Reviewed by Sheila Kilbane, MD.
Nine-year-old boys are a little oblivious to life sometimes.
They could probably have a frog stuck in their ear and not notice for a few weeks.
If they hadn’t had a shower in a month, I doubt they’d remind the parents they’d been forgotten.
And if a 4×4-inch spot on their leg is supremely itchy, bleeding and crusty, they might not say a word for weeks.
Weeks, I’m telling you.
I know this because I had a 9-year-old boy…who didn’t tell his parents about just such a rash…or sore…or who knows what? By the time we found it – perhaps because he was digging and scratching at it like crazy – we didn’t know if it was road rash from a fall gone infected, poison ivy, some unknown skin condition or what!
Me: “Did you fall, or get an injury of some sort? Did you scrape it while climbing a tree maybe or fall off your bike?”
9-year-old boy: “Ummm…I dunno.”
Me: “You don’t know if you fell down or not? You can’t remember if this is bleeding because of a tree?”
Boy: (shrugs)
Ah, parenting. 
When after a few days or a week of observing and applying some salve when we thought of it, the thing was clearly getting bigger, we figured it couldn’t be a scrape or abrasion.
We hit it harder and daily after that, using a few salves infused with things like comfrey, plantain, some healing essential oils and nourishing base oils, our hard lotion bars, and Redmond clay, and we kept it from spreading for a month…but we couldn’t make any improvements beyond that. The clay seemed to help the most especially if I applied a layer, waited 15-20 minutes and then washed it off, and we’d also usually follow with salve as well (so maybe it was just because we used two things).
In the face of the unknown, we treated the “rash” as if it might be contagious, washed our hands religiously, and didn’t let other kids touch it or reuse any washcloths. But it was still pretty nasty looking, bleeding enough that blood was on his sheets and pajamas, and while it wasn’t spreading, it certainly wasn’t showing any signs of receding either.
He had given up sweets for Lent and our family went 100% gluten-free during that time as well, and I wondered if going back to junk food after that made him flare up somehow. The timing was likely about right, although of course we didn’t know exactly when the beast had shown up, so who knows…
We had well-child checkups in mid-June, about 6-8 weeks after we discovered the problem.
“Any other questions?” doc asked.
“Well…what do you think this is?” I asked, pointing.
I didn’t expect the answer to be something I recognized, to be honest.
I’m pretty well-versed in eczema, since this same boy had had it mildly but often as a little one, and my husband has some chronic spots on his hands, ears, inner eyes and feet (I always wonder how much this may be related to his Crohn’s Disease).
My eyes popped out of my head and my jaw dropped when she quickly diagnosed the “unknown rash” as eczema.
“Eczema??!! Really??!!”
I couldn’t believe it, not only that (a) I hadn’t recognized it and really hadn’t even considered it, but most of all that (b) it was soooo severe. Its severity is likely why I didn’t recognize it, and I was also shocked that (c) it had returned on this kid after a number of years without any issue. (At least, that I knew of. When a child starts taking his own showers instead of bathing like a small child, the mother doesn’t get as many opportunities to see all of his skin.)
Now at least we knew what it was and could start treating it like eczema, which really was about the same as what we had been doing (salve, clay) except that we knew we should also moisturize it and keep it from drying out. With something like poison ivy, it’s better to let it dry out, so now we could start using our hard lotions bars more regularly. We tried to do lotion in the morning (when we’d remember) and a salve at bedtime.
Serendipitous Eczema Solution in my Email
Right about this time I rediscovered an email buried in my awfully full inbox from Ashley and Katie of the Crunchy Mamas. I had asked them if they had any new products to highlight, and their reply, which had been far too long ignored because I wasn’t sure how to answer, was this:
We are so stinking proud of Inflamed! Does someone in your family suffer from severe acne, eczema, psoriasis, or rosacea? If so, we would love for you to give Inflamed a try. Our lotion stick is also new and so amazing. I think people are scared to try lotion in a stick form and minus synthetic fragrance oils, so it would be nice to shed some love on our lotion stick as well.
What timing! I replied right away this time.
They gladly and generously sent a bottle of Inflamed, their oil blend that gives great relief to all those skin conditions, and they sent a double portion of their lotion stick.
“Inflamed took us a long time to research and test and we are beyond thrilled about how it works but just to be on the safe side you may want to check into all of the oils for yourself. I’m sure you will. You seem like a gal that does her research and I can definitely appreciate that 🙂
I sincerely hope that Inflamed helps your son. I have a girlfriend and her son has the worst eczema I’ve ever seen. It hurt my heart so bad to see him itch to the point of bleeding and to see my friend feel so helpless and lost. We started making Inflamed for them and fortunately, combined with a change in diet, it has been helping them so much.
I’m so impressed with the mandarin, sweet orange, and ylang ylang essential oils [In the lotion]! They do a great job of softening skin and relieving dryness.
I told the boy that we were going to get a new salve to test that’s specifically for eczema, and he wanted to know what’s in it. 🙂 That’s my boy!
We started our regimen of applying (at least) the lotion stick in the morning and the oil at night. The lotion stick is really nice because the boy can easily apply it himself – it’s a bit softer than our hard lotion bars, has beneficial essential oils in it for particular healing, and being in stick form is helpful for little ones to apply.
The “before” pictures were taken literally the night before we started using Inflamed, June 24th.
