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If you’ve ever dealt with baby eczema, you know that it can be a frustrating and exhausting experience for everyone involved. Having an itchy baby is so hard! They’re uncomfortable and sad, and by scratching they can cause further issues like scarring or infection.
When Josie was around 2 months old she started to develop red eczema patches on her cheeks. As time went on, the patches spread to her shoulders, arms, wrists, legs, and ankles. It was so itchy and uncomfortable for her. I just wanted it to go away so I decided to attack it from all angles. These are the steps I took:
1. Moisturize!
The most important thing we did for Josie’s baby eczema was to keep her skin moisturized! Dry skin led to bad flare ups but a good moisturizer helped to keep everything under control. We tried half a dozen different creams, lotions, and ointments before we finally found one that worked great for Josie. The winner was Eucerin Baby Eczema Relief Body Cream. It took some trial and error but it was so worth it to find something that helped her skin. We still apply this cream to Josie’s eczema-prone areas every night before bed.
2. Hydrocortisone cream
Josie’s pediatrician recommended applying hydrocortisone cream to her stubborn eczema patches. This is a steroid cream that helps soothe inflammation and itching. It worked like a CHARM and made her eczema patches shrink to almost nothing.
However, steroid cream can potentially have not-so-great effects on babies’ skin over the long term. Therefore I tried to use it sparingly. If you’re concerned about the use of a steroid cream on your child’s skin you should definitely discuss the benefits and risks with her pediatrician!
3. Allergist visit
Josie’s pediatrician also mentioned that her eczema could be caused by allergies, such as a milk allergy. In order to try to get to the root of the issue, we took Josie to a pediatric allergist and had an allergy test done. While these tests are supposedly not as accurate for young babies, it was still a helpful baseline for us. Josie’s allergy test came back positive for dust, which meant I had some deep cleaning to do back at home!
4. Eliminate dust
This is important for any kid with eczema or other possible sensitivities. Since Josie likely has a dust allergy, I did a deep cleaning of our house to get rid of any dust in Josie’s environment. We even replaced our old worn out carpeting with new vinyl planks to cut down on dust and dirt. I continue to vacuum and dust on a regular basis. We also bought a nice air purifier for Josie’s room to keep the air clean.
5. Eliminate harsh chemicals and perfumes
Another possible environmental trigger that I wanted to tackle was the chemicals that come in contact with Josie’s skin. The focus was mainly our laundry detergent. I had been washing Josie’s clothes with Tide Free and Clear or Dreft. I decided to switch to something even gentler and free of perfumes and dyes, just to be sure the detergent wasn’t irritating Josie’s sensitive skin. We now wash Josie’s clothes with Molly’s Suds detergent and I love this stuff! It cleans her clothes really well without any harsh dyes or perfumes. I even wash my own clothes with it sometimes and I haven’t experienced any problems yet.
Additionally, in place of dryer sheets we now use wool dryer balls. They work great and as an added bonus they’re good for the planet too!
On top of switching detergent, I also made sure to stop applying strongly scented lotions, soaps, and perfumes to my own skin since I spent so much time holding Josie and having skin to skin contact with her.
6. Probiotic
A big concern of ours was Josie’s gut health. Human gut health is just now being studied in depth. Scientists are starting to see how important it is for the overall health of your body.
When Josie was in the NICU, one of her surgery sites unfortunately got infected. (Read more about her surgery here.) As a result, she had to take antibiotics for almost 4 months to prevent bone infection while she healed. This was a really scary time for my husband and I because we were worried about how these heavy duty meds would impact Josie’s gut health in the long term. I still wonder if her eczema could have been a result of this antibiotic use.
For that reason, I bought an excellent probiotic called Probonix to add to Josie’s milk in order to replenish any gut flora that might have been affected. I’m not sure what impact it had, but better safe than sorry in this case! (Another amazing source of probiotics for baby is breastmilk. If you are able to breastfeed this is a good way to give baby’s gut an extra boost!)
7. Change soap and shampoo
Along with switching detergent, I also switched Josie’s soap and shampoo from regular Johnson’s brand to Mustela cleansing cream and Mustela foam shampoo. This stuff is formulated specifically for very sensitive skin like Josie’s so I feel good about using it. It also smells really good!
8. Limit baths
I’m not sure how necessary this step is, but I limited Josie’s baths to about 3 times per week when she was a little baby so that her skin wouldn’t constantly be stripped of its oils. I’ve heard some people say limiting baths helped with their baby’s eczema, while in other cases the opposite was true. Just another example of trial and error.
9. Keep nails short
Keeping a baby’s nails short is really important when they have itchy skin because scratching can lead to infections and scars. I simply used a nail file to keep Josie’s nails short because honestly I was afraid of using a clipper on her teeny tiny nails!
10. Soft clothes
For us this wasn’t a very realistic goal because most of Josie’s clothes were purchased secondhand or given to us as hand-me-downs. However, in extreme cases I’ve heard that switching all of the baby’s clothes, sheets, and other cloth items to organic cotton really helps decrease flare-ups. (I personally love Gerber organic cotton bodysuits like these. They are SO soft and adorable!)
I also found it helpful to keep scratchy things like tags and Velcro away from Josie’s skin because they could cause irritation.
11. Water wipes
Finally, I also switched from normal baby wipes to Water Wipes. I used baby wipes to clean Josie’s diaper area, face, hands, etc. Since it was coming into contact with so much of her skin, I wanted to be sure to use something very mild.
I actually prefer Water Wipes over all the other brands I’ve tried. Because the only ingredients are water and grapefruit seed extract, hey are great for sensitive skin, smell and feel fresh, and clean really well. In fact, according to their website, Water Wipes are the “only baby wipe approved by Allergy UK and the French Association for the Prevention of Allergies as well as to get the National Eczema Association of America’s seal of acceptance.” I definitely recommend them for all babies, not just eczema prone ones!
Luckily, in many cases of baby eczema, the problem often seems to fade with age. So even if none of these tips seem to help right now, your baby may simply just grow out of it with time. Josie is 16 months old now and her eczema is pretty much gone. In the dry winter months she might get a small dry patch here and there, but her eczema has never flared up as badly as when she was an infant. I simply try to maintain the health of Josie’s skin by sticking to the steps I listed above. Fingers crossed her baby eczema disappears and stays gone for good!
Has your little one ever experienced eczema flare ups? What treatment worked best for your baby? Let me know in the comments!
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