Eczema Relief!

These days it seems like eczema is becoming something rather common, almost like a rite of childhood. When my son started suffering from it at around the age of 2 I, like most other parents took him to our family doctor for some answers. We were given steroid creams and no answers. I reluctantly tried them, but found they provided no relief. It seemed strange to me to just treat the symptoms when I was more concerned about treating the cause. One trip to the Naturopath provided us with some much needed answers. He suggested we:

1. Keep child away from allergy causing soaps. Look closely at laundry detergent, body soap, and shampoos. Most are chemically based which only aggravate the skin.

2. Find out what is causing the body to produce these flare ups; thereby treat the cause, not the symptom. This was done with a simple, non invasive, electrodermal sensitivity test. From that we determined that he was sensitive to the usual suspects like peanuts, wheat and dairy but also to foods like tomatoes, peaches, and broccoli. He suggested removing these from his diet in the interim.

3. Add a good quality probiotic. We buy the liquid because we just find it easier to give to a child. A supplement that contains beneficial organisms – to improve intestinal health, can lead to substantial protection against food allergies (Dr. Kim). A disturbed balance of good and harmful bacteria in the large intestine can cause unbalance within the body.

4. Add fish oil to the diet. We use a lemon flavored cod liver oil. Our son actually likes the taste! (To be honest it’s quite tolerable.) I add it to smoothies or mix it in with his liquid multivitamin. He actually requests it.

After trying these suggestions we noticed results within a week! He no longer suffers from eczema, and we were gradually able to reintroduce some of the foods from his ‘hitlist’ like tomatoes and broccoli. We still avoid dairy and wheat however.