Six months of trying things: what we learned about our daughter’s skin

Last winter was the worst of it. She was seven months old and the skin behind her knees would go from fine to raw in about two days, and then take three weeks to settle.

Everyone had advice. My mother said oil. My neighbour said stop bathing her daily. A chemist told me to buy a cream that turned out to have a steroid in it, which I only found out later when I asked our paediatrician about it.

What actually changed things was boring

We started moisturising within a couple of minutes of the bath instead of after her feed. And we switched from the family soap to something meant for babies. That was it.

It took about ten days before I noticed, and another month before I trusted it.

If you are in the middle of it and everything feels like it is failing, the thing that helped us was doing less, more consistently.

What I would say to someone in the same place

I am not saying this is what will work for anyone else. Our paediatrician still sees her every few months and I would not have got through that winter without her.

But I spent a lot of money on things I did not need, and a lot of nights reading forums at 2am. The thing that helped was smaller than any of it.