GPER Treatment Navigator - A Parent’s Guide to Childhood Eczema Treatment Options

Five years ago, when we first began interviewing families for our blogs, many parents felt desperate because they had so few options for treating their child’s itchy, painful, and stress-inducing eczema condition. Their stories were remarkably similar: sleepless nights, frightening flares, and frequent skin infections. Parents were desperate to help their suffering child’s eczema, but doctors had little to offer. 

GPER was formed to help parents evaluate the best eczema treatment strategies available. At that time, we provided the best options available: a battery of topical approaches such as bleach baths, wet wraps, moisturizers and steroid creams that addressed the surface of their child’s skin. 

In just a few years, families’ stories began to change! The first injectable drug for childhood eczema became available and quickly improved the lives of 70% of the kids who tried them. Their severity scores improved, they were less itchy, they were able to sleep and participate in many of the same activities as their classmates. 

Since then, breakthroughs in medical research have led to more injectables and new oral medications that address some of the underlying causes of childhood eczema. New topical creams that don’t use steroids are also coming to the market. Parents went from having almost no choices in treating their children’s eczema to having so many that it has been difficult to track and evaluate them.

Parents are eager for information as new treatments become available. They want to understand how well they work, how safe they are and how much research there is on each of them. Enter GPER’s Treatment Navigator, an online tool to help parents get a grip on the treatments that are available now and in the pipeline. 

Find the Navigator on the Eczema Treatments page, under the “Eczema Resources” tab on our website. 

On the Treatment Navigator, click on the white arrow to begin.

The following screen appears letting you select the eczema treatment you are interested in.

By clicking on one of the boxes – let’s try injectables – you’ll see all of the injectables that are available now and also those that are expected to be on the market soon.

I selected drugs available now and chose Dupixent (the first injectable on the market).

I clicked on Efficacy to get info on how effective Dupixent is in alleviating childhood eczema symptoms and measurable improvements in skin.

Mercifully, parents and doctors have many more ways to treat this life-disrupting condition. GPER’s Treatment Navigator provides reliable, research-based information that will help keep parents up to date as childhood eczema treatments evolve.