eczema in a non-vaxed toddler? - Page 2

[tanyalynn]

PlayaMama, I've seen my health issues manifest very differently in my kids. One thing that helped me (we're not dealing with eczema, we have food intolerances that manifest differently and other issues besides) was to list the health issues people in the family have, regardless of what age they developed them, and then to add in odd quirks that I know about in myself and in DH. Little things like the crazy-early stretch marks I got when pregnant with my first, and DH's keratosis pilaris, can help problem-solve. I started to see overlaps in potential causes--you may find a lot of possible causes, but when solutions to different problems start repeating, that's more worth looking into.

That said--the downhill slide of the environment, plus the decreasing quality of our food supply, combine to make it _hard_ to get enough nutrients to deal with the world and do all the work our bodies need to do each day.

[fruitfulmomma]

so, when i say no family history of skin issues or asthma, there really is no one alive that has those issues except my mom who had asthma as a child. my husband's family wasn't so extensive but again, no one had issues.

Right, but eczema may just be one manifestation of an underlying issue. You may begin to see other manifestations of the underlying cause if you begin to dig a bit deeper. That is what I am seeing in my own family. Also, each generation would become progressively worse than the previous one if the issue is not corrected.

For example, I would never have assumed that I had any issue whatsoever with gluten, until my two youngest daughters exhibited signs of it through skin breakouts and because they were both nursing I had to come off of it myself. I've never had skin issues from eating gluten but several health issues I had been having, which were 'normal' for me, have begun clearing up since I quit eating it. I suspect that my parents both have issues with it as well.

[PlayaMama]

i'll be honest, i've always thought of us as pretty sturdy stock.

the only issues folks have had were blood pressure/ heart problems in grandparents and that, i think, was mostly diet, though my mom's dad ate a TON of homegrown or wild meat he did have pasteurized dairy and a triple bypass recently.

i guess what i'm saying is that there are no chronic conditions that plague anyone, no diabetes, no asthma, no skin issues, no mental issues like depression, no allergies, no cancer (knock on wood) we really only occasionally get seasonally sick. and this is WITH quite a bit of smoking and drinking.

all of my grandparents and great-grandparents lived to be at least 85 and more often into their 90's.

i dunno, i'm not saying that it's impossible that it is some health issue from previous generations but it just doesn't seem that likely given all the good health we've been able to enjoy.

[PlayaMama]

Originally Posted by fruitfulmomma

but several health issues I had been having, which were 'normal' for me, have begun clearing up since I quit eating it. I suspect that my parents both have issues with it as well.

actually, i know this is going off topic, but would you mind elaborating on this point? like, what is a normal issue that clears up? i'm thinking maybe skin issues? like, i break out sometimes but it really only clears up when i'm pregnant i've tried grain free for about a month and i noticed no difference, which makes me think its probably hormonal for me rather than diet based.

[fruitfulmomma]

actually, i know this is going off topic, but would you mind elaborating on this point?

pm'ing you

[susienjay]

4 of my 6 kids have problems with eczema. Only one of them is unvaxed but his eczema ranks second in severity among my kids.

I had my 9 year old allergy tested and she wasn't allergic to any of the common eczema triggers. She is mostly vaxed. I think diet plays a large role at least for my kids. It always seems to flare up when I've been lazy and letting them eat more junk than usual. We also found borage oil helps quite a bit as well as keeping up with vitamins and DHA supplements.

[MommyMichele]

I only allowed my daughter's first round of vaxes at 2 months, no more ever again, and her eczema continued through her first birthday until we figured out all of her numerous food allergies. It was most severe around 5-6 months (all over her body).

[PlayaMama]

okay, so i'm thinking diet would be something easy to play around with. i'm kind of a health food nut anyway and my dd eats like a horse. i think gluten-free would actually be fairly easy for us to try for a bit.

i need to get her (and all of us) back on the clo, we've kind of taken a break since summer but she takes it readily so i might as well.

how long did it take you all to notice a difference from diet changes?

[greenthumb3]

Originally Posted by Dolphin

Us too. Ours are unvaxed, breastfed until 2.5, mostly organic and all of that, and both boys have eczema. Frustrating!! I have found that our is seasonal, but I don't know why.

My eldest had seasonal eczema, too, though there might have been a food sensitivity playing a role (I thought soy). We did an elimination diet, you can google it--eliminate the highest potentially allergenic foods for 10 days to 2 weeks and then slowly introduce one food at a time back into the diet every couple of days, noting any changes in the child. (wheat, dairy, eggs, corn soy, nuts being usually the most allergenic) It is actually better to take all those foods out at once, it saves time having to do separate elimination diets for each one.

He outgrew it. I did have eczema as a child, and other skin issues ran in my side of the family. Luckily, his was fairly reasonable to treat and as long as he didn't scratch too often and I was faithful about moisturizing after every bath and at nighttime (went through about 10 different lotions and salves until I found one that worked for him), it was manageable. My ND had me give him a liver cleanse formula as she said that skin issues often show the need of the liver to detoxify.

I believe mine, as a child from what my mother told me, had a lot to do with over use of antibiotics and a milk allergy (which later caused a terrible case of acne for me for all of my teen years...I stopped drinking milk, and I used to drink A LOT, and the acne cleared up considerably, even after having several course of various acne medications. OT, a tad, but skin issues show up sometimes when there are other things at play, besides vaccines)

[eireann]

Originally Posted by PlayaMama

that will be my next stop

we're actually pretty lucky in my family to have reproduced while young , except me at 27 i'm the oldest.

when both my kids was born we had five generations alive on my mom's side and four generations on my dad's side. when i was born i had all my grandparents and four great-grandparents alive, on my mom's side my great-grandparents lived until i was 25 and 32 respectively.

i am jealous!

dd gets red cheeks (and has keratosis pilaris), and i am not sure from what. i have KP and according to skin tests, some food allergies though only one has ever manifested itself in a clear, anaphylactic way. she only gets the redness SOMETIMES, so it's hard to pinpoint. i think she reacts to cinnamon, but only when it hits her topically. i am not sure. she has no weird poop, nothing other than the cheeks, at least visibly.

