If your child has eczema, I already know you've tried an oil on their skin. Coconut oil, olive oil, maybe a bottle of vitamin E from the drugstore. You're the kind of parent who will try anything to make the itching and the redness and the rash stop... and I get it, because I was that parent too. But here's what took me way too long to learn: these oils are not interchangeable, and the way you use them matters just as much as which one you choose.

Your Child's Skin Isn't Just Wrapping Paper

Before we talk about which oils help and which ones hurt, we need to understand what we're actually putting these oils on. Skin isn't just a covering. It's a living, functioning barrier, and one of its most important jobs is keeping water inside the body and keeping unwanted things outside the body.

Eczema prone skin isn't doing that job effectively. Researchers measure this with something called transepidermal water loss, or TEWL... basically, how much water is escaping through the skin. In eczema prone skin, that water loss is much higher because the barrier is more permeable. It's not holding moisture in, and it's not keeping allergens and irritants out.

Water escapes, the skin gets drier, irritants penetrate more easily, the skin gets itchier, your child scratches, and that scratching damages the barrier even further. Round and round it goes. So when we're deciding what to put on eczema prone skin, we shouldn't just be asking "will this feel soft." We should be asking what this is actually doing to the skin barrier. Natural does not automatically mean good for eczema.

Olive Oil: The One I Intentionally Leave Out

Every product at Eczema Kids is olive oil free, and I did that on purpose. Olive oil sounds like the most innocent, natural thing in the world. We cook with it, we're told to eat more of it, people have been putting it on babies for generations. Surely it has to be good for dry skin, right?

Researchers tested this directly. In a study involving adults with and without a history of eczema, participants applied olive oil to their skin twice a day for four weeks. The result: olive oil reduced the integrity of the skin barrier and caused mild redness. Compare that to a small study on sunflower oil, which actually preserved skin barrier integrity and improved hydration.

The difference comes down to chemistry. Olive oil is very rich in oleic acid, and high concentrations of oleic acid disrupt the organization of lipids in the outermost layer of skin. So an oil can make skin feel oily in the moment while doing very little to actually support the barrier underneath. That's exactly why I don't want you grabbing whatever oil is in your pantry and assuming it's fine because it's "natural." The chemistry matters.

Coconut Oil: Not All Bad, Not A Cure-All Either

Coconut oil gets talked about constantly in natural health circles, and depending on who you ask, it either cures everything or should never touch skin. Neither is accurate. In a randomized, double blind clinical trial with 117 children with mild to moderate eczema, researchers compared virgin coconut oil to mineral oil over eight weeks. Eczema severity scores dropped about 68% in the coconut oil group, compared to about 38% in the mineral oil group (and please, never use mineral oil).

So coconut oil isn't bad. It has real antimicrobial properties that can genuinely help. But in my years of working with these kiddos, it's usually not hydrating enough for a compromised barrier. If your child naturally has oily skin, coconut oil can be great. But that's not usually who we're talking about here.

Sunflower Oil, Grapeseed Oil, and Vitamin E

Sunflower oil has a very different fatty acid profile, generally much higher in linoleic acid, which is important to the skin's lipid barrier. But not every bottle is the same. There are high linoleic and high oleic varieties, so the name on the front doesn't tell you everything. Some eczema kids do beautifully with sunflower oil, and some react poorly to it.

Grapeseed oil is lightweight, absorbs nicely, and is typically rich in linoleic acid along with antioxidant compounds. It's promising on paper, but there isn't the research behind it for eczema that exists for olive oil or coconut oil.

And then there's vitamin E oil, which is genuinely confusing. It's not squeezed from a fruit, it's a family of fat soluble compounds called tocopherols that plants make, often sourced from nuts, seeds, and plant oils. Here's the part I really want you to hear: when vitamin E is sourced for skincare products, it's usually derived from soy, a major, common allergen for the eczema community while healing. Check the source, and check what carrier oil it's blended into, because the label rarely tells you the full picture.

