<p>Anyone have good luck with dealing with eczema? Tips and tricks? Please share - thanks! We’ve had pretty good results with homeopathic doc and limiting hot showers. Have tried coconut oil but not in a consistent enough way to know if it works. How about you?</p>
<p>I put Vaseline on before bed time every night, works well for me.</p>
<p>When my now 15-year-old son was a 2 - 4 years old, he had bad eczema on his face. He was blonde andblue eyed and the skin issues showed up vividly. Before his school photos that year, the school sent home a note that the photographer had asked for permission to apply pancake makeup to him to mask the eruptions. I went to the pharmacy and asked if there were any natural remedy suggestions. An older European lady who worked there suggested tea tree oil. I bought a small bottle and applied some to his face that night. It stank to high heaven! However, my son’s face was clear and beautiful in the morning. The photographer thought I had an identical twin son I’d sent in. I still keep that school picture up and nobody can believe that just the day before, he had a massive eczema outbreak. We had to use it about three more times but he hasn’t had an outbreak in about 10 years. I also used to watch his face with Cetaphil.</p>
<p>Good luck to you.</p>
<p>son has had atopic dermatitis since 6 weeks old… the only thing that helps him is desonimide mixed in moisturel lotion. we have tried everything over the years…but most things will make it worse…ie oatmeal, anything with lanolin, anything with coconut, vaseline etc…moisturel is the only lotion he can consistently use without making it worse. ankles, behind knees, elbows and neck are very dry and red, fingers and toes crack… he now wont use anything regularly…it all stings and burns.</p>
<p>I use a bit of OTC 1% cortisone cream in flareups for adults. Solves it immediately.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine why, instead of depending on homeopathic quackery and home remedies from a message board, you wouldn’t see a dermatologist, first to be sure eczema is the correct diagnosis, and second to get professional advice about the best way to treat it. Real eczema (which doesn’t mysteriously disappear overnight) can be a long-term problem. My D has found that her flare-ups are best kept under control if she starts moisturizing her skin diligently as soon as the weather turns cold and the dry indoor heat kicks in. This approach helps minimize her dependence on prescription medication.</p>
<p>No doctor has ever been able to give my DD a real fix. Corticosteroid creams never really worked well, though she recently had a steroid shot that really helped with general allergies. DD has major food & environmental allergies, the worse they are, the worse the eczema.</p>
<p>We used the Hyland’s Calendula ointment and she found it not to be curative, yet very soothing. The very best thing to do ti keep a log and try to find the triggers, then avoid them!</p>
<p>Because, MommaJ, the dermatologist who diagnosed it said, “You’ve never had eczema? You do now.” He prescribed various baths we tried only to figure out hot water seems to dry out the skin; he prescribed antibiotic foam (doxy) that did not work and cost an arm and a leg; he prescribed an antibiotic cream ($50 copay per tube) that did not work.</p>
<p>I am looking for advice from people who have this difficult to treat condition and who have found some form of relief. </p>
<p>The doc has been extremely expensive, time consuming and useless. And his diagnosis was akin to saying, “You have dry flaky skin? Ok. You have dry flaky skinosis. That’ll be $300 please.”</p>
<p>Talk about quackery.</p>
<p>And may I add that the homeopathic treatment healed 90% of the rash. Perhaps we should go back to him but he’s expensive, also, and other intelligent people MIGHT just have something to contribute to a fellow sufferer.</p>
<p>Thank you Hugcheck!! This has been my DS’s experience with his dermo as well regarding eczema. Expensive lotions, time consuming visits, and little to no relief. I too am looking for any reasonable homeopathic treatment that will help him maintain his eczema (arms, back, legs).</p>
<p>Yeah like in the 1600s there were doctors who knew better than to wash their hands between delivering babies. Such nonsense and quackery. Hand washing. Pshaw. How dare they even suggest it. Quacks. Why in the world might that make a difference. Evidence that it does? But there is no known reason why that would help hence it must not.</p>
<p>Hugcheck, your post is an insult to all medical professionals posting on this board. Just sayin’.</p>
<p>Eczema is an allergic reaction to “something”, and the best treatment… is prevention. If it mostly happens on clothed parts of the body, check your detergent. “All natural” detergents can be just as bad as regular Tides etc. Is you washing machine rinsing your clothes well? If not, use significantly less detergent and/or buy new washer. I’m not kidding. A new Miele + Woolite HE 1/4 of recommended amount per load = great reduction in skin problems. Another thing that worked: no baths, just warm showers with Aveno body wash followed by Aveno lotion immediately after showering to lock the moisture in. This eliminated whatever was still present after the detergent change.</p>
<p>agree with warm water, definitely not hot water. when i can convince my son to do it, i suggest a very brief tepid bath with olive oil in it…it does help (temporarily) but he cant stand the greasy feel and doesnt want to clean the tub after. I feel for him, but he’s at a point that he just tolerates it, His skin just looks so sore sometimes but he says it burns so bad to put stuff on it. (Btw aveno was a disaster for my son)</p>
<p>What worked for me was 100% aloe gel. Massage it in 3 times a day. In about a week I started to see improvement. At the end of 3 weeks, I had no more dry, flaky, burning, itching skin. Now I use it once a day, and I haven’t had a problem in months.</p>
