Camilla's Story
Skin Type: Eczema
Prominent Location: Face
Trigger: Food Allergies (Nuts and Eggs)
What do you do when your baby starts showing signs of eczema, and the doctors say they’re too young for allergy testing?
Here, mum of two, Andrea, takes us through baby Camilla’s eczema journey – and how Epaderm made life simpler for her busy family.
“It started when she was a baby. She was about two months old, when she started to get very bad eczema all over her face, head, arms, and legs,” says Camilla’s mum, Andrea.
Doctors suspected a milk protein allergy might be the cause – but as Camilla was too little for accurate allergy testing, it was trial and error from that point on.
“I was breastfeeding and I went onto a diet to see if she improved. She didn’t improve. So then we changed to a hydrolysed formula – that she hated, by the way! She was not eating, we were not seeing any improvement. And the doctors were prescribing creams to an extent that was crazy.”
Camilla was put on a schedule of strong creams – with different creams for the morning, afternoon, face and body, and some with just 20 minutes between applications.
“It was not doable, basically,” says Andrea.
The family were trying everything they could to help soothe Camilla’s skin – until 5 months later, when the teacher of her older sister, Leila, suggested Epaderm.
“With very strong steroid cream, the eczema goes away. I’ve seen that. You put it on, and the next day it’s gone. But what people don’t understand is the side effects of using these creams for a very long time. We couldn’t continue like that,” says Andrea.
“We started using the Epaderm Cream, and Camilla’s skin just cleared up! It’s made a big change, because we went from having to try and put five different creams on while managing both kids - I don't have the hands or the time!”
Not long after that, doctors finally discovered one of the main sources of Camilla’s eczema: she was allergic to egg, and several types of nut.
But the family’s love for Epaderm didn’t stop. “If she gets in contact with egg or some nuts, she might have a little bit of a flare up – that’s when I put on a hydrocortisone cream. And then in a couple of days, it has cleared up, and we just continue putting Epaderm on.”
“We use Epaderm as part of our daily routine – mornings and at night. Leila uses it as well, and I use it myself, as my body moisturiser.”
“The Cream is easier because it dries quicker. If there’s some rougher areas, the Ointment works better.”
“And the good thing is, because it comes in the little format, we can take it in the pram bag with us.”
Andrea's Top Tips
- “Use moisturiser as much as you can. One thing that really helps, especially in winter, is to have it handy when you're out. You can just apply it, you don’t have to wait until you’re home.”
- “…and wash your hands before! The allergy doctor told us, when there’s eczema and there are cracks on the skin, she gets exposed to everything you have touched. And that can trigger food allergies.”
- “Also, I think when all the eczema and allergies started, I should have gone for more opinions. I listened to the first one – and one thing that I really regret was stopping breastfeeding, when it was not really that that caused the problem. In the end we had to do our own thing.”
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Junior Cream 150g
Epaderm Junior Range utilises the tried-and-tested formulations of our standard Epaderm Cream and Ointment products, with the addition of fun and friendly packaging designs, to help parents encourage their little ones to have emollients applied.
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