Breastmilk to treat eczema?

[chiropractic4kids]

Out of desperation tonight I put evening primrose oil on my son's eczema then covered it in gauze and sent him to bed. We are looking to eliminate it (posted in another thread) but I was thinking of trying breastmilk? I'm due any day now with #2 so all I have at the moment is colostrum, but hopefully SOON I'll have a baby and some milk.

Anyone ever try "wet bandages" with breastmilk for treating eczema? I think if we could clear it up faster it would help us to find the cause sooner.

[capsgirl08]

I did this with DS. My mom remembers her mom using breastmilk to treat her brothers' and sisters' cuts and eye infections. I tried it, but it didn't work for us --- but I think it may be because there were allergens in my milk because of what I was eating.

It was the first thing I tried, and I would do it again ... things that have worked:

-eliminating wheat (i eliminated other things, which alleviated other symptoms, but when I stopped eating wheat, the eczema cleared up in about 2-3 days)
-elminating eggs
-not continuing with vaxing (DS has 2mo, 6mo, 10mo --- broke out in eczema that became infected with impetigo every time and i finally said no more)

-epsom salt baths with a splash of apple cider vinegar from time to time
-very, very, very rarely use soap (like once every couple of months or so) -- and the only -ingredients are olive oil, water, and salt
-vanicream
-flax seed oil -- i take in capsule, we also open capsule and rub on DS when eczema is bad. he can now eat some with cool foods as well (heat changes structure too much)

-some people find witch hazel helpful for alleviating the itch, but i know some may be allergic to it

that's all i can think of right now. good luck to you, mama, with the eczema and your upcoming birth of your baby!

[WC_hapamama]

Oh goodness, whatever you do, DO NOT use anything astringent on eczema. I learned that the hard way as a teenager. It doesn't just sting, it burns on eczema.

I've not used wet bandages/wet wraps with breastmilk on eczema, but I have used wet wraps before... worked great on my dd's hand and arm eczema. Moisturize, cover with damp gauze, then a layer of dry gauze (or clean cotton socks). IIRC, we just used distilled water.

I heard that using damp cotton PJs with a pair of dry cotton PJs over it is good for torso eczema too.

[chiropractic4kids]

Thanks, I am going to get some BM from a friend and try that. He's completely vax-free, never had any, and we have a medical exemption because of the eczema (the silver lining to the eczema cloud, we don't have to fight someone over philosophical or religious exemption). We're working on eliminating things (again) from his diet. He's never had gluten, and just recently started eating nuts and dairy.

We did the EPO last night - broke open capsules, soaked the gauze, taped the gauze onto his arms, then put him in long cotton PJs. We only did the insides of his elbows. He also has it on his neck, behind his ears, backs of the knees, and a small patch starting on his face. The EPO seemed to help, though now that his arms are uncovered he's scratching them like mad again.

We've been upping the oral EPO and fish oil these last few days - luckily my DS thinks that fish oil is candy (we use the Nordic Naturals).

I had a cold sore earlier in my pregnancy and used my colostrum to treat it, you couldn't even tell it was there unless you looked REALLY close and it was gone in 3 days. I'm thinking now that I'm done with gluten and dairy until after this baby weans - if for no other reason than to be able to give DS some allergen-free expressed milk and hopefully prevent eczema in the baby.

What is vanicream?

[WC_hapamama]

The places your ds has eczema is pretty typical.

I've used breastmilk to treat pink eye before, but that's about it.

Vanicream is a petroleum based moisturizer that is very popular among people with eczema. It's not medicated, and very effect. You might also want to consider trying Cerave, which is similar to Vanicream, but includes ceramides.

We've used a medical exception for a single vaccine... the chicken pox vaccine.