Natural skincare for your child's eczema

Start here, not at the cream

With thanks to Jennifer, founder of The Eczema Company, who has a child with eczema and wrote much of the guidance below.

"What works for one child's skin may not work for another."

That is the sentence that follows every eczema parent around, and it is the reason for the closet full of half-used tubs. Each one was going to be the miracle, because it worked for somebody else's child.

Some children's eczema is mild enough that the right moisturizer really is most of the answer. For a great many others, the cream is not enough — and continuing to shop for a better cream is the most common way to spend a lot of money without improving anything.

For those children, finding the trigger is what changes the trajectory:

• food allergies
• hot and cold temperature swings
• laundry detergents
• fragrance
• environmental allergens

Once you know the trigger, the right skincare becomes a much smaller question — and the products below start working, because they are no longer fighting a daily re-exposure.

A necessary note: eczema is a medical condition. This page is about gentler skincare choices, not a treatment plan, and it is not a substitute for your pediatrician or a dermatologist. Moderate to severe eczema, anything infected, and anything not responding deserves medical attention rather than another jar.

Ingredients that genuinely help

These are the natural ingredients with the most useful track record on children's eczema. They turn up in gentle cleansers, soaps, creams, balms, salves, bath oils and soaks.

Unrefined shea butter. Very moisturizing, with vitamins A, E and F, anti-inflammatory and rich in omega fatty acids. Buy raw or unrefined specifically — if the label does not say so, the processing has removed much of the benefit.

Virgin coconut oil. Moisturizing, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and helps rebuild a damaged skin barrier. It should smell mildly of coconut; the refined kind has been stripped.

Both of the above are tree-nut derived — check before using either where there is a tree nut allergy.

Colloidal oats. Soothing and anti-itch, and the simplest thing to add to a bath. Gluten-free oats avoid cross-contamination.

Sea buckthorn seed and fruit oil, for omega 7 and inflammation. Hempseed oil, a moisturizing emollient that also works as an oral omega supplement. Aloe vera, an excellent hydrator — but read the label, because many drugstore aloe products contain drying alcohol that defeats the purpose. Straight from the plant is best.

Botanicals, with a caution

Essential oils, herbs and flowers can help, and they are potent. Use small quantities, dilute properly, and keep them off broken skin.

Calendula relieves itching and flaking and is the most common gentle botanical in children's balms. Chamomile is soothing and anti-inflammatory. Chickweed relieves itching. Tea tree has antibacterial properties useful after scratching. Neem, geranium, red clover, goldenseal and rosemary all have traditional anti-inflammatory use.

You will see neem described as working "like cortisone." We would not put it that way — it is a useful anti-inflammatory botanical, and it is not a substitute for a prescribed steroid if your doctor has recommended one.

How to test a new product without a flare

Patch test properly, and test one thing at a time.

Apply a small amount to a patch of unaffected skin — the inner forearm works — and leave it for 24 to 48 hours before going near an affected area. Change one product at a time, and give each change a week or two. Changing three things at once means learning nothing from any of them.

The two changes that are not skincare

Laundry. Detergent and fabric softener residue sits against skin all night, every night. Moving to a fragrance-free detergent and dropping softener entirely is one of the highest-yield changes available, and one of the most frequently overlooked.

Bathing technique. Warm rather than hot, short rather than long, pat dry rather than rub, and moisturize within about three minutes while the skin is still damp. That last detail — the three-minute window — does more than the choice of cream.