Healing a 2 year old's Eczema

So I'm writing about a topic I haven't touched on before.  
I wasn't planning on sharing it, but it has become a very big part of our family's life these past couple years.

The topic is eczema.

Our daughter Noelle has greatly struggled with it since she was an infant.

It may not be an exciting thing to read for many, but learning from other moms really helped me, so I've decided to document our experience with this condition!

So sit tight...it's a bit lengthy.

Eczema (or dermatitis) actually can take many forms and can have many causes.  It usually causes inflammation and/or irritation of when skin.

Our battle with eczema started when Noelle was just weeks old.  It started on her face, which we assumed was baby acne!

Started with some redness on cheeks

Her poor little cheeks and forehead were red, inflamed, bumpy, and sometimes dry, sometimes weepy. 
It continued to spread onto her scalp and I treated it as cradle's cap.  Her scalp would get yellow, scabby, and downright gross!

You can see some of the bumps on her forehead from this angle

I was confused and tried so many different remedies to help...we put olive oil in her bath water, rubbed her scalp with it and scrubbed all those bumps off!  It usually returned.

By the time she was a couple months old, she was getting red patches on the rest of her body.  We noticed large patches starting on her tummy and spreading up and downwards.

I researched online for hours trying to find something that would help.
With the doctor's recommendation combined with articles that I read, we started applying hydrocortisone cream followed by a moisturizer.

We tried several lotions until we settled on Cetaphil...the only one that didn't sting her poor skin when applied.  I tried a bunch of recommended creams, and Noelle usually would squirm and scream seconds after I put it on...poor thing :(

We took away all fragrance soaps and lotions and we were already using homemade fragrance-free laundry detergent.

The hydrocortisone really seemed to help her problem areas!  I was happy with it.

Her face was clear at 5 months with no dairy and use of the hydrocortisone

But her patches were stubborn and new patches would surface frequently...so we used MORE!

I think she was 3 1/2 months old when my mom found some new information online for me.

I was pretty hesitant to receive it, however!

She found that a HUGE percentage of babies with eczema had a food allergy.  Well, Noelle was exclusively breastfed so the issue was not what I was feeding her, but what I was feeding myself!

She suggested I eliminate dairy from my diet....one of my favorite things to eat!!!

Sometimes I get tired of my mom being right...and I really really wanted her to be wrong about this.

But, for my child, who had terrible irritated patches all over her body, I had to try something!
So, sure enough, only a couple days after cutting dairy out, her skin started to change.

I was so excited!!!  We continued to apply the hydrocortisone and Cetaphil daily on her patches as she continued to have extremely sensitive skin that would react to pet dander, saliva, and even certain foods once she was eating solids.

When I weaned her at 6 months old, we had to put her on special formula for babies with dairy intolerance.

She seemed not to react badly when we tried milk again at 12 months so we figured she no longer was sensitive to it!

We still had to be very careful with anything acidic getting on her skin.  Her wrists were frequently inflamed from hand feeding herself.  She's often have breakouts all around her mouth if anything with tomato got on the skin!

I remember her rubbing her wrists hard on the carpet or on her highchair tray when she'd have an irritated patch on them....broke our hearts!

So although her skin had improved since her infancy, the poor girl had never had "baby soft" skin!  Her pediatrician prescribed a stronger steroid ointment for her called Triamcinolone Acetonide when she was around a year and a half old.

Boy, did that stuff WORK!  We were cautioned not to apply for more than 31 consecutive days without a break.

That was easy enough....after a couple weeks of application, her skin would usually be clear for another week or so.

Her problem areas were behind her knees, on her elbows and in the creases, and the top of her feet and ankles.


So.

Enter these last few months where I learn about more natural remedies, and more importantly, the effects that food and other products have on the body....including what we put on the skin.

If essential oils reach every cell of your body when applied topically, why would I think that lotions, creams, and ointments that I put on my babies' skin is completely harmless and remains external?

I learned that the steroid ointment I was putting on Noelle's skin causes thinning of the skin, increased infections, burning, swelling, and redness (wasn't that what we were trying to AVOID?), and more increased use of corticosteroids.

Upon learning this, I immediately discontinued use of it!  I instead used only coconut oil which is very well known for naturally treating eczema, is an anti-inflammatory, and a great moisturizer.  It also will detox the body, bringing toxins out!

