What could be the cause? Getting desperate

[Lipsmacker01]

DD1 who is six months old developed red dry patches all over her body. Started off in her creases of her knees and arms and now its everywhere. I took her to see 2 doctors, the first saying it was mild eczema and the second saying it was eczema. First Dr said to apply moisturiser all over it such as aqueous cream and the other Dr prescribed sigmacort. Ive also been using paw paw ointment below her chin as its quite bad there.
Both creams that the Dr's suggested seem to temporarily relieve itching and some redess, same goes for paw paw cream but what puzzles me is that neither DH or I have a history of eczema in our families.

Im wondering what it could be. I started her on solids at 5 months and she is breastfed. The only foods shes been eating are rice cereal and some mashed apple or mashed jar of veg.

I get symptoms of hay fever occasionally but nothing too serious and I get irritated by dust.

Ive been dressing her minimally in loose cotton clothing.

I dont think I have any food intolerances and am sure that its not due to the veg and apple in her diet as it flaired up b4 this.

She does have a few teeth but I doubt that it could be related to this.

At the moment Im in the process of eliminating possible causes, eg maybe cutting out on fabric softener in washing, changing bed linen regularly, bathing with just water.

I was wondering if people have any ideas on what it could be and if it was necessary for her to see a specialist or to just keep applying creams. Also is there a bottle of shampoo that I could use during bath time that is suitable to treat this condition that people are aware of as sometimes I wish I did use shampoo.

I dont feel like im getting anywhere with what Im using at the moment. Help!!

[flyawayfree]

I don't know what to say to help because we seem to have the same problem with Ds who is 16 months. I just wanted to send some :hugs: :hugs: :hugs: though...

[punkbaby]

Both ds and dd2 have excema and i will tell you what i do and hopefully it helps you some how :) they have had it since around 4 months old, i am praying to god indie doesnt get it!!

Firstly dont use fabric softner with washing i use likea teaspoon on detergent, at the moment i am using omo sensetive but i use only a tiny tiny amount. In baths i use qv bath oil.

To try heal up her dry patches try a cold wrap i swear by them! I use the cortisone creme prescribed if its really bad, otherwise i just use a qv moisteriser or a heavy zinc cream. What you do is put the cortinsone cream down just a a light layer, then a thick layer of the zinc to stop it rubbing off, get some chux dishclothes and dampen them a little and wrap the affected area then bandage lightly and leave over night you will find its almost instant relief the next morning and a considerable amount of redness has gone. Two to three days later its gone (till it comes back but it gives a lot of relief for bubs)

Food wise it doesnt sound like they would affect her, thankfully my kids are more chemical based even the clothes i wear can trigger it but food wise they are in the clear :)

I hope that this helps you anyhow :) the cold wraps are what i would start with though they work wonders

[Lipsmacker01]

Thanks for that Supa Star

Its so frustrating and Im sure there are plenty of people in the same boat as us. Im not expecting miracles but Im hoping it eases up as Im afraid it will affect her later on in life:(

[Lipsmacker01]

Im going to ease up on the fabric softener as I think Im using a whole lid full! all just to make the clothes smell nice. Silly me! Im going to try some other baby sensitive stuff however I think I am using one currently!

[punkbaby]

if you do feel that you need to use the softner just do a double rinse on your clothing :) i do this with the kids bed linen as it makes it nice and soft, towels blankets etc and if i double rinse and use a tiny amount its not so bad

[Ana Gram]

I would cut out fabric softener all together and switch to vinegar.

There is also a product called Dermeze which is available from most chemists which is great, put it over the prescribed creams on the skin.

Eczema, asthma and hay fever are all related.

[floggadog]

you can use vinegar in your final rinse to help neutralize the soaps & leave clothes soft :)

[UmmInayah]

DD had a really mild form of some sort of dermatitis or something when she was younger - I switched washing powder to Amolin sensitive liquid - it worked for us. It's quite exxy so I only use a little and only on bub's washing.

