My 5 year old daughter has very flaky and scaly fingertips and one of her toes is that way too. I brought it up at her last checkup and her doc said it was eczema and gave me Triaminicine(cortizone cream). He said it was very strong, and to use it only until it cleared up, and then if it came back he could give me a prescription for a maintenance lotion to keep it from coming back after the cortizone got rid of it again. Well, the cortizone didn't work. Her fingers looked just as bad on it as off it. So, I took her off it because I was worried about adverse affects from over-use.

The only time her skin looks better is when she's just taken a bath. I think it's because her loose skin has come off in the bath. But the next morning she's all flaky again. It doesn't bother her much, but it looks awful-it's so bad you can notice it in pictures.

Does anyone have any suggestions for OTC products? Maybe I should see a naturopathic or homeopathic doctor? I really don't want to put anything else really strong on her.

Any info would be greatly appreciated!:)

my 4 and a half month old boy has really bad eczema(weeping and bloody) at the moment, and we have tried a few creams so far, the first was diprobase, im not sure if you can get this otc i think you can, second was aqueous cream, with the later, alot of people find it makes things worse (like it did with my son) but both are moisturisers, we also use something called oilatum in the bath where it makes it all milky and helps the skin retain moisture, today we have also got oilatum gel which you have to put on wet, ive yet to use it, both are available otc. he has recently been on fudicin h, a hydrocortisone cream which cleared it up well(until we used the aqueous cream) and now he's on hydrocortisone 0.5. but we are cautious with the effects also but its so bad we have to get it under control. we asked the dr if it could be his milk making the eczema worse but he said if that was the case then the steriod cream wouldnt work, so maybe your dd has an allergy to something?

anyway sorry for waffling on and i hope this makes a little sense, im a bit dopey today haha

Thanks for the info. I've decided to try all-natural shea butter with emu oil. The emu oil helps the shea absorb into the skin. Her eczema isn't even bad enough to bother her-it just looks bad. I've been using Neutrogena Hand Cream(the heavy stuff in the little tube), and it's been helping until I get the shea in the mail.Kinda mad at my doc-he never told me that cream was a steroid cream.If I had known, I probably wouldn't have even bought it. Thanks! shynee

I have used both emu oil and now i am using virgin emu oil. It seems to work.