A High Wycombe mother was stunned when a £4.50 moisturiser cleared her daughter's severe eczema after previously spending thousands desperately searching for a cure.

Mum-of-one Tara Robbins says Childs Farm Baby Moisturiser has been "life-changing" for seven-year-old Chiara whose skin condition left her hospitalised and caused her to change schools.

After years of misery and countless trips to the doctors, the product completely cleared up the little girl's skin in just two weeks.

"We spent thousands on private hospital appointments trying to find a cure, but it got us nowhere," says Tara, from High Wycombe.

"I only tried the Childs Farm moisturiser in late 2017 after over 50 different people got in touch telling me to try it because they had read a news article about it clearing a child's severe eczema.

"I remember thinking it's an absolute waste of time, nothing ever works for us, but it turned out to be the best thing I ever did."

Affecting around one in five children in the UK, eczema leaves the skin itchy, red, dry and cracked.

Looking back on what her little girl endured still brings Tara to tears.

"Chiara's skin was red raw and so unbearably itchy, and it got progressively worse as she got older," she explains.

"We were prescribed so many different creams and steroids. We tried so many restricted diets and were even told to give Chiara bleach baths every other day to try to reduce her symptoms, but nothing worked."

The little girl would scratch her skin so badly that her broken skin became seriously infected on numerous occasions, resulting in overnight hospital admissions where she was hooked up to an antibiotic drip.

"It's horrible watching the little person you love and want to protect in so much pain and you feel there is nothing you can do," says Tara.

It was when Chiara was four months old that Tara first realised something was very wrong.

Erupting from head to toe in an angry red rash on her skin, she endured every parent's worst nightmare when A&E doctors informed her that Chiara had suspected meningitis. An ambulance was called to rush her daughter to the nearest children's hospital.

Whilst she was hugely relieved when the deadly infection was ruled out, Tara says her daughter has gone "through hell" as a result of the common skin condition which she was later diagnosed with instead.

"As a new parent, I completely freaked out when Chiara came out in a terrible rash, and to be told it might be meningitis was horrific," she says.

"We will always count ourselves so lucky that she didn't have it and we were relieved when further tests revealed she actually has eczema. But I could never have imagined how awful that would turn out to be."

Chiara's hands were one of the worst affected parts of her body, her fingers were often so sore she couldn't bend them. When she started school aged four, Chiara suddenly became very self-conscious about her skin.

"She was on the receiving end of a few horrible comments which had a huge effect on her self-confidence," says her mum.

"The worst was when a child in her Reception class said she didn't want to play with her because she didn't want to catch eczema. Chiara never got over it and still brings it up three years later.

"Even some adults said things to her like, 'Your hands are dirty, go and wash them'."

Chiara became scared to stay in hotels on holiday and has never been on a sleepover because she is so anxious about leaving blood on her sheets.

Keen for their daughter to have a fresh start, Tara and her husband Matt decided to move her to a new school this September.

"Thanks to her skin being clear, Chiara has so much more confidence now and she skipped into her new school on her first day.

"Starting over has made things so much easier for her and she no longer has to worry about what the other children who remember her eczema might say" says Tara.

Heralding the Childs Farm Baby Moisturiser as "life-changing", Tara says everything changed for the better the day they tried the 'miracle' cream.

"As soon as we put it on, Chiara loved it. Bedtime was always so difficult before because she would scream that the prescribed creams stung her skin. It would take 45 minutes of one of us holding her down while the other applied the cream every night.

"We soon felt confident enough to use the whole range of Childs Farm toiletries, which meant we could give Chiara her first ever bubble bath at the age of five. I will never forget the huge smile that lit up her whole face when she realised it was for her."

Joanna Jensen, CEO and founder of Childs Farm, added: "People often mistakenly assume that eczema is little more than an inconvenience. But for children like Chiara it can be awful, causing them pain and discomfort on a daily basis, which creates a lot of stress for their parents.

"Hearing how Childs Farm products have changed Chiara's young life is just fantastic. I am thrilled that she is now brimming with confidence as she is finally happy in her skin and getting so much enjoyment out of school."