The Eczema Story Continues
Somewhere in mid-summer the eczema jumped to the other leg, much to our dismay although thankfully not so severe or large, and we tackled it with vigor using the same products. That went away completely in a few weeks, which was such a relief.
After a while the boy started calling the ladies behind Inflamed by name, and when he would see another Crunchy Mamas product in our house he would say, “Oh, that’s made by Katie and Ashley, right?” Clearly the oil was making some sort of impact! 
The eczema seemed to really be improving when we left for and during our 2-week vacation to visit family around Michigan, and we remained really consistent in applying our twice-a-day lotion stick and Inflamed, even though we were out of all our other eating, sleeping and chore routines. During this time, the boy would have had plenty more gluten than usual and more sweets, but for the most part we still ate pretty well (my mom is a real foodie too, lucky us!!).
Once we got home, I took the “after” pictures almost exactly 6 weeks after we had started using both of Crunchy Mamas’ products. I thought the rash area had been getting better, and I was finally able to compare and confirm that, yes, definitely, it was much improved!
I had been pretty sure we weren’t getting anymore blood on the sheets or PJs, which meant he wasn’t digging at it during sleep, and he said that while the Inflamed didn’t really help calm the itching, the lotion stick definitely did. (Similarly, the hard lotion and salves seemed to help in that arena, while the body’s initial reaction to clay is increased anti-histamine response = more intense itching. Typically that also means the itching decreases a few minutes after the clay is removed, but kids have a hard time embracing something that makes you feel worse first.)
The Setback
I was so excited to have proof that something we were doing was working! However – a week after returning home from our northern Michigan vacation, we had a set back.
By Wednesday or Thursday of that week, the eczema was getting markedly worse in the original area AND had hopped back to having three spots on the other leg, AND the few small spots around his mouth (that had previously disappeared and were no longer being treated) appeared again. No fun!
I can’t tell you how many doctors have told me that a skin issue likely isn’t related to food, even eczema. Dr Shiela Kilbane is convinced otherwise. In this interview I talked to her about how she became convinced, and how eliminating one food can make a HUGE difference for eczema.
Dr. Kilbane’s amazing course will help you do “root cause” detective work with your kids and figure out how to systematically get them through “common childhood illnesses” like constipation, asthma, bedwetting, recurrent ear infections, eczema and other skin rashes. Find out more here.
I know eczema often has environmental or food causal or exacerbating factors, like this great guest post explains, so I set to brainstorming what might be going on:
- Had he had more gluten, dairy, preservatives or “food” chemicals? That week we had eaten acceptable but sort of compromise dinners because of Vacation Bible School and its timing, and each night he had a typically atrocious, food-coloring-laden snack at VBS as well. But…it just didn’t seem like it could be that markedly different from the compromises and “fun food” we ate while away from home. Verdict: Possible but unlikely. NOTE: We have a fabulous guest post here from a mom who totally cured her baby’s eczema with dietary changes, and it’s WELL worth checking out.
- Were the sheets or clothing washed in different laundry soap? My mom and I actually both use Naturoli Extreme 18x (although I’m constantly trying new laundry options as review samples here and there, but I would have still expected there to have been more obvious ups and downs at home if that was the case). Verdict: Unlikely at best.
- How consistent had we been in applying the lotion and oil? We did miss an application of the oil that week and at least one of the lotion, but I thought we remained pretty consistent overall. Verdict: Possible but unlikely.
- Was there something about our house or our environment in West Michigan that was aggravating the eczema? Many in the family also got some allergy-type sneezes our first week back, and I realized that I hadn’t blown my nose once while I was at my parents’ and then suddenly had little sneezes and a mildly itchy and runny nose off and on. What was going on??? Did we need to move back to Northern Michigan? Verdict: Intriguing…and frightening.
Was it possible we simply compromised more than we thought that week of Vacation Bible School and less on our actual vacation, and that all of these reasons, combined with a few missed treatments, caused the flare-up? We rededicated ourselves to consistency and tried to add at least one additional application per day of something on the spots and sat back to see what would happen.
The spots on his face cleared up quickly, and we again knocked out the few spots on his other leg. I feel like it wasn’t long before the original location was back to the status of the “after” photos above. But it was certainly a strange setback and not-so-fun surprise!
We went on vacation to Florida late that summer too, and between the climate change, the sheets definitely not washed in anything verging on natural and all the chlorine in the pools, it’s certainly possible that something could have aggravated his eczema and made it worse. It looked pretty good that week though, definitely more along the lines of the “after” photos.
Grandma Gets Eczema Too
My mom had been battling a really annoying, dry, itchy skin problem since late winter, and when she had her yearly physical, the doc also diagnosed “eczema,” much to her surprise. She had never experienced anything in the eczema family before.
He ran through a massive list of possible causes, and none of them made any sense to her since her diet, lifestyle, etc. hadn’t truly changed (except for the better, moving toward more natural and fewer chemicals) over the years.
Until he hit “stress.”
They looked at each other, thought of my dad’s battle with cancer and all the stress that obviously had added to my mom’s life, and nodded. “I guess that must be it…”
While we were at their house visiting – which I can’t imagine reduced her stress as we don’t exactly bring a whirlwind of calm when we come for 10 days! – she tried the Inflamed oil on one arm/hand and a sort-of-natural hydrocortisone based cream on the other.
