My 21 month old is going through the same things to an extreme. We have used Elidel, Elecon, Dermatop, and steroid creams. Currently he is on a steroid ointment called Triamcinolone and an anti anxiety medication called Atarax. I bathe him as infrequently as possible and use oatmeal baths.

We are now looking into sensory issues for his constant scratching since he also scratches on other people when they hold him. He is also going in for allergy testing.

The best thing we have done so far is to go fragrance and dye free for everything. We take it day by day around here as one day it looks like it is getting better only to turn around and it looks really bad. Good luck to you

I have been using Elidel on my 5 month old for about 2 months now and it has worked wonders. He had eczema so bad that his face was broke out and bleeding. I tried everything under the sun to help when his ped gave me a script for it. I haven't noticed any side effects, just some wonderfully clear skin.
His ped also said that in the spring/summer it will clear up more since there is more moisture in the air, but in the fall/winter it will get worse since the air gets drier. He also suggested when giving a bath to only let them stay in for a couple of minutes, and after soaping them up to take the child out and dry them off as soon as you can.
So far I've had nothing but great things to say about Elidel.
Oh, also, when you use it, you should keep your kid out of the sun for prolonged periods of time. The other day we went to the park for a while, he had a really bad break out for a couple of days, but the Elidel seemed to calm it down quite a bit.