Oil to his skin every day. It is the ONLY thing that doesn't burn him. You can find it at Whole Foods -- it comes in a tub (that says "for cooking"!). I put a teaspoon of it in a metal cup and then set it in a bigger dish of hot water to soften it up a bit. My son used to scream and freak out when I tried to put anything else on him, but he is totally fine with the coconut oil.

We also only wash him with Cetaphil (no soap or shampoo).

ML, there was a segment on Dr. Oz about eczema and a machine that you can use at home to treat it. It is expensive, but some insurances cover it. It would keep you out of the doctor's office.

Dawn

I have been making my own bath salt concoction for over 13 years now and some of my most loyal customers are women and children who also suffer from severe eczema. They literally swear by it, and honestly, I have just mixed normal store bought items together you can find anywhere....

Make yourself a big batch with the following ingredients:

2 C Epsom Salts
1 C Sea Salts
1 C any other salt you can find: Kosher, Dead Sea, Table Salt, Himalayan, Hawaiian, etc....have fun.
1 C powdered milk
4 packets of colloidal oatmeal, or 1 cup if you can find bulk
10 T Grapeseed or Extra Virgin Olive Oil (grapeseed is 9x higher in Vitamin E, so that's my first choice)
Pure Essential Oils for aroma. You choose, or have your daughter choose a scent.

Most stores now carry a pre-scented Epsom salt bath soak...You could also try those and just add the oatmeal, milk and essential oils with a splash of oil.

Another fun addition are bath herbs. I would recommend adding a bag of Celestial Seasonings chamomile tea to the bath water.

People tell me all the time I should not give my recipe away...but I would rather you heal and feel better than trying to peddle my bath salts. You can also google bath salt recipes...there are thousands.

Add a good cup of the above to a warm bath, jump in and enjoy. Honestly, she'll sleep like a baby again.

Hope she feels well soon.

My daughter's eczema is a mess so I don't have good advise except a dermatologist told us that any cream/lotion that is white has alcohol in it and may sting or burn. I know our prescripion is an ointment not a cream. We use aquaphor twice a day.

A couple of suggestions:

If you're not supplementing her diet with omega-3 fatty acids, do so. Fish oil (mercury free) is the standard, but she might have trouble with those (they are big capsules), so look for ones that are chewable/gummy. I don't know if they have Whole Foods where you are, but they will give you free samples of various omega-3 vitamins to try. In addition to helping the skin, they are great for the brain. :)

Make sure she is drinking a lot of water every day. Keep a full glass of ice water or really watered down juice or flavored water (whatever works) in from of her. Hydrate her from the inside. :)

Cut out all fragrance in the house, especially in the laundry, and use only safe non-toxic cleaners in the bathroom (where she bathes). We mostly use Charlies Soap for our laundry & their general cleaner for the bathrooms.

Boil some water on the stove, so the house air is not so dry.

We use CeraVe cream (not lotion--use the cream) after bath. Apply when the skin is still damp. Reapply in trouble areas several times per day.

You can use cortizone cream, but check with your doctor about usage.

Aquaphor - it's an intensive lotion found in any drugstore. The prescription med is most likely steroids and my pediatrician said to use it only when absolutely necessary as it thins out the skin over time. He told us to use aquaphor to treat/prevent first and ever since we did that, we haven't had to use hte prescription cream at all. We just apply when the skin looks really dry at night and by morning its usually better.

Hydrolatum. It is over the counter, but you may have to ask for it at the pharmacy (they carry it at Walgreens and CVS near me). It comes in a big white tub and is super emmolient. Use after bathtime to lock in moisture. It works great!

It will continue to come back unless you find out what her allergy is. For my son, it was dairy. You may want to have her tested.

I have been using Neosporin for my own and my son's it works pretty great most of the time, and they even came out with an actual Neopsporin Eczema product that were going to try too.

First, I try to eliminate the source of the allergy. This is about the only cure there is, unfortunately. Once an allergist confirmed what my son is allergic to, we were able to avoid those triggers. And his eczema has not been an issue since. The allergist told us that 85% of eczema cases are due to exposure to allergens.
Also, make sure that all cleansers, detergents, bath soaps, etc are free and clear. The dyes and fragrances are very irritating to the skin. When the eczema flare-up is really bad, don't use anything in the bath. Plain water only. And absolutely no lotions and such. It's almost impossible to find one without any fragrance or dyes. Just a little hydrocortisone ointment on the flareup should help (and it doesn't hurt).
Hope this helps!

Cetaphil ~ the body wash and cream.

My kiddo developed bad eczema at 6 months old. We went to a pedi dermatologist, and she was very helpful.