After slightly more than a week, she was very pleasantly surprised to say that the itching overall had died down almost completely on both arms, and for the first time all summer, the dryness and redness had receded quite nicely as well. (She had previously just been keeping those symptoms slightly at bay with hard lotion.) All the photos are “before” shots by the way.
Once we left, my mom stopped using either healing option.
And it all came back.
So the hypotheses include:
- Inflamed is as effective as hydrocortisone cream.
- My kids reduce her stress or are somehow eczema relief activators.
I wish my mom had continued with the cream on one arm as she had to stop the Inflamed on the other to see what the difference was, but we don’t have that data at this time. Maybe I should have sent her a bottle for a side-by-side test with nothing on the other arm.
We Finally Healed Our Eczema with one Simple New Habit
The eczema definitely was better on the trip to Florida in September and then surged worse again when we got home, lending some credence to the idea that there might be something in our home environment that was bothering him (or that chlorine played a role in healing).
Then my 6yo daughter got a patch in the exact same spot on the same leg as my son, and it quickly spread up her leg and across the waist area to the other leg. What? How is it happening in the same spot?
We began using the same regimen on her as our older son, and it was beating the eczema back but not winning 100%. She worked hard not to scratch her itchies, so her skin looked ultimately much better than his.
Our 3yo boy was just getting out of diapers and potty training when our fourth was born at the end of October, and he finished the job of getting into underwear full time that week. And eczema showed up in the SAME spot on him, too!
Now I really had to be a detective. This was so crazy!
I thought and thought about our environment at home and finally decided that if it was something bothersome like the water, a detergent, air quality, a mattress, or anything else, their patches still shouldn’t be in the same spot.
What do all 3 children touch with their bare upper left legs???
Toilet seats.
That’s the only connection I could think of and the fact that our 3yo had it flare up just as he was sitting on the toilet more often added fuel to that fire. We did 3 things all at once, and one or more of them was the magic button!
- I stopped cleaning toilets with straight vinegar. I figured that could be too harsh, and it had definitely taken the coating off one part of our toilet seat in the main floor bathroom – there were scratches or something that seemed to be allowing the insides of the seat, whatever that’s made of, to become exposed.
- We threw out that toilet seat and got a new one.
- After a few weeks, we went to the doctor’s to ask if he had any ideas. Their first recommendation was simply to moisturize more and deeper.
I brought the oils and she (doc’s PA) said that the oil might not be lasting long enough to keep the patches really, really moisturized. She recommended something with petroleum in it, but I decided the beeswax in MadeOn Hard Lotion would be strong enough for our first line of defense.
I’d been talking with my mom and musing about whether one reason that medicines from the doctor’s office work so well could be simply because we are more diligent about doing them because it’s “doctor’s orders.” Maybe if we would be more consistent with our home remedies, they’d work better.
So.
We spent how much money on a check-up for Paul to be told to use a good lotion three times a day instead of once or twice, started doing it religiously for all three kids, and BOOM. Within a few weeks, all three of them were 95% cleared up and then it all pretty much disappeared.
When their skin gets very dry, it might flare up a little, but it’s so minor and back to the hard lotion bar we go!
So for us, the culprit and solution were either a toilet seat environmental reaction or that
we just needed to heavily moisturize more often than we had been doing.
Isn’t it crazy that sometimes, all it takes is an expensive opinion to do something more often and be more consistent about it?
Willpower and self-discipline are more valuable than ever!
What you Need to Kick Eczema to the Curb
Remember, eczema is an autoimmune disorder that manifests itself through the skin, not a skin disorder. Topical treatments can certainly improve it or in some cases make it go away altogether, but sometimes the gut needs major healing before things truly clear up all the way.
- Buy some MadeOn Hard Lotion – bars, sticks or tubs, they all work – but apparently you need to use it 3 times a day instead of just at night! Doctor’s orders! (It should be said that obviously I am not a doctor, nurse, or anyone – just a mom. So don’t take my word for it…)
- Or you can make your own hard lotion too!
- Also be sure to read this post about our KS site editor’s daughter’s ongoing battle with eczema along with one more solution not mentioned here.
- I also think a good read is The Eczema Cure – if you don’t know w
here to start with dietary changes, definitely grab this one!
You’ll notice some of the eczema solutions here and elsewhere online may utilize essential oils…and as you work to perhaps avoid co-pays, steroid creams, and medical advice that treats the symptom, not the problem, you’ll run into “EOs” often.
I want to strongly encourage you to make sure you’re doing some education about essential oils beyond just reading a recipe for a DIY beauty product or a recommendation to treat something with an EO.
I’ve made all sorts of essential oil mistakes – from not diluting oils when they should have been to using oils on my kids that really aren’t recommended for that age group, from using too many drops in a beauty product and stinging faces of my friends to ingesting oils without nearly enough knowledge to be messing around with that.
There’s still so much I still don’t know about essential oils…
…and so many readers are hungry for more information!
I’ve often been sent to other blogs or blog posts about EOs, but so many sources are from a particular brand and/or someone who isn’t a certified aromatherapist. It’s hard to know who to trust.
Dr. Eric Z and his wife have a great reputation for reliable, high-quality information, and they’ve filmed a 10-Part Video Masterclass that will give you the confidence that you need to make healing remedies for your body & non-toxic natural recipes for your home with essential oils.
Their Essential Oils for Abundant Living Masterclass distills down what takes aromatherapists months and even years to learn and delivers an easy-to-follow roadmap so you can start to use essential oils in your home with confidence.
