Buy oilatum, get one eczema free baby (Oilatum)

Member Name: Bryn Pearson

Product:	Oilatum
Date:	30/07/03 (1987 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: really good for skin

Disadvantages: cleaning the bath

Eczema is a nightmare, especially on small babies who like to scratch and can't be reasoned with. I spent months trying all sorts of things to help my unhappy baby, and then found this (thanks to my dad).

Oilatum exists in adult and child form - I've been using the child version. The adult stuff is probably stronger, but I would imagine has simialr pluses and minuses.

Firstly there's Oilatum for the bath. Soaps and detergents tend to make eczema worse more often than not, but you do have to keep the little dears clean. Oilatum contains liquid parrifin, which is remarkably good for this condition. It's a clearish liquid that smells like you could probably get into trouble if you spent too long smelling it. Oily,is the main word that springs to mind. The packaging is simple, functional, easy to get into and easy to use. It comes with totally coherrent instructions. All you do is add a few capfulls to the bath and let the little one have a good long soak. You don't need to use any other cleaning products, even on baby hair - it does work for washing as well as looking after the skin.

Oilatum forms an oily scum on the water, and, when you take the little dear out of the bath, you will find their skin is soft, smooth, oiled and generally lovely. You don't get the drying issues normally attendant on baths. It doesn't smell too bad on the skin either - despite first impressions of nose in pot.

It helps with eczema, it means that baths don't add to the problem, and can in fact be a tool in easing this skin condition. Having used Oilatum for some months now, I am a fan and would recommend that any eczema sufferer gives it a go. For best effects, you can use the bath product in tandem with their skin cream.

There are some problems though, and they are as follows. Firstly the stuff is very slippery, so both baby and bath become slidy. You have to be very careful when lifting an oilatumed baby out of a
bath, and an older, more wriggly child can be very difficult to keep hands on.

Secondly, it leaves an oily film on the bath and it is hard work to clean off.

On the whole, not a major set of issues, although you do have to be a lot more careful to keep your child safe.

In theory, it is possible to get this product on prescription, and I think it works a lot better than the parrafin product I was offered - which did work in the bath, but nothing like so well. If you can't get it from your doctor (I couldn't), you can buy it over the counter from your Chemist or supermarket. Prices vary, but expect to pay something in the region of four pounds for 300ml. That said, unless you are giving your babe a couple of baths a day, you should get a month or two out of it, so it isn't bad value for money.

They also do a really good skin cream - for five pounds (or thereabouts) and a trip to your Chemist or supermarket youc an procure a 150 gram squeezey tube. The instructions on it are simple and coherrent.

You can use this product as frequently as you like - I find about three times a day optimal if the skin is really irritated, and otherwise once a day just to keep things comfy. Oilatum contains paraffin and Glycerol amongst other things. The standard stuff you can get on prescription also seems to be parrafin based (but looks like lard!). Oilatum Junior cream is a thick white substance, and you only need to use very small quantities of it - it spreads a remarkably long way, so the 150g will last a month easily on a small child - obviously, the more surface area you have to anoint, the more tubes you are going to get through.

The cream has a faint smell, hardly noticable once on the skin. Any excess you can just rub into your own hands without fear of strange or alarming consequences. having ended up with the odd smattering on my own skin, I can further vouch for the fact that it soaks in nicely, it doesn't
leave you feeling greasy and it lasts for some time.

I noticed a difference at the first use - Oilatum moisturises the skin and softens it up. The big problem we have is that when the eczema is healing, it gets even more itchy and the babe tends to scratch - Oilatum relieves this and allows the little fellow chance to ehal. It really does seem to help the skin - since I've been using it on James, he's down to only a few areas of skin that get any trouble, and those not half so badly as they used to.

Oilatum is so easy to use and so gentle - its been more effective than using steroid cream, which didn't seem to do any good at all.

Definitely a product to try on any small child with eczema, seriously dry skin or other itchy disorders.

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