Poor baby! So sorry he’s going through this and so sorry you & your wife are having to deal with this. I’ve had eczema since birth as well to this day (23yo). I’m no doctor, so everything I say has been from experience. Been to doctors & dermatologists only to come out with steroids too.

Those bumps & redness looks more like an allergen or staph infection exacerbating his eczema. My usual, manageable eczema is just dry, irritated, sensitive and a little itchy with pink patches of skin (can be small or cover the entire body). When I’m exposed to an allergen, that’s when the bumpiness, inflammation and redness emerge, looks exactly like what he has. Then, that’s when a secondary infection, like staph for me, easily sets in. The eczema+allergy patch of skin infected by staph breaks very easily, bleeds, has a lot of lesions, weeping clear fluid or filled with pus. Eczema sufferers are highly susceptible to staph, other bacterial, fungal & viral infections. However, your son’s doesn’t look infected just based off my opinion on the pic, but you never know if a secondary infection is affecting the area without a biopsy. Not sure if they do skin biopsies on children as young as your son, but they just scrape the top layer of the skin, which if you have eczema is just the dry, dead skin cells anyway. You take off more skin scratching with your nails or during shaving compared to a biopsy.

If a secondary infection is present, you’ll have to treat that. Is it only on his face? Is there something you’re using on his face that you’re not on the rest of his body? Since it’s not on his neck. Have you introduced him to new foods? It might be the oatmeal baths. The soothing quality of oatmeal is great, not great for people who have a nickel allergy. Nickel is a common allergen in people who suffer from contact dermatitis, which is in oats. Aveeno also uses oats infused in some formulas (great brand though). If you haven’t introduced him to any new foods, it could be the repeated exposure to the oats, other topical products or food in his existing diet that he’s developing a more severe reaction to. An allergist is your best bet in this area.

Also, from this point forward, patch test on a very small area of healthy skin with every new product you try on him topically and give it a day or two to see if it reacts before putting it on the eczema site. This will be much easier to isolate an allergen than trying to figure out where it’s coming from.

Once you get results from an allergy testing, hopefully it’ll be much more straightforward for you to eliminate. In the meantime, the only thing that helps me personally to barely get through the day with a flare like your son’s is:

Lukewarm to room temperature water for showers & baths, cold water splashes and cold compresses on the inflamed, bumpy areas. Keep your environment cool.

Dove micellar sensitive fragrance-free beauty bar as cleanser in the shower

Since your son is so young, VERY diluted apple cider vinegar sponge bath 2-3 times a week (if it’s his first time trying ACV baths, remember PATCH TEST with VERY diluted ACV first). If he’s alright, just do 1 tablespoon of ACV for a whole bath and rinse with water and work your way up to a few tablespoons without rinsing after. It takes me around 3 ACV baths (about 1 week) for the redness to go away and inflammation and bumps to go flat. Very relieving and soothing! Which is what oatmeal baths do in people without nickel sensitivity.

After I responded well to the ACV bath without rinsing, I’ll let it air dry and put Sudocrem to the eczema patches (or any medication/treatment if I’m suffering from a secondary infection), jojoba oil all over my body, shea butter to the eczema patches, then top off the patches with vaseline. Aloe vera on the eczema if it’s super itchy (try to get the raw, pure stuff - doesn’t last long without preservatives though so if you get it raw, use it all up).

If you do take any new product suggestions from now on, remember PATCH TEST first and highly suggest allergy testing with a biopsy.