I started looking up how to treat baby eczema when I noticed my baby’s skin getting flaky when he was one month old. It got much worse before it got better. Now he’s five months old and his skin is getting healthier again. Here’s exactly how to treat baby eczema based on our own journey, which includes the baby eczema causes, natural remedies and the best eczema cream for babies.
Adonis’ Baby Eczema Symptoms Journey
I started noticing Adonis’ skin was not like my other two kids. At around one to one and a half months, his eyebrows were crusty/flaky so was behind his ears, to the point I thought I was a bad mother by not cleaning behind his ear properly when bathing him. (I know I know!! LOL)
At Adonis’ two month check up, I brought him to the doctor. She brushed off his symptoms and said he had sensitive skin. She said that cradle cap can also appear behind his ears and eyebrows. Who knew this was even a thing! This was all new to me. She just said to keep up with what I was doing by lathering Aquaphor and Aveeno Soothing Relief Moisturizing Cream on the dry areas.
Get Aquaphor and Aveeno Soothing Relief Moisturizing Cream on Amazon.
When Adonis was three months old, he caught a cold. About a week into his cold, I saw the red patches on his stomach spreading. I really didn’t think anything of it and just kept putting aquaphor on it since Adonis seemed to be in good spirits and still jolly as ever!
However, I noticed he started having red patches around his cheek and eyebrow and that his skin would flare up in the evening even more so I went back to the doctor again. This time, she said his skin was reacting to the cold/virus leaving his body or that it could be really dry from the weather. We left the doctor’s office with a prescription for hydrocortisone.
By the time Adonis’ four month check-up came around, he had eczema all over his face and body. At this point, I asked the doctor about a possible milk intolerance in his formula, which is when we started seeing Adonis’ baby eczema get better
At five months old, we are still trying out new formulas for Adonis but his skin looks much better. It’s dry and flaky, no longer red and patchy!
Temporary Methods for Baby Eczema Relief
Over the past few months, we tried a few ways to treat baby eczema. These were all temporary as they didn’t treat the root cause and more so put a temporary bandaid on the problem. Nonetheless, these methods can give you baby eczema relief so is good to use in combination with treating the root cause of baby eczema.
When we first noticed Adonis’ baby eczema symptoms at one month, we used Aquaphor and Aveeno Oatmeal cream on his dry patches including behind his ear and his eyebrows.
Get Aquaphor and Aveeno Soothing Relief Moisturizing Cream on Amazon.
Since at two months, he wasn’t getting better. We tried a ton of different methods. I asked my friends what were natural remedies on treating baby eczema. They had suggested giving breast milk and oatmeal baths, applying olive oil on the baby’s scalp and combing through for the cradle cap.
The olive oil didn’t work because the cradle cap just kept coming back, but the breast milk bath did soothe his skin for a bit. However, within a few hours, Adonis’ skin would become dry and flaky again.
At this point, we stopped using Johnson & Johnson body wash since that naturally can make baby skin dry. We switched to Hones Company Eczema Soothing Therapy Wash, which seemed to be more gentle on his skin.
Get Honest Company Eczema Soothing Therapy Wash on Amazon.
At four months, we got prescribed two different ointments. The first ointment was Hydrocortisone 2.5% which we applied twice daily for a week. The second ointment was Desonide 0.05%, which we applied twice daily for a week and twice weekly for 4 weeks. The doctor also suggested applying the Desonide on the patches of cradle cap on his head.
How to Treat Baby Eczema Permanently
Like I mentioned above, all the creams and oils we used on Adonis were just to give him baby eczema relief. It didn’t treat the root cause of the problem so while we minimized his symptoms, we kept trying to find natural remedies for baby eczema that would clear up his problem for good.
We heard that some babies can have cow’s milk protein intolerance (CMPI) so at Adonis’ four month check-up, we pushed the doctor to focus on his formula and not brush off his symptoms anymore. She switched Adonis’ formula to Simliac Alimentum from Simliac Pro Advance.
We switched to Alimentum and did not notice a change in his skin but his spit ups decreased and were not so chunky. Now they were watery. The formula also smelled disgusting like dry cat food, which we were already warned by our doctors that it would not smell great.
Get Similiac Alimentum on Amazon.
*This didn’t work for us so it may or may not work for you.
Each baby eczema case is different!
Ask your doctor before switching formula.
After two weeks with no change in Adonis’ baby eczema, we realized that although Alimentum doesn’t have Lactose, a milk protein, it still has Casein, another milk protein so we switched to Simliac Soy Isomil.
Get Similiac Soy Isomil on Amazon
*This has been the best formula for Adonis’ baby eczema
but each baby is different so it may or may not work for you!
Ask your doctor before switching formula.
After switching to soy, Adonis spit up has reduced and his skin seems a lot better. Adonis has not had any flare ups on his chest, and overall, his skin is not as red.
We noticed he does get red patches on his cheeks depending on the weather. Babies tend to also get eczema in the cold, dry weather so we believe that the permanent solution to Adonis’ baby eczema is finding the right formula for him and sleeping with a humidifier at night time.
Best Formula for Baby with Eczema
If you’re trying to treat your baby’s eczema by changing up his formula, here are some highly rated formulas based on your baby’s food intolerance or allergy:
- Soy formula for lactose intolerance or dairy allergy: Earth’s Best Soy, Similac Soy
- Lactose-Free or Low lactose: Earth’s Best Low Lactose Organic Formula, Similac Pro-Sensitive
- Goat’s Milk Formula: Kabrita Goat Milk Formula
- Hypoallergenic Formula: Nutragimen, Puramino, Neocate
Getting Formula Covered by Health Insurance
Baby formula for those with milk and soy intolerance can get expensive. As a result, our doctor told us that we could possibly get it covered by health insurance! She wrote out a prescription to inform the insurance company that he had eczema and low tolerance to milk proteins.
Afterward, we reached out to the insurance company to see if they are able to cover the formula cost. We’ll cover this process in another post when we hear back from them!
The Baby Eczema Treatment That Works for Adonis
Right now the best combination of treatments that works for Adonis is drinking soy formula and applying the Desonide. His skin is really dry but it looks almost clear and much better than it did a couple of months ago!
However, the soy formula has been making him constipated so in a few days, we may switch to a completely hypoallergenic formula such as Nutragimen, Puramino or Neocate.
Get Nutragimen on Amazon.
*We want to switch to this. We have not tried it yet.
Each baby eczema case is different
so ask your doctor before switching formula.
In addition to the soy formula and Desonide, I use only dye-free and chemical free soaps. I stopped using Johnson and Johnson baby wash since it dried up Adonis’ skin. Now I use Honest Baby Ezcema body wash and Honest Shampoo & Body wash for his hair.
Get Honest Company Eczema Soothing Therapy Wash on Amazon.
Did Adonis’ journey on how to treat baby eczema help you with your own baby? Or do you have any baby eczema tips for me? Please comment below or DM me on Instagram with your own baby eczema experience!
Thanks for stopping by,
xo, Sylvia
#savewithskim
