My son's first signs of eczema appeared at around 3 months. He had a small patch of dry skin on his back. It went away for a while but came back full force at around 6 months and he's had eczema problems off and on ever since!
My DD is 4 months old and hasn't shown any signs of eczema and am wondering if she might show some signs soon.
How old was your LO when he/she first showed signs of eczema?
pomelo / 5178 posts
DD never had issues with eczema, but DS's appeared right around 5/6 months. With a nightly lotion routine and regular oatmeal baths, though, we mostly have it under control.
kiwi / 538 posts
My son has never had good skin. From birth he had baby acne and then it sort of morphed into eczema starting around 3 months. We had an appointment with the pediatric dermatologist about a month ago and he's on a few different prescription creams so we've been able to manage it pretty well.
coconut / 8299 posts
@dookie32: Do you know what causes/triggers his eczema? We're going through torture right now trying to figure out the cause of my son's eczema! I tried eliminating all of the main allergic foods (dairy, soy, eggs, wheat, etc). and haven't noticed a huge difference. We just started switching all of our soaps and detergents too. We also bought mattress/pillow covers and started using a humidifier (which we found helps quite a bit). Not sure what else to try? Could be environmental/seasonal (according to his ped) so nothing we can really do about that.
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
I don't remember but it was from a very young age.
Is your son's eczema really bad? Wow, you've done a lot of things!
coconut / 8299 posts
@Andrea: It gets bad from time to time. 
Mainly on his legs and stomach. Sometimes his arms, too. He doesn't really notice it that much during the day because he's running around playing. But during naps and at night, he gets super itchy and sometimes has trouble falling asleep. We just recently switched soaps and we saw an improvement right away. I'm beginning to suspect that his flare-ups are due to harsh chemicals and fragrances. So we use organic detergent and mild soaps now. I spent 5 hours on the EWG website the other day. Man...that thing is addicting! I know you posted that you did/do that too? 
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
@banana: I always check EWG but I finally caved and tried Aveeno bc nothing was working. And Aveeno worked! I worry about using it since it doesn't have the lowest rating, but her eczema has improved so much that I don't use it every day so I figure it's OK. However, the Aveeno also coincided with colder weather so maybe it was just a coincidence. DD's eczema is a lot worse during the summer even though the doctor keeps telling me that it should be the opposite.
What detergent and soap were you using before? What are you using now?
hostess / eggplant / 11068 posts
LO's eczema showed up at 4 months. Her cheeks were raw and dry...Her arms, legs, ankles, and wrists. We then started moisturizing like nuts, lukewarm baths, and used a humidifier. Once the summer came, her skin improved immensely.
kiwi / 538 posts
@banana: I can share with you what the dermatologist told me. She said that you can make yourself crazy trying to figure out what the cause is so don't even bother. I've been told by her and our pediatrician that you don't inherit specific allergies but you inherit the propensity to be allergic to things. My husband and I both have seasonal and pet allergies and my husband actually had an allergy to poultry & fish for a majority of his life (he oddly grew out of it at 33) so our son really had no shot of being allergy-free.
The doctor said managing eczema is being diligent about the routine even when you don't feel like doing it :).The regimen we have my son on now has been working really well. We have 2 different kinds of steroid creams that we use 2x a day on any dry patches and then we slather him in Aquafor. We switched him to 100% cotton pjs at night and only do baths 2-3x a week. She told me that we should use the Extra Rinse cycle on the washer and as long as we did that we could use any detergent we wanted. She said reactions from clothing come from the soap not being washed out not the specific detergent.
One of the other suggestions was to do bleach baths- 1/4 cup of bleach added to a regular bath. I thought it sounded crazy but chlorine (bleach) is supposed to be good for eczema because it kills some kind of bacteria. I said "what if he swallows it?" and she said it would be just like swallowing pool water, which wouldn't be harmful. I haven't tried this yet but I will if he has any real flare-ups.
