Eczema Bible by Christina Nevada Sands

With eczema, it has long been the practice to seal in moisture with occlusive barriers like mineral oil, petrolatum, lanolin and beeswax to prevent the skin from drying out. That's a nice thought, but since the skin needs to breathe, it isn't good for it in the long run. Using them as a bandaid until the skin heals is fine though. Mineral oil is best, because it is inert and won't causing itching on hypersensitive skin. Occlusive barriers can clog the pores and in the long run lead to unhealthy skin that dries out easily. What we need to do is encourage the skin to maintain proper hydration, and here are some things we can do:

Drink more water, because if you don't have enough in your system, your body will pull it from the skin to get what it needs.
Preserve our natural oils: The more we wash off our natural oils with water and cleansers, the less we have.
The more oil we use, the more we encourage our skin to produce less natural oils, but check out the Red Palm Oil link for amazing benefits of this oil, and read about Sunflower oil.
Make sure you're getting your enzymes to break down fats and essential fatty acids.