There's no way to sugarcoat this: baby eczema is a pain in the ass. Also known as atopic dermatitis, the inflammatory skin disorder is characterized by dry, itchy, scaly patches (typically on the scalp, forehead, and face), and usually develops during a child's first year of life [1]. It affects nearly 20 percent of children and can cost families as much as 35 percent of their discretionary income [2] to help their kid cope with the disease. Yikes. On second thought, maybe "pain in the ass" is an understatement.
There are plenty of trusted treatments for baby eczema [3], but it looks like there's actually an affordable way to potentially prevent it from developing in the first place. The answer is petroleum jelly, that translucent ointment that's probably hiding in the back of your bathroom cabinets.
Back in 2014, researchers from Oregon Health & Science University found that parents cut their newborn's risk of atopic dermatitis in half [5] when they moisturized them every day for their first six months of life. A few years later, researchers at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine built on that study to determine the most cost-effective way to thwart baby eczema, seeing as it racks up quite the hefty bill over time.
They examined seven common over-the-counter moisturizing products, including Aquaphor, Aveeno, and Cetaphil, and determined that a petroleum jelly product like Vaseline is the best option to get the job done. Vaseline is not only budget-friendly, as it costs around $7 for a six-month supply, but it's also incredibly effective, acting as a "seal" to protect a baby's skin against things that may cause inflammation.
It's important to note that the research focused on babies who were already at a high risk for developing atopic dermatitis because they had a family member who was diagnosed with eczema, hay fever, or asthma (the last two of which are linked to eczema) at some point in their lives. But seeing as applying Vaseline doesn't pose any serious health issues for a baby, it's certainly worth a try to lather them up once per day, even if no one in your family has dealt with the skin disorder before.
"We're not giving them an oral drug or injecting them with a medication; there is minimal risk. We're putting Vaseline on these babies to potentially prevent a very devastating disease," said Dr. Steve Xu, the lead and corresponding study author [7]. He added, "Eczema can be devastating. Beyond the intractable itch, a higher risk of infections, and sleep problems, a child with eczema means missed time from school, missed time from work for parents, and huge out-of-pocket expenses. So if we can prevent that with a cheap moisturizer, we should be doing it."
If you're concerned that your newborn is at risk for developing atopic dermatitis, be sure to talk to your pediatrician about what plan of action may work best.