r/eczema

Been dealing w itchy face eczema, trying my absolute bandokers hardest not to use steroids, and I want to first start trying to fix my moisturizer situation. First, was using the panthenol bamboo cream thing (i forgot what it was called) before I even had any eczema on my face. Then, when I flared up, it started hurting so I switched to a different moisturizer called CeraVe Lotion (the one w ceramides) and that one was burning my face off and destroyed my skin barrier. Then I switched to the moisturizer that I use for my body which is just regular aqueous cream. This one doesnt sting at all, but leaves such a greasy layer on my face that makes it so itchy.

Is there anyone who can recommend me any good moisturizers? Preferably with no grease layer 😅

I had to hype myself up on the couch for 30 minutes just to use this dupixent auto injector. This time it was fine, but I remember one time it hurt like hell worse than any injection ive had before and I have ptsd everytime time I think about the dreaded injection. How do yall handle the pain? I do it on my thigh because I feel if I hit thw wrong place on my belly it will hurt even worse, and I dont have a lot of belly fat

When I wake up in the morning it’s like my eczema has disappeared. As soon as I apply a moisturiser, my eczema gets ‘reactivated’, the eczema patch stings and the redness starts to come back. I’ve tried multiple brands of moisturiser and ointments- same result.

The same thing happens at night when I do my night time skincare routine.

It’s like my skin looks better without any product, but moisturising is the biggest piece of advice for managing eczema so I’m not sure what to do to heal this flare up.

Plot twist it was a fungus. Sorry if this is off topic for the sub. 10 years ago i saw my doctor about it and he tried to treat it as eczema. It only got worse with treatment but he never suspected anything else. I stopped going eventually. It only gets worse and worse and draining my mental health.

Gross warning

Then i get an anal fungal infection and I instantly knew what it was because i had the exact same feeling when I had a penile fungal infection that was diagnosed by a doctor. Since the cream was non prescription I just bought the same one and treated my sorry ass. On inspection i noticed how the skin looked just like my arms and legs on what where my doc said was eczema.

Probably an irresponsible move but i was out of care and luck so i rubbed the fungal cream on the eczema just out of curiosity. It instantly healed and was completely gone within 1 week.

I told my doc about my great medical discovery but he said i was wrong and quote “you’d think any cream would feel soothing on any dry sore skin in short term”. I have a new doctor now and i haven’t had an outbreak ever since. Except small one anal fungal infection that I successfully cured by eating more garlic LOL. My doc approvees my natural medicine and agrees that eczema and fungus can be a common misdiagnose.

Do not take this as medical advice and so on. I’m an idiot for doing research with my body. Do not do this at home. But please seek secondary opinions about your diagnosis. Thank you for reading

I accidentally deleted my previous post, so reposting it here:

I didn’t change my diet for weight loss — my main reason was long-term eczema and psoriasis that started after I became a mother.

For about 10 years, I went to different dermatologists. Most of the time, I was given cortisone creams and sent home. No one really looked deeper into possible underlying causes.

Over time, my condition got worse and spread to my scalp and parts of my body. I started feeling pretty hopeless.

While researching on my own, I kept coming across the same ideas: immune system and gut health.

So in November 2025, I decided to change my eating habits.

For the first 4 months… nothing really changed. I almost gave up.

Then in February, something unexpected happened — around 80% of my scalp had cleared. Some areas on my body improved too.

I still don’t fully understand what caused the shift, but the timing feels too significant to ignore.

My 10mo old baby developed some pretty serious nummular eczema when he was 4 months. I took him to a pediatric derm, and started his treatment.

Now I, at 35, have developed eczema on my hands. It's on the top, thumb side, both hands.

Doc says it's not contagious and you're born with it. If so then how can I develop it for the first time in 35 years???

Am I crazy? Has anyone else "caught" eczema after consistently touching someone else's eczema??

Around July 2025 I tried taking BPC-157 and TB500 (peptides) to heal a couple bad muscle strains which would not get better after months of rehab and rest. I was very clean with the injections and everything was going well at first. Maybe a month in, my groin would get super itchy and I'd uncontrollably scratch it. Over time, this itch spread across my body and intensified. This prompted me to see a dermatologist.

She believed I was most likely allergic to the compounds and prescribed me triamcinolone for the eczema (biopsy came back as likely atopic dermatitis). This was a big relief and allowed me to actually sleep at night. After a while of the condition not going away, I was given tacrolimus to use as well. After 6 weeks of the same thing, I was given my first shot of Dupixent. I've now been on Dupixent for 2 months. Since my derm wanted to evaluate the effectiveness of dupixent, I stopped using triamcinolone and tacrolimus.