[bootiful]

my daughter has the same problem...it started with the creases in her elbows and knees but now has spread to patches on her legs and arms.

i have used sorbelene, prescription creams, i was her with water, with sorbelene, with cetaphil and nothing gets rid of it, only subdues it for a while. i have tried all different washing liquids but they dont bother her much..its more the clothing and heat and grass.

the other month she broke out in a huge rash front and back...lots of tiny spots...was an allergy to grass....

the doc says its from my mum, skipped me, and went to Steph. he says that she will grow out of it by the time she is 4 or 5.

i know how you mums feel, its very frustrating...:banghead:

[tamiah06]

I suffered from eczema psoriasis and industrial dermatitis for years. the cause is a chemical reaction in the skin cells that are irratated by chemicals in the air, home, on your clothes, bed sheets ect. I tried everything on the market but I only found one way to fix it. I suffered with it for about 6 years....well all my life but six years bad suffering with pain.

[EandN]

Both my DDs have had eczema.
Both my DDs have had no outbreaks for some time either.
Here are some tips that worked for us and were recomended by specialists.
start with no soaps, wash in sorbelene insted of nothing or soap. Use QV once or twice a week. Go easy on the amount of baths she has. Eczema can be agravated by water. Water drys out the skin. So less baths. No bubble baths.
Sand can cause it too, keep her out of the sand pit for awhile.
Get rid of the fab sofener all together, even on your stuff as she will come in to contact with it sometimes. Use a tiny bit of wash detergent, try for the baby ones which are enzyme free.
We only use QV soaps to wash her hands too.

I hope you can get on top of it, we got it early and were lucky that it looks lilke they might not have to wrry about it when they are older, fingers crossed anyways as its been awhile now. The poor girl used to get it on their faces too :(

Use the chemists creams for sometimes when its gets bad

[Lipsmacker01]

Both my DDs have had eczema.
Both my DDs have had no outbreaks for some time either.
Here are some tips that worked for us and were recomended by specialists.
start with no soaps, wash in sorbelene insted of nothing or soap. Use QV once or twice a week. Go easy on the amount of baths she has. Eczema can be agravated by water. Water drys out the skin. So less baths. No bubble baths.
Sand can cause it too, keep her out of the sand pit for awhile.
Get rid of the fab sofener all together, even on your stuff as she will come in to contact with it sometimes. Use a tiny bit of wash detergent, try for the baby ones which are enzyme free.
We only use QV soaps to wash her hands too.

I hope you can get on top of it, we got it early and were lucky that it looks lilke they might not have to wrry about it when they are older, fingers crossed anyways as its been awhile now. The poor girl used to get it on their faces too :(

Use the chemists creams for sometimes when its gets bad

Wow:eek::eek:

I didnt know that! Ive been giving DD1 a bath every night this week as a new night time settling routine to help her relax and sleep better as shes been difficult to settle at night time. Dont know what Im going to do now.

I will definately get some qv oil as so many mums have suggested it. Thank u for your advice

[HouseOfBlues]

The royal children's hospital use to recommend bathing as less as possible as the water dries out the skin.
It's accually changed now and they now recommend that you bath them everyday. They say to use a bath oil, like QV. When you take them out of the bath you don't dry bub, leave the skin damp, then put a moisturizer like Dermeze all over the skin.

Teething does cause eczema too.

Atopic eczema can occur without any triggers.

[andrewsmum]

Bath in QV oil nightly for 3 minutes only.
Don't wash hair nightly (every 3-4 days is OK)
Moisturise with Hydraderm cream.
Steriod cream such as Sigmacort if necessary (need a prescription though)
Wash baby clothes in hot water with Amolin or Purity
No fabric softener.
Baby clothes to be made of 100% cotton
Steam clean carpets and fabric lounges every 6months

Sorry this is in point form but this is basically a summary of what our specialist told us to do as we've had eczema issues since Jake was about 4months old. It's only just started to clear up. Hope your girl is OK.