What happened was nothing I was prepared for.

Noelle's skin looked like a battle ground.

Her legs broke out in hundreds of red, inflamed bumps.  This led to itching, which led to weeping wet skin, sores, and scabs.  It was horrible.  It seemed to go through a cycle and moved up her body to her stomach, then her back, then her arms.
 

This was the first week or so...it got worse.

Each time it spread, it would be itchy, painful, scabbed, and sometimes bleeding from her wolverine scratches when I'd forget to clip her nails.

She'd whine when I'd apply her coconut oil twice each day and I'd be in tears feeling completely helpless.

We applied Lavender essential oil, which definitely helped sooth the pain and itch, but there was no quick cure!

We again, eliminated dairy and took out gluten as well as they are known culprits of conditions such as this. 

We also started giving her water with a drop of lemon essential oil in it to assist the detox. (These are the only ones we use)

I knew if I took her to the pediatrician, he'd prescribe more steroid cream!!  Not going down that road again!  So I took her to my chiropractor who is a wealth of information, all of which is geared towards natural healing of the body.  She gives advice on what the body needs and what foods and products to avoid that make it more difficult for the body to do what it was designed to do...heal itself!

She pretty much encouraged the changes that I had made as well as giving me other guidance on her diet...eating anti-inflammatory foods and avoiding those that are inflammatory.

She also had us start Noelle on probiotics in addition to the lemon water. (NOT probiotic gummies that are filled with corn syrup. We bought adult probiotics and we emptied the capsule into her food.)

More detox symptoms behind her knees. The skin became leathery before healing.

She is getting regular adjustments to assist her nervous system in functioning properly, helping her body with the healing as well.

Finally, the skin on her stomach began to clear, as well as the skin on her legs, then her arms, and her back  was almost clear!
 

What we believe happened was after 2 1/2 years of putting steroids on her skin and into her system, they had to come out.  Our chiropractor believes that it was a severe recoil from the steroid ointment being stopped so abruptly combined with the fact that coconut oil will pull toxins out of the skin!  Her tiny body had a couple years worth of toxins laying beneath her skin and I think the coconut oil was drawing it out!

So.

4 weeks of this and we were still struggling to see clear, smooth skin.
We saw improvement, but even the spots that weren't red anymore, were not soft.

Her skin remained dry, cracked, and some of it was leathery.

So we tried organic, unrefined Shea Butter.

I applied it all over by itself the first morning and night.

I was amazed at the texture of her skin the next day!!!  The spots that had no scabs were SOFT!
The shea butter did not take her itch away however.  I was so surprised that she was itching so badly that day!

It was clear that the coconut oil soothed her itchy skin and pulled all those toxins out while the shea butter provided the much needed moisture!

So I made some lotion bars, which I'll post a tutorial for, that has both the coconut oil and the shea butter.

Since using the lotion bars, (tutorial here) we've seen her skin transform.  It isn't perfect yet, but spots that looked like they'd been chewed, scratched, and burnt now are more smooth, soft, and FAR less red and inflamed.

Her tummy used to be covered in bumps and scabs!  Now we're left with soft skin with some small patches that we're still working on.

We are still not giving her dairy or gluten and we still do our best to only cloth her with cotton and clothing that is soft as her skin remains very sensitive and I assume it has thinned from the steroid ointment.

But praise The Lord it is BETTER and healing!!!

So, if you're reading this and wondering why your or your child's eczema is taking so long to heal, I'll be the first to tell you that it takes time.

Read about others trying to heal eczema instead of just masking the symptoms, and you'll see that conditions with internal causes are not quickly healed.

We had to go to the root of the problem, not merely treat the effects that we could see externally.  Makes sense right??

**Update-A week later and poor girl's skin is starting to break out again!  Ah!  It's looking more like classic eczema than the severe issues we were having before.  Anyway, it's a roller coaster battle and I'll keep you updated!

Update: Here is the tutorial for our lotion bars! 



  Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or medical professional.  I simply make decisions on how to care for and improve the health of my own family.  None of the statements on my blog have been evaluated by the FDA and any products mentioned are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
This post also contains affiliate links to the company which I have personally used and recommend.  If you purchase through these links, I will receive a commission, however the cost to you remains the same!