We use triamcinolone gel on bad outbreaks, twice a day, for as long as it takes the areas to heal. We bathe every day in warm water with California Baby Sensitive, and after bath, we moisturize with Vanicream - excellent moisturizer. All Aquaphor is is vaseline, and we put it over any outbreaks, to hold on the triamcinolone. Vanicream is a lot like Eucerin, except easier to apply.

Of course, all of our cleaning products - detergent, hair stuff, etc, is fragrance and dye free.

Since his initial outbreak, we've never really had another. But another thing that helped is that our dermatologist gave us a prescription for attarax to use at night, to help with itching. That way, kiddo didn't scratch the areas too much, leaving them susceptible to secondary infection.

My son (8) has a Rx for a steroid cream, Desonide Cream 0.05% and them we use Lubriderm lotion. I haven't had any complaints from my son...I know the cream feels better than the dry and cracked skin...we only use the steroid cream sparingly and it works really well for him...his dose is low because it has to go on his face too.

Poor baby girl! Maybe call the Doctor and tell them what's up and ask for something different?

Just as a side note. not a single one of us wants to ever do anything to cause our children pain but sometimes you just need to get things done, like medicine...are you really sure it hurts her?

We use a kind of skin balsalm to keep her skin moisturized during the day. For bathtime, we use Ego Pinetarsol Solution (http://www.ego.hk/index.aspx?id=product-pinetarsol&la...) and it is very effective. we minimize the use of steriods because of the side effects. (We have experimented with Cetaphil, but we didn't find it too effective and my daughter complained that it stank as well as stung her sensitive skin. Oh well, different kids have different needs.)

We used prescription Elidel (is that even still around?)... if the Eczema was really bad, like dry and cracked, yeah it hurt a bit, but it made it soooo much better!! Aveeno has an oatmeal lotion that helps soften it up a bit, maybe use that before applying the RX. You could maybe try putting it on her after she's asleep. I personally would hold my kids down and do it while they were awake, but that might be a better option for you ;)

My 18month old has battled with Eczema since 9 months old. We did use steroid creams for a few weeks, but I did not like them--and they didn't clear it up. Now we use ReNew (must buy through a Melaleuca consultant--I am not one, but I can put you in touch with one) and CeraVe (find it at Target). I also try to only put him in 100% cotton clothes--PJs especially! Lotion and the 100% cotton has helped the most!

Aquaphor (ointment not lotion) and/or Cetephil (tub) lather her up right after bath. Don't put any soap in the water, and only bathe every other day or so especially in the winter. Does she have allergies? Often tied together and if you can find the trigger (hard to do) that will help greatly. Good luck!

Besides finding what trigger her eczema, which it help but she still get some rashes sometimes, we use Cetaphil soap, and the Aquaphor cream, some days the Aquaphor cream AND the Cetaphil cream together.
We also have her prescription cream too, I only use it on the bad rashes that don't go away.
She doesn't like when I put cream on her (prescription or not) and not even lip balm, I have to put cream on her no matter what, but I put the prescription cream and the lip balm when she is sleeping.
My daughter has never told me it hurts, I know she doesn't like it but even Aquaphor (that doesn't burn even in cuts) still bother her but not pain, so if your daughter says it hurts, maybe you want to ask the other doctor about that, perhaps he can give you another cream.
We went to a few different ones before finding what it work for us.

I didn't have the patience to figure out the triggers, I just did a clean sweep of everything. We have a prescription tube of Elidel that we hardly ever use now (only during flare ups, which I later found are heat related). We only use All free and clear laundry detergent, sensitive skin bubble bath, and all Cetaphil soaps and creams. I found Aveeno products (most seem to have fragrance and oatmeal baths made it worse, but each person is different. Good luck!

My son had eczema and Cetaphil and Aquaphor did not work for him. We like Nature's Gate Lotion for Sensitive Skin - Put it on right after a bath. We also stopped using dryer sheets and use Tide Free laundry detergent. He has not had any trouble since we made those changes.

I'm not a rep and I dont know how to find one (although I know there are some somewhere on this site, that's where I found my rep (well, she found me!)) but with my second baby, only Meleluca's Renew lotion worked. It's the ONLY Meleluca product I use. I also use it to maintain after the steriod cream with my third.

With my first (before ReNew) baby, we used Aquaphor after baths and Cetaphil lotion,

With my third, even Renew didn't completely help. We paired it with a prescription steriod prescribed by the doc (and yes, I have heard him say it burns a little!) but it really did help get rid of it and then we maintain it with the ReNew lotion.