Luckily, no one in my family has any burns, inside or out, to show for it, but not everyone is so lucky. I wrote a post about careful use of EOs that I’d encourage you to read, and there’s also a wonderful masterclass available, Essential Oils for Abundant Living, that you may want to look into. The course is completely NON-BRANDED, which is really important to me.
Other Eczema Relief Options
The KS community always comes through with amazing ideas whenever I ask for help on Facebook, and this question was no exception:
Let’s talk eczema. My son had it mildly as a youngster, and suddenly it’s back with a vengeance, worse than I’ve *ever* seen, at age 9. I know two middle aged ladies who never had eczema in their lives and suddenly have it spreading and itching and driving them up the wall. What gives?
If you know your trigger or what might cause a flare up, let’s share so others can troubleshoot. This is driving me nuts lately!
Here are some of the ideas shared:
vitamins or supplements:
Test to find out if you’re deficient in:
- zinc
- magnesium
- copper
- Vitamin D (use the coupon KS10 for 10% off!) (try fish oil)
- try probiotics
- try inositol vitamin
- simply hydrate more (from within)
other possible causes:
- seasonal allergies
- unbalanced hormones
- chemical cleaners, air fresheners – switch to green cleaners (maybe avoid vinegar on your toilet seats?)
- stress, fear
- change in weather, location in the world/climate
- nickel from canned food linings, fillings, or jewelry
- vaccines
- adrenal fatigue
- yeast/candida
- mold or environmental allergens/older homes
- parasites (do a parasite cleanse)
- dental work
- antibiotic use or even overuse of decongestants/chronic colds
- misdiagnosis – for example, some have ringworm or dermatitis or a staph infection and docs say “eczema”
Remove from Diet:
- GMOs
- wheat
- grains
- sugars
- nightshades
- corn
- soy
- MSG
- chocolate (related to blood sugar)
- acidic fruits (pineapple, oranges)
- dairy or processed dairy (some have great success switching to raw milk or only fermented dairy)
- artificial food dyes
- any elimination diet – but sometimes the gut needs major healing before things truly clear up
- testing for food sensitivities (not allergies) can help: ALCAT and Alletess tests
- a helpful reminder: eczema is an autoimmune disorder that manifests itself through the skin, not a skin disorder…
creams and such
- Aveno Eczema Therapy
- steroid cream (but…)
- hard lotion bars
- weekly soak in dead sea salts
- plantain
- switching to Arbonne products (although my caveat is that when I read their ingredients, they don’t pass muster with me)
- Cetaphil’s soap and lotion for eczema
- fragrance-free lotions only
- BabyGanics Eczema cream
- UNDA 270 ointment
- here’s a homemade eczema cream
- rubbing half water-half apple cider vinegar over the area and letting it sit, then rinsing. Then coconut oil mixed with lavender essential oil.
- avoiding harsh soaps or even touching acidic foods: raw meat, avocado, tomatoes, etc. (use gloves)
Be sure to read this guest post about the author’s daughter’s ongoing battle with eczema along with one more solution not mentioned here.
Eczema could get an award, I think, for being the most popular ailment of our time. Boooooooo!
Too bad it’s not a fad like skinny jeans, right?
We’ve just got to keep working on finding the cause (or causes!) and using good stuff on the outside in the meantime to find relief.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links from which I will earn a commission. See my full disclosure statement here.
Katie Kimball is a trusted educator and author of 8 real food cookbooks. She is passionate about researching natural remedies and making healthy cooking easier for busy families. She’s been featured on media outlets like ABC, NBC and First for Women magazine as well as contributing regularly on the FOX Network. Over the last 10 years, Katie has spoken prolifically at conferences, online summits and podcasts and become a trusted authority and advocate for children’s health. Busy moms look to this certified educator for honest, in-depth natural product reviews and thorough research. She often partners with health experts and medical practitioners to deliver the most current information to the Kitchen Stewardship community. In 2016 she created the #1 bestselling online kids cooking course, Kids Cook Real Food, helping thousands of families around the world learn to cook. A mom of 4 kids from Michigan, she is a Stress Mastery Educator and member of the American Institute of Stress.
Brenda says
I have to comment with an observation with my adopted2 1/2 year old. When she came to our family, she had a nasty case of eczema. Doctor’s prescriptions were useless. Long story short — winter pjs were put away — unknown at the time, eczema was slowly disappearing. We thought it was due to more time outside in the sunshine. Then she found winter pjs and requested wearing them again, which she did, eczema returned immediately! For her it was the flame-retardant pjs. Years later with no store bought pjs, all was well; but this year at age 14, she was given some cute flannel pjs, guess what returned???? Guess what we remembered too late? Guess what is going in the garbage? Avoid flame-retartent anything.
Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship says
Brenda,
Thank you so much for sharing this story! I despise flame retardants in clothing but rarely hear of someone reacting to it immediately (although how many do and have no idea!!???). I like having this story to show people now! 🙂 Katie
Zoe says
I’ve had eczema my whole life and in 2013 went through the process of Topical Steroid Withdrawal as my health was rapidly deteriorating in every way, my allergies, my eczema spreading and getting worse, needing stronger steroid creams etc.