[Ana Gram]

It really is worth finding out what the trigger is. DD's main trigger is dust mites and I had to move to a house with floorboards to just get the eczema under control.

[Lipsmacker01]

Thank u ladies so very much

Im going to give all those suggestions a go. I have floor boards in some living areas and I dyson the house regularly as I hate dust myself!
I wet dusted her bedroom window and ventilated the whole house yesterday. Ill be sending DH on a mission today to get all these moisturisers and oil and hopefully they help. She was hysterical last night scratching and I had to clip all her nails again this morning :no:

Ive stopped using fabric softener and I will give Amolin ago. At the moment we are using Purity.

Keep the suggestions coming as Im sure this is helping other mums too.
Thank u heaps

[aardvark]

I have Eczema, DD#2 has slight Eczema, and DS has Numular (Coin) Eczema, which is quite severe circular areas of Eczema.

DD#2 and I found an INSTANT improvement when we swapped to organic food. I used to use Amolin for our washing, but find the Tri-Nature Alpha-Plus powder better for our skin, and cheaper.

I buy a bland (unscented) olive oil soap from Gooramadda Olives and we all use that. When DS's skin was VERY bad, I bathed him only once per week unless he'd had a nappy explosion. I bathed him in water to which I had added a strained pot of medium strength Chamomile tea, and a strained pot of strong Calendula Tea - no soap at all. Chamomile cleanses, and Calendula soothes.

Then I stumbed across Dartnell's Pharmacy in Surrey Hills Vic. They make their own mixtures. They will post it, they got me out of a hole when I forgot to take the stuff on holidays.

I got their Eczema mixture (a mineral salt mixture) and their Eczema Cream. I'm breastfeeding, and the pharmacist there told me to go heavy on the fish oil or flax seed oil - 5000mg per day, so he will get the essential fatty acids via the breastmilk (but you can add these to your child's food). DS is now all but Eczema free. He gets an odd spot which we jump on with the cream, and it is gone within a few hours.

I should add that I have little idea what causes DS's Eczema. It initially seemed to be precipitated by some shoulder press studs on a body suit, so I suspected Nickel was the culprit, but I'm no longer so sure. It does seem to get worse if he over-heats in bed - we use light PJs on him most of the year, and use pure cotton bed linen, no poly-cotton, and that seems to help, too.

[Ness80]

Hi there,
Just would like to add my little bit to all of the other great ideas for help you have been given.

Firstly my ds has eczema and both my husband and I dont have it. My husband has recently been diagnosed with a grass allergy 4 out of 6 on the allergy scale, apparently, I don't quite know how it works but dr said that pretty high. So that is where the eczema link is cause they are all linked. A trip to a Kinesiologist helped me out.
My ds gets it from cows milk formula, changed to goats formula and it went away. Now i'm introducing solids and farex and teething rusks both cause flair ups with him so i think he has a wheat allergy too.
I use QV flair up bath oil when he has a flair up and the normal QV bath oil every other time. QV moisturiser i think is best and I have spent hundreds on all the natural stuff to no avail. Double rinse the baby's clothes and dont use softener.
Lastly every baby is different and responds to different lotions and potions differently so what works for one may not work for another.
Hopefully you find out what is causing it cause I know its very frustrating.

Good Luck

[youngones]

My DD has severe eczema all over her little bod, but it is well under control now. Neither DH nor I have any history of eczema in our blood rellies, but both of us have asthma and allergic rhinitis - so DD is doomed to be atopic!!

You didn't mention if your baby was FF or BF, but if BF, then remember that what you eat can go through your milk and can cause flare ups. The allergist we saw said that while DD had a SPT (skin test) reaction at the level of anaphylaxis to peanuts, it is unlikely that that is the sole cause of her eczema. Even when I cut nuts out completely from my diet, her skin was still bad.

