Eczema’s most predominant characteristic is dry skin. When you are treating baby eczema you need to concentrate most importantly on keeping his skin moist among other things. It should not be wet, wetness can lead to more eczema, but it does have to be moist.

When you are bathing him, his bath should be in warm not hot water. Histamines when released from skin cells can cause itching, and hot water on the skin creates the conditions whereby histamines are let out of cells.

You will also want to use cleaners that do not contain soap. Soap can be an eczema trigger. Some of the main things in soap that causes a problem for sensitive skin are the artificial colors and fragrances that are added. You may say well then I can use a soap that does not have fragrances and colorings added. That is true, but you must also choose a soap that also does not contain lanolin. This too is an ingredient in many soaps, lotions and other cosmetics that are bad for skin that is troubled by eczema.

Many times, children with eczema do not like bath time. The reason for this is that the bath water often stings them when they get into the tub. This may also be true for your baby; the only difference is that he is not able to verbalize this for you. So if you find him beginning to cry when you put him into the bath, this may be a cause of it.

One way around this is to bathe him in bath salts that are good for eczema. It will not only take away the stinging properties of the water but it will also strengthen and moisturize his skin. This is necessary to prevent the skin from cracking and becoming infected. If the skin becomes infected, the problem then becomes that much more difficult to get under control.

In the event that the skin does crack and become infected, then the use of a good bath salt becomes that much more important as an antiseptic, and as an agent to kill the eczema virus that resides on the surface of the skin.

Baths should be brief if you are bathing him with a regular bath. The sooner you can get him out of the water the better. If you are treating him with a bath salt good for eczema then you should let him stay in the water for 15 – 18 minutes. The reason for this is that is how long it takes for the salts to do their work. One benefit is that within 18 minutes the skin will be re-hydrated. By that time it would also have penetrated deeply enough into the skin to get the pores into a condition that allows them to get rid of excess acids which often play a role in helping eczema to be a torment.

By: Broyde McDonald