Our little girl was born in 2020. She started off with some dry skin patches over her tummy. That summer we noticed that she gets really red, weepy patches of skin in the folds like her knees, elbows and under her chin, in those little rolls that babies always have. I took her to the doctor and they gave us some creams. At about 7 months old we took her back to the doctors and they said she had eczema. They gave us a “lovely” little tube labelled Hydrocortisol 0.1%. This stuff was amazing. When we applied it to her skin, by the afternoon it seemed like her eczema was cured. There were a few really important things that we weren’t aware of.

No. 1 Do not apply it on the face or genital area. The doctor prescribed it to apply to her face for the eczema. Additionally she was prescribed another cortisol cream to be applied to her bottom because her her bottom seemed to have dry skin.

No. 2 Do not use it for more than 2 weeks. Unless otherwise prescribed by a physician. We weren’t warned about using the steroids for extended periods of time. Instead we were told “If the eczema flares again, apply the Cortisol (Steroid cream) to the affected area. What happens here then is that after 2 weeks the eczema is completely gone. Then she would get a viral infections or the weather would change and the eczema would return. Which in turn means that we were applying the cortisol again.

Fast forward 3 years. Our little girl is now 4. She’s been using the cortisol creams on and off again since she was 7 months old. When we request more cortisol from the doctors they would send as much as 6 tubes at a time. This practice shows that there is no concern from the doctors in the amount of cortisol we could use. As a note I would also like to add that even the Dermatologist told us to keep using the cortisol if the eczema returned.

Earlier in 2024 her eczema flared because of a viral infection she had. Her eczema was mostly concentrated at the back of her knees and in the folds of her elbows. So we again started applying the cortisol. This winter was more wet and humid than the previous year which means she had more eczema flares than the year before. By August it seemed that her eczema was actually getting worse. It was now down the length of her arm, down the side of her body, all over her thighs and on her cheeks. I had contacted a skin specialist but was waiting for an appointment. By October she was hospitalized because her skin was all red and weepy. She was prescribed stronger steroids/cortisol and antibiotics. After about tow weeks of antibiotics the eczema returned. The red skin on her arms, legs and trunk didn’t get any better either. it only got worse.

In November we managed to see the skin specialist. What we thought was extreme eczema turned out to be something else. It was in fact Topical Steroid Withdrawal. Our child’s skin had stopped making it’s own cortisol to protect itself. Her skin had become overly reliant on the topical creams. We had to start a weening process which was only the beginning of our struggle…..

Symptoms of Topical Steroid Withdrawal

Red, itchy skin. Eczema in places where your child has never had eczema before. Eczema type rashes concentrated on sides of rump, large areas on legs and arms, and neck. Eczema that looks like a red sleeve on the arms. If your child are experiencing any of these, they might have Cortisol withdrawal.