The withdrawal is horrific but it does teach you this one highly important FACT: creams of any kind simply treat the symptoms, not the real problem. And steroid creams SUPPRESS the symptoms, which means they push down the problem back into the immune system, and it manifests in other ways like increased allergies, chronic fatigue, worsening asthma and so on. I highly recommend ANYONE with eczema in their family check out Itsan.org for support, information and advice.
My body is still righting itself from 30+ years of pharmaceutical ‘abuse’ given on prescription for my eczema, asthma and allergies. But I have COMPLETELY HEALED:
– my asthma, for which I used to be tied to my inhalers daily and couldn’t go out without them
– my allergies – no more horrendous hayfever (at all!), no allergies to random other stuff
– my congestion, sinusitis, headaches, migraines etc – for which I used to take regular OTC meds
– an inability to sweat normally (face would go bright red, and hands and feet would get excessively sweaty)
– irregular, very heavy periods
– random, regular and heavy bruising all over (yes, this was related!)
– chronic fatigue – and in fact resulting in adrenal exhaustion/failure
– and much more
I’m healing in layers, from the inside out, so eczema is still prevalent BUT it is always improving and I know, above all, I’m no longer suppressing the real problem. I am in fact the HEALTHIEST I have ever been in all my 35 years!
It’s so important to realise that eczema is NOT just itchy skin – it is always, always, always a symptom of a much deeper problem, and this usually goes back to the gut.
Fix your gut (which may well take some time and several attempts) and you fix ALL your chronic health issues.
I write about my story in my own work now. Once I tried to avoid it but now I understand just how CRUCIAL it is to share and support people through their own healing. If anyone wants to contact me, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Let’s heal ourselves from this demon illness, once and for all!
Zoë ????????????
Paula says
Mine started at the age of 58. I had started swimming nightly, and both of my ears became infected. When I went to my eye, ear, nose and throat doctor she gave me some medication for the infections, but also told me that she noticed eczema had developed in my ears.
I fight it daily from the time I wake up in the morning until I go to bed. I use Campo-phenique, which helps more than anything I think. I’ve also been known to use hand sanitizer. I also bought a very small tube of a lotion called Renew, which some sufferers gave high marks to, but haven’t really been totally consistent with it. Those little sample bottles of Aveeno Skin Relief formula help a bit also.
I also have one small spot on my forearm and sometimes around the side of my nose where it creases. I do not have any itching with it though.
Lisa says
Thanks for posting this! I have been trying to figure out what is causing my daughter’s eczema for almost a year. She had eczema as an infant but it cleared up once we found out she had a dairy and egg allergy. When we moved, her eczema returned. I’ve been trying to figure out what changes in her diet occurred when we moved but after reading your post, I realized I changed one of my cleaning products that I use to wipe the toilet and other surfaces in the bathroom. I don’t know if its the cause (her eczema is on her back, arms, and legs) but it’s worth trying! I am also looking into getting a water softener (we had one at our old house) but unfortunately, there isn’t much room in the area where the pipes are located (It’s in our laundry room, along with the water heater, furnace, and humidifier).
Again, thank you for sharing your story!
Marie says
I’ve noticed that the humidity level makes a huge difference. Dry skin always causes my skin to flare up and I need to run vaporizers and keep the humidity pretty high for it to heal. My skin heals when I go on vacation to places that are pretty humid, especially if they are near a body of water. My guess is that might have been why your sons eczema healed in Florida. Other things have caused my eczema too, such as reactions to environmental factors and diet. But once I changed all the environmental and dietary triggers that have been mentioned, while it got better, I was still having problems especially on my hands. I put natural products on them that I make out of Shea butter, coconut oil, essential oils, etc. and I drink a lot of water to stay hydrated but this only means I’m washing my hand more because I’m going to the bathroom more. And the problem with any natural hand products is that they get anything I touch greasy if I put enough on for it to have an effect at protecting them from dry air. So I’m always struggling with keeping my eczema on my hands at bay. I have to keep the humidity at least at 60% for my hands not to feel like all the moisture is being sucked out of them and for them to begin healing or not flare up again. As long as I run vaporizers and keep the air pretty humid I’ve learned that I can actually eat some wheat and dairy and still be okay. Between heat and air conditioning houses are actually pretty dry year round in Michigan. I do wonder if I attempted a GAPS diet if I could get rid of my eczema completely, even if my skin was dry but I don’t know. My diet is already so clean and organic, and I did eliminate grains and dairy for a while, that attempting a GAPS diet is the only other step I can think of taking to eliminate my eczema completely. I’m curious if anyone else on here knows whether or not dry air causes eczema or if keeping the air humid is still just masking a deeper internal problem. I know that the humidity level I keep it at probably isn’t comfortable for a lot of people but I’ve found that my asthma, which also rarely acts up unless I’m sick or exercising, will act up if the air is too dry so high humidity works for me.
Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship says
You’ve done some great troubleshooting, Marie! I’ve heard recently that if being in pools (or doing a bleach bath) doesn’t help, it could be candida instead of eczema. ?? Just one more nugget of wisdom for your experiments. Best of luck! 🙂 Katie
Sarah says
Ok, I’ve got to post with a treatment update.
I read an article about a month ago written about treating eczema with homeopathy. It was the one “natural” remedy I had yet to try on my son. After more research, I learned that eczema is a condition that is often highly sensitive and therefore highly responsive to subtle treatments like homeopathy.
