Angry red baby (My Experience of Eczema)

Member Name: Bryn Pearson

Product:	My Experience of Eczema
Date:	23/01/03 (471 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: none

Disadvantages: irritating

Eczema in babies is a bit of a nightmare to say the least, because all they know is that the itch and feel miserable. There's no explaining it to them, and no telling them they can't scratch. The good news is that many children grow out of baby eczema. In the meantime, here are some hard learned survival tips.

Symptoms: Red, dry itchy skin. It can also look a fair bit like cradle cap sometimes (this threw me as I wasn't expecting it.) skin can become flakey and weepy. Quite often you get little red lumps on the skin - like tiny pin pricks.

1) Go to the doctor if you think your baby has eczema. Your doctor can talk about possible causes, and can perscribe you steroid cream and if there is any risk of infection, antibiotics.

From then one you have three priorities - try and avoid contact with anything causing or aggrivating the response, keep the skin moist to stop it from cracking and stop your baby from scratching.

What has set it off?

Sometimes eczema develops for no reason, sometimes it gets aggrivated by ther things in the environment. Likely causes include changes of washing powder, heat, cold, pet hair, it varies a lot. For my little one, cold and cat fur seem to be the main problems.


Looking after skin:

Stop using any cleaning products on your baby. Your doctor can give you an emulsifying cream which you can use for washing. Be wary of exposure to any chemical products - washing powders, soap etc. This includes washing powder used on your clothes, or on the clothes of people who have access to your baby.

Regulary apply cream to any dry looking bits of your baby. Sudocream (which is also good for nappy rash) is ok, but E45 cream is better and is the only thing that seems to really have helped. Emulsifying cream on prescrption is good, and ideal as a barrier against cold and moisture.

Steroid cream only comes on prescrption. Apply very small amounts to anywhere that
looks weepy.

If at any point it all flares up badly, go back to your doctor.


Preventing scratching.

This one is tricky. I've heard of pople tying babies hands to cots, which strikes me as being a bit extreme. Scratch mitts do not work however - unless your baby doesn't move much. They are very easy for baby to remove. For better effect, put socks on the hands - being longer they are much harder to remove. They are also easier to get hold of. If baby doesn't have eczema on the head, don't use scratch mitts as they stop little one from exploring and slow down development of manual dexterity.

If eczema is only on the body, the best thing to do is keep your baby in sleep suits - anything with open waist or legs can be pulled up to give access. All in one suits make this impossible. Nappy changing times create an opportunity for scratching, and I've found a quite neat solution to this. When you remove the bottom half of the sleep suit, put the feet over your baby's hands! it does actually work and isn't much hassel.

I seem to be winning at any rate. Hope the above will be of use to others in the same boat.

Summary: