Baby skin care

poetryandoceans

I figure we might need a place to chat about this!

So, my beautiful little boy seems to be taking after his father and developing a case of eczema. I've never had it, so never treated it for myself, and my husband's case is quite bad and needs prescriptions. We're not quite there yet....

Wondering what you ladies are doing to keep your babies' skin baby smooth?

MrsDramaK

My nephew has eczema and my SIL finds that the wash Puracy and that cleared it up.  Johnson and Johnson wasn't mild enough. LO started to get a rash on her chest and shoulders and we switched to that wash and it cleared right up!

Xstatic3333

He doesn't have eczema, but the Burt's Bees lotion has been a huge help with his dry skin and cradle cap. 

jlellis603

Xstatic3333 said:

He doesn't have eczema, but the Burt's Bees lotion has been a huge help with his dry skin and cradle cap. 

Is there a specific lotion you use? LOs cradle cap is insane haha

catmommac

Our pedi recommended we get a humidifier to help with dry skin

poetryandoceans

@jlellis603 For cradle cap, I rub a good amount of coconut oil into his scalp and let it soak for a bit (10 minutes or so) then rub it off with a wet wash cloth, then shampoo to get the last of the oil out. It really helps! My LO also has pretty bad cradle cap.

@MrsDramaK Thanks for the recommendation! I will check it out 

jlellis603

Thanks @poetryandoceans ! I heard coconut oil is good for it but didn't know when and if to wash it out haha

poetryandoceans

@jlellis603 I've definitely read conflicting advice about coconut oil and cradle cap. But my understanding is that it's caused by over active oil glands in the scalp, so it's a bad idea to leave the oil on. The oil softens up the flakes, but the important step is the gentle rubbing off with the face cloth to remove them. Then a thorough shampoo to remove any extra coconut oil to try and keep the problem from reoccurring. I think I read to avoid shampooing baby frequently too, as stripping the natural oils stimulates the scalp to make even more. Shampoo (maybe combined with the oil treatment) only a few times a week, even if you bath every day.

ps it doesn't have to be coconut oil, any moisturizing product will work, but coconut oil seems to be having a moment right now...

kswiger06

I have used coconut oil in my hair for moisture, before a coloring. It shouldn't be left in the hair because it will become rancid. I've left mine in overnight, but I wouldn't do it that long on a baby. If you do use coconut oil, it doesn't take much at all and it will melt in your hands so there's no need to warm it other ways. 

FreshBakedBrownies

Just a thought @poetryandoceans...my first son had eczema pretty bad, especially patches on his face, backs of arms and backs of calves that we realized was a dairy intolerance. It helped to bathe him as little as possible, but creams weren't resolving it and barely helping.
But ultimately, cutting out dairy was a miracle cure for his eczema. (We tried going dairy free for his spit up, which it did not help. But found his eczema cleared up quickly and didn't come back until months later when we tried dairy again to see if he could tolerate it). By ~10 months old he was fine eating dairy. But before then, I was nursing him and had to stop eating dairy, even "hidden" dairy in small traces in breads and other processed food would cause him to flare up. Once he was old enough to effectively scratch his eczema spots, it was just heartbreaking. So going dairy-free was worth it. His skin was great with no treatment needed, as long as he didn't eat dairy.

poetryandoceans

@FreshBakedBrownies *looks sadly at cheese* I'll keep that in mind. It's pretty mild right now, and seems to be doing okay with lukewarm baths and creams. Maaaan will I be bummed if that ends up being the problem. 

ohstars

Sorry to comment so late but I've been gone awhile. I just wanted to throw in a few things based on my experience with my older son who was a giant ball of rash. 

First, totally jumping on what FBB posted above, he had rashes from dairy, soy and egg allergies. His dairy allergy was a belly rash, his soy was on his face and I have no idea where the egg showed up. I'm pretty sure it's different for everyone and we only realized that thru eliminating things from his diet. 

Second - products! We like aquafor and eucerin products. My son is almost 3 now and he can tell me specifically that most lotions make his rashes burn. He outgrew all his food allergies by the time he was 2yo but still has environmental allergies that give him eczema patches, so he uses aquafor baby head and body wash and eucerin baby lotion. 

Last note because summer is right right around the corner, there are lots of suntan lotions with soy in them. We use California baby ($$$) on my guy because it's soy free. 

Good luck!!

Mylitta

*from Jan17*

Reiterating that my son got eczema as a reaction to diary. I've been cheese free for 3 months now, sigh. He's not hugely reactive and I can have hidden ingrediants, butter, and chocolate. Haven't tried yogurt yet but that's the next step. 
 My dr recommended Aveeno baby eczema cream. It's awesome! We put it on nightly and he's gotten so much better. 

Also to the cradle cap... his is almost gone. But I've been noticing his head has gotten super dry. His eczema came back there a bit, and when he scratches he almost always breaks the skin. I started putting the lotion on his head too... but I doing know if that's a good solution. Thoughts? 

Sorry... Jan died around Dec. It really is no more, I think there's been 5 comments since Jan. I'm end of Jan (28th), can I hang here a bit? 

kswiger06

Hi @Mylitta I don't see any reason why you can't hang out with us. Our board has slowed down dramatically, but there are still a few of us who check in regularly. 

I'm not really sure about the lotion being put on his head, I wouldn't think it would hurt anything to try, then if it's only caking it up because of the hair, just stop? And I'm not sure 100% about this either, but you might be interested in looking into argon oil. It won't be as thick going on and it is also good for skin and hair anyway. My grandma has eczema and I did some searching and found information suggesting that the argon oil can help clear it up. I already use it in mine and my daughters hair so I offered to give my grandma some to try. She didn't try it because her Dr gave her a prescription so that's what she uses, but I don't see why there would be any harm in trying that too. It would be a lot lighter going on than a creamy lotion so it might be worth looking into.

ColeBug89

Hello @Mylitta! I'm sorry I don't have any eczema advice, but I did want to say you are more than welcome here! This board has been slowly dying but some of us still pop in every now and then  

My DD was due on Jan. 29 and I participated here rather than J17. My DD actually decided to come six weeks early and arrived on Dec. 21 instead!

varimama

@Mylitta of course you can hang out here but as you're seeing this board is pretty dead too. 

Our dr told us there isn't a great solution to cradle cap out there and we can feel free to try lotion to make it look better but not to be alarmed if it doesn't work, it will go away eventual. Currently I've been putting triple paste lotion for exzema on it and it does an ok job of reducing it. It does amazing on his face though! Like if I see a dry patch on his face one application and it's gone. it doesn't seem to cause baby acne either like some of the heavier lotions I tried (like baby aquaphor). 

Mylitta

Thanks ladies! I was due Jan 21... But he took his time. So there ya go. They'll do what they wish sometimes. 

@kswiger06 I might give the argon a shot. I have some for my hair. Didn't think about it on skin. If not the lotion isn't hurting him right now

BlondePeanut

I use Aveeno baby wash with oatmeal for her bath, Burts Bees baby lotion on her skin, and baby oil on her cradle cap. I dab her scalp with it and then gently brush her hair with an infant hairbrush. LO had some issues with dry skin, cradle cap, and also got a rash from the baby wash we got at our shower so I had to switch to exclusively Aveeno washes/shampoos. Huge difference