So there are about half a dozen or more typical homeopathic remedies for eczema. I had to figure out which one to try based on detailed symptoms and then figure out dosing, it would’ve been a lot easier if there were a homeopath in my area that I could consult. However, it was worth it. I started giving my son Sulphur 30c (3 pellets, 3x a day) and initially his rashes got worse (which is typically the way you know the treatment is starting to work) and then they began to improve and his scratching subsided substantially–this is without doing anything else different day to day, no diet changes, etc. I’m still giving Sulphur to him, but it might take several months to totally rid him of his rash, according to my research. Even if it doesn’t go all the way, it has greatly helped my son, therefore it is worth it in my book.
There are many cases of children becoming eczema free with homeopathy. I never realized how much it could help until we took the plunge, carefully researching, administering, and recording changes. It is not the easiest solution because of the complexity of homeopathy and each case being treated different from another, but it is such a relief to finally find something that works after over a year of searching. The biggest plus is that I don’t have the slightest anxiety over this treatment because it helps the body heal itself. Finally a win!
ellen says
It could very well be related to the Crohn’s. I have both; and my doctor wasn’t surprised. He said both are immune reactions and my immune system is way too active (had an auto-immune bile-duct disease too, prior to a transplant). Something set off my immune response in my teens.
Helen @ Kitchen Stewardship says
I hate not knowing how long to try something before giving up on it, too. Today she was scratching at her legs every time I took her pants off for a diaper change 🙁 Hang in there!
kitty says
My eczema of nearly sixty years finally cleared up when I eliminated dairy. Wow.
Sheila says
I have dyshidrotic eczema (also called pompholyx) on my hands, between my fingers. It’s the kind that is teeny tiny blisters. I’m pretty sure it started when we moved to this house, with no dishwasher, and I started having to do all the dishes by hand. It might be the soap, but apparently it can also be triggered just by having wet hands. 😛 As well as by any kind of allergy, so that doesn’t narrow it down AT ALL.
One thing that does help which you didn’t mention is witch hazel. That helps dry up the blisters and take down any swelling. If any of your readers suffer from this kind of eczema, I highly recommend it.
Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship says
Thanks Sheila!! I got an email about hard vs. soft water – soft water (or soaking hands in water with the softening salts in it) cured a few people in the reader’s family right up! Do you have hard water there? Wouldn’t it be awesome if the fix was that simple? Hoping it is for you!!! 🙂 Katie
Sue says
Sounds just like my 9 y/o! We did all the food things first, then finally ran an allergy test. Dust Mites! A daily zyrtec keeps it in check with steroid cream for rare flare-ups.
We are a GF home and I was certain it would be something food related. I wish we would have run tests earlier!
Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship says
Huh…I do have a pretty dusty house Sue! That’s very interesting…thank you! 🙂 Katie
Heidi @ Barefoot and Paleo says
Nothing worked for my son. His ezcema (allergies) were pretty severe. I tried lotions, creams, oils, changing diet, no chemicals and nothing helped, actually made it worse. His body did not like coconut oil.
Then I found NAET and everything changed. Everything he was allergic to was cleared making his skin super clear without us avoiding anything including food. It is truly amazing!
This is his story:
http://www.barefootandpaleo.com/2014/05/natural-allergy-relief-naet-success-story.html
Helen @ Kitchen Stewardship says
Heidi,
Thanks so much for sharing! I loved reading his story and then yours. I’m working on my daughter’s eczema right now, with no clue what is causing it. My son has peanut and egg white allergies. I have heard of NAET but not looked into it and I should. So glad your son is healed. Those photos are heartbreaking.
Jessica says
I’ve had it off and on my entire life. In the past 4 years or so, we’ve eaten a much more clean, traditional/whole foods diet and that helped a lot. But there are flare ups. I research and read a ton (because my youngest has struggled pretty badly with this too) and here’s two things I see as big contributors for the unexplained flare ups.
First, stress-stress-stress. People often forget what a BIG trigger stress is for folks with any kind of inflammatory or auto-immune condition. This can be emotional stress like your mom went through, or the physical stress of an illness. I just recently got a nasty head cold and the eczema flared up on my hands pretty badly just a few days later.
Second, I really think that changing gut health can be closely linked to unexplained appearances of eczema in folks who either hadn’t ever had it before, or at least not in a few years. We can say that a person’s diet hasn’t changed in years–so why the rash? BUT–perhaps they have a bit of leaky gut going on, and the foods that never bothered them before are now a trigger.
I was diagnosed with a wheat allergy and nut sensitivities this summer, following a severe eczema flare. I had been eating those foods with seemingly no problem for years. Now I suspect that my digestive tract needs a little TLC to keep these food allergies and symptoms from multiplying.
Angela says
My family has battled eczema over the years as well. When my twins were babies, it was all over their head and faces. We thought they had outgrown it when they were little boys, but then it came back on the legs just like how you described with your 9-year-old… bleeding sheets and all. It was always on the back of the legs and in the bends of the arms and legs. It took us years and lots of various treatments to finally discover the triggers: sweat mixed with polyester, along with eggs in the diet. Yep. Weird combination. When they would go to karate class, they would get all hot and sweaty in their polyester uniforms. Often times I would have to run an errand or two on our way home. They would sit in the car and the sweat on the back of their legs combined with the polyester in their uniform would cause the eczema. When we stopped karate (for other reasons), the eczema started getting better. We finally figured it out and now completely avoid polyester clothing and sheets. One of my sons would still get a little flare up from time to time. After doing some allergy testing, we discovered he is also mildly allergic to eggs. Eliminate the eggs the eczema goes away. We already eliminate peanuts due to a life-threatening allergy, but eggs are in more things. Using natural oils and lotions to keep it in check while still enjoying eggs might be a possibility. Thanks!
Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship says
Good for you to figure it out, Angela!! My husband’s always flares on his hands when he plays hockey (in pads) or mows the lawn or shovels…I never thought that it might be a particular material; we just thought it was sweaty, moist conditions. I’ll have to see what all his gloves are made of!
Thanks! Katie
Erin says
Some people have had success soothing their eczema with Radiantly You Dead Sea Mud soap and Healing Calendula balm. http://www.radiantlyyou.com/ErinRF
Zephyr via Facebook says
Do you have something that is good for rosacea?
Erin says
Zephyr. I know I mentioned Radiantly You already (if my comment is showing up??) but I want to mention it again. We can’t make medical claims but our Dead Sea Whipped Face Wash and Antioxidant Facial Moisturizer have worked well with many skin issues on the face. It has evened out my skin tone for sure! You can check them out on my website. http://www.radiantlyyou.com/ErinRF
Crunchy Mamas says
Inflamed works great for rosacea as well!
Tracy says
My son had eczema when he was a baby, so we went on the SCD at 18 months. It went away immediately, but then came back & would come & go. It took me a year to figure out it was from eating eggs. We stayed on the SCD since recent lab tests showed he has gut dysbiosis. If he “cheats” too much a few spots will pop out on his cheeks, but other than that, I am so thankful he doesn’t have any more problems.
Paula says
My husband gets it on his feet and hands. We switched to Norwex body cloths, so we didn’t have to worry about any soap ingredients. We just wash with the cloth and water. We switched to a natural shampoo and hand soaps too.
I also found that a coconut, lemon and lavender oil mixture helps too.
Gayle says
Yes!! I have never had eczema in my life until this year. I came down with a bad case of some sort of flu. About the time I started to feel back to normal, my legs broke out between my knees and ankles. It took me quite awhile to figure out what it was too. Once I did, I tried just about every natural product out there to try to get some relief. Some things helped a bit, but it would always flare back up terribly. I finally got a “clear skin” essential oil blend, and, over time, it seemed to make a big difference. The rash has been gone for several months now except for two tiny spots one calf. They just won’t go away no matter what I do. I can’t say for sure that it was the essential oils that did it. It may have just “run its course”. I think the stress that the flu caused on my immune system triggered the whole thing. I never knew that something like that could happen, but it makes sense!
heather says
I was watching a tv show that was about building tiny houses but on it the mom mentioned she had to have a tub in her tiny house because her kids suffered big time from eczema and they did nightly detox baths. I forget all they she used, I think something about apple cider vinegar and mineral salts. Just an idea I thought might be good to pass along.
Diana says
Yes, I’ve had pregnancy-induced eczema during both of my pregnancies. My skin looked like your son’s before pictures, but covered all the skin between my knees and my ankles. It was embarrassing, painful, and about to drive me crazy. I ended up cutting out dairy and coffee, soaking in a baking soda bath and using a heavy moisturizer, and it totally cleared up!
For what it’s worth, I love, love the hard lotion bars and coconut oil as a moisturizer, but they did not work for my eczema. I ended up getting a Eucerin-type cream to really, truly lock in moisture to take away the dry skin factor (that really exacerbated my itching). Now I’m usually back to hard lotion which is wonderful!
Thanks for these product recommendations–I will be checking into them for our family! Also, here’s an article I wrote with many of the itch-relief techniques I’ve used 🙂 My favorites are peppermint oil and the wet pajamas method. (They say cold and itch travel along the same nerve fibers, so if you introduce coldness with damp fabric, the itch will subside. It also locks in moisture.) http://www.modernalternativemama.com/blog/2014/02/21/tips-for-managing-pregnancy-induced-eczema/
Christine says
I too have been diagnosed at a later age. The first doctor said I had scabies. The second, a dermatologist, also thought scabies. At a two week exam, she realized that it wasn’t and we did steroids and creams. She also did a skin allergy test which showed nothing (and drove me crazy)! The steroids did show me that the “stabbings” were allergy related. (It felt like someone was actually poking me with a pin.) Another dermatologist did a couple of skin biopsies and it came back as definitely eczema. Since I have a number of autoimmune illnesses this isn’t a surprise. What is a surprise is to see your mother’s hands. Every winter my hands would get like that and worse. I hate all the creams, they are so heavy to me. This article comes at a great time since I’m tired of all the stuff I have to put on me, but nothing seems to be curing me. Last night I tried avocado oil and that seems to be doing a better job than all the other stuff the dr prescribed. I’m going to try your article recommendations. (I’ll try the salt, too since a couple of years ago I took baths with epsom salts.) Thank you!
