Vaniply For Baby Eczema

The first months of your new baby’s life are going fine. He or she has amazingly soft skin. You’re using baby soaps and washing their clothes with gentle laundry detergent. But as soon as winter arrives with cold temperatures and dry air, you notice scaly, rough patches on their skin followed by broken-down spots that ooze icky stuff and develop crusty scabs.

That’s exactly what happened to us and our little guy. He was born in October, and by the end of December he had what our pediatrician called “one of the worst cases of baby eczema he had ever seen”. His once-soft infant skin was dry and scaly, with rough patches on his tummy and back. There were a couple spots, especially around his shoulder blades, that were red and oozing fluid which just irritated his skin even more and developed scabs (we later learned these are called “plaques”). He also had a rough, red chin and patches on his face for weeks during his worst breakouts.

He would cry himself to sleep because he was so itchy. When we snuggled him he would scratch his red face on our clothes by moving his head back and forth. We went to the pediatrician multiple times and tried many different solutions. We tested almost every piece of advice we got from our network of family, friends and online forums. Rinsing laundry with vinegar. Using the extra rinse feature. All-cotton clothes. Coconut oil. Two pairs of pajamas with the inside pair being slightly damp. Moisturizing soaps (like Dove bar soap and Cetaphil cleanser). A whole cupboard full of baby lotions like Aveeno, Aquaphor, Cerave and SkinFix. Increasingly powerful steroid creams ranging from over-the-counter anti-itch cream to a medium-potency cream that our pharmacist said had no guidelines for baby use. Two different antibiotics. Probiotics. Antifungal and antibacterial creams. Oatmeal baths. Bleach baths. Dermatitis shampoo. Oral antihistamines (Claritin). And finally… Vaniply.

After months our son having more or less the same symptoms we finally were able to see a pediatric dermatologist at a major regional hospital. The dermatologist took a brief look at our son and gave us two pieces of advice. First was to throw away all of his pacifiers to clear up his face eczema. And second was to slather him up with a greasy ointment once a day from head to toe. He recommended Vaniply as his favorite product, but said petroleum jelly, Aquaphor or other very greasy ointments would probably work just as well. He also explained that instead of all the steroid creams we were using, we should switch to a steroid ointment instead, because the ointment works better for the worst eczema areas. 

We got the Vaniply and a new triamcinolone ointment and applied it religiously before bedtime every single day. And his skin is mostly cleared up! Our son is now 15 months old and he does still have a few small patches where we could use steroid cream to clear them up but we don’t like to use the steroids for very long. His itchiness is well-managed and he isn’t developing any new plaques. So my advice to other parents who have baby eczema is to give Vaniply a try. On a side note, his face eczema cleared up within a couple weeks of getting rid of the pacifier and his chin doesn’t show any permanent effects.

Check out my related post Tips & Advice That Work For Baby Eczema to learn more about what worked and what didn't work for our son. Have you had an experience with Vaniply for eczema or another use? Let me know in the comments!