Eczema on baby's face

You may be fearful of using steroids, as many parents (myself included) are. The fear could partly arise due to the negative news on steroid abuse by athletes and partly due to its side effects. If you have googled steroids, you will find numerous websites ‘promising’ treating eczema without using steroids. When Marcie’s doctor put her on oral steroid, I had a lot of reservations and fear and remembered scaring myself to death googling all the side effects.

But after going through resisting steroid use to using mild steroid lotion & cream and a 3-week oral steroid course for Marcie, I like to encourage you not to fear using steroids but instead use it under the instruction of your doctor, preferably a specialist.

How much steroid is ok?

Where there is no inflammation, just dry skin that’s itchy – I’d recommend using lots of moisturizer. Keeping the skin cool helps to relief the itch, so try turning the air-conditioner colder. (I sometimes give Marcie a cold drink bottle to hold and its works!)

Where there is inflammation and the skin is reddish and itchy – I’d clean the skin with cool liquid chlorhexidine (antiseptic) and apply mild steroid lotion or cream. For areas with delicate skin such as the face, I’d apply a 0.5% hydrocortisone and for other areas like the knees or elbows or hands, I’d apply a 1% elomet cream. Marcie’s doctor’s instructions were not to apply more than twice a day. So far, I have only needed to apply 2 to 3 days in a row, not exceeding twice a day, and the skin will go back to normal.

You can refer to this chart extracted from patient.co.uk for how much to apply, measured using fingertip units (ftu):

For a 3-6 month old child

• Entire face and neck – 1 FTU
• An entire arm and hand – 1 FTU
• An entire leg and foot – 1.5 FTUs
• The entire front of chest and abdomen – 1 FTU
• The entire back including buttocks – 1.5 FTUs

For a 1-2 year old child

• Entire face and neck – 1.5 FTUs
• An entire arm and hand – 1.5 FTUs
• An entire leg and foot – 2 FTUs
• The entire front of chest and abdomen – 2 FTUs
• The entire back including buttocks – 3 FTUs

What happened to Marcie after taking oral steroid?

You may be wondering why I’m encouraging parents to be open to using steroids when I initially did not even apply steroid on Marcie. It was very difficult to get the eczema under control and her eczema will suddenly just flare and affect her whole body. However, a one-time 3 weeks reducing dosage of oral steroid, prednisolone, really helped to keep the eczema manageable.  Marcie’s rashes disappeared within the first 2 days of the oral steroid, but gradually came back as the dosage is reduced. I worried a lot after reading the side effects of steroids such as thinning of skin, acne and damage of blood vessels. I am very glad that I chose to trust Marcie’s doctor and persisted with the 3 weeks course despite being fearful everyday. After the 3 weeks course, Marcie’s doctor said he will not give Marcie any treatment that is not 100% safe and will not give her another oral steroid course because that will not be safe. I read later that stopping an oral steroid course halfway causes more harm than following through and makes it more difficult for the doctor to decide on the next step.

After the oral steroid course, there are still rashes on and off, triggered by hot weather, sweat but never affecting her whole body with no reason. This makes it a lot easier to manage and Marcie has been a much happier baby since.