Swimming with Eczema

Hi All,

As some of you may know DD has severe eczema since she was a baby. She's 16mths now and it has cleared (her face is quite clear not) but sometimes she has outbreaks which causes her to be very irritated and she continuously itches until it bleeds.

Anyway, I really really want to give DD swimming lessons but i know chlorine would trigger her eczema.

Has anyone given their eczema bubs swimming lessons and what did you do to prevent outbreaks?

I dont have a car so the beach is not an option.

THANK YOU!

What about covering her with a protective cream before she swims? We use QV kids ointment as a preventative treatment (and moogoo sometimes, but I think the QV would possibly be more suitable as a waterproof barrier) before and after baths. (DD has only been swimming a couple of times, so I don't know how effective it'd be, sorry.) GL!

DS has mild Eczema on his face and torso, which has been playing up since the start of winter ( heating zapping all of the moisture from the air).
We've had him in swimming lessons for 6 weeks now, and I have been applying cream once he has been dried off (usually moogoo). It seems to have kept it to a minimum but not prevented it. The last 2 weeks I have put on some alpha kerri lotion and it's slightly better.
Not sure if that helps though, as DS doesn't sound anywhere near as bad as your DD.
Could you ask a pharmacist??

Yeh i asked the Hospital once they said better to not go! but did suggest this barrier cream which I had to apply to her whole body. Its kinda like petroleum (which is a no no for DD) but i forgot the name of it!

I think it starts with E??

Sounds too gross to put on DD so i didnt take taht path further.

The Body Shop has a hemp cream that really works on excema - maybe the body butter over her bod before swimming would help protect?

hi my daughter had pretty bad eczema as a baby (probably wouldn't describe it as severe tho), we didn't do swimming lessons til abut a year ago (which its cleared up a lot as she's gotten older). However we are from Darwin (living down south now) and my parents live in Cairns so we are are always going up there and do a lot of swimming when we're there. I don't know if there is as much chlorine in the pools etc we swam in there as there is in an indoor pool (assuming thats where you are taking DD for lessons), but her eczema would flare up big time after a swim in chlorinated water. I never tried a barrier cream or anything, didn't think to do that! We had her 1st b'day party at a water park thing in Darwin and by the end of the day her skin was red raw from the eczema, it was heartbreaking, but worth it :cry:

Everytime we did take her swimming I'd make sure she had a shower in fresh water straight away and put her moisturising cream all over her, with the elecon (prescription cream) on the bad bits.

Personally I'd probably leave it a bit longer and hope it clears up a bit, shes got heaps of time to do swimming. You could take her yourself every couple of weeks to familiarise her with water anyway, at least it wouldn't be every week. I know kids love swimming but I found my daughters eczema was a constant source of stress for me and did e'thing I could to just keep it under control. Except in Darwin/Cairns when I couldn't bear for her to miss out when all the other kids were swimming.

Hi Mum2onesweetbun

My son has really bad eczema and has been diagnosed with a milk protein allergy. I tried that MooGoo cream but it did not work. We went to a specialist at the Gold Coast Hospital and she prescribed us a 1% cortizone cream only for the crusty areas, 3 times a day and only for 2 days at a time. I asked her about swimming lessons for him as he is turning 4 months soon and she said to put him in a rashie and swim nappy. When he gets out of the swimming pool, to wash him down and smother him in QV Bath Oil to put the moisture back into the skin. Then later after the oil had seeped in, continue with your normal moisturising routine. I guess you can also put a barrier cream on before you go into the water to give added protection.

I think the beach water might be better than the swimming pools as it is not chlorine but only salt. I guess it's also okay as long as he does not go in the sand, which would irritate the eczema quite a bit.

Hope that helps.

Thank you ladies

yup my doc said that too, the chlorine is really bad for their skin but salt water is actually soothing.

Ahh i still cannot remember that barrier cream they told me about. I will ask the pharmacist and let you guys know as well.

Thank you all!

I found this website from a Victorian Association about eczema info, treatment, foods, swimming, etc and thought it was very insightful. You might be interested in reading some of it :)

COPING WITH ECZEMA: COMMON QUESTIONS