Hope that helps
coconut / 8299 posts
@Andrea: We were using Aquaphor Gentle shampoo for his hair Aveeno Eczema Wash for his body. And then we would slather him with Aveeno Eczema cream right after his bath. We also used to use Tide Free and Clear detergent. Now, I use diluted Dr. Bronner's Mild Baby Soap (in a foam dispenser) for his hair and body, California Baby lotion with Aquaphor on top to seal it in, and Green Shield organic detergent for his clothes. I also switched out all of our dishwashing detergents and liquids too (to Seventh Generation).
Ok I'm probably going a little overboard but I didn't want all my hard work in researching go to waste! haha. I told my husband about the A-F ratings on the EWG site and he was sold. There's nothing like bribing an ex school nerd with GRADES. Now he always asks me "What grade did this get?" lol
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
@banana: good to know! I'll have to reference this if we get summer eczema flare ups again next year. Eczema drives me crazy and I feel so sorry for the kiddos scratching themselves all the time.
coconut / 8299 posts
@dookie32: This is so helpful!! Thanks so much! Extra rinse cycle...brilliant. Never thought about doing this but I'm totally going to now! We give him baths every other day during the winters now, since he doesn't get that sweaty/dirty and it's super dry during the winters here. And we use lukewarm water. Our only problem is that he likes to sit in the tub for a while playing with his toys. So we're going to try and cut down his bath time. And I'll have to try the bleach bath is he ever gets bad flare-ups in the future!
coconut / 8299 posts
@Andrea: I know...it's so sad seeing them all itchy and uncomfortable. My ped said it always looks worse than it really is but I still feel bad for him. Especially when he scratches so much that it bleeds.
hostess / eggplant / 11068 posts
@banana: Once in a while she'll have dry patches but we zap those immediately. For the most part it's so soft now, I love it!
kiwi / 538 posts
@banana: The doctor is a mom of 6 and she told me that she knows from experience that a lot of the free & clear detergents (that's what I was using also) do a crappy job of getting stains out. My son still spits up a lot so between the formula stains and the baby food stains I was sometimes washing things 2 or 3 times so that was helpful info for me too. It makes it a lot easier now because I don't have to wash my son's clothes separately or buy separate detergent.
coconut / 8299 posts
@rubies: Oh nice to have soft skin! I'd loooove for my son to have his baby soft skin back!
@andrea: Wish there was an instant cure for eczema! I always have to cut my son's nails cause he's constantly scratching scratching scratching. Thankfully he doesn't get it on his face.
@dookie32: I agree! The free and clear stuff doesn't seem to work as well as the heavy duty Tide we used to use! Maybe we'll try using the organic detergent first and then slowly move towards regular. It sure would be nice for everyone to use the same detergent!
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
@dookie32: @banana: I use free and clear and you're right -- stain fighting sucks!! DD gets a lot of stains from doing art projects and they just don't come out with free and clear. I've started to hand wash the clothes right away in the sink just using our Method hand soap, which gets the stains out better.
coconut / 8299 posts
@Andrea: OH yeah...those arts/crafts projects stains are the worst! They use washable markers but seriously? Those are NOT that washable. Now I buy all dark colored clothes for my son to wear to daycare. I try to handwash before laundering but I'm too lazy. haha
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
@banana: Yeah, I've complained to daycare, but it is what it is. I always buy dark colored clothes but my mom insists on buying light colors no matter how many times I explain it to her. She sends a ton of clothes to me, though, so whatever. She says she doesn't care that the clothes get dirty and that she'll just buy more. And she does ... so OK then!
coconut / 8299 posts
@Andrea: NICE! Free clothes is always awesome in my book! My MIL buys my son clothes all the time but sometimes they're so bad, I wouldn't even want him to wear it to daycare! I'd be too embarrassed at pick up, when all of the other moms are there picking up their kids. They'd be like "Why did his mom dress that boy up in tight capris and a shirt that says "I likes sun days. Very much fun." (my MIL buys all of his clothes at korean clothing stores).
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
@banana: haha. Chinese clothes are the same. They never make sense. Luckily my mom does not buy those. MIL has the worst taste, too. She also likes to buy clothes a few years too big. Last Xmas we got a sweater size 3T or 4T. It was from a garage sale so I guess she couldn't pick a size. But why give it to us?
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