Excema Tips

I wanted to start a bit of a discussion about baby excema as I noticed a few of us are dealing with it...DS has just started getting a bit of dry flaky cradle cap and I have now noticed some rashy looking stuff on his neck, behind his ears and behind his knees and elbows... his whole body is also covered in small bumps...

I am really gutted as I have never used anything but water and almond oil on his skin as I have a family history of allergies so have been REALLY careful. I have started taking Excema Shield probiotic and Flaxseed Oil....I brought the organic 'Gaia' range so I could shampoo his hair and moisturize him....what does everyone else do for their babies skin? Has anyone tried an allergy test or cutting out dairy?

Thanks ladies :)

There are a few old threads on eczema if you do a wee search - here are a couple :-)


here

here

and here

Personally, I would ask to get allergy testing done if the eczema continues and becomes a problem AT ALL for you or baby. Our GP was also reluctant to refer us, but in the end I specifically asked for a referral to an immunologist.

Eczema can be caused by heat etc, but generally is a sign of the body reacting to allergens - especially if you have a family history of allergies (as we did). At first, I was also in the "it's just eczema" boat, and was planning on managing it with creams etc (because I also had bad eczema as a child, and assumed that's just what our lot was!) .... but I'm so glad we did further investigate (at about 7 months, after 2 months of battling with it!), as we found out DD was allergic to egg and dairy, and within a couple weeks of me cutting those out of my diet, her eczema had completely cleared, and now we just get little flare ups with things like heat.

Cutting out food randomly can be very difficult, and because it takes 2-3 weeks for dairy (in particular) to get out of your system, that's quite a big committment for something that may not make any difference.

If you have health insurance, that should cover if you go privately, and otherwise you can ask to be referred onto the public waiting list. We have an awesome immunologist, so let me know if want any details (not sure if you're in Auckland?)

I'm sure that you may be able to manage things with creams etc (and one tip - best cream ever is 10% glycerine in cetomacrogol cream, although pharmacy has to make it up specially)..... but if it continues long term, I think it's worth finding the cause of it, rather than just treating the symptoms. Just my 2 cents!

We're using Xma-Ease for our son's excema

Laundry Balls

There you go crafty

My DS developed eczema ALL OVER his body and nothing could make it go away. Not moisturising ten times a day, not using hydrocortizone, nothing!!!!

Finally went and saw Dr. Williams in Mt Wellington who gave us a cream which cleared it right up within days - he now has beautiful skin!!!

Went to paediatrician at the hospital recently (just cos I had a referral and figured I'd may as well go) and he said not to bother with the skin prick tests as he said they might show my DS is allergic to eggs, I could cut out eggs but he might still get eczema. He reckons they're a waste of time.

That said, I might still get them done out of interest, but I do think the biggest test for food allergies is trial and error.

Thanks for your replies everyone- I ended up taking him to the docs and she said he has mild exzema (didn't seem mild to me!) and told me they have been advised to stop using aqueous as a mosturizer, something in it is not safe to leave on babes skin anymore but it can still be used in the bath. So I stopped this and have just been using almond oil in the bath and Gaia mosturizer on his skin. Maybe the probiotic is also kicking in but his skin is LOADS better today! Pretty much normal with a few dry patches and a wee bit in his scalp. We are off to the naturopath on Monday so will be interesting to see what happens!!! I have also cut dairy out but am hoping he doesn't have a dairy allergy as he is soooooooo hungry at the mo I really wanted to start a formula top up at night...