This blog is an amalgamation of some eczema information I shared on my Nature of Kids facebook page – if you don’t follow it, but would like to click here

Eczema… Part 1:

Is it due to something external or internal?? That is the question so many clients ask me.
For me personally – as I grew up with eczema, and my daughter had some as a baby, it was, and is both.
I used to get it really badly in the creases of my arms as a child, and then it returned on my hands and cheek when I went through a heavy metal detox as an adult. I blamed the detox – but the truth took me many years to figure out.
I had eczema all through my naturopathic degree and tried every remedy that was suggested – omega 3’s, zinc, probiotics etc. I was eating really well – eggs and veggies for breakfast, salads for lunch and more veggies and protein for dinner. This way of eating started when I saw the practitioner for the heavy metal detox – as he’d stressed the importance of a vegetables, and eggs for breakfast.
But this wasn’t working… So after I graduated I ran a food biocompatibility test on myself – and eggs came up as an issue! What?! Eggs are healthy? I’d been eating them daily for years, since before my eczema began – and BAM – I’d found my main trigger.
The eczema cleared really quickly once I removed them, and a few other foods that were incompatible from my diet. But it still flares from time to time due to external triggers – like getting dish soap on my hands because I forget to wear gloves!

Eczema… Part 2

Now this is a bit of a scary one… Did you know that food based ingredients in skin care products can sensitise a child to that food?

That means that putting a cream on your child’s skin that contains food based oils, oats, peanut oil, wheatgerm, goats milk, and more – can lead to an allergy to that food!

This is why many eczema creams are so chemical based – and whilst they’re nasty and I’d still likely avoid them – it is very rare that someone would react to them allergy wise.

When the skin barrier is broken – we run the risk of particles reacting with our internal immune system.

Had you heard this before? Does your cream contain foods??

Eczema…. Part 3

Do you know the one thing that made the eczema on my hands intensely itchy at night?

Moisturiser!

We are constantly told to keep the skin moisturised, and during the day this was ok advice – although I tended to only get relief from each cream for a few weeks before it made me itch again.

But at night – I would wake, scratching uncontrollably until I washed the cream off. For me – it was better that they were dry and not itchy, than moist and burning.

So notice – do you or your child scratch more at a certain time?

If eczema is interfering with you day – please know, we can figure out the trigger, so you can live life without the itch!

Feel free to leave comments here or email me if you have questions as i’d love to delve deeper with you on why this is happening and what you can do about it.