Try it if you haven’t. I was advised by allergy specialist to bring Marcie for a swim and she’s a water baby! Pool water contains chlorine which may irritate the skin. I brought Marcie for her first swim at 9 months, bathed and moisturized her immediately. There’s no problem with her skin after every swim though she caught a cold twice!
I also heard from another talk by dermatologists that you may want to literally “test the waters” because your child’s skin may react differently in different pools, due to the different way of cleaning and treating the pool water. Other advice given in the forum (read my forum notes here) was to use SPF50 sunscreen, try not to go once the pool has been chlorinated nor before the pool is due to be clean (too strong chlorine or too much bacteria), always shower immediately and moisturize thereafter! Also good to find out cleaning schedule and the percentage of bacteria or amount of chlorine used.
4 replies on “Go Swimming with your baby”
Hi. I stumbled upon your blog while googling elomet and how safe it is to be used on my almost-6 mth old. I plan to read your blog religiously! Thank you so much coz I have found so many answers to some questions that I’ve had for the past 3 mths of living with eczema.
Just out of curiosity, does your baby’s skin get especially itchy after she gets vaccinated?
Hi!
I do use Elomet and believe it is safe as long as you’re not using more than twice a day and the area is not that of thin skin (face, private area) + it is not a long-term use. At 6 months old, if you haven’t done an allergy test, you may want to have one for your child (skin prick test). We try to eliminate triggers for flare-up + maintain moisturizing instead of reliance on steroid cream. But no worries if it’s short-term use as directed by the doctor.
Vaccination is not related to eczema but my daughter gets itchy when she has a fever. Some vaccination leads to fever, so that’s when the skin may be more itchy. I’d usually bring down the fever quickly now, as opposed to ‘waiting’. Of course, fever is a way for the body to fight the bacteria/ foreign pathogen as some of these pathogens cannot survive at higher temp. But for us with eczema kid, over the years, we realize that bringing fever down quickly is the way.
Any of the above terms like allergy testing, skin prick test, steroid cream potency, you can search on my blog and see the relevant posts.
Big hugs,
Mei
It helps to get rid of bacteria, u can read this post to understand more about staph bacteria http://eczemablues.com/2011/10/4-part-series-on-what-causes-your-child-eczema-staph/
The recommendation from Marcie’s doctor is few times/week, for 15 minutes in water, not under hot sun. Also remember to wash off and moisturize lots after a swim!
Hi thanks for this fantastic website . Just wondering why swimming is good ? I have thought it will irritate skin ?