To hear or not to hear that is the question? Dealing with eczema in your ears is one of the more annoying things for us eczema sufferers. The constant itching, scaly skin, and overall redness and irritation become overrated, wouldn’t you agree? The eczema were dealing with in this case is known as Seborrheic Dermatitis which you can find out more about in this article. Seborrheic Dermatitis is just a fancy medical term for dandruff or flaky skin.

Eczema in the ears can certainly cause hearing loss. In most cases, this is just temporary and many people have maintained it with consistent treatment. If you are thinking to yourself, Will I ever get rid of eczema in my ears? Don’t worry yourself that much because I’m here to provide effective information and treatment tips that anyone can benefit from.

The Cause of Eczema in and Behind the Ears

The cause of Seborrheic Dermatitis in and behind the ears is due to overgrowth of yeast on your skin. Yeast-like fungi called Candida cause infection, which in return gives us red, itchy, and very scaly skin. This has been found out to be the main reason behind eczema in the ears, but there are definitely other factors that can make things worse.

Eczema in the Winter

Eczema can get REALLY bad in the winter months. I’m talking straight from experience and I know many people reading this would agree. In the winter I always sense my skin getting extremely dry and just getting a very brittle like texture. I’m constantly using twice as much lotion or cream than I would be using in the summer months and have noticed far more cracks on my hands and feet. Crust build up and flaky skin in the ears is drastic during these months and you find yourself picking and scraping at your ears way more; potentially causing yet more infection.

Keeping warm during these months is essential and I’d bet your skin isn’t willing to argue with that.

Bathe or Washing Frequently

You should already be taking baths or showers daily to keep yourself clean. This section pertains more to making sure you wash the area where eczema is flaring up and causing rashes, itchiness, or just overall redness. The truth is many people forget or just flat out don’t wash their ears every time they wash their face or take a shower. Every day you should be washing your ears (inside and behind) with good eczema soap using a soft cloth and making sure you aren’t being rough while doing so.

When washing the area affected by eczema, you should take into consideration that an excess amount of water can dry out your skin. You should not be in the shower for an hour or washing so frequently to the point your skin is actually drying out. The key is to wash thoroughly, dry off completely, and then moisturize your skin; I have taken this approach as a child and believe it’s the most effective for us eczema sufferers.

Stress and Illness

Our daily lives can be very tiresome and stressful!

Stress alone can cause your skin to breakout or go through certain phases. Now add any type of eczema to that and you have yourself A LOT of stress. I highly suggest that you try to find peace in anything you love. I noticed I’m most happy when I’m progressing or being super productive with my time. You may find peace in sports, running, or even crocheting AND you should find the time out of your busy life to do some of those things.

Illness is another beast in itself and many times neither you nor I can prevent illness in our life. There are times that we can prevent illness though and I highly recommend you do at all cost, not only for yourself but for your skin. If it’s below 0 degrees outside then that’s probably not the best time to be out there, wouldn’t you agree? I mean if you see someone coughing and not covering their mouth or sneezing on you, I think this would be the perfect time to ask them to be polite or just move away from them. You may do all the things necessary but sometimes the common cold or sore throats are just going to pop up. I have started taking vitamins daily and noticed my energy and overall wellness has improved dramatically over time.

Less stress and sickness will only be positive towards how your eczema acts throughout the year. Stay positive and be well

Unhealthy Diet

There is no secret that a bad diet is just flat out inexcusable and poor for your overall quality of livelihood. An unhealthy diet can affect your eczema causing rashes or irritation to occur more often. Many people don’t even realize how much their unhealthy dieting affects how their skin behaves. What kind of foods can affect my eczema? You may be asking yourself this, well besides the obvious (junk food) there are definitely foods you want to stay completely away from.

Fatty foods

Fatty foods to stay away from when you have eczema are endless. I will provide you with 3 you should not even be thinking about touching.

• Potato Chips
• Breakfast Cereal
• Canned Soup

Potato chips, breakfast cereals, and canned soups should be out of your diet starting today! These foods are extremely high in sugar, sodium, and saturated fats. One serving of your normal breakfast cereal is basically like eating candy for breakfast and as many of us like candy; it’s never been good for our long-term health. Potato chips and canned soups have so much sodium it’s insane, this is something I have cut out of my personal diet and am really happy I did so.

Excessive amounts of foods like this can be detrimental to your skin. Stress and illness can also be closely tied to the diet you have – I cannot STRESS that enough.

