4 yr old with Eczema
Kiddo gets dry scaly skin and his cheeks turn red if we don't constantly put lotion and cortisone oinment all over him. His mom drops the ball routinely, especially when she taked him to see her hippie parents for a week here and there. Anyhow I'm wondering what the general opinion on using cortisone ointment at bed and in the am before daycare 3-5 / wk. Is this going to be a life long deal? Almost 4 yrs.old and it seems like it is. Is using cortisone over time going to cause thinning of the epidermis or other problems? What can i do to minimize the use of cortisone? Typical trigger for these episodes of scaly skin is mom taking kiddo to her parents and then swimming in a pool with too much chlorine for 3 or more days and then as mentioned completely flagginng on the maintenance. So given that she's going to continue doing things the wrong way, I'm all ears on how best to treat the fallout.
The swimming pool actually helps. The chlorine relieves the deep itchiness your child feels almost constantly. What is needed is proper skin care after the pool. Cortisone should be kept to 3 days a week max at that age (advice my daughter's dermatologist gave when she was a toddler, she's now 18yrs old). We add a tablespoon of bleach to my daughter's bath water in the winter to mimic the summer pool. A&D ointment and Lanolin help my daughter a lot on the days in between the cortisone days. Also try to cut back on fatty fried foods. It's hard at age 4 but if you try to find fresh food alternatives, it gives relief. Managing the diet and pulling back on meds let my daughter goes years without a flare up that needed prescriptions to control. Around 5yrs old, hers got better, then flared around puberty and again when she turned 18yrs old. I hope some of this helps.
