Eczema remedies - the cause is a mystery

[1organicmomma]

Ok so right as the seasons changed from spring to summer weather my DD (19m old) suddenly has eczema out of no where on her forearm and in her creases behind knees and elbows.  It started in May and now flares back and forth depending on various things.  But I really want to avoid steroid creams.  So I am looking for others that have had sucess with similar stories.  I do know she use to be intollerant to dairy as an infant and she has had dairy off an on in cooked food here in and there for the past 6 months but in may I introduced Annies cheddar bunnys (hello dairy!) which became a staple in her weekly snacking while at the beach or pool.  So we have now stopped dairy as of today and we stopped bunnies as of last week.  Heat seems to make it flare as well as innitial applications of moisturizers.  We originally used striaght coconut oil which seemed to not be effective so I skipped to california baby candula and now we are using a borage moisture therapy by Shikea(sp?)  I have tried a couple other Eczema creams but they seem to STING her, she gets so upset after application like they suddenly hurt or sting.  UGH!  Also I was giving her Sulpher 6c tabs for a few days without any noticable difference.  I stopped yesterday and she had a flare up after spending the afternoon at the water park.  Goodness.  I dont want to keep her from enjoying the summer.  Any ideas?

Here is the list of things of things I have to try

-Flax seed oil orally

-dead sea salt baths

-Unpetroleum jelly

Please let me know what worked for you.  We are avoiding dairy right now both me and her since she still nurses.  I have an appointment with her ped this week.  I'm sure he will just encourage steroid cream.  :(

[changingseasons]

I would give the dairy some time to get out of your systems (couple weeks) before I did anything else. I wouldn't put anything on it, because most things will sting and just irritate it more. That said, we have used emu oil on occasion and it works great (doesn't sting, moisturizes well, no other ingredients.)

[1organicmomma]

So tell me more about how fast the EMU oil works and your experience with it.  I went to the HFS tonight and picked up some as well as some dead sea salts for bath.  I gave her a salty bath which I think she rather enjoyed submersing her eczema parts in the water and then I patted her dry and put EMU oil on her eczema and to my surprise she was very happy with the EMU oil application so much that she insisted on taking a closer look at the bottle with amazement.  She wanted to watch me put it on and this is the first product other than the borage lotion that she has welcomed with a smile.  I AM seriously hoping and praying it helps.  It seemed to really put her at easy and she never scratched once after it.  I will say the spots still do look read though, it seems that with any application even water they turn red, I'm not sure its a bad thing.  But I wanted to ask what your experience was with it and if it did the same.  It is at its Eczema peak right now and I am hoping to slow its roll and make it get better at this point.  How many times should I apply it per day?  Thanks so much for your response.  I am getting desperate for something to work for her.  

[changingseasons]

It didn't "do" anything, other than keep the skin moisturized and comfortable so that it wasn't itchy. The only thing that gets rid of eczema around here is finding the food trigger and removing it from the diet.

Glad she likes it though!! It is really great stuff for dry skin.

[MuesliMama]

My DD (now 5 1/2) outgrew eczema when she was around 3, but what really saved us in those early days was California Baby Calendula Cream. Worked wonders when nothing else did. My husband even used it a couple of times when he had small patches of eczema and it worked for him too. It's worth a try. Good luck!

[1organicmomma]

California Baby worked in the very beginning and especially when she just had a small spot here and there but this stuff just has flared up and gotten ridiculous out of nowhere.  Its so strange.  Because she has never had a problem up until now, it was always just little coin size spots from time to time but they would go away immediately with cali baby.  It started with spots on the back of her legs (red like sun burn, not really dry).  We are going to the ped tomorrow to see what his thoughts are to make sure it is eczema and not some sort of fungus that is spreading.  I have had ring worm before and I kinda wonder if some of it could be something like that.  Some of it looks like eczema like on her forearm but the spots on her knee and elbow bends not so much.  By the way I did notice some improvement this morning.  Also she woke in the night a little restless at 2ish so I reapplied the EMU and nursed her and she instantly went back to sleep and was easy to transfer to the bed.  This stuff is obviously giving her relief.  THANKS!

[changingseasons]

Yay!!

[1organicmomma]

so we went to the doctor today and he confirmed its atopic dermatitis/eczema and recommended bag balm so we are going that route alternating with the emu oil.  She does get relief from the emu but the rawest spots are not resolving with that alone.  he thinks its an enviromental allergy but I have still taken dairy and gluten out of her diet which has not made a noticable difference but its only been a few days.  not sure what it could be. 

could be

• seasonal allergies although she does not have hay fever
• food related but we have now stripped problem foods (strawberry season/eatting kicked off the flare up, so we stopped strawberrys dairy and gluten)
• heat related
• under the sink fltration and shower filters were installed a couple of weeks prior to the flare...could this be related?  I would think this would help resolve it
• sand at the beach sets it off...could have been trigger...last went last friday

its a mystery...anyone dare to take a stab at what it might be?

[1organicmomma]

So in my search for a solution I found this web site http://solveeczema.com/thesolution.html which really has some good information.  I am probably going to try the "test" tonight to determine if its a environmental allergy from the outside.  That certainly would help me get to the bottom of this.  I highly suspect SLS right now.  Which I thought wasnt in 7th gen products that we use...but YEP it is so it could be an issue in our house.  Wish me luck!