<p>100% Aloe Gel “Fruit of the Earth” brand is available at Walmart (and elsewhere), for about $4 for 12 oz, that’s enough to last a good long time. </p>
<p>I’ve also used it for minor burns and other skin irritations, with very good results.</p>
<p>I have eczema that appears on the hands and feet. Two things work for me.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Stay moisturized. I use Eucerin in the jar, and keep several jars so I can grab one at different places in the house. To me, the main advantage of this is to prevent the damage that can occur if your skin cracks or crusts during an outbreak.</p></li>
<li><p>Apply a steroid at the first hint of itching. For hands and feet my doc will prescribe a fairly strong steroid like Fluocinonide or (even better) Clobetasol Propionate. I keep a tube of this handy by my computer, and if I find myself scratching my hands, I put some ointment right on the itchy place. Soon the itch disappears, but I have to do this frequently. It’s like putting out wildfires.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I learned this regimen the hard way.</p>
<p>I haven’t had it too bad for a number of years, but as a teenager, it was awful. </p>
<p>This may sound ridiculous but…if he gets it on his hands, have him wear a pair of clean white cotton gloves as much as possible to limit exposure. Newsprint, citrus fruit, household cleaning products, etc. can be triggers. No hot water on body, only warm. Quick showers, no baths. No scents–after shave, etc. if they trigger it. Use one of the detergents formulated for babies to wash clothes. Old fashioned “tar” relieves symptoms but smells and is messy. It helps to put it on and then put white cotton gloves on over it when you have an outbreak on your hands. </p>
<p>I used a cortisone cream known as kenalog (sp?) back in the day. It helped.</p>
<p>Use a humidifier in your home during the winter.</p>
<p>MommaJ -</p>
<p>I assume your incredibly helpful comment was directed at my story about my son. By way of background, my son had been diagnosed with eczema by a dermatologist before that incident and I had used the cortisone steroid creams on him with little effect. Since I have a history of auto-immune disease, I was reluctant to keep using steroid meds on my child so I went and sought an alternative solution. It worked. If you read my comment fully, I did say that he had several more outbreaks after that. The dermatologist told me when was about 8 that he appeared to have outgrown the allergy or whatever that caused the eczema.</p>
<p>I in no way endorse alternative medicine over tradtional, but on occasion, an alternative can work. The tea tree oil won’t harm you unless ingested and it was not given orally.</p>
<p>My response was predicated OP’s first post, which made no mention of seeking medical advice and gave no indication that eczema had actually been diagnosed by a professional. While there are no doubt non-prescription remedies that can alleviate some of the symptoms of eczema temporarily, and the advice here about avoiding hot showers, etc. is valuable, homeopathy is quackery, pure and simple. It has never been proven scientifically to have any efficacy whatsoever. The placebo effect can be very powerful, and people do outgrow many conditions, but homeopathy has zero scientific basis and has never cured anyone of anything. You might as well turn to voodoo. Just because a condition has been resistant to standard medical treatment–modern medicine can’t fix everything–that’s not a reason to turn to quackery. Again, there are many ways to ease the symptoms of eczema and minimize flare-ups, but these have nothing to do with homeopathy. Homeopaths are thieves and liars (and the shady chiropractors who claim to be able to cure everything from diabetes to myopia–a small subset within the profession, I realize–are in the same category).</p>
<p>I’ve used Elocon for the past 12 years and it works fine.</p>
<p>Eczema doesn’t necessarily need a specific allergin trigger. It can be an auto-immune issue. My older daughter had it at birth, and it is especially bad if she is under stress.</p>
<p>She IS allergic to any moisturizing creams and can only use ointments. What works best for her, although it sounds gross, is good old Crisco slathered on. I learned that from a nurse while putting myself through grad school as a CNA.</p>
<p>Eczema/Psoriasis can also be related to allergies/digestive problems.
Your skin is your largest organ and lots of systemic problems show up there.</p>
<p>I think alternative treatments can often be more effective than allopathic remedies.
For one, they are usually much cheaper, a naturopath will take a great deal of time investigating the cause, and looks at the whole patient not just the symptom.
Tests done at conventional MD offices may be limited in scope, for example, I was tested for gluten intolerance because I got a stomach ache every time I ate a sandwich.
I was tested per the usual test, which only tests for a few indicators & it was negative.
However, after encouragement from others on CC, I took gluten out of my diet anyway & I feel 100% better. I have arthritis/osteoporosis & fibromyalgia and when I was still eating wheat ,I could barely function because of pain ( & I certainly couldn’t sleep)
Maybe it is a placebo- who cares if it works?</p>
<p>Do dogs benefit from placebos? Ours was helped greatly by taking chondrotin for her bone issues when research was still disagreeing whether that could be effective.
She took it for 6 years, until she died at 16. Fairly elderly for a labrador.</p>
<p>Crisco is just vegetable oil ( isn’t it?) anything you eat you should be able to put on your skin ( well except for peppers, but still they use that in creams)</p>
<p>Grapeseed oil is used for massage- I don’t remember if it has a scent, but you could experiment with different food grade oils ( also adding it to your diet could be beneficial- I have a friend who has bad psoriasis, and her Dr has her on a very strict diet. It is stricter than I could ever tolerate, but it is helping her, so she has motivation)</p>