The itch isn't too horrible (most of the time), but my skin is getting worse without the topicals. Im covered in red spots, cracks, and rashes from head to toe. I know Dupixent gets evaluated at 16 weeks for effectiveness, but I'm just so hopeless. My eczema was completely dormant for the first 20 years of my life and I can't imagine living an entire life suffering like this 24/7. I'm a very fortunate man and I'm so grateful for that but I just can't enjoy my life at all. I often wonder if this is ever going to get better. If not, I think i'd be better off not here anymore (though I could never do it myself).

I'm itchy and extremely uncomfortable from the second I wake up til the moment I fall asleep. In fact, I'm even itchy during my sleep, and while I don't consciously perceive it, I know through my apple watch that I wake up 15+ times every night, presumably to scratch.

I have no desire to put energy or effort into anything. I text my close friends a couple times a day, but other than that, I have nothing to put into relationships, school, or work. I go to the gym still because I love it so much but my intensity is absolutely nowhere to be found these past few weeks. Everyday I do just the minimum to take care of myself and get through the day.

In the end, I just pray to be normal again. Taking those peptides was the worst decision of my life and I regret it so much. Hindsight is 20/20, but man I wish I knew better back then. On the positive side, if I ever get through this, I'll appreciate life so much more.

Some extra details- I immediately stopped using the peptides when I started getting itchy. I unfortunately never had them tested for impurities before using them. I've tried different diets, supplements, soaps, etc.

My 4 year old has mild-moderate eczema. Her flares really ramp up this time of year (Pollen, grass, sun, heat all seem to contribute). Since going from day care to elementary (PK3) she doesn’t get as much support from the teachers for behavioral management (e.g. throughly washing off irritants, applying non-medicated creams and sunscreen, discouraging scratching, directing her away from triggers) and I am trying to coach her on strategies to do these things that are age appropriate. It’s a work in progress to say the least.

She’s already learned how to explain “I have eczema” (“eggs-ma”) when asked about the rashes. (There was a big freak out at school over her “ringworm” that literally brought me to tears.)

I’m satisfied with our current skin routine and medication for the time being, but I really want to know what things helped you (or DIDN’T help) as a kid manage the symptoms and things that really helped to learn/hear.

hi there, just looking for advice as i have had eczema (?) around my mouth for probably the last two months now and it’s driving me insane.

it started off as sore corners of the mouth that were dry and bleeding so i bought clotrimazole for the area, thinking it was angular cheilitis.

it then basically turned my whole mouth area itchy and red and sore, i’m not sure if i had an allergic reaction to the clotrimazole or if maybe it was just always eczema and the cream flared it up. either way two months later i am still suffering and nothing seems to help! i’ve tried zero therapy, changing to a fluoride free toothpaste, just using vaseline etc. i am reluctant to use hydrocortisone because i am quite eczema prone and i don’t want to worsen the process.

i’ve started using “Thunderbird Skin” rescue balm but i haven’t seen results - it’s been 3 days of continuous use (i am wanting to keep using this as it feels soothing at least).

i’ve also started using LRP Cicaplast B5 + Baum, and i think it may be making it worse??? i had my hopes set on this as i’ve heard wonderful things but i think the area is getting redder?

i have no idea where to even begin with trying to figure out if it’s allergies or dietary etc, and i’m just looking for any advice / success stories really!

sorry for such a long post !

Hiya, I’m currently taking multiple creams/ointment’s and a few supplements for my eczema but I still repeatedly get scars and huge dry patches of skin, kinda feeling a bit sad and down about it so I’m wondering if anyone has some good advice I might not know!

Thanks :)

I have a follow up appointment soon, I'm kind of scared of injecting myself and from the stories I hear it's painful. I feel like I wouldn't be able to inject myself I prefer someone else to do it for me mainly because I can't see myself putting a needle in my leg or anything, I'm only used to it being done by a nurse for blood tests and things.

Also, how can I reduce the pain? Did you experience any side effects? If you were to give a percentage, how much has it cleared your eczema? I'm switching from an immunosuppressant so I'm expecting to have a flare up in between until dupixent starts working (although I'm currently going through a mini flare right now)

With the removal of the Dupixent debit card and the copay card reduced to $200, I had to pay $4k for one Dupixent shot.

I had it charged 100% to my card without the copay card being used. I submitted the information for reimbursement to patient rebate online and they are only reimbursing me for $200- even though my copay card was not run. The $4k was applied to my deductible but I was expecting a full reimbursement. I was told this is because I am on a maximizer plan.

What do I do?!?

