How can I prevent eczema flare-ups?

How can I prevent eczema flare-ups?

Rebecca Fitzgerald (Dermatologist) gives expert video advice on: How can I prevent eczema flare-ups?

How you can prevent these flare-ups is a very important question, because it is easier to keep you from getting eczema than it is to get rid of the eczema flares. And in some patients with very severe eczema that flares constantly, they tend to get secondary infections and they itch so much that they could win the lottery and not even care. So it's very, very important to know that there are some very, very simply steps that you can use to keep that from happening, in particular, keeping your skin from being dry. What makes skin dry is loss of water, not lack of oil. But oil is what holds water in the skin, so anything that takes oil off the skin is not the friend of a patient with eczema. So, hot water and soap aren't really doing you that much good. I wouldn't live without hot water, I wouldn't expect you to live without hot water, but if you can shorten your bath or you shower and limit your soap use to those areas where you really have to soap up every day, that will go, that will help a lot. In addition, as soon as you dry off and your skin is still really damp, literally the minute that towel hits the rack, that's the time to put cream or lotion on. It's probably a good idea to use a cream or lotion without a smell or a color, as fragrances and dyes can really set off the skin of patients with eczema.