When my daughter was about 10 months old she developed eczema. It appeared with the warm weather and I had no idea what it could be. I personally never dealt with Eczema so I was at a loss. I finally learned what it was and with learning came all the tips. All of the lotions and soaps. Cool lotions helped for a second, but then it would come back, angry and red. Nothing worked to keep it under control.
We spent years dealing with her “itchies”, seeing some occasional progress and then another flare up. She had it in her elbows and behind her knees and and she would scratch them til they bled. I tried it all, the marketed lotions, the goat soap, we even tried honey one night. Nothing helped.
How we are Healing Eczema
Finally, I threw everything at it. We changed her diet, we found an all natural botanical lotion, and even started a skin detox tincture. Finally we saw real progress! I would cry with joy when she would show me her arms and the skin was smooth and the scabs were healing.
We still have occasional, usually food related, flare ups. But I feel like we have finally gotten it under control.
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Healing Eczema with Tinctures
While talking through our problems with family one member suggested eczema could be related to parasites. I decided to look for a gentle parasite cleanse but instead found Dr. Rydland’s skin detox tincture. I decided to give this a try before dealing with the unpleasantries of a parasite cleanse. This was easy to give her and she enjoyed the taste, unlike other supplements I had tried. I also started mixing MaryRuth Organics Ionic Zinc into juice or smoothies. Do not make the same mistake I did. The first time I gave it to her I just put the dropper in her mouth, she did not like the taste! So now I have to sneakily add it when she has a glass of homemade grape juice, or a smoothie. With some consistency we started seeing her skin clearing up.
Healing Eczema with Botanical Lotions
I first started with lotion specifically marketed as eczema lotions. If you’re here, I’m sure you’ve tried those as well. What I didn’t realize is that a lot of those lotions contain alcohol, which is just going to irritate the skin even more! I tried making tallow balm, that didn’t work. We found a cream that actually did work pretty well, but my daughter just didn’t like lotion being put on her. I could only convince her to let me slather on the aquaphor and that really only accomplished dingy sheets and jammies.
Finally, I heard about Aleavia. Aleavia lotions and bodywash smell divine and I thought I could convince her by saying it was mommy’s special lotion. What kid doesn’t want mommy’s things? Well! She would allow it some of the time but most of the time pitched a fit. But when I could convince her to put it on I always noticed a difference. I ended up sneaking into her room each night to slather it over the eczema and little by little it got better, and less itchy.
Healing Eczema with Diet Changes
Throughout the years I would notice certain foods would make her eczema flare up. She started getting little patches in the corners of her mouth and those would turn bright red when food caused a flare up. Peanuts were a major flare. Processed foods and snacks REALLY caused flare ups. Even after cutting these out she would get the flare ups around her mouth and I couldn’t figure out what could be causing it. Finally, I noticed it would happen when she had orange juice! When I noticed these flares I told her “if you eat / drink _____ it could make your itchies worse”. She began avoiding those foods, and reluctantly the orange juice. Especially when her itchies had been really bad, and I began making her favorites at home or sans whatever ingredient was causing issues.
Eventually when her body was starting to really heal we would let her have a little bit of peanut butter or some other treat. It took awhile for it to effect her again but sure enough the little patches around her mouth came back. I’ve figured out that organic peanut butter doesn’t make her flare up like conventional peanuts do, and her knowing what can cause issues helps immensely.
Healing Eczema with Fabric Swaps
I believe that this change has had the biggest and quickest impact on healing eczema. We had many pairs of cozy polyester pajamas that she had been wearing since she was a little gal. I don’t know why it never occurred to me that polyester is plastic, so we are in fact wearing plastic. Have you ever noticed how when you wear polyester and get sweaty you just kind of stay sweaty? Polyester holds it all in. So sleeping overnight in these pajamas wasn’t allowing her skin to breathe. The spots where she would get the eczema was proof enough for me that these pajamas had to go.
I heard about Little Sleepies and bought a couple pairs of jammies from them a couple years ago, but the aquaphor really seemed to destroy them. Then, when I realized the problem with the polyester pajamas and had to throw out some of her favorites I let her pick a couple pairs of jammies from their website. They were her “big girl” jammies and made the transition easier.
Now we avoid most polyester. If it’s a hand-me-down zip up or anything looser that can be worn over cotton it’s allowed, but polyester pajamas have been banned. The turn around in her skin was all the convincing I needed.
Healing Eczema is a Journey!
It has been well over a year since we made these changes, and we still deal with eczema flare ups occasionally. Hot water and chlorine are enemies, but just try keeping this girl out of the hot tub. Of course there are times when we over indulge, and getting her skin back on track can take a little longer. It is a day to day and season to season battle, but we’re learning new things every day. Hopefully, as she gets older it will get easier, and maybe even go away! For now we keep up our protocols, and she even puts lotion on herself when she notices she’s itchier than usual.
If you or your baby are struggling with eczema I understand the frustration. There were nights I would beat myself up about letting her eat whatever I thought caused the flare ups, but once we finally got it under control it seems the diet was less of a trigger than I thought. I hope some of these tips can help you, and if you’ve found relief I would love to hear your tips!
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