excema 3 year old

[lauralane]

My three and half year boy has really bad excema. I have been to the doctor and have been given a cream. It helps a bit. But i wondering does anyone know of anything that really helps. Any tips or creams that you think work well would be great. Thanks

[curiosity]

I agree with the egg and dairy product (pure egg & milk in particular) answer, you don't have to cut out all diary or egg products, cows milk will make flare ups worse than chocolate or yoghurt or cheese etc in my experience anyway.

[Seafarer1966]

My son had infantile eczema until he was three. Our doctor prescribed some cream and an oil which we had to add to the bathwater (Oilatum or somrthing like that). None of this stuff worked. I went back to the doctor and he told me thats all he could do for my son.

Doc went on holiday and was replaced temporarily by a younger locum doctor. New doc said there were loads more stuff we could try. Within a month the ezcema was 50% better. My advice is to seek another opinion.

Also: Child will make himself worse by constant scratching. We had to sew the ends of the arms up on my sons babygro to stop him making himself bleed.

Chocolate stimulates ezcema. Avoid giving your child any chocolate. Hard at easter particularly! I used to give my lad fruit jellies or marchmallows.

Ezcema usually leads to asthma in later life. My son now has the asthma. Something to watch out for.

[Seafarer1966]

Forgot the bit about washing powder:

Avoid biological powder. Use non-bio to wash his clothes and bedding. ideally use Surecare washing powder or liquid. This is available these days in most major supermarkets. Make sure your fabric conditioner is for gentler skin too. Best wishes.

[curiosity]

Hi again, the above answer supports a dairy intolerance problem, symptoms of which change with age, colic in babies, excema in preschoolers/children, Asthma or bed wetting in juniors, puffiness and bloating in adults.

[aims1202]

I havent read all the posts so sorry if i repeat anything.
The best thing to do is try and cut out external irritants, not change diet. Things like biological washing powder, cleaning products and soap or handwash can make it worse.
Bath him everyday using only an emollient in the bath, like Oliatum. Also use this to wash hands.
Then after the bath dry his skin really well and cover all the affected areas in the cream, it doesnt really matter which one, Diprobase and Dermol are good.
Put the cream on a few times a day, but wash the skin with water and bath emoillient first and wash your own hands before as well.
This should not be too often but when it is really bad and the above is not helping it is ok to use the hydrocortisone very thinly on the affected areas. Use this for up to 5 days at a time.
I had the same with my boy, this advice helped us. He is now nearly 5 and has pretty much grown out of it, only getting a flare up very rarely.