Tom's Eczema Journey

Tom started teething at 4 months and with that came a teething rash on his cheeks, they was red and I expected it to clear when the teeth came through, but it didn't. But then Tom was teething again so I chalked it up to that. At five months I wasn't very happy with the rash, it was still there and stating to look irritated, I used Sudocream and they seemed to slow down the irritation. I then tried Weleda derma baby which seemed to soothe his face but wasn't budging the rash.

This is the rash at five months on a good day

At around six months we went to a get Tom weighed and asked the health visiter about the rash. She suggested using e45, and if that didn't work then seeing a doctor. At this point the rash had progressively got more irritated, it got redder and redder and began to weep. The e45 irritated the hell out of his face and you could see that it was stinging when applied so we stopped that.

You can see here that some weeping had started to occur 

The morning of his doctors appointment I was really not happy with his face and took to Google. I had looked up before but was searching for 'teething rash', this time I was looking up 'rash on baby cheeks ' and lo and behold ECZEMA!

This was the eczema when it was probably at its worst, it had started weeping and scabbing

I saw the nurse practitioner and explain what had been happening and my belief that it was eczema which she confirmed. Tom's eczema had become infected as it was not being treated properly. I felt like a really shit mum, like I had ignored Tom's suffering and I should have known, despite trying my best and not knowing what to look out for!

This is the start of getting the eczema healed! Still pretty red and angry looking.

So my new mission was tackle the infection and then work on clearing the eczema, with regular follow up appointments. We used Fucidin and Hydrocortisone to manage the infection and irritation. I found using the a Hydrocortison really scary and off putting as it can thin the skin and is super strong and generally isn't recommended on baby faces, my nurse practitioner is fabulous and gave me the talking to I needed, explaining that it had to be done to rapidly improve the situation before we worked on managing his day to day eczema. 

The infection slowly healing.

It took around a month to clear the infection and build a routine around keeping his eczema in check. We learned that strawberry flairs it up and that baby food companies frickin love strawberry! We found that Aveeno really works for him, we also still like Weleda. Tom itches his face when he is tired so he has a thick ointment on his face over night to moisturise and work as a barrier for the itching. And we have an eye lube called Lacri-Lube as he can get odd patches around his eye.

A few flair ups along the way

Nowadays it's not too much of an issue as managing it is part of our daily life. I think I've earned a reputation with both our families as a crazy lady around foods and skincare but I am the one that has to manage the flair ups and upset, and so I don't really care! So far Tom's eczema has remained localised to his face and hopefully it will stay that way. Apparently a lot of children grow out of it so I remain hopeful but either way I'm happy jut to have it under control (frantically touches wood!)

Horray! Healed! Just some rosey cheeks these days!

I hope this has been helpful and that wherever you are on your baby's eczema journey you find a solution!