How To Treat Baby Eczema – Help Your Baby’s Skin

As a first time mom, I panicked over everything. I’m not kidding when I say that I had her pediatrician’s number on speed dial. When I noticed Hayvn beginning to develop a rough and patchy rash that was spreading all over her skin, this was no exception.

I called the pediatrician and they told me to monitor her temperature and to watch it closely and recommended I schedule an appointment to bring her in.

Upon scheduling the appointment, I watched as her poor skin flared up and thought maybe her diapers were bothering her, seeing as the most severe spot, where the rash had started was her legs and her belly. So I promptly went out and bought her some different diapers.

After switching her diapers, I monitored the rash for a day before realizing it had not gotten better or gone away. So I took comfort in knowing that her pediatrician would be seeing her later that day to help come to a conclusion of what these patches on her skin could possibly be.

Come to find out the diagnosis was baby eczema. If your baby has been diagnosed with baby eczema then you’re in the right place because I am about to break down everything I know and have learned on how to treat baby eczema over the course of 9 months.

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What Is Baby Eczema?

Baby Eczema is a skin condition that shows itself through red, sometimes crusty and scaly patches throughout the body. It can show up anywhere, but most often affects areas like the cheeks, and joints of the arms and legs.

The affected areas of skin are almost always itchy and rough, which is a telling sign that your baby’s rash is most likely eczema. However, I am not a doctor or medical professional, so if you notice any rash or skin condition that is out of the ordinary, please consult your doctor or pediatrician immediately.

The purpose of this post is to help parents treat their baby who has already been diagnosed by a doctor or medical professional.

Causes Of Baby Eczema

The exact cause of eczema is unknown, however we know a few things about what maybe triggers or causes it to make an appearance.

Most Eczema cases are genetic. So if a parent or the parent’s siblings have/had eczema, then most likely that is why your baby has it. That being said, eczema is commonly related to allergies and asthma, so if someone in your family suffers from either of those, eczema could also be a part of your family tree.

Other causes of baby eczema can be due to a problem in the skin barrier which inhibits the baby’s skin from making enough fatty cells, called ceramides. This can result in the skin losing water which causes it to become very dry, ultimately leading to eczema.

Although we don’t know exactly what causes eczema, it is thought to be linked to an overreaction of the body’s immune system to an irritant, such as allergies or a food sensitivity. Food sensitivities are also a large part of what causes baby eczema flare-ups. Foods like peanuts, soy, milk, wheat, fish, and eggs can induce a flare up if your baby already suffers from baby eczema.

Will My Baby Grow Out Of Their Eczema?

Most likely your baby will grow out of their eczema. Babies who suffer from eczema typically outgrow their symptoms by the time they are 4-5 years old but it is likely that even if a baby outgrows their eczema, that they will always suffer from dry skin.

It’s important to know that in some children, their eczema can make a reappearance, even after years without symptoms. And in some cases, although it’s not common, some children can suffer from eczema into adulthood.

That is why it’s crucial to treat baby eczema early, to prevent prolonging symptoms and keep them from getting worse, or even unbearable.

How To Treat Baby Eczema

Now that we know what baby eczema is and what causes it, we can answer the question on how to treat baby eczema. It really comes down to one thing: Hygiene.

Hygiene is the most important factor that goes into caring for your baby’s eczema. Seeing as it’s a skin condition, it would make sense to keep the skin clean and well hydrated.

There are three major switches we made in Hayvn’s hygiene routine that made a significant difference in clearing her skin.

• Bath Soap
• Lotion
• Laundry Detergent

Bath Soap – When we first brought Hayvn home, we initially started bathing her with the common Johnson & Johnson brand baby soap. However, we noticed very quickly that it was drying her skin out. Before she was diagnosed with baby eczema, we asked our pediatrician about this and the recommended switching her baths from every day to every other day. But this was still to no avail. Although it did help with the dryness, we noticed her rash was still there.

Once we found out that Hayvn had baby eczema, the pediatrician then recommended this Cetaphil Baby Wash, and it worked wonders! After one bath, her skin was noticeably more hydrated and the redness had gone down!

Lotion – Eczema consists of red, dry, and scaly patches that can be rough and itchy. The obvious answer here is to soothe the skin and keep it hydrated with lotion, but what we found is that the type of lotion matters in this case.

Let me tell you, we tried lotion after lotion and nothing seemed to work, until we tried Aveeno Baby Eczema. DUH! This seems so obvious now, I mean Baby Eczema is literally in the name, the problem was, that we didn’t even know this existed until a family friend told us about it.

So I figured I would share this with you because it saved Hayvn’s skin. I credit this lotion to being a massive part of her baby eczema clearing up. Even now, if we go a day or two without putting it on, we will notice that she will have a small flare up. Upon applying the lotion overnight, her skin is clear by morning. It’s like magic mommas!

Laundry Detergent – This was something that never even crossed my mind when it came to skin irritation, which now looking back, it should have been the first thing I changed. The clothes we wear and the clothes we put on our babies, come directly in contact with their skin for very long periods of time, so what you wash those clothes in makes all the difference.

When our pediatrician diagnosed Hayvn with baby eczema, she told us that we needed to be very careful with our laundry regimen. She suggested that we buy Dreft laundry detergent and wash Hyavn’s clothes and bedsheets in a separate load using this detergent only.

So we followed that advice and let me just say one thing, not only does this detergent smell absolutely heavenly, but it also helped in clearing Hayvn’s skin. She used to get a really bad patch of eczema under her hairline on the back of her neck where her shirt collar would rub. Now after using this laundry detergent her skin is clear and smooth!

It may seem like a pain to wash your baby’s clothes separately but I’m telling you it’s worth it. If this is too much of a hassle for you, you can always just completely switch to using Dreft laundry detergent for all of your clothes, just make sure you are consistent.

Soothe Your Baby’s Skin

By using the Cetaphil Baby Wash, the Aveeno Baby Eczema lotion and the Dreft laundry detergent, we were able to completely clear Hayvn’s eczema.

It’s important to remember that what worked for my baby, may not work for you. However, I wanted to share what I learned over the course of 9 long months of healing Hayvn’s eczema because these were things I wish I had known sooner. If I had found those three items sooner, I could have helped soothe Hayvn’s poor skin sooner.

I hope you found this post helpful, and now feel confident in knowing how to treat baby eczema.

Does your baby suffer from baby eczema? I would love to hear how you helped soothe their symptoms. Please leave any suggestions or personal experience in the comments below!

XOXO