This whole thing is so messed up.

my dermatologist asks me, before looking at my skin, "what's your shower water situation"

i just stared at her. she showed me this chart. chlorine and chloramine become steam straight into your face. 8 minutes every morning. dont worry, your derm will definitely mention this at appointment three.

went home. fell into a TDS spiral. 2 hours. 420 ppm. didnt know that number applied to me.

spent $260 on skincare this year. cerave, a $44 peptide serum, ceramides that couldnt save me. my face has been marinating in chloramine steam this entire time??

is there a shower filter worth it or are they mostly useless. also if anyone else survived this id love to know im not the only one

Hi, everyone. I just wanted to share something that I think helped with my eczema. I started tracking my macronutrients about three weeks ago. Long story short, I have seen big improvements in my eczema when I started eating at least the recommended daily protein intake (0.8 gram per kilogram of body weight). I actually tried to hit 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, because I have chronic open wounds from eczema, and, from my understanding, people who have chronic open wounds need to eat more protein to help their bodies heal and support their immune system.

Sidenote: I also started taking multivitamins around the same time.

Let me know if you guys have the same experience with this. I would really like to know! :)

I’ve had eczema since i was younger but went years without huge issues, maybe a few flares on my wrists and neck but nothing big. Last september I started uni and might have overdone it with freshers because I had the worst flare up of my life, all over my upper body. my skin was wrecked. I was prescribed topical steroids and they worked for a week but stopped after that.

I went on to try every single home treatment under the sun including diet changes, red light therapy, no moisture treatment, allergen tests etc. At this time i was put on a derm waitlist for 2 years so i gave up hope with the doctors. Over time it never changed and looked the same, i felt so insecure and never wanted to leave the house, my eyebrows even started falling out because of eczema on my face.

Now last week I went to a gp in my uni town, mainly because i had issues sleeping because of the itching at night, and was prescribed protopic (which my old gp never mentioned). I obviously knew about the dangers as i had watched tiktok after tiktok about withdrawal, but at this point i was desperate and just wanted to give it a try as i thought it couldn’t get any worse.

A week in and my skin has slowly started changing. My face is almost clear and i’ve had people even compliment my skin. my hands and arms are slowly healing but i think it will take longer as they’ve taken a lot of damage. the burning and stinging as side effects is almost nothing to the pain i felt during a flare so as long as i leave some time before i sleep to let the burning reside, i can sleep peacefully and not scratch anymore.

Sorry for the long post but if anyone is scared of trying protopic as a treatment, i’d say just go for it! i dont know about the long term effects yet as im less than a week in, but at the least its helped my mental health and confidence lots. good luck to everyone!

I just want to share my experience with rinvoq. I have had eczema since i was 3 and i am 28 right now.

I started rinvoq back in 2022 with a 15mg dose. It cleared up my skin for about 6 months and then i started getting small flares.

In 2025 i increased my dose to 30mg. I noticed a slight improvement but my flares were still there. I have now decided to stop rinvoq (april 2026) and it’s been 5 days.

The reason why i am stopping is because i have gained 20 pounds, it has increased my cholesterol levels, i get sick very often, it’s hard to build muscle even though i train frequently, it’s lost efficacy, and i have now decided to treat my eczema by focusing on my gut health and a whole food diet.

The rebound effect is HELL. Ever since i stopped rinvoq my skin has become worse than what it was when i first started rinvoq. I am oozing, flaring, shivering, and experiencing zingers all over my body. I have insomnia and have been sleeping 30 mins a day for the last 4 days.

If you are reading this, i strongly advise you not to use rinvoq. If you have eczema, i suggest you do your research on gut health and diet. A lot of people have cleared their skin by eating clean and i am hoping i will be one of those people soon.

I wanted to share how I recovered from whole body eczema, without spending a crazy amount of money.

There are other posts on here that detail treating eczema as a staph colonization, this is when I had my “huh” moment. I’ve always had eczema but the past few years it spread all over my body, and this is what made me think it was more than an allergen (of which I tried to remove everything).

For details, most of my eczema were dry scaly patches of which never retained moisture and were always irritated. Topical steroids were only slightly helpful for maybe a few days. I only used Vanicream lotion and cream as a moisturizer.

So out of desperation I tried a bleach bath, and miraculously I felt better. After a few days it came back, but another bleach bath helped again. Although the itch went away for a few days the dry scaly patches were still persistent.

So this lead me to amlactin, specifically the 15% cream that comes in a jar that can be found on AMZN.

Amlactin does 3 things

1.) exfoliates dry patches

2.) is a humectant which draws water into skin

3.) makes the skin acidic which prevents staph colonization

I started using twice daily after showers to draw the water into skin my skin with twice weekly beach baths. After 2.5 weeks my patches are gone, I don’t use bleach baths and I only use amlactin once daily.

The results have been amazing. I cannot praise this enough. I hope this helps.

Hello! Does anyone else also get eczema reactions when wearing most lip products? I always get very dry flakey and red lips afterwards so I made my own tinted lip balms for my capstone project for school! I would like any suggestions or advice! Where should I sell these, is anyone interested?