Hoping for some remedies for what I believe is childrens exzema in my almost 2 year old.

We made a slightly unexpected trip to the north to the, cold, snowy, dry climate and my babies skin is patchy red, bumpy and itches her constantly. Tonight I had to rub her "bug bites" as she calls them for half an hour for her to fall asleep (not scratch but rub). Usual skin cream isn't doing anything. She is just dry everywhere and the red itchy bumpy patches are on her from neck to toe.

I feel so bad for her discomfort. Can anyone offer any suggestions here for me to try with her. We will only be here another week and a half but till then I need to get her some relief.

Thanks

I hope some of the other ladies can be of help as I am not sure if my suggestions will work for your little one. Justice has exzema on his arms, but not to the degree of itching or irritation. It would just get really bumpy, dry and scally. So, my pedi suggested (and it worked), to only bathe him every other night with sensitive skin soap (Dove worked for us, or cetaphil), and to put on Aquaphor or Lubriderm sensitive skin lotion afterwards. This has helped tremendously. I am not sure if she might need something more, but this worked for Justice. Hope you can get some relief for your little one.

I do not have any experience with excema, but I know that Aveno oatmeal baths are super soothing and can help with super itchies. I had a super itchy episode when I was a teenager, and after trying everything under the sun BUT Aveno, I finally found some and took a bath in it. It relieved the itching right away.

I hope you find something that works...it's so hard to see your baby not feel well!!

Amber

I have a book about home remedies for children and this is what is says about Eczema;

-Attempts must be made to prevent skin from becoming to dry. Bathings should only occur every one to two days. Oatmeal is recommended in the bath water. It suggests mild soap such as Dove to be used to wash.

-Lubricating lotions such as Keri, Lubriderm lotions, and Nivea creams or Eucerin paste. The Eucerin paste has worked well for us on other skin irritations.

-Sweating can aggravate it, do not over dress. Light night clothing is important.

-Swimming in a pool or fresh water can also aggravate it.

I hope this helps you and your dd. My sister struggles with eczema also and is treated by a Dr with Elidel cream. She has had it for so long and so much that she has lost pigment in areas of her skin.

Good Luck, your in my prayers!


-Wool or Silk seems to aggravate the eczema.

My doctor prescribes a cream made of Aquaphor and cortisone ....it is AMAZING! He has suchhhhh sensitive skin and this stops everything cold! I'd ask your pediatrician for a mixture from the pharmacy with those two ingredients!

Two of my children have what I believe to be a mild form of eczema on the back of their arms and a patch on either side of their face. I have only recently decided to try to pay attention to it to identify any triggers. It's never *bad* just sometimes more noticable than others. The bumps are bigger and the patch spreads a bit. But they have never complained about itchiness. It just looks dry and rough to me.

So, all that to say..I'm no expert in this area, but this is what I have just started with my kids...the 9 yr old and 3 yr old.
I got some Dr. Bronner's liquid castile soap http://www.drbronner.com/drb_sai_liquids.html (I use the mild, unscented, baby version..just to test my 'theory' here) and they bathe in a tiny bit of that. For my eldest I put a small amount in a medicine cup and sent him to the shower. The amount in that cup was more than enough to wash him. (the soap is quite thin and I knew if I let the kids have that bottle, that $8 would go down the drain in a hurry!) Then after the shower, they pat dry, gently, then slather with lotion. I got a new lotion for this as well. Nature's Gate Fragrance Free. Funny thing is, it smells WONDERFUL! It has a wee bit of a couple of extracts in it, Rosemary and something else I believe. THose help act as preservatives, they're not there for scent, though, it's an added bonus ;) It did not sting the face or eyes at all. It has left the skin very soft and moisturized.

We've only used this method once, but I swear I can already tell a difference.

From my readings, it seems the best thing is keeping moisturized. Daily cool/warm (not too warm, not hot) baths, PAT dry then moisturize immediately. Reapplying lotion as needed throughout the day.

I used lanolin balm on ds' eczema when he was a newborn and it worked fabulous

I agree with alot of what's been said - very gentle soap, like unscented dove
for sensitive skin (cetaphil is good too, soap or lotion, but pricey), bathe less frequently if/when possible or much shorter baths if needed everyday (bec kids are so messy!) and moisturize right after - Aveeno baths are awesome and I also love the Aveeno oatmeal lotion.

When ds had his eczema really badly he was too young for any kind of medicine, his ped said to just slather him with vaseline and then put on a onsie and pants so he couldn't wipe it off. We did just that, and it really helped - especially after bathtime.
During my first pg I had to do something similar since my own eczema was horrible but I couldn't use my regular medicine. Aqaphor and vaseline are almost exactly the same, but vaseline is much more affordable. Creamy vaseline is great too if you do not want to get the regular stuff.

I have eczema on my hands and have for quite a while. It got really bad and I went to the doctor. He gave me a prescription and it cleared it up in less than a week. I only use the prescription when it gets bad again usaully only once every 3 weeks or so. When I got that the pharmacist said that it would be best in a petroleum base, not a cream because that can dry out your skin. They also gave me a lotion called Aquaphilic. It is not a prescription, but you ask for it in the pharmacy(this was Wal-Mart). It is scentless and lanolin free. Be wary of creamy Vaseline, I used it and it burned terribly. Plain was fine but something about the creamy was bad if there is any broken skin. It is extremely miserable, so it would be great to clear it up as quickly as possible.

My DS had extreme excema and was treated by a dermotologist. Contrary to popular belief, 2 baths a day is what she suggested, luke warm water for about 10 minutes each time. Pat dry allow the water to soak the skin. Also cetaphil is the soap she suggested - wonderful...! I had to use Elidel and also a steroid he was so bad. I will have to show you all some pics sometime.. It was heartbreaking seeing my lil' guy in such agony. Well with this strict regime - we finally broke through and he only has break outs if we use anything out of the ordinary.

Praying for you..

Wow thanks moms for all the suggestions! With the ones I tried today, loose clothing, short sleeves instead of bundling her up, bath no soap, lubr. cream all the time, now her patches aren't itching her. They are still rough and there and pink but not that bright red. She has also stopped scratching herself open/bloody thank goodness.

I plan on watching it closely and if I notice it is getting worse I will try some of the other suggestions as well.

Since we are only north momentarily a doctor visit won't really work out for us, so grateful for all the suggestions though. If I would have noticed it even getting worse, well maybe, but just no time. As we are busy with a house move with barely time to eat it seems. And she seems fine with the climate of the southern states because with our traveling business we are rarely north this time of year, I guess the southern climate appeals to her skin.

Thanks again ladies!

Thanks for posting this thread! Another excema sufferer here with my DS :(. I am going to try some of the things posted here. Thanks again!

my ds had it really bad once..i used cortizone 10 on him...it worked wonders..it was gone in a couple of days..and it helped control the itching.

I had severe excema last winter and I've had mild cases this winter. DS has some patches every once in a while as well. The only thing that has worked is NOT SCRATCHING OR RUBBING...that can cause it to spread and using prescription cortizone cream. Email me if you need to, Renee!

Ian has a rare type of ezcema he gets called nummular ezcema. On top of that, he has regular ezcema spots as well. In the winter, we bath him every other day or so. We use Dove body wash on him as well. The cortizone cream did nothing for Ian so we are on a prescripition cream that is a very high steriod cream. We are not to use it unless it is very bad.

Thankfully it seems the older Ian gets, the less his skin acts up. I know how tough it is though. We have had to try so many different types of creams from the dermatologist before we found what worked for us. Good luck!