“Her face was full of patches as if she’d had boiling water poured over her.”
This is how Irish mum Joanne Nevin described her daughter Kelisha when she was suffering from eczema.
She first notices patches on her baby’s skin when she was just three months old.
Baby Kelisha suffered from painful eczema“It was just a big scab. She was always scratching and uncomfortable,” she says.
For months she tried everything she could think of to relieve her daughter's condition, which left strangers staring at her in public.
Watch a video of Joanne and Kelisha's story below
The 28-year-old mum, who is now expecting her fourth child, says she was even scared to leave the house over fears of what people would say.
“I was in a lift one day and someone asked me what the mark was on my baby’s face. I couldn’t believe it,” she said.
“The lift doors opened and I wished I’d said more. That is the only time someone has commented, but a lot of people would look at her funny. I felt like they were judging me,” she added.
Joanne Nevin and her familyWhen the eczema spread to Kelisha’s face and head, doctors prescribed steroid creams, but these failed to give any permanent relief and left her baby’s skin weeping and bloody.
“When Kelisha was three months old I noticed tiny patches of eczema on her elbows and back of her legs. My doctor thought it was a milk allergy,” she said.
“By the time Kelisha was six months old she had been in and out of the doctors and appointments with a paediatrician.
“She was given prescription steroids and emollients, they all worked temporarily but after a couple of weeks the symptoms would come back.”
Doctors said the painful skin condition was the result of a milk allergyWith her confidence at an all-time low Joanne, who is from Ballynahinch in Co. Down, turned to the internet in search of a cure.
She says she read an article about Childs Farm online and bought the company’s £4.50 Baby Moisturiser last summer.
She followed this with the brand’s bubble bath and claims her daughter’s eczema cleared up four weeks later.
Kelisha no longer suffers from eczema“Kelisha was like a different baby,” she says. “She was more settled and happy because she wasn’t as itchy and agitated.
“When her skin was bad I could only dress her in baby grows, everything else was uncomfortable, so it was such a brilliant feeling just being able to dress her in normal clothes.”
To date Kelisha’s eczema has not returned.
“Kelisha’s skin is completely clear now. I am just over the moon to have such a happy baby back again,” Joanne said.
Watch Joanne and Kelisha's story here...
What the doctor says:
Dr Jennifer Crawley is Childs Farm’s consultant dermatologist.
She says: “Eczema can be an incredibly upsetting condition for parents and children. It’s a condition that comes and goes, with good days and bad days, making it all the more frustrating, particularly in little ones.
“With conditions like eczema, regularly moisturising is crucial. The condition dries out the skin, causing it to crack and become painful; a gentle moisturiser soothes and hydrates the irritated skin and allows it to heal.
“In severe cases like Kelisha’s, moisturiser should be applied numerous times throughout the day.”
