I was grateful for her kindness, and I was impressed by her scholarly approach and suggestions (and asked for her permission to publish her comments here). Tasha has extensive experience with natural eczema remedies for her son, along with natural remedies for his allergies
and asthma. More on those later.
Here is their story, and her suggestions:
We have a lot of experience with the dreaded eczema on my son. My son is now 8 and most people think he’s got great skin now.
Mike at 11 months: eczema improving only 2 months after allergy testing and starting elimination diet
However, when he was an infant, he was covered with eczema. His skin cracked and bled. He had sores that wouldn’t heal. We used to practically mummify his arms and legs with gauze to try to soak up the weepy discharge and to prevent him from scratching at it. He wore mitts all the time, but even then, the abrasion from the cotton would still cause damage to his delicate skin.In the mornings, I used to dread going to his room to pick him up in the morning, because I felt anxious over how bloody he could be. Then the skin shedding started…it was so weird, I used to call it “snow globing” because his skin would go leathery & firey red and then he’d shed. He literally looked like he had a bunch of snow stuck on him – like the snow in a snow globe falling on him, but it was actually bits of his skin shedding off…all over his entire body…kind of like a snake molting. Then, after a period of shedding, the whole process started again. Yes, we used hydrocortisone on him 2X a day, sometimes very generous amounts of it at the direction of our dermatologist. Think of this…we were told by our dermatologist to complete the application of 1lb of hydrocortisone on our infant son within a 2 week period.
Oh…and let’s not forget about the moisturizing, day in and day out. At every diaper change, I would wet him down and re-moisturize him.
Our lives turned around when my son had his first allergy test at 9.5 months when we found out he was allergic to dairy, eggs and peanuts. After I avoided these foods as I was nursing him at the time, my son’s skin dramatically improved within 4 – 6 weeks.
He still had eczema, but it was nowhere near as severe as it had been prior to diet modification. Over time, we discovered more allergies and as we eliminated more and more, his eczema continued to improve.
I, myself, have experienced eczema as well. Your photo of the person with eczema on the arms and hands…sort of looked like what I had a few years ago. It was awful!
Ezcema of Arms and Hands – “Atopic Dermatitis”As for your article on eczema, I think you’ve covered much of what I would include as well – the number one factor is to identify and avoid the triggers – no question about it!
Here are some more natural eczema remedies that have helped Mike:
I am a real believer of trying to take vitamins and minerals from whole food sources
.
As for dietary supplementation, I would also add in vitamin A and D and this is where fermented cod liver oil comes in. It really is amazing stuff and it’s a whole food. Much of the cod liver oil on the market today is overly processed to essentially deodorize it, but in doing so, much of the natural vitamin A
and D are taken out, and then synthetic versions added in. If you can get real vitamin A and real vitamin D …why not? Plus, the fermented cod liver oil also contains omega 3’s and 6’s too, plus a whole slew of other cofactors that science probably hasn’t begun to figure out yet.
There is a downside
to fermented cod liver oil: it’s expensive, has a strong taste, and has limited suppliers (RF note: check out Amazon: http://goo.gl/6AQVU).
I would imagine that vitamin K2 would play a factor in skin health as well. It’s the vitamin that is essential for making sure calcium and other minerals go to the correct locations and aren’t deposited in soft tissue. I went to a local health show in January and it was touted as being great for wrinkles! I don’t know how it would do for eczema, but my son’s taking vit K2 as well. However, our main reason for giving him vit K2 was for bone health and to hopefully improve his dental arch to accommodate his adult teeth…this is from the work of Weston Price.
Another amazing supplement is the mineral magnesium
. The majority of the population is deficient in this mineral because of the depletion of minerals in the soil that our food is grown in. I have used a magnesium topical lotion on my hands with great results. My eczema is finally under control and I attribute that to the magnesium. It supposedly stabilizes mast cells, which would be good for any atopic (allergic) condition.
I’ve also tried the topical lotion on my son, but with limited success, mainly because the mineral can be sort of temporarily itchy when applied topically and my son doesn’t like it. It can also sting if the skin is open, so that’s no fun for children.
So instead, we put MgCl2 in my son’s bath and let his body soak it in. I really think it’s helped his eczema and his “pseudo” asthma, which I won’t go into today!
The only other thing I would add is topical skin care and the importance of allowing the skin to soak up water in a bath and then moisturizing as soon as you can to seal in the moisture. I’m not a fan of Vaseline jelly since it’s a petroleum product, but I understand that it’s inexpensive and might be the only “moisturizer” that some people can afford. Then there are the many moisturizers on the commercial market that use petroleum as an ingredient.
I think what most people don’t understand about these petroleum containing moisturizers is that they are intended as “sealants”.
So for them to really do anything, they need to be sealing in moisture.
If your skin is dry, there’s nothing to seal up!
Many times, I found that moisturizing while the body was still wet did more good than towel drying off first and then moisturizing.
Wet wraps?? We’ve never done wet wraps before, but I heard it can be very beneficial in cases of very severe eczema. This I heard from a couple of parents that took their kids to National Jewish for their food allergies. Any eczema was treated first with wet wraps before food allergy challenges.
Bye for now!
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Please leave comments below in the “Speak Your Mind” box for Tasha: share your own experiences, ask questions, comment on what has worked for you or not worked for you.
We can all learn if we share.
Stay informed … stay healthy :)
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Resources
Image Credit for Eczema of Arms and Hands: in public domain, from wikimedia:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eczema-arms.jpg
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Hi, I’m Russell Faust, author of this medical education blog.
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