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November 2011 Moms
jenni888
member
Skin issues/eczema question (kind of long)
jenni888
member
I'm so frustrated. This dates back to when LO was about 2 months old. He had a little dry patch behind his ear that started cracking and oozing. I asked my ped about it and he said it was just from bath time/not keeping his ear dry. So he said just make sure to keep it dry and it will heal. I tried that and it just got progressively worse over the next few weeks and kept spreading further down the skin behind his ear until it turned the "corner" and even started affecting his earlobe. It was so painful it was making him cry hysterically at bath time so I made an appt., this time with a different pediatrician, and he said it was eczema and told me to put some hydrocortisone on it. The HC worked like a charm and the ear healed up nicely, although the skin was super dry still.
Fast forward to our 4 month appt. when I saw my original pedi and told him about the ear, which he didn't really acknowledge that he screwed up on but whatever. LO had some other dry patches around his body now and I wasn't sure if this was also eczema or not, but the ped was pretty much giving me the same stupid advice. Keep him clean and dry and he'll be fine. This is normal in babies. His patches have gotten worse and are popping up in other places like his shoulders/arms/torso and my aunt who has 2 kids with eczema and has it herself said she's positive that's what it is and pictures I've looked up online (I know, Dr. Google) look exactly like what he has.
So, I'm pretty much ready to "fire" my pedi. My question is, if your baby has eczema issues, how did you figure out a treatment? Did your pedi help you? Did you have to see a dermatologist? Stupid of me perhaps, but I wasn't sure if you need a special derm. for babies? Any advice would be so helpful.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Skin issues/eczema question (kind of long)
I'm sorry to hear about your LO. I, myself, and my LO both have excema. No special derm. for kids is needed, kinda trial and error for what works. Right now, he's getting Eucerin in the AM and Aquaphor at night. This seems to be working for him. His pedi recommended any/all Eucerin products. My dr. did the same for me, but unfortunately nothing works to clear mine up except steroid creams - and I've tried EVERYTHING. If it doesnt get better, I was told that they have less potent steroid creams for kids (since my cream is super strong). HTH! and GL!
Since this is recurring and your LO is in pain, go out to the store and buy CeraVe ASAP. They make a wash and a couple different types of lotion. You will find it in the facial skin care section. I have eczema and so do my kids. I've used CeraVe ever since my derm. recommended it. My friend who's son had a similar issue used it and said that after so many other products failed, this was the only thing that worked completely.
As to what is causing the eczema, you'll have to weed out a few things. The obvious is anything that touches the skin:
Laundry detergent/softner (even yours if it's different than LOs)
Bath Wash (use the one from CeraVe then when his skin is all clear try Aveeno or any other free and clear bath wash)
Lotion (even if it's something that you're wearing that transfers to LO)
Perfume
This list also applies to anyone caring for LO outside of the home. The non-obvious causes could be his food. If you BF, try going dairy free; this includes casein and whey (while you'll see improvement in the matter of days, it will take up to 4 weeks to see ultimate results). You could also try this with soy.
GL! I hope your LO gets better soon. Here's a link to the website for CeraVe.
https://cerave.com/?gclid=CNzh7fPjsK8CFWkQNAodORIbGA
I have eczema and so does my poor DS. We tried Aquaphor per our pedi's recommendation and it did not work for us. Then we tried CeraVe per a recommendation from someone on TB and it worked for a while. Then it stopped working. Then we got a steroid cream from pedi and that worked for a while. Then it quit working. So pedi recommended a different steroid cream, which is actually blacklisted. We rarely use it, and only in tiny tiny doses, if the outbreak is really bad and bothering LO. We also are now using Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion, which we just started using last week. His skin is 100% better now. And he has not had to use steroid cream in 4 days.
Good luck, I know how frustrating the eczema is.
this is interesting. we were giving our son a bath each night (only using soap 2x per week) and our doctor told us to stop, and said that the water was drying him out. we now do a sponge bath in its place, so his body isn't submerged in the water.
We have battled really bad eczema since about 2 1/2 months. They finally connected it to food allergies at three months. We have been to a dermatologist and allergist. Our pedi also helped us develop a good routine to help deal with it.
We have been through lots of trial and error, but here is where we are now:
-nutramigen--will be going to soy because allergy test for it was negative
-Daily Bath
-Moisturize twice a day: Cerave, Desonide 0.05% (prescription), Vaseline on body/aquaphor on face. When things are a bit more undercontrol, we will switch to something less potent than Desonide.
-Zyrtec is the latest addition. Even though DS isn't quite 6 months old, the allergist felt this was a better choice than the antihistamine he was on.
All of these aren't skin care, but they are all related to his eczema. Good luck! It's awful watching your baby itch and knowing that you can't just make it better.
Thank you so much ladies. This is so helpful. I am going to try to talk to a different ped who might have more experience with eczema. I've been using aquaphor and moisturizing, and switched to bathing him every other day and it seems to be helping a bit. At least I don't see any new dry patches for the time being. I am nervous about what might be causing it and I really hope it isn't food allergies, but I guess my first goal is to try to get the dryness under control.
Blairy, if you don't mind sharing, what is your LO allergic to and what was the process to figure that out?
check out Angel Mama Baby lotion...my dd has eczema on her arms and I swear by that lotion
LO had some bad oozing on his face. I told my pedi about it and he said HC. The HC didn't work and it was getting worse. He gave me a stronger HC. It's called HC Buyrate I think. It's been working pretty well. It hasn't fully gone away but it looks so much better than what it used to.
LO has the dry patched on his skin and I just lotion him up and I do use the HC all over his body if he starts scratching himself.