What kind of rash is this?

A while ago, Macy started to develop a crazy rash on her elbow. I had thought maybe it was just dry skin so I put lotion on it any chance I got. Then it got worse, and worse, and started to spread to her inner elbow and down her arm and her other elbow started to get all rashy too. I changed from using lotion to using aquaphor and it would seem to get better for a bit, then it would be all red and oozy looking. Dale and I decided that we should just take her to the doctor already, so that's what I did.

The verdict: little miss Macy has eczema.

According to Babycenter.com, About 20 percent of infants and young children have eczema. It usually starts in infancy, with 65 percent of patients developing symptoms in the first year of life and 90 percent developing symptoms before age 5. About 60 percent of cases persist into adulthood, although many babies with the condition improve by the age of 2. It also mentions that it is often inherited and my guess is it came from my family.

I have hope it won't last into adulthood for her. I want to say that at least one of us (out of my sisters and I) had it when we were little. I say this because my mom talks about how we girls had that yucky skin. At any rate, none of us are plagued by it much anymore if we did have it. My niece, Aurora, also had eczema pretty bad when she was a baby and she seemed to grow out of it.

The doctor said the most important thing for us to do is just regular maintenance. The goal is to keep moisture in the skin and to avoid irritants that could cause it to flare up or become infected. We are to use mild soap, like Dove Sensitive Skin, pat her dry, apply a "greasy" moisturizer (ie: aquaphor, eucerin) that will help trap the moisture in the skin, and dress her in natural fabrics like cotton, and depending upon which works best for us, bath her more or less. Apparently the old school doctors advice you to bathe a child with eczema less but the new school doctors say doing it more is actually better. I'll try it both ways and form my own opinion :)

Hopefully we can get a good system in place that minimizes our eczema problems. Otherwise, it's going to be a red, rashy, itchy couple of years.