I'm hoping all of you experienced eczema mamas can help with ideas. N (12m on Sunday) has had this on her back most of her life, sometimes better sometimes worse. We use Aveeno eczema therapy nighttime balm and it usually keeps it from getting too bad, but it doesn't really make it go away either. We got a prescription for triamcinolone cream the other day and so far it hasn't improved, and possibly has gotten worse. Any ideas or miracle treatments?
kiwi / 617 posts
DD's pediatrician suggested we use Cereve cream, lather her up thickly before bed and then put on her pjs, which helps keep the cream in place. https://www.amazon.com/CeraVe-Moisturizing-Cream-Daily-Moisturizer/dp/B00TTD9BRC
She said that there is a difference between lotion and cream, be sure to use the cream.
She also suggested aveeno oatmeal baths.
pomelo / 5509 posts
Aveeno has never worked for DD's eczema at all, in fact it usually makes it worse. When there isn't a really bad flare up, we use Eucerin for eczema but the triamcinolone works well for a bad outbreak. Our pediatrician recommended Shea Moisture Manuka Honey and Lavender baby cream but we haven't tried it because I try to avoid scents.
persimmon / 1381 posts
I use a cortisone cream for flare ups. I also launder all of his clothes and linens in free and clear detergent and when his flare ups get worse I cut back on the number of baths he gets (which isn’t that many to begin with, haha)
pea / 24 posts
We use the cetaphil cream that comes in the tub and we have protopic which is non steroid for every day dry patches occasional flare ups
Another note is - I always mention this to any one who talks to me about eczema - My son had pretty bad eczema from birth - i never thought anything of it because i have it also from birth. I took him to his regular pediatrician and his dermatologist and they all prescribed triamcinolone and free and clear detergent and said it was really the best we could do.
Not until i took him to an actual allergy specialist outside of UCLA ( which is where we have all of our care - we are in Los Angeles) who specializes in allergies did we realize he has an allergy to soy. He was tested for EVERYTHING and we knew that he would be allergic to nuts and grass etc but then the doctor popped in on our way out and said "oh he also has markers for a soy allergies. you might want to try eliminating that from his diet and see if it helps his skin." SURE ENOUGH, as soon as we removed it from the house his skin is 95% better. We do our best to eliminate it in our home so that way when we go out, we don't stress as much. we NEVER use a steroid now. Maybe have her tested and see? like i said, i've had eczema my whole life and my mom like me, followed the same protocol from pediatricians and derms my whole life and we just didn't really think anything of it.
Just want to pass along! identifying that his eczema flares up with soy has literally changed his life!
pomelo / 5509 posts
I will also say not everything that's dye and scent-free and hypoallergenic is safe for kids with eczema. DD was begging for a bubble bath and Mr. Bubbles has one that's all of the above and after using it she's having one of her worst flares in months. I'm making sure to stick to products I know haven't caused issues in the past rather than try anything new.
pear / 1718 posts
@Mrs. Turtle: For DD, dairy causes eczema flares, not sure if that is something you have explored.
grapefruit / 4466 posts
We honestly tried everything, saw multiple dermatologists a number of times. A couple of the steroid creams sort of worked, I don't think triamcinolone did and we just had to experiment. Honestly nothing over the counter made a dent. And as soon as we'd go off the steroid, it would flare. We had issues with infection repeatedly, as it was on his face and he'd scratch. I was so discouraged that it would never get better and spent so much time trying to get into a better specialist. Then suddenly around 14 months, it just got much, much better for no apparent reason. Derm said usually by 18 months it improves a lot. I know this isn't a very encouraging answer. I felt so bad for my poor baby, his flares were truly awful. But in the end the main thing that helped was time. Seems like your LO should be close to the age where it starts to really improve.
nectarine / 2288 posts
I have eczema on my hands (and this year on my legs due to a fun allergic reaction) I tried all kinds of stuff.
I'm allergic to Shea and cocoa butter so alot of the creams are out for me. And even the ones that don't have them seem to make me flare worse.
Hydrocortisone helps but I hate having to put steroid cream on every day.
