Bath time for our baby with eczema was different than I imagined. It wasn’t peaceful or calming. The dreaded eczema itching was awful. Many nights it was messy, overwhelming, and full of tears for both of us. So when we had our second baby, who also suffered from eczema, we had a head start on preventing the severe eczema outbreaks we experienced with Liv. Through trial and error, we learned these 8 tips to bathe a baby with eczema and stop itching.
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How often should you bathe a baby with eczema?
There’s no set rule about how often to bathe a baby with eczema, but the general recommendation is less is best. Sleep experts suggest incorporating a bath as part of a baby’s bedtime routine because it can be calming. But some babies find bath time stimulating and it has the opposite effect. For babies with eczema, baths can either be soothing, or downright painful. They either temporarily alleviate itchy broken skin. Or, they cause eczema to flare up, resulting in red blotches.
You can choose whatever frequency works for your family, or your sanity. We’ve found that three times a week works for our babies. Regardless of frequency, when bathing a baby with eczema, some small modifications can really increase a baby’s comfort and stop itching.
Bathing Tips for a Baby with Eczema
What to do before, during, and after a bath to stop itching and improve your baby’s comfort
Before bath: Getting ready to bathe your baby with eczema
1. Get your supplies ready.
Baths are the prime time for additional scratching, causing damage to your baby’s already fragile skin because they’re naked! You’ll want to minimize the scratching as much as possible, so make sure everything you need is within arm’s reach. This includes:
- an extra set of hands (bathing a baby with eczema is a team activity)
- nail clippers and file
- a washcloth or two
- a towel for swaddling (if your baby still uses a baby bath) or toys to occupy your baby
- microbiome-friendly wash
- bath thermometer
- bleach
- a towel for drying
- diaper
- prescription ointment or hydrocortisone cream
- CeraVe or other cream
- Vaseline
- wet wrap garments or gauze
- 100% cotton zipper jammies
2. Trim and file your baby’s nails.
Baby nails grow so quickly! Daily trimming helps keep sharp edges to a minimum. You can trim your baby’s nails either before or after bath. Cutting them before bath helps more easily remove dirt and bacteria from the day stuck under the surface. But nails are softer after a bath. For fussier babies, it’s easier to cut them when they’re nursing, sleepy, or asleep. In any case, try to cut or file them daily.
Related Post: What You Must Know about Dairy Elimination While Breastfeeding
3. Set the water temperature to lukewarm and keep bath time short.
It is not uncommon for eczema to get redder during or immediately following bath time. But to minimize discomfort use lukewarm water (water that is body temperature at 98 degrees). One way to safely monitor the water temperature is to use a bath thermometer. For a baby with eczema, you’ll also want to keep bath time short, ideally 10 minutes. I would set a timer on my phone.
4. Lose the milk baths, and reach for bleach.
Baths with breastmilk are gaining popularity, but for a baby with eczema, an indicator of potential allergies, a milk bath can exacerbate eczema. Instead, our pediatric allergist and pediatrician both encouraged bleach baths to help prevent bacterial skin infections, which require antibiotics. The bleach is diluted enough that it’s as though your baby is swimming in a chlorinated pool. Put into perspective by our allergist, bleach baths are better than STAPH infections that require antibiotics. (Antibiotics too often can lead to resistance or other gut issues).
The American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology recommends adding ¼ – ½ cup of common 5% household bleach to a bathtub full of water (which is about 40 gallons), and to limit bleach baths to 10 minutes. Check with your pediatrician that this approach is right for your baby before trying. The one downside to bleach baths is they can dry out your baby’s skin. So it’s important to avoid bathing too frequently (no more than twice a week) and have a consistent post-bath routine that will rehydrate your little one’s skin.
During Bath: How to prevent scratching
5. Try a swaddle bath.
For infant babies with eczema that still use a baby bath, a swaddle bath is one way you can keep their hands contained and prevent more scratching. It also helps keep them warm. Wrap your baby loosely in a swaddle blanket or a baby towel before putting them in the bath. Then expose each limb one by one as you need to wash.
