Causes of colic

If eczema is caused by dry irritable skin and allergies, then it makes sense to moisturise often and to avoid the substance that triggers the allergies, if only it were that simple, sometimes I think that heat / being exposed to air is enough to trigger eczema in my little one, so I have to change her clothing quite quickly and not leave her unattended during changing times. Being around pets seems to make no difference to us and I'm not convinced about the house-mite or dust allergy being a trigger either for us but I know that for other littles ones both of these can be an allergy trigger. I recently read that there was a study carried out into water softness because it was noted that eczema was far more common in hard water areas - and some families in the study found that adding a water softener helped but other families found that it made no difference it all! Potential other allergic triggers are detergents (and detergents are in a lot of commonly used household products) food allergies and Microbially-induced eczema. It's certainly complicated but here's what I've learnt works for us so far.

Starting with washing powder, I'm starting to think that just changing brand can trigger a flare-up, so I stick with Surcare although I've heard good things about Dreft - I think this is because the detergents in soap and other household products can trigger eczema and Dreft has less detergent than other brands. Surcare is perfume free but still has detergent, but it seems to work better for us than our previous brand which was Fairly and I dont want to change again. I've also tried liquid soap flakes - these leave the clothes a little hard but contain no detergents. http://www.solveeczema.org explains a lot about eczema caused by detergent allergies, if your in the UK and believe that detergent is responsible for your babies allergies then the brands of household products they mention as being detergent free substititues aren't really available here, however pure liquid soap flakes are available in most supermarkets, the cheap plain unscented veg soaps are often SLS free. For household cleaners then perhaps using some old fashioned remedies for cleaning, vinegar, baking soda etc would be the way to go. I always do an extra rinse after washing clothes to make sure no powder residue is left.

Moving onto bathing, luke warm but not hot baths every couple of days works best for us, I tried a few things in the bath including the soap substitute the doctor gave us which was Dermol and they all irritated her, I settled on Burt's Bees Baby Bee Fragrance Free Shampoo and Wash it's the only thing that I've tried so far that doesn't irritate her skin, I know other mums recommend Oilatum Junior Bath Formula but I stick with Burts Bees now, I had tried Aveeno bath oil which again was recommended by other mums and that also irritated the little one. Two other bath washes on my list to try were Cetaphil Non-irritating Cleanser and Balneum PLUS Bath Oil 500ml.

Keeping baby cool is important, certainly in our case heat seems to be an issue, I've dispensed with the 'always wear a vest' theory and I watch the tempreture closely at night. I always dress baby in cotton clothing to help keep her comfortable - special eczema clothing is available on prescription from the NHS - dermasilk, however it's only prescribed in severe cases so it might be worth buying direct from the manufacturers http://www.dermasilk.co.uk/ personally I haven't tried it and I don't know anyone who has.

Keeping babies fingernails short really helps us, that way if she scratches she's less likely to draw blood, I use Emmay Care Baby Nail Clippers and wait until she's asleep!

Food allergies is interesting, they've recently discovered that breast feeding doesn't protect against eczema - a milk allergy could trigger eczema but then again so could a reaction to the detergent used when you wash your babies bottles or even the handwash you use, changing milk away from the major brands to soy or a hyperallergenic formula is probably something only to be done after checking with your doctor - soy formula isnt recommended for babies as it doesnt contain all of the nutrients they need - a doctor would prescribe a hyperallergenic formula if they thought it necessary. I have the impression that if baby is feeding and gaining weight well then doctors are reluctant to prescribe hyperallergenic milk for something like mild eczema.

Moisturising - I do this once or twice a day if bathing - after the bath its important to apply emmoilent as soon as possible, we were prescribed Diprobase Cream Emollient 500g which is a standard emmolient, I gave up using it and started trying others as she would scratch when I applied it - I tried Neal's Yard baby balm and Waitrose baby bottom butter before finding out that lots of mums use Aveeno Cream it's a light emmolient and I use it on babies face and I think it works brilliantly - I also use the Aveeno baby soothing relief cream (emmoilent) on her body - annoyingly the Aveeno baby range isnt sold in the UK, (the manufacturers Johnson&Johnson don't think there's enough of a market) however its available on ebay via US sellers and also from Skin Soft which is where I buy it from - they import direct from America.

For flare-ups I use the prescribed hydrocortizone cream once a day, at other times or if the eczema is very mild I use 'Aveeno baby eczema therapy cream' at every nappy change, this is steriod free and available from Skin Soft and possibly ebay as well. For significant flare-ups if I've already used the steriod cream that day then I use Sudocrem Antiseptic Healing Cream - mainly known for it's use on nappy rash, it does actually say on the lable its for eczema as well and I think it works really well - although the National Eczema society believe that it stings upon application so don't recommend it, well I disagree a bad case of nappy rash can be just as sore as an eczema flareup and my little one hasnt reacted like applying sudocream hurts in either case.