Itchy baby

HELP!!! My 4 month old baby has extremely itchy scalp and skin. She constantly needs to scratch and it's making her very annoyed. She can't breastfeed and sleep properly because she is always so itchy.


We have tried Aqueuous cream, Hydrocortesene cream, Calamine Lotion and bathing her in Oilatum Oil. Nothing is working.


Any ideas? Any advice or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

there are several great posts about itchy baby (is it eczema by the way?) on here...search for eczema - posts by Katetam and Mummybee and MAcaron Mania are very detailed and offer tons of advice. Neem oil and neem tea are also on the list of things that are good.

Best to get her to a paediatric derma who can perform an allergy test. My son had the same condition when he was 5 months old. Turns out it was Eczema (resulting from allergies to different food and other environmental elements)

My baby has eczema but doesn't seem to bother her (i.e.not itchy). We tried NEEM oil which she didn't really react well (became redder) but coconut oil worked OK. We used steroid under doctor's prescription for 5 days, and it came back all over again when we stopped it. We used steroid again this time reducing the amount and frequency of steroid to put on her day by day. Other than that, we tried the following:

1)use filtered water for bathing

2)limit the time of bath (upto 5 min) as bath will take away moisture and oil in her skin

3)put coconut oil in the bath

4)use only mildly warm water (not hot) about 38degree

5)put QV cream while the skin is still dump after bath

7)put vaselin on top of the cream around her chin which is the worst part

8)use a dump handkerchief soaked in coconut oil water to wipe her face after feeds/drooling instead of a dry handkerchief. Quickly put a lotion which I made with distiled water with glycerine followed by QV cream followed by Vaceline (vacelin worked quite well to seal the moisture around her chin which was very thin and scaling after using the steroid cream).

9)use only cotton clothes, avoid wool or any thinthetic clothes

10)put a musline cloth behind her neck when she goes to bed and take it off when she is asleep (since she seems to sweat when she falls asleep and sweat is bad for eczema). The new baby shop in Central (ex Lane Crawford) sells a muslin cloth that is designed specifically for this purpose made in Japan).


I ordered a powder vitamin C from Japan and am going to use it to neutralize the chroline in water. My friend who had very bad eczema babies told me it worked wonder. She has a shower head that has vitamin C in it and minus ion function which works to reduce the chroline and she took it to school after the kids swam in the pool.


My baby's eczema seems to be under control at the moment but I am still not convinced that it is not coming back. I will keep on doing things that is said to be good for eczema and will keep you posted on the results! I hope your baby does not have eczema... If it is just an infuntile skin condition, it will just go away. I feel for you because it is heart breaking to see baby being so uncomfortable...

vagabond, get your baby to a paed. allergist/dermatologist as soon as you can to get it properly diagnosed so you get a peace of mind. I feel for you and your baby. I have a child with severe (food) allergies so I totally udnerstand how horrible it is to see your child suffer from the constant scratching, especially at night. I used to - and still does sometimes - scratch for my daughter every single night or she wouldn't be able to fall asleep.


My allergist is in Australia but others in this forum seems to have good experience with Dr. Adrian Wu, in Princes Building, Central (28180180). A friend of mine brought her bub there recently and said he was very knowledgeable and detailed. One advice I have in the event if the booking schedule is very full (they typically are) is to let the receptionist know your case is desperate ie 4 month old scratching and crying all the time - so you can get the "last minute" slots.


If it turns out to be eczema, there are many management regimes, though there is no cure or miracle cream. Do run a search on past posts. And please come back onto this forum again after a proper diagnosis so that we can all advice you accordingly. Lets hope it is something minor...

Thanks everyone for all your valuable advice & information. I've taken bubs to see our paed yesterday & he wasn't too helpful. There is no miracle cream or solution to stop the eczema. I guess that was what I has hoping for. I got a referral to see a derma - Dr. Ronald Leung in Tak Shing House. Has anyone heard of him? I've booked an appointment for next week & see what the derma has to say. Will keep you all posted.