Nathan suffered badly with eczema when he was a baby and gets flare ups from time to time. I was very lucky that with the help of allergy testing I was able to pin point the trigger foods and do a six month elimination diet to try and help him. After cutting out the suspect food from his diet, within a week or so you could see a vast improvement in his skin and we were winning the battle at last. After six months we slowly started introducing things one by one back to his system. If there was no reaction after a couple of days, we would try something else. If there was a bout of scratching we would know what it was and get rid of that again for another six months and try again later on.
Nathan's eczema was caused by an allergy to foods in the nightshade family - tomatoes, strawberries, blackcurrants blackberries, raspberries, red skinned potatoes, red peppers, paprika - anything with a red pigment in it. Go to a restaurant and look at kids menu, how many dishes can you spot which have not got any of the above in them? Not many. Some of those dishes you might have picked actually have hidden herbs and spices in - fish fingers have paprika in the crumb, chicken nuggets have it in the batter. Most things like pasta dishes have a tomato sauce base - birthday cake has jam in it! You can't get away from it and it is very hard to get it out of your cooking as it is in so many things. We had a good nine months of struggling with foods, lots of cream sauces in cooking, but a happy - itchy, scratchy free boy which was a good thing.
Every now and again Nath has a flair up and when I heard about some new products coming onto the market for eczema and sensitive skin I knew I had to try them. Kenny also has sensitive skin and cannot use most shower gels or bubble baths due to an intolerance to a certain chemical which is found in most products.
I was sent a selection of products by Cetaphil for testing and over the last couple of weeks we have tried them all out as a family. Out of the five samples which they sent I have not found one that I did not like.
We were sent the following;
Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser - £8.99RRP - 236ml bottle, I do not normal use toners or cleansers on my face as I have found previous ones to leave my skin feeling tinglly and taught afterwards. Something I do not really like. I have however fallen in love with this product for removing make up and dirt off my face in the evening. Applying with cotton wool and wiping off dirt and build up on my face, I have found my skin to be a lot softer over the last couple of weeks. A bottle this size will last me ages but it can be used all over your body as a cleanser and moisturiser too.
Cetaphil Moisturising Lotion - £8.99RRP - 236ml bottle. I have been using this as a daily cream for Nathan after his bath. He likes it as it does not feel sticky on his skin like other creams do. There is no distinctive sent to any of the products and it does not feel greasy on the skin either.
Cetaphil Moisturising Cream - £9.99RRP - 100g tube. This has been a god send for those areas which get dry and itchy most. Nathan suffers mostly around his wrists and backs of his knees but I have found that it greatly improves after only a few applications of this. We would be forever using creams on him and waiting a week or so for such an improvement. It really is an intensive moisturiser. Not greasy and is quite thick - a little goes a long way. It is a great size for your handbag/nappy bag to use on the go. Nathan can also handle the tube to dispense and rub the cream on himself.
Cetaphil Moisturising Body Wash - £15.99RRP 295ml bottle. This one was for Kenny due to his shower gel allergy. He was very happy after using this as he did not get any irritations like he normally would using a shower gel as he normally has to use bars of soap. He found a little of the product gave plenty of suds to wash with and was surprised that his skin felt different even after one use.
Cetaphil Restoraderm Skin Restoring Moisturiser - £19.99rrp 295ml pump bottle. Wow, this one is amazing. Kenny had a dermatitis reaction to some latex gloves recently and this was our life saver. This cream took the itch out of the inflammation almost instantly and left his skin feeling much better.
Over all these new products are a great addition to a household if you have people suffering with eczema and dermatitis. The RRP is quite high on these products, but for quality products which show a result you will need to pay extra for them. The packaging is simple and distinctive but does have a more clinical feel to it unlike some market products. I would recommend that if you do suffer yourself or have someone in your family who suffers from eczema that you try these products out as well as the standard prescription products such as DoubleBase or Dripobase.
I would like to say thank you to Cetaphil and also to Arran and Claire at Red Door Comms for giving me the opportunity to review these products.
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