High Carbohydrates

Grains, wheat, and pasta-based foods are the villains in this specific case.

Although these aren’t entirely bad for you to have in your diet once in awhile, an excess amount is by no standards good for your eczema. Bread has surprisingly a lot of sugar in it to make matters worse and the harsh truth is many of us eat it every day. Candida which I mentioned earlier in this article thrives off of sugar and many high carbohydrate foods have tons of sugar within them or at least more than we anticipate.

Pasta dishes were a huge part of my diet when I played sports. They surely help you gain weight and build muscle at a faster rate. At the time I never realized how bad pasta was for me, seeing that I’ve always had eczema and being uneducated on things like this only made it worse. It’s like I was feeding Candida by feeding myself which in turn caused more yeast in my skin and then caused Seborrheic symptoms within my ears or even on my scalp. All of these from stress to not washing correctly to bad eating habits as you see now can ALL make eczema in your ears and just your entire body so much worse.

Treatment for Ear Eczema

It is important to make sure you treat your ear eczema appropriately. You never want to try things that aren’t proven to work and by work, I mean effectively for a long time. Treating your eczema isn’t a onetime thing or a case by case sort of approach; it is something you need to address every day. There are 3 steps that I suggest you take on a daily basis until you see results, and even after you think the treatment is “over” you should continue to follow these steps.

Step 1: Wash ears with a soft cloth

I briefly mentioned this above and highly recommend that you take this very seriously. First, you should make sure to wet your ears; this will help soften them a little so you’re not just scrubbing a dry surface. I prefer to use lukewarm water and I even make sure that the cloth is a little lukewarm.

Make sure you aren’t using a big washcloth. The ones that we use for our bodies aren’t necessarily ideal compared to a nice thin fiber cloth. This way you aren’t causing any friction on your skin which would make matters ten times worse.

After your ears are wet and the cloth is lukewarm proceed to wash your ears. Don’t wash them to rough but make sure you are actually scrubbing them. I like to scrub the entire fold within the inner ear, the surface, and the crease behind my ear. The crease on the back of your ear is the main place where buildup happens and sometimes people have tons of crust and dead skin in that area.

Step 2: Use medicated Soap to wash ear eczema

Medicated soap for your eczema is one of the best ways to treat it. I suggest ONLY dealing with soaps that have natural and organic ingredients in them. Soaps that have fragrances should be avoided at all cost, these types of soaps are literally the worst for your skin and that pretty much goes for anything that has fragrances in it.

You should also use soaps that contain pyrithione zinc. If they have tons of organic ingredients plus pyrithione zinc that is a huge plus. In short, this is a complex form of zinc that has been used by doctors for years to help treat Seborrheic Dermatitis in and behind the ears but you can find a detailed definition and all the facts about it right here.

Once you have good quality eczema soap you should start applying it daily by hand or you can use your soft fiber cloth. Make sure to apply the soap as gently as you can and don’t be sparse with the soap. The soap should be inside and out and washed off with lukewarm water or even cold water if you feel more comfortable with that.

Step 3: Use a medicated cream

This last step is more so an extra step but could also be done on a regular basis depending on how bad your symptoms really are. Washing with a cloth, using soap, and then moisturizing your skin and replenishing it with a good cream is certainly the best overall route to go with this issue. If you sense that the first 2 steps alone aren’t enough then I highly recommend adding this third step to the equation.

There are many creams out there and many of them are just flat out bad. Often I see a new fragrance cream or lotion popping up in the eczema market, what about you?

I highly recommend only 1 type of cream but there is a good alternative as well. I have used 1-2% hydrocortisone cream since I was an infant and it has always worked well for as long as I kept a daily routine. When I would veer off and not use it or start using other stuff my skin would always even worse than before.

Another good eczema cream for your ears is something called Lotrimin cream. I have not personally used this cream but have only heard good things about it. With either of these creams, you should just use a q-tip to apply to your ear, there’s no need to apply tons of this. Using this once or twice per day should do the trick once you’ve already done steps one and two.

Conclusion

The truth of the matter is that ear eczema can cause hearing loss. The constant build-up isn’t good for the ears but there are ways to maintain this as you’ve read above. I suggest everyone stays with a consistent routine and even consults with a doctor, only you know how bad your eczema is and as we all know eczema suffering is different for everyone and we are all at different levels with it.

Please let me know what you thought of this. I would appreciate any feedback or input on what you think about this topic. Have you personally dealt with ear eczema? If so, how have you gone about treating it?