For starters, the AAP recommends bathing your child every two or three days with a gentle cleanser, then patting the skin dry but leaving it slightly damp and applying a moisturizer right away. Parents should also monitor the condition and be alert to flare-ups, since kids with eczema are more prone to staph infections. When children scratch the affected areas they can break the skin, which increases the possibility of infection.
Nanette Silverberg, MD, a dermatologist at New York City’s Kravis Children’s Hospital at Mount Sinai, told CBS News that moisturizers are sometimes enough to keep skin healthy, but that she will typically prescribe a steroid cream for use when her patients have a flare-up. Dr. Silverberg says that this treatment is safe for children and that “steroid creams have certainly not been associated with major side effects.”
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