To help prevent scratching, you can wrap the blanket around their arms (down by their sides) and then tuck the ends behind their back. This helps secure their arms in place. Then, fold the bottom of the blanket up so it covers their feet and belly. For older babies that squirm, keep their hands occupied with toys.
6. Use a gentle, microbiome-friendly soap, or no soap at all.
When you bathe a baby with eczema, avoid bubble baths and harsh soaps or soaps with fragrances that can sting or irritate their skin more. Fragrances are made from chemicals known to be extremely irritating to our skin such as SLS, formaldehyde, and parabens. Often, these chemicals are masked on ingredient labels under the general “fragrance” term so it’s hard to know which ingredients are in which products.
Babies can get away with not using soap at all. You can use a super soft microfiber washcloth instead. Dense microfiber gently scrubs away dead skin cells which trap odor-causing bacteria. They work especially well for getting the stinky cheese buildup out of baby rolls. Or, you can stretch out the time between soap applications. Use a fragrance-free, microbiome-friendly soap every other bath.
After Bath: Rehydrating, Repairing, and Preventing Further Damage
After bathing your eczema baby, there are things you can do to rehydrate your baby’s skin and give it the best opportunity to heal and prevent further damage.
You may notice when your baby first gets out of the bath and their skin is at its itchiest, it is the time you need all hands on deck to prevent additional skin damage. If you can, make the post-bath routine a team effort. It’ll go much smoother.
7. Spot treat, then lather. Or pat dry, then lather.
When my hubs is working and I bathe the kiddos solo, before they even get out of the tub I lather them with cream. (Yup, while they’re still wet!) Then I wrap them with a towel so I have a better grip on their slippery selves and pat them dry. This method is a lot easier for a baby that can sit on their own in the tub. For babies still in a baby bath, it’s best to avoid the slipping hazard by patting dry first and lathering them within three minutes of getting out of the tub.
First, spot treat with a steroid, hydrocortisone cream, or other prescription regimen depending on how severe the current flare-up is. Then use an allergist-recommended, skin-healing product such as CeraVe Moisturizing Cream, Vanicream, or Eucerin Baby Eczema Cream. Aquaphor also is commonly recommended but it did not work for us. Also, if your baby has a soy allergy, avoid Aquaphor because the glycerin is derived from soy. We’ve had the best luck using CeraVe. Then we apply Vaseline over top of the cream to lock in the moisture.
PRO TIP: These treatments are pricey. Ask your doctor or allergist to write a prescription for over-the-counter products to submit to health insurance for reimbursement.
8. Add wet wrapping to your baby’s bath time eczema care routine.
Wet wrapping is another way to rehydrate your baby’s skin. For this part, it’s helpful to have an extra set of hands. While the cream and Vaseline sit for a few minutes, soak cotton clothing meant for wet wrapping (such as this, or we use this gauze for localized wet wrapping) in lukewarm water. Wring it out so it’s damp, but not dripping. Then, wrap the gauze around your baby’s skin or dress them in wet-wrap clothing.
Next, dress them in dry jammies that are 100% cotton (or bamboo works well, too) over top of the wet wrap clothing or gauze. Through trial and error, we’ve found that zipper pajamas are the easiest to manage. Leave the wet wrap on for a couple of hours or overnight.
If you need convincing that wet wrapping is worth trying, the National Eczema Association estimates wet wrap therapy reduces eczema symptoms in more than 70% of kids who try it. But we’ve done it several times on our daughter’s head and on her ankles when the cracks used to split open. By morning her skin was soft and clear. I was shocked!
I hope you find these bathtime tips for your baby with eczema helpful. You can read more about our journey with eczema in this post. Please comment below if these tips have helped, or if you’ve found something else that works for your baby!
