The Great Eczema Battle Continues

Since Brianne was about 5 months old we have battling eczema and to date, we are losing this war. She has terrible eczema on her ankles and it just won’t go away, no matter what we try. She gets flare ups on her wrist, behind her knees and the arm creases in front of her elbows too but her ankles are the worst. And it itches, as eczema tends to do, so she scratches at it, constantly! She has developed this like nervous habit of scratching her ankles all the time, even in her sleep! We have tried Aquafor, Eucerin, Cortisone creams (both prescription and over the counter), California Baby Calendula Cream, adding bleach to her bath water, Aveeno Eczema Therapy cream and Wash and it just won’t go away!

Now before I go on, I just want to clarify that most of the above mentioned lotions/creams/ointments do help the eczema, but once they start to clear it up, Bri will go on a scratching frenzy and make it worse again. She has scratched it so hard she has drawn blood, on numerous occasions. That’s when I smother her ankles in Bactriban or Neosporin and cover them with giant bandaids (that always manages to pull off within an hour of my applying them). If only I could get her to stop scratching, but how? I can’t watch her while we are all asleep, or when she is at daycare. It’s very frustrating to get it to clear up then wake up and find open wounds on her!

But, I think I may have earned a point in this battle last night. One small little victory in the grand scheme of things does not necessarily mean there is reason for a celebration, but it is just that: a small victory. I ordered a bunch of goodies from diapers.com (which I love by the way! If you have kids in diapers or on formula, you should for real check them out but they also have toys, movies, books, dvds, clothes, bath essentials, etc. and almost always free shipping and discount coupon codes available) and we tried several of those goodies last night.

First, Aveeno Baby Soothing Bath Treatment, which is these little packs of all natural colloidal oatmeal that you sprinkle in the tub. It advertises that it is good for eczema and other rashes, even poison ivy and is supposed to stop the itching and soothe the irritated skin.

We also got the Aveeno Baby Cleansing Therapy Moisturizing Wash, which is recommended by the National Eczema Association.

And the Aveeno Baby Soothing Relief Moisture Cream (which I like way better than their Eczema Therapy Cream, for some reason the Soothing Relief seems thicker and creamier and seems to stay on longer).

So after her oatmeal bath, new creamy body wash and new lotion, I put some hydracortisone cream on her ankles and guess what, she didn’t scratch at all last night! And this morning, her ankles seemed softer and way less red then they usually are. Score 1 for mom!!

Tomorrow is Brianne’s half birthday too, and she will officially be a year and a half old! Can you believe it’s been that long? I can’t, not at all. I have several updates on her too but I will save those for tomorrow.

And our weekend is going to be busy as usual. Tomorrow is DIY Party #3 at Sam’s house. We are going to be helping her assemble her wedding invitations yay! It’s getting close! And Brianne and I are going to work on our modern art and attempt the stained glass piece as well. Will have updates and pics on our DIY Monday post.