[caribousam]

My son has SEVERE eczema, all food allergy related, and is unvaxed.

[PlayaMama]

okay, so now i'm thinking it might be a seasonal thing.

i've been religiously using ca baby calendula cream after every bath and where she used to have bumps on her entire trunk, she now has maybe three or four thumbprint sized spots under and behind her armpits?

we've definitely been more on the gluten free side but my dh loves wheat bread and i know she's had some and some non-rice mac and cheese.

i'm seriously, hoping it's a seasonal thing because that would be the easiest.

we do have drastic seasonal changes here where in the high desert where one day to the next could be 30 degrees colder or warmer. drives me batty...

[jacie87]

I'm not 100% on this, but I heard that some skin problems can result from washing off the...I forget what it's called, that the baby is born with on its skin? I seriously knew what it was called like 10 minutes ago and have somehow forgotten. Anyway, I've been told giving a baby a bath right away and washing it off instead of rubbing it in like lotion leads to skin problems including eczema later on in life. I could be wrong. Anyone want to verify/deny that for me?

[BellaClaudia]

Baby/toddler with exema here .

So.. I am to testify here ha ha ha..

When I was a baby and toddler I had serious case of exema.
From what my mom told me it begin super early in my life
and nothing worked and so then she took me to this super
wiz doctor and he cured me with an oitment. Amen.

Now decades later when I looked back and asked all
the right questions here is picture I have of what happened
to me back then.

My mother did not nurse me exclusively for more then one week
and then she introduced cereal!!!! (now imagine me
who is nursing my little one for the last 4 years :-)...
and who would nurse her exclusively for 6 mo to horror
of my mother who would repeat every 5 minutes that my dd
will die of hunger. despite dd being plumpy, happy and
playful and energetic..

In any case.. back to my mother.. so she did pump me with
tons of wheat products and cows milk from early on and often.

She kept telling me horror stories and bully me about how
I better wait and see how it will be when my daughter will
get diarrhea and I will have to change 30! diapers a day..

4 years later.. my dd had one diarrhea and it was not even
diarrhea but rather loose stool and only for one day and
only 3 times really.. and only when she was about 2 years old
and eat something yacky somwhere :-).. so much about booling.


now.. why did I have the exzema when I was little God only knows
but I really think that this had something to do with the
outrageous approach to feeding me by my mom.

I would blame those cerials and cows milk but beyond that
probably fact how early it was served to me. and we all know
about how big damage it causes. to this day I have many
helath issues that I attribute to messing up my system
at that early age.. plus of course all mandatory vaccinations
that I got.. all of them.

So when you asked about exzema.. and no vax..
I would defenetely take test for allergies because the system
might simply be overloaded with some toxin and skin reacts first.

I would check usual suspects like wheat, milk and other of that
families.. and also acidic food like orange juice or even
yellow cheese.

I can tell you what my mother claims worked in those old days
supposedly there was some ointment with cortizon that was
super strong and some pinhead doctor prescribed on the
infant face - which was me. that ointment was some
foreign import called Oxycort and we are talking here
early 70's and few countries ago..

should you go that way and try? I would not do it if I had choice
because although it apparently worked and my exzema
well documented and diagnosed.. dissapeared completly from
my skin.

now the drawback.. I never knew for all those years why
I could never use any cream on my face, or even shower water
would make my face red.. I have super sensitive skin
and anything other then destilled cold water make it red.

so.. here is the price I paid for my clean exzema free face...
oversensitivity as far as face is concerned..

how much cortizone is safe on face? who knows.. and
what side effects i had to deal with or have? the same no one
knows..

so that was story of one exzema baby. many many years later.

you can only imagine how different my approach to
anything "parenting" is from my mother's. It led to
actually major distancing from her because she
won't approve my healthy ways and I won't have it
any other way, yet she won't tollerate it literarly!

so.. be it

[BellaClaudia]

oh I forgot..
make sure you read everything you can about harmful
ingredients in cosmetics. I am sure you knew but in case..
there is tons of ingredients in our and baby cosmetics
that are actually carcinogenic and should not be there
in things like soap, shampoo and washing detergents..

ever since we switched to healthy ones that do not
contain phosphorus, leathering agents that are
really used for cleaning garage floor as well as
our skins..

do search google on carcinogenic substances
in cosmetics and your jaw will drop.

I did with the cosmetics what I did with a kitchen
when it was clear that plastic and teflon are toxic
- clean sweep. It took me a while to replace everything
to healthy alternatives but it is possible.

there is everything including gel free and
chlorine free diapers and even feminine napkins,
and healthy shampoo and tooth paste without that
stuff in..

but the tricky part is.. to actually know that there
is alternative.

I did not know. and I am mad at myself.
radiculously prices are almost the same
so why not.

hugs

[PlayaMama]

Originally Posted by jacie87

I'm not 100% on this, but I heard that some skin problems can result from washing off the...I forget what it's called, that the baby is born with on its skin? I seriously knew what it was called like 10 minutes ago and have somehow forgotten. Anyway, I've been told giving a baby a bath right away and washing it off instead of rubbing it in like lotion leads to skin problems including eczema later on in life. I could be wrong. Anyone want to verify/deny that for me?

i don't know either but when my dd was born she was not given a bath. my mom just washed the top of her head a little so i don't think this is it. thanks for the idea though!