I’ve written quite a bit about our experience with eczema in the past, and how we’ve managed it over the years.

Skin care

We’ve been using Childs Farm products for a few years now with the children. One of the children has quite severe eczema and another has sensitive skin, so it’s just always been easiest to use the Childs Farm products on all of the children so there are never any mix ups.

The Childs Farm range is the only range of children’s toiletries that we have found not to adversely affect eczema. We use both their nappy cream and their baby moisturiser on the skin several times a day to keep on top of it, and we’ve seen a huge improvement over time.

Hydration

The amount of water we can get into our little one makes a huge difference to the state of his skin. He’s not the best drinker, and if it’s been a bad week for drinking you can really see it in the way his skin behaves.

His eczema is always better if he drinks a decent amount of water during the day. This tends to be achieved better at weekends and during the holidays, as it’s harder to keep on top of at school. His water bottle frequently comes back full – an on-going headache.

Bedding

Even the softest cotton, washed in non-biological washing products can irritate eczema. Often night time is when a lot of the scratching happens, meaning it can be sore come the morning.

We’ve recently discovered that using a silk pillowcase makes a huge difference to the eczema on the face and neck. He is cooler, scratches less and seems to be much more comfortable in general at night time.

We’ve been using the pillowcase for a couple of weeks now and it’s made a noticeable difference.

The skin slides on the pillow case instead of dragging and the silk doesn’t dehydrate the skin in the same way that cotton does.

Probiotics

A recent conversation with a very knowledgeable pharmacist led me to introduce probiotics. His view was that this could have quite a dramatic effect on reducing the eczema and controlling it.

A couple of months into this I have to agree. We’ve noticed quite a dramatic shift and seen a huge improvement in the skin.

It seems that currently these four elements are the best way for us to manage the eczema. How do you cope with eczema in your family members? What have you found works the best?