Causes of Eczema Flare-ups

Eczema Triggers

Eczema in babies seems often to be triggered by something on the skin, like care products or clothing, or something inside the body coming out through the skin, such as sensitivity to food or medication.

Atopic eczema, the kind diagnosed in infants simply means that our little ones have an inherited trait to be susceptible to sensitivities, which can be expressed by the body as eczema, hay fever, asthma or food allergies. To best help our itchy babies we have to find and eliminate the things our little ones are sensitive to. Even if there is a fair chance they may out grow their problems we want to keep them as comfortable and symptom free as we can in the mean time. Follow your Doctors and health provider’s advice and talk with them, but also trust your instincts and do as much as you can at home.

Keeping a note book or a diary is really important when trying to work out what the issue might be for your eczema baby. Write everything down, food, temperatures and any ideas you might have. No matter how crazy or unlikely your ideas might seem, you know your baby better than anyone in the world and you are naturally going to be in-tune with what might be wrong.

I took the approach of eliminating as many things as I could in one go, a desperate attempt to just ‘make it stop’. I read as much as I could about possible triggers then went about trying to get rid of them. See Our Story.

Some of the more common causes of eczema in little ones are in the table below.

**Table of Eczema Triggers**
Allergens Pets - (cat’s more than dogs) Pollen House dust (Mites & there poo) Moulds Animal Dandruff Latex	Irritants Detergents Disinfectants Clothing Chemicals (in care products) Contact on the skin from foods (fruit juices) Metals on clothing (nickel)
Microbes Fungi Viruses Some bacteria	Others Sweating Heat or cold. (going from one to another winter is very hard on skin) Humidity or Dryness Bathing - hot water/hard water Stress Teething Illness Vaccinations Hormones Food (most commonly) Cow’s Milk Citrus Eggs Soya Nuts Wheat Traces of non-food items Dust or sand Lack of essential fats.

From what I’ve read the triggers for full body eczema are quite likely to be food or clothing related in children.

Spend time looking for clues to your baby’s triggers. Is the eczema full body? Only on your baby’s face? Is the nappy area free from eczema? Try thinking about anything new your baby was exposed to in the days, weeks and months before the first break out and anything you can tie in with eczema flare ups. Concider things that you or other close family members have problems with.

Continue too Laundry & Clothing related Eczema