Wendy C says
I am surprised that leaky gut/dysbiosis isn’t listed as the number 1 cause of eczema. My 2-year-old sons and I have been on the GAPS (no-grain/sugar/starchy veggies) diet for 18 months now to combat our eczema. My toddler just got rid of Candida, but even now we infrequently eat honey and fruit. We buy local/unsprayed/organic/pastured vegetables and meat from the farmer’s market and supplement at the natural grocery store. We do not use soap on our bodies, we use a laundry ball and washing soda to wash our 100% cotton clothes and organic bedding. I just bought Himalayan salt lamps for our entire house, and I just started using a salt inhaler (my toddler doesn’t know how to use it yet). Why? Because on our vacation to Hawaii over the summer, my little boy’s all-over-the-body eczema was 90% gone and he became itch-free while we were there. It’s not just the humidity, I strongly believe that it’s the salt that our skin was always in contact, that we didn’t have A/C in our condo rental, and we were breathing it in internally that really helped us. My eczema is in my hands only, and after 3 days with the lamps around us and 2 days using the inhaler, I have also became less itchy, red/inflamed, and bumpy. Eczema is a beast. But I’m hoping by healing and sealing our gut through the GAPS protocol, we will get rid of eczema for good.
Mindy Hoffman says
I thought I’d post a comment just in case there may be someone else who could benefit from my experience. I randomly started suffering with eczema around my eyes and on my hands at about 42 years of age. I had never had any skin problems before. My hands were terrible , at times hurting so bad I couldn’t sleep from how painful they were. All the Dr. did for me was diagnose me with eczema and hand me steroid cream. I changed my diet, began using supplements like cod liver oil and whatever I could find in my research to try to nourish my skin from the inside out as well as from the outside in. I finally read an article about a common preservative in liquid soaps, creams, make-up , etc. that Drs were noticing caused eczema-like skin issues. The chemical is Methylisothiazolinone or MIT or MI. Is shows up everywhere… even in liquid soap that you think is good like Mrs. Meyers and Seventh Generation. As soon as I eliminated all products with this chemical, my eczema vanished. If I accidentally use a soap with MIT in it (like in a restroom at a store) a day or two later, my skin starts getting all inflamed and cracked. It lasts about a week before it all clears up again. It’s a pain to have to watch for the chemical, but so nice to not be suffering. The blessing is that I’ve learned so much about nourishing foods, how to make my own skin-care products, and herbal medicines that my whole family is benefiting from what was a miserable experience. Hopefully someone else out there can be helped my knowing MIT can cause what appears to be eczema.
Helen @ Kitchen Stewardship says
Mindy,
Yes – a family member sent me a recent article on this ingredient being in baby wipes. Thankfully it isn’t in the Pampers that I am currently using. It stinks when you can’t give blanket-trust to any brand, even the natural onces. Glad you figured it out!
Christine Brown says
Is there a particular type/brand of hand soap that you can recommend? Thanks!
Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship says
Hi Christine!
I use Branch Basics diluted in a foaming pump (economical too!) at our house – super clean ingredients!
http://kitchenstewardship.com/branchbasics
🙂 Katie
Helen @ Kitchen Stewardship says
I gave in to some steroid creams for my 19-month-old because it has plagued her for over a year and doesn’t seem to depend on season or food (we eliminated dairy). I used it for 10 days to get it to a really good place and now I just moisturize her a couple times a day with Alba Unpetroleum. This is really great stuff – it’s basically a natural vaseline. It seems to be helping her. She’s not red anymore but still has rough patches.
Sarah says
Did the steroid cream had a lasting effect on your child? My 18 month old son was just prescribed a steroid cream, he’s also had itchy rashes in his creases for a year or so. I’m afraid to use the cream, but if it truly gets the rash to a better place I’d be more apt to use it.
Hydrocortisone never gave lasting results, so I stopped trying. I eliminated a bunch of food and nothing worked. I don’t have carpet and I don’t use anything with harsh chemicals or fragrance. I even use a HEPA filter in the kids room at night just in case. Nothing has changed. It is driving me nuts trying to figure out what could possibly make an otherwise healthy child have a constant rash.
Helen @ Kitchen Stewardship says
The steroid seemed to help more than the hydrocortisone but not 100%. She almost seems worse now (after using my homemade lotion) so I honestly have no idea what to do for her. I did order the Inflamed and lotion stick from Crunchy Mamas so here’s hoping! I think it is worth a shot if you are comfortable with it – my personal opinion is that sometimes that is just what works best if you follow the doctor’s orders on how long to use it. They shouldn’t have you use it for very long. I can’t decide what food I should eliminate next, since dairy didn’t seem to help. Our allergist, who I like and trust, said her eczema isn’t caused by food 🙁 so I’m not sure I can even ask for testing…
Sarah says
My dermatologist said that the kind of eczema my son has is not related anything he eats. He said that parents of kids who get eczema from certain foods can tell pretty easily that those foods are the culprits. However, the doc didn’t say what else might be causing it. He basically said there’s no ultimate cure. People with no allergies can have eczema too, according to my pediatrician and dermatologist. So, I may be in for a lot of dead ends with this research–but I haven’t given up.
PS–every time in use oils or other natural remedies the eczema seems worse, so I know how frustrating it is. The only thing that has ever made the rash go away was hydrocortisone. Ugh, so not my first choice for treatment.
Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship says
Sarah, Huh…I don’t know how much I’d trust a medical doc who says it’s “easy” to tell what foods cause a skin reaction! I mean…without an elimination diet, any kid is probably eating gluten, dairy, and tons of other foods every single day. So how are you supposed to be able to tell without working quite hard at it? Eczema is definitely not always caused by allergies..but I still don’t like his answer. 🙂 I got an email saying that hard water caused eczema in her family and using a water softener (or soaking hands in water with the softener salts in it) cleared it right up when nothing else did! So many options to try…
I wish you much luck!!!
🙂 Katie