O'Baby Love: Us vs. Eczema

The battle continues.

Poor Little Camy has been suffering from eczema since about 2 months old.
At first, simply switching her bath wash was enough to keep it mostly at bay.
Well, that only lasted a little while, so our next defense was to try to bathe less often per the advice of our Pedi's Nurse.
All that did was take away our fail-safe nighttime calming ritual.
We went back to bathing nightly, and started moisturizing 'round the clock. We would slather that girl in lotion the minute she came out of the tub, when she woke up in the morning, at nearly every diaper change... she felt like a greased pig all day long.
That helped some, but not enough.
We tried all sorts of stuff - Aveeno Oatmeal Baths, Aveeno with 1% Hydrocortisone on the bad patches, Creamy Vaseline, real Vaseline on her face, Cetaphil Lotion, Cetaphil Cream, Eucerin Cream, Calendula Cream.. nothing was really helping.
We already used an all-natural, fragrance free detergent. Nobody in this house wears perfumes, colognes, perfumed lotions, anything.
At this point our Pedi prescribed a steroid cream that we were told to use twice daily for up to 5 days, then to give her a few days rest before trying again.
Didn't help.
Then her cheeks got so bad that they were cracked and bleeding. She was waking up with scabs on her face and blood stains on her sheets.
This was not okay. I was frustrated that we had tried so many different things that weren't helping, and frustrated that her Pedi wasn't helping more.
I called our Pedi's Nurse Line to ask for a Dermatologist referral, and they said they wanted to try one more thing before referring us to a specialist. We were told to use Neosporin on her face throughout the day to help the cracked cheeks heal and to call in 4 days if it hadn't improved. She suggested keeping it at the changing table so we'd remember to apply it during diaper changes.
We went a bought a tube of Neosporin and for the rest of that day and the next morning applied it at every diaper change. Then I read the tube that said not to be used more than 3-4 times a day. WHAT?!
I flipped and called my mom upset... because A was at work and I had to whine/vent/freak out to someone.
At my mom's suggestion, we made an appointment with a Dermatologist for the very next day.. and I am so glad we did!
We brought the steroid cream with us, and were surprised to hear her say "Wow! That's rather strong for an infant.. especially for facial treatment."
Great.
Then when we got to the part about the Neosporin, we were shocked again to hear her express disappointment in that recommendation and advised us to not use that on her face ever again. Not for eczema.
Great.
We walked out of there with 4 prescriptions (well, 2 were OTC rec's for body wash and moisturizer), lots of info, and a new plan for solid foods.
After choking at the total cost at CVS, I am thrilled to say that $241 dollars later, Camy's face (and body) is already looking MUCH MUCH better.
We now bathe her with CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser, moisturize with CeraVe Cream, and we have one steroid ointment for her face and a different steroid cream for her body.
As for solids, we are having to start over.
We have been following our Pedi's 3 day rule for allergy observation with new foods, but apparently that's not good enough for kiddos with severe eczema. While we have not seen any true allergic reactions with any of her new foods, 3 days doesn't really give us enough time to observe the more mild reactions, like eczema flare ups. So we are starting over and only giving her one food at a time, for a week at a time (not counting cereal). So this week is oatmeal and applesauce.
Its hard to say, though, if her skin improvement is due to the aggressive medical treatment, or eliminating a certain food. I guess we'll see as time goes on and we reintroduce foods to her.

To show some of the improvement, here's a photo from one of her worse days:

Notice the redness, the bleeding..