If your baby has had eczema or is prone to it, you know that it is a pain to get rid of and something that you have to really stay on top of in order to treat effectively.
What Is It?
Eczema is a skin rash also known as atopic dermatitis. It often crops up between the ages of 2 months and 2 years. In our experience, children usually outgrow it, but in the meantime, it leaves baby’s skin with scaly, red, itchy patches. If it is scratched too much it can ooze and bleed and become infected. Since it is very itchy, scratching is a big problem. In our experience, eczema often shows up behind the knees or around the elbows. But it can also show up on the fact, scalp, neck area or elsewhere on the body.
What Causes It?
No one knows exactly what causes eczema. But there are a variety of things that can irritate eczema. First, it is frequently inherited so it is likely that if you suffer from eczema, then your baby will also. While eczema is not an allergic reaction, it can be aggravated by allergens in your child’s environment. For many kids, (including ours) citrus fruits such as tomatoes and oranges aggravate an already existing condition.
What You Should Do to Treat It
1. Bathe your baby daily in lukewarm water. Many doctors now believe that daily bathing is helpful. However, make sure that you wash your baby at the end of the bath time so that baby isn’t sitting in soapy water the whole time.
2. Moisturize. As soon as your baby gets out of the tub, moisturize his skin. Use a good lotion for dry skin, but not necessarily a medicated one. Baby lotion works well, but other thicker creams may be needed for a more severe cases of eczema.
3. Use Cortaid or something similar in the morning and at bedtime as indicated.
4. Watch what you wash baby’s clothes and things with. Use things that are fragrance free and mild.
5. Help your baby avoid scratching. This is super tricky but keeping him occupied certainly helps. In our experience the worst time for scratching is at night. We dressed our eczema prone babies in long pants all year round to keep the scratching at bay.
In any case, it will pass and staying on top of it with moisturizer
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