So in my quest for something to help us manage the Evil that is Eczema I came across these little beauties.

Our 4 month-old daughter is currently suffering a flare-up of her eczema particularly on her face -we discovered yesterday she has a perforated ear-drum and infection and this is probably the cause - and has been trying to scratch her skin off at any given opportunity. We've been dressing her in babygros with integrated gloves (imported from the UK as cannot find them here) and then using normal scratch mitts when changing clothes, nappies and in the bath. But she was still managing to damage the skin through the gloves and getting rid of scratch mitts is not a problem for a determined itchy baby!

Available in the UK at a very reasonable price and with P & P costing next-to-nothing I ordered them late last week and they arrived yesterday. And, they are great. They resemble a narrow bolero cardigan made of cotton with mitts at the ends made of silk. Not only is she unable to wriggle out of them (she doesn't even bother to try), when she does scratch, the silk is a lot gentler on the skin than cotton and does less damage.

I'm now really pleased that I can leave her alone on the mat and not worry about coming back to a red baby with gouge marks all over and also she can now wear some of the other items in her little wardrobe that don't already have gloves attached.

I'm not in any way affiliated to the company but just one happy customer who wanted to spread the word to other 'eczema parents'. Treating eczema is a bit of a battle so it's great to find something that can make a difference.

My little girl had terrible eczema as a baby. We tried everything including me going on a total dairy free diet and goodness knows how many expensive creams.

In the end i read a University research report (Melbourne Uni i think) that had carried out many tests into baby and childhood eczema and they suggested a product called Salcura Gentle Spray. Totally natural product and it worked. Initially i applied it several times a day, now i only use it once a week or so. She has been eczema free since and she is almost 2 1/2. The eczema showed signs of coming back last week so i have started using the spray every day and now it is gone again. I rarely rave about products but this stuff is great.

Sounds good, I'll look into it!

I know that there is no miracle cure for eczema (and hopefully she will grow out of it) but I really would like to find the right combination of products that will help us to 'manage' it and make her more comfortable.

I've no problem using steroid creams for the flare-ups but I'm still looking for a good emollient that is calming but also really moisturizing. At the moment I'm alternating with Antidry Calm lotion and original Nivea - as recommended by her dermatologist. We also have Dermasilk baby vests and leggings for her to wear at night and I use a Woombie Leggings swaddle over that. Not sure what we're going to do when she can roll over and swaddling is not an option. Flailing arms about her head are not conducive to sleep!

My little girl has mild eczema, and we've had very good results with Pelsano Onguent.

Our ped told us that each skin reacts to different kinds of emollient cream. She gave us a handful of samples to try at home. Cicalfate from Avene is quite good too.

Our daughter developed eczema within a month of stopping breastfeeding. It turned out she was allergic to tomatoes, strawberries, eggplant and a range of other 'environmental' things...

If you are formula-feeding your baby, then I would recommend speaking to your doctor about possibly changing to another formula - a friend of mine's baby had head-to-toe eczema at that age and after speaking to the doctor, changed formula and had a huge improvement (poor tyke even had eczema through his hair and on his eyelids)...

Eczema is an allergic response. They call it 'atopic' disease - kids who have eczema often go on to develop asthma, and you'll probably find there is a family history.

Unfortunately mini-MG stood no chance: both me and her dad are 'atopics' with asthma, cat and dust mite allergies and past histories of eczema flare-ups!

Although I'm still breast-feeding I have formula on stand-by especially as she is feeding so poorly with the ear infection. Her paed gave us a prescription for some special hydrolyzed formula for allergic-babies. Also the dermatologist warned us to avoid cow's milk and eggs for at least the first year.

But we are going to be very vigilant when it comes to weaning!

How old was she when the eczema started ? Another friend of mine has two children who developed eczema within 24 hours of birth - both resolved with a dairy-free diet for mum (dairy proteins go through breastmilk) - but it's a big commitment to go dairy-free and find alternatives, that's for sure! - She did go dairy free to breastfeed both the children for over 12 months - and the doctor's really didn't have any better advice except to do what she did...

My daughter started to show allergy signs about 4 months, because at that age she was given antibiotics to treat a persistent infection that began from birth - we had to get rid of the infection, but it triggered quite a lot of damage to her digestive system I guess - or perhaps her immune system...

The eczema is the latest in a line of skin problems.

She had lovely skin when she was born, then when she was 1 week she developed some red and angry 'baby acne' which spread over her nose, cheeks and forehead. We were told this was due to my hormones in her blood. At this point we started taking B&W photos rather than colour ones

This started to clear up at about 4 weeks and then after 2 days of clear skin the skin on her forehead started to dry out and developed thick yellow scales which spread all over her scalp and across her cheeks = severe cradle-cap or seborrhoeic dermatitis.

At the same time we also noticed a small patch of dry skin on one of her knees. This then started to spread and was fairly obviously eczema.

Up until she was 3 months, the eczema was fairly mild but I think the pain and subsequent stress of the ear problem has caused this flare-up. She's probably had the ear problem for a couple of weeks but as she's so tiny when she tries to scratch her ear she manages to get the whole head involved. I'm hoping that when the ear problem resolves then the eczema will down again.

Both her paed and dermatologist told me that I didn't need to cut out dairy from my diet as I will have digested it for her but from reading around I have seen that it does benefit some babies to do so. I have switched to rice milk and I'm not eating cheese but I haven't gone the whole hog and started checking labels on packets yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it doesn't come to that!