I finally gave in and bought eczema honey. It's stupid expensive and seemed like a crock but I was so itchy I decided to try it (money back guarantee if you don't like it). I put it on religiously for a month every morning and night. It cleared almost totally on my hands in like a week, legs took longer but they had been miserable for like 6 months. I now use it occasionally and keep my skin moisturized with a lotion I know I'm good with and coconut oil mixed in. I've been flare free since February when I started using the honey
cherry / 189 posts
@Mrs. Turtle: we used the same aveeno excema nighttime balm and my son’s back looked the same - it did the same thing for us where it kept it from getting terrible but never made it go away. Then I figured out if I put it on super thick, like still completely white on his skin instead of rubbing it in, and put him in jammies and to bed like that, it helped drastically! Just a thought, since we had the same situation and you already have the balm 
nectarine / 2400 posts
How often are you doing the triamcinolone? We did it three times a day for 2 weeks with something thick on top - aquaphor or Vaseline . Worked great. Have to do the steroid like 5 days past when you think it’s cleared up
blogger / pear / 1509 posts
Thanks, all! It sounds like I need to do some experimenting with different creams to start.
@gotkimchi: I've only done it once a day so far because I was trying to decide if it was making it worse or not. Instructions are for twice a day, so I'll up it tomorrow and see if that helps.
@CObee: We already do that 
@MamaBear87: I'll keep that in mind!
@SweetCaroline: Certainly a possibility, although she's been this way more or less since early on and wasn't on any dairy until just a month or two ago. It really hasn't gotten any worse, so I doubt that's it. But I could try taking her off dairy again to see.
@ndepet: I have definitely thought about food allergies. She was on Nutramigen initially, though not because of a true intolerance, mostly just because she had gut issues from the prenatal drug exposure and that seemed easiest for her to digest. Eventually she started refusing bottles (I think she realized that Nutramigen is nasty when she discovered what real food tastes like) and we switched to Gentlease with no apparent changes. She also had/has awful cradle cap and we are still dealing with that...I've assumed they're related and could both be related to food. Now if we could just figure out how to talk our ped into testing...
pomegranate / 3231 posts
One of my twins has eczema, and I believe the trigger was her soap. It started when she was probably around five or six months old, and through trial and error we concluded that it cleared up if we stopped giving her baths. Since she was just a baby and it was winter, we switched a sponge baths for a while. It helped a lot more than any sort of cream or other skin treatment. As of about a month ago (around 8.5mo) we are back on baths, and for the most part her skin is fine and can tolerate them again.
pomegranate / 3601 posts
So this will maybe go against the grain a little but the only thing that helped in all of my kids cases was eliminating triggers. They were all food related. Citrus and too much VitC (often used as a preservative) would cause bad flare ups in all four. For some histamin was a problem so i. e. no bananas for one of my twins and no soy for the other. My neighbor’s son also had really really bad eczema and it was food related too - in that case it was milkprotein and eggs.
Hope she’ll feel better soon 
pomegranate / 3983 posts
The easy thing you can do is switch all your personal care products and cleaning products to natural stuff. But if that doesn't work, I totally agree with @Pumuckl: I would try eliminating the top allergens! In the long term I believe it is better to treat the root cause than the symptoms.
nectarine / 2951 posts
We use Cerave nightly. For my son, eczema is seasonal. His skin looks awesome now that it’s May
grapefruit / 4466 posts
I would caution about switching to all natural. Natural products are full of potential allergens, which are often an underlying cause of eczema. My LO has severe allergies to tree nuts, for example, which are in tons of natural body products. We had to cut out all our natural lotions, etc and move to cerave or vanicream, which are the ones recommended for eczema by the dermatologists we've seen.
kiwi / 556 posts
You’ve gotten good advice but just as an FYI, if you use a lotion (whichever you like best is fine) and then follow up with Vaseline it can help seal the moisture in. Vaseline doesn’t provide much moisture in and of itself, but it’s an excellent occlusive so it’s great at trapping moisture in.
pear / 1547 posts
@Mrs. Turtle: If the rash truly got worse on triamcinolone, I would make sure you've had a PCP visit to have an accurate diagnosis. Fungal infections can sometimes mimic ezcema and they will get worse on a topical steroid. If indeed eczema, I would recommend getting a triamcinolone ointment instead of cream - stings less and is more potent.
Otherwise, for eczema, lots and lots of slathering in ointment. Straight petroleum jelly (i.e. vaseline) is ideal. I also really like aquaphor but if there is any lanolin sensitivity it'll be an issue. I'm usually a crunchy, hippy product person but you really need a good, hypoallergenic moisture barrier to make a difference. A daily quick, lukewarm bath with slathering in emollient before being all the way dry and then into pajamas and bed can help a lot.
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