Why I Chose Jojoba As Our Carrier

Jojoba isn't a typical triglyceride oil. It's predominantly a liquid wax ester, which is interesting because human sebum, the natural oily substance our skin produces, also contains wax esters. Jojoba spreads beautifully, it's incredibly stable, and it makes a wonderful carrier for medicinal herbs.

That last part mattered most to me. I didn't want to create another single ingredient oil. I wanted to create a botanical delivery system, because I treat every one of our topical formulations as putting supplements directly on the skin. We need every available vehicle to carry antimicrobial and anti inflammatory properties into the tissue, so the skin can actually repopulate and rebuild its barrier function.

The Herbs Inside Our Herbal Healing Oil

Marshmallow root has an incredible history as a soothing herb, largely because of its high mucilage content. Researchers actually studied topical marshmallow in children with eczema against 1% hydrocortisone. Both groups improved, but the marshmallow group saw greater improvement in eczema severity. It was a small study, but it lines up with what so many of us already know... hydrocortisone works short term, and then we pay for it later.

Neem has a long history of traditional use for troubled skin, and modern research has identified a huge number of biologically active compounds within the plant. It's antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory, exactly what eczema prone skin needs.

Amalaki is incredibly rich in polyphenols, antioxidant compounds, and vitamin C. Chronically stressed, inflamed, dry skin needs antioxidant rich botanicals and vitamin C, which supports cellular turnover.

Manjistha, also known as madder root, has a long history in traditional herbal medicine for skin health, and it's also known as a lymph builder and blood purifier. If your child is experiencing eczema, there's almost always a component of lymph stagnation involved.

Pau d'arco rounds out the formulation. It's both anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial. Eczema prone skin tends to carry more staph colonization than average, and pau d'arco helps target that and supports a more balanced skin microbiome.

"I treat every one of our topical formulations as putting supplements on the skin."

-Andra McHugh

How I Actually Use Oil, And Why The Order Matters

This might surprise you: I put oil on before the bath, not after. Eczema prone skin is already dry and the barrier is already compromised. Bathing can be genuinely helpful, but water itself can also be irritating, whether it's city water or well water. Putting compromised, dry skin straight into a bath is one more thing it has to be protected from.

So instead, I apply a thin layer of oil first. Warm it between your hands and massage it over your child's skin, it calms their nervous system too, and it can become a genuinely beautiful routine if you let it (and some days it's just quickly rubbed on while they run through the bathroom, and that's fine too). Let it sit a few minutes while the bath runs, then a short, comfortably warm bath with Epsom salts. You're not scrubbing the oil off, just letting them soak.

When they get out, gently pat the skin dry with a 100% cotton towel and leave it slightly damp. From there, I layer. Comfort spray on the eczema spots first, that's your water based step. Let it dry, then another layer of oil. Let that absorb, then lock everything in with the soothing cream.

The principle underneath all of it is that oil and water need to work together. Oil doesn't hydrate dry skin by magically adding water to it, which is why simply pouring more oil onto parched skin isn't the full answer. Prepping the skin with oil, bathing, and then layering onto slightly damp skin is a completely different approach than "my kid's skin looks dry, let's put oil and cream on it."

FAQ

Is olive oil bad for eczema?

Research shows olive oil can reduce skin barrier integrity and cause mild redness with regular use, which is why it's excluded from every Eczema Kids product.

Is coconut oil good for eczema?

It has real antimicrobial benefits and has outperformed mineral oil in clinical trials, but it's often not hydrating enough on its own for a compromised skin barrier.

Should I put oil on before or after a bath?

Oil before the bath protects dry, compromised skin from the irritating effects of water, then a water based layer, another thin layer of oil, and a cream lock it all in while the skin is still slightly damp.

Why does vitamin E oil sometimes cause reactions?

Vitamin E oil used in skincare is usually derived from soy, a common allergen for eczema prone kids, so it's important to check the source on any product you're using.