chlorine and eczma

DD has had eczma in the past but had gotten better to the point where we had graduated from QV wash to johnson and johnson without a problem. last tuesday was her first swimming lesson and then sat and sunday noticed that she had an eczma type rash on arms and face. went to the GP today who sayd it could be eczma, could be a virus just have to wait it out. prescribed sme eczma cream and said no more swimming. has anyone else experienced a flare up of eczma from being in the chlorine? she has been in pools before, but i guess the kiddy swimming pool has a stack of chlorine in it, more than a usual pool. 1) i paid for a block of lessons and 2) i want her to learn how to swim so what should i do?

Hi Holly!

I would suggest using something natural based instead of J&J just because of all the chemicals which can irritate her skin. We use Gaia and Goat soap on DS ezcema. But if J&J is working for then thats cool!

Ds has been doing swimmming for 5 weeks now and he does get a bit of a rash but it goes away as soon as he is washed off iykwim!

Maybe speak with your doctor and see what they suggest? HTH Good luck x

Honestly, I would continue with the swimming. My DS also got eczema as a baby that has improved as he has gotten older. We are also now able to ditch his special sensitive skin washes during the summer, but not winter.

He never had a flare up from the pool, but I was always religious about him and I having a shower together as soon as we got home from the pool so he would have a thorough rinse off then. (I could never be bothered carting all the paraphernalia to the pool...I would just put him in a dry nappy and a tracksuit, pull on my own tracksuit and go home and get ourselves sorted out there). Then I would moisturise him head to foot after the shower with Cetaphil lotion or Hydraderm pump pack (but we do this after every bath anyway, even now that he is 2yo).

Another little girl in the swimming class was also an eczema baby and her mum used to coat her in Cetaphil cream (the thicker stuff in the tub) before the lesson. I would imagine this made her a bit slippery to hold on to but I think her eczema was quite bad.

I would try a few more lessons, just making sure that afterwards your DD gets a thorough rinse off and you moisturise her skin with a good quality moisturiser, and see how you go. I know with my DS that as soon as we skip the moisturising for a few days his skin starts to flare up regardless of what we are using in his bath, so I'm a big believer in it.

DSS suffers with eczema he is 10 now and it is better than when he was small, we went swimming on Sat and on Sunday it was bad... some of that was our fault as i forgot to remind him to shower when in the change rooms to rinse it off.

I find that if it is washed off well (the chlorine) and a moituriser is applied (we use sorbalene) he is less likely to get a flare up.

We also find that salt water will irritate his skin as it makes it so dry, so we do the same thing after the beach.

DSS use to have moitureiser EVERY morning and night until her was about 5, not it is just in the summer months once a day and after swimming (swimming in summer is worse i find)

HTH

thanks for the advice everyone. just another quick question... if it was the pool how long do you think it would take to clear up after we stop the swimming and apply the cream? (just so i can get an idea if it is the eczma or something else?)

With MJ it would be the next day (after 2 lots of moisturiser) and over night with no chlorine on her skin - but she gets it quite mildly...
DSS it would be longer - especially as he scratches, as the more he scratches, the longer it stays...

With MJ it would be the next day (after 2 lots of moisturiser) and over night with no chlorine on her skin - but she gets it quite mildly...
DSS it would be longer - especially as he scratches, as the more he scratches, the longer it stays...