All the advice you're getting here is great. I would avoid acqueous cream though - I can't remember why exactly, but I read somewhere once that it can actually be quite drying (even though it isn't supposed to be), same with sorbolene products. The papaw ointment we use for DD's nappy area, just as a barrier, but if she gets nappy rash we use Calmoseptine - find it with the first aid stuff at the chemist. Remember that most papaw ointment is in a petroleum base, and that can sometimes be irritating in itself. Dermeze and QV intensive are parrafin based and used in all the children's hospitals - they're cheap too!!

We find that the OTC hydrocortisone like Dermaid or Sigmacort work well for us and we generally only use them once a day or every two days in summer, but sometimes up to twice a day in winter, as the air is dryer. Apparently, it is quite safe to use them up to three times a day without fear of thinning the skin.

We use only 1/4 the recommended amount of OMO sensitive, with vinegar instead of fabric softener (as it brings clothing back to the same pH as skin). Only use natural fibres if possible like cotton, hemp and bamboo for clothing and linen. Try bathing only every other day and just do a top and tail in between, as water strips the skin of its protective barrier. We use Dermaveen oil in the bath and follow up the Dermaid cortisone with a thick layer of QV intensive. I've recently found too that the Medihoney eczema cream is a good one to keep in the baby bag, because DD's hands are very dry and peeling at the moment because she chews them all the time while teething. I file her nails to keep them short, rather than cutting them, as it smooths the edges more.

We go back to the allergist for her 1 year check up in a few weeks and I will be asking him if she can go on Singulair, which is only for asthma in Australia, but in the US it is used for allergic rhinitis and atopic skin conditions too. It is only for kids age 2 and up (even though she's only 1) and would have to be a private script, which makes it expensive, but IMO well worth it if he says yes, to be able to stop the steroids. She has been on Zyrtec oral antihistamine since 4 1/2 mths also (1.5ml twice a day until 8kg, then 2ml twice a day until 14kg then follow the instructions on the bottle), but I would seek specialist medical advice (allergist) before trying this. We find it helps enormously though and we know it if she misses a dose.

This is a really helpful community and you will find some really great support and advice here.

Good luck!

[Areca]

You have some great advice from everyone here.

Just a word of warning though...don't naturally assume it's not a food intolerance cause she's bf. Whatever you eat gets passed through your bm.
DD1 developed eczema at 5 months..just one spot on her cheek, no matter what we did it wouldn't go away but it never bothered her either. At 10 months she had an allergic reaction to baby yoghurt...I cut out dairy from my diet, the eczema was gone after a couple of days. She got tested and is allergic to eggs/milk and nuts. There is no history of allergies in our families.
My friend had the same problem but she was also allergic to grasses, sunscreens etc.

[loui999]

Hi
Take a look at the fact sheet. It is a great resource. I recommend trying to find the trigger and eliminate it. Put your name on the wating list at an allergy unit for testing. The sooner you can eliminate the triggers the better the chance of reducing severity of reactions and outgrowing the problem.
There are no magic creams. Low dose steroid creams are available without a script. Don't be afraid to use them.
DS has eczema since 3.5 months. He is allergic to eggs and intolerant to salicylates, amines and glutamates. I am BF and eating is a nightmare at the moment. However, improvement only happened with a strict diet. Triggers may not be food related. These can be tested at an allergy unit too. Best of luck

[beatyneils]

I Think the disorder you are suffering from is psoriasis, there are only herbal remedies for psoriasis. Psoriaway (http://www.fastpsoriasisrelief.com/order.html) is herbal medicine which treats the psoriasis perfectly.

[Ness80]

In relation to the allergy testing, my paediatrition said that a food intollerance which is what my DS has (cows milk protein causes his eczema) will not show up in an allergy skin prick test. So it makes it all the more harder to pinpoint what they are sensitive to.:detective: you have to be a bit of a self detective and trial foods and things your giving to eat and look for a reaction. Some of my DS reactions don't show up for 2 days one being the teething rusks. By day 2 guarantee that he has eczema from them.

Again good luck.