Surviving Eczema

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Eczema is truly heartbreaking. Your poor child has these sores that at the very least cause mild discomfort, but in many cases, pain. It can be hard to know how to hold a child with eczema so you don’t irritate and hurt the skin even more. You want to know how to fix it and fix it fast! A really hard thing about treating eczema is that there are a lot of different products out there that can help you. Even harder, there are people who loved each product and people who found no help with each product.

Whenever I have asked the question of what worked for people for combating eczema, I always get a large variety of answers. The number of creams/lotions/oils that have helped people alone is a bit overwhelming. I think the good news there is that a lot of these creams work–that is why a lot of people use different creams. You would never try something different if you are using something that works. Something interesting to me, however, is that there are a number of products that have been recommended in the past that didn’t even come up this time. This post contains affiliate links. 

If you are nervous about trying something out and wasting money on something that won’t help, I have found the products that are most commonly suggested and have been suggested over the years (as well as now) are CeraVe, Aquaphor, Aveeno, and Coconut Oil. Hydrocortisone Cream is also commonly listed as something helpful for getting the irritated skin to calm down. My doctor always cautions against using hydrocortisone for too long. It is good to talk to your doctor about how long is safe. I usually will only do 2-3 days in a row.

Here are some ideas to help you survive eczema. If you have further input, please share in the comments! And get more eczema info and recommendations on this blog on this post: Eczema.

Skin Products

Laundry Products

Medicine

Food

  • Cut all dairy
  • No gluten
  • Remove preservatives from diet
  • Rebecca said: It’s usually,caused by something they are eating. Wheat, gluten, dairy…anything external is a sign of something internal. I myself,had eczema and cut out dairy and it,helped.
  • Jennifer said: We are in the midst of it now and have decided to cut dairy. After 3 weeks it is almost gone. Ours is 2yo and we use almond milk now. We tried a aveeno lotuon and steroid cream (cream sorta worked but can only use it so often and seemed like not getting to root). We went dairy free route bc his diapers were very loose all time too.
  • Julie said: We eliminated nearly all of the severe eczema in our house within about 3 or 4 months of when I started milling my own wheat and baking bread. I don’t know if it’s the vitamin E that you get that way or if it’s that the minerals/vitamins are all consumed in their natural proportion to each other, but something worked. We healed from the inside out, I guess. It’s been about four years and there’s only been one significant flare up in all that time.

Other Products/Methods

Reader Methods

  • Jessica said: There can be a variety of things that can trigger a flare up (foods, pollen, clothing, etc). It took us forever to figure out some things that triggered it. Chlorine in swimming pools would cause it to flare up for at least a month. We tried every natural and most medicated lotions along with oral Benadryl. I randomly bought eucerin eczema cream because it was on sale and it worked almost immediately. Basically, try to figure out the cause and don’t be afraid to try a bunch of treatments until one works. Of course, if it is bad, see if you can get referred to a pediatric rheumatologist or dermatologist.
  • Elena said: See a dermatologist if you are very concerned. A lot if internal factors have been covered here, but I believe external factors have significance too. Do not use fragrance or dyes. Cereve, aquaphor, and coconut oil have worked well for most. But be careful and only add one into your routine at a time. I have eczema, and breakout when I use coconut oil. Wearing cotton, patting hands and body dry helps. One thing that sets off my eczema is latex! Watch what toy material your children are playing with could be helpful.
  • Abby said: BabyGanics eczema cream all over 2x a day, Burt’s Bees body wash at bath time, Burt’s Bees oil after bath time. Method free & clear laundry detergent. Prescription hydrocortisone cream for flare ups. Benadryl every night (he’d wake up crying and itching).
  • Sarah said: Stopped using soaps with cocamidrophil betaine
  • Rebecca said:  Bath with a tiny drop of Clorox, eczema bath soap is also good, aveeno baby eczema creme, coconut oil mixed with lavender essential oil
  • Evie said: Bathe with a mild soap like Aquafor and then Baby Eucerine. Put the pjs on and in the morning
  • Jessica said: We used a prescription steroid cream to get it under control and then used either cerave or cetaphil morning and night. (We preferred the Walmart brand of the cetaphil) Bath with cetaphil soap every three days or more if needed and pat/air dried him after bath.
  • Christine said: My daughter had it all over her body very severely…after a week of steroid creams she was cleared up permanently…I was hesitant to use steroids but they were diluted and they worked like magic on her
  • Katie said: It may sound crazy, but a quick daily bath in water (no soap or only a little fragrance-free soap in the hair) immediately followed by thick fragrance-free lotions (like eucerin) helped my kids. Patting dry instead of rubbing after baths. Sometimes adding some of the hydrocortisone cream was useful as well. I think that getting the daily sweat and dirt off of the skin helped decrease the irritation from the eczema, the lotion helped hold in the moisture to rehydrate the skin. Time was the other factor – my kids grow out of their eczema around 2-4 years old. I think looking at diet can help as well. For my kids, eating berries before 1 year old, especially strawberries, made all skin irritations (diaper rash, eczema) much worse.
  • Kari said: Our dermatologist told us to do a mild bleach bath. My oldest had it very badly. We put 1/4 cup of bleach in a bath filled up about six or seven inches with warm water. It was a little stronger than a swimming pool. We carefully bathed him and made sure it didnt get in his eyes.
    Repeated once about four days later. It never returned. This was after we changed his diet with no success.
  • Sarah said: My daughter and I both suffer. For my 4yo I’ve done all of the above and I really like Cerave. Also, my allergist put her on Singulair. Consulting with an allergist is helpful! Also, I try to avoid putting her in anything fleece because that seems to irritate her skin and make her itch more…..
  • Brandy said: Look at the Jewish Hospital in Denver website! Made a huge difference for us bc none of our doctors in savannah knew what to do. I also took all preservatives out of our diet (it was overwhelming at first).
  • Carrie said: All 4 of my babies have had it and in different degrees of severity. I think it’s important to talk to your pediatrician about it first. If it’s bad enough there may be some medication that can help take care of it really quickly! One of my favorite OTC products is Cerave cream, and we also like the Aveeno cream baby wash. Less frequent baths help too.
  • Lisa said: Switch to all fragrance free products that touch the skin. Give a bath every other day (unless really dirty). Once out of the bath immediately apply something like aquaphor and hydrocortisone cream to the really irritated patches and lotion to the rest of the body. Benedryl orally when super itchy to keep them from scratching and making it worse. My dermatologist gave me all these tips and it got rid of the horrible patches I had on my legs for years! He said if you can control the itch and stop scratching it will eventually go away and he was right!
  • Kristin said: 20+minute baths to rehydrate the skin.

See these other surviving posts:

Surviving Allergies
Surviving 45 Minute Naps
Surviving Colic
Surviving Witching Hour

 

Surviving Traveling
Surviving Ear Infections
Surviving Teething
Surviving Sunburns
Surviving Bad Weather
Surviving Bed Rest
Surviving Colds
Surviving Diaper Rash