(If you’ve been reading through my Journey to Healthy Eating series, some of this information will be a repeat for you.  I’m just wanting to make sure any new people know what I’m talking about!)  Also, this is a really long post…I had a lot to say. 
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If you’ve had a child suffer from eczema, even a mild case, it can be incredibly frustrating to helplessly watch them suffer.

Our youngest son, now five, developed severe eczema when he was just two months old.  We allowed one round of an oral steroid and half a tube of cortisone cream before learning that his condition was chronic and the drugs, if they were to get rid of the eczema symptoms, would be a permanent part of his life.  So would be the terrible side effects of the drugs if we continued to give them to him. 

So we chose to stop.  We refused to give these life altering drugs to our baby.

We were learning more about nutrition, drugs, whole body health at that time.  Through MUCH trial, error and prayer…we found a few things that helped him.  There was NO quick fix because it has been a matter of healing his body from the inside out.  Some of the things we did helped immediately (like changing detergents and soaps), but overall healing is STILL taking place five years later.  I wish I could tell you otherwise. 

I want to share these ideas with you…not because I’m just SURE they’ll help your child.  Every child and every eczema case is different.  Plus, I’m not a doctor…I’m just a mama. 

And please no matter what your opinion is about drugs, can you please not leave a comment chewing us out because we didn’t give them to our son.  I’ve had enough criticism about our choices to last…forever.  Thanks.

Remember, we learned that eczema is not merely a skin issue…there’s much more to it than that.  But, here are the best changes we’ve made and the best products we’ve found to help our son Malachi with his eczema symptoms:

1. We began eating organic, natural and unprocessed whole foods.  You’ll read more about all of this (all over my site), specifically in my Journey to Healthy Eating series.  We specifically kept Malachi away from grains and sugar for quite a while to help his immune system and to help with his digestion.
2. We found this fragrance and dye free laundry detergent from Shaklee to be the best and only one that would not make his rash worse.  Many people have suggested that we make our own detergent, but I have yet to see a homemade detergent without borax as an ingredient, and I’m not convinced that borax is okay for our skin.
3. We use only pure coconut soap from Tropical Traditions.
4. Lotion in general just doesn’t offer much comfort for Malachi’s dry itchy skin.  IF we use lotion, we use this fragrance free lotion from Tropical Traditions.    We’ve found that straight coconut oil works much much better. 
5. We started supplementing him with Black Current Seed Oil that we got from our chiropractor.  Malachi takes it orally, plus we open up a tab and rub the oil onto his worst sores.  This has been a HUGE help for his overall healing (digestive system healing) and I’ll talk more about it in my Journey to Healthy Eating series.
6. Speaking of chiropractors, we try to take Malachi in for regular chiropractic adjustments.  If his body is in alignment, he does better.  Plus, our chiropractor focuses on nutrition, allergies and needed supplements.
7. We limit the baths.  The water seems to dry his skin more, so once or twice a week is his limit.  Faithfully after a bath, we slather him with coconut oil.
8. He wears mostly 100% cotton clothing so his skin can “breathe” better.
9. We clean the house either with good old fashioned water and vinegar…or Basic H from Shaklee.  We have NO toxic cleaners in our house anymore.  Read here about all of the soaps and cleaners we use.
10. Allergy testing…and desensitizing.  Our chiropractor tested Malachi, then one by one he desensitized him for any allergies that he was showing a sign of.  We were surprised that as he got older, different allergies showed up that hadn’t when he was tiny.  It never hurts to try again.  (P.S.  The desensitizing process is super simple and painless…just a little different if you’re used to conventional methods of doctoring.  Here’s a link my chiropractor directed me to, explaining more about this process.  Not that I completely understand it.  But it did help Malachi quite a bit.)
11. I can’t say enough about this one:  SUNSHINE.  We completely avoid sunscreen because it makes Malachi break out terribly.  However, the sunshine makes his rash SO much better.  Summer is our favorite time of the year.  He always feels so much better in the summer when he’s in the sun.  We just make sure he’s in the sun long enough to grab some good vitamin D…but not long enough to get a sunburn.  We call it the “in the sun…out of the sun…in the sun…out of the sun…” method.
12. Prayer, prayer, prayer.  God is the ultimate healer and we are so thankful to know that He loves Malachi even more than we do.

Ultimately, we have found that eczema or not…using high quality products in our home for cleaning and eating high quality unprocessed foods is best for all of us!  We are so thankful for the changes we’ve made for our family…and for the relief Malachi has found as well!

Now that Malachi is five, his eczema is SO much better.  The worst area is on his legs, and we’re hoping that once the sun starts shining a little more regularly again and he can be out in it…his legs will clear up more.  His cheeks are now SO SOFT that I CAN’T stop kissing them.  And he just lets me…great little accommodating guy that he is.

If you know of any other great, natural remedies for eczema, please leave a comment letting us know.  I’d love for this post and all the comments to be a great resource for parents looking for answers!

P.S.  If you’re interested in trying any of the products from Tropical Traditions I mentioned in this post, click here to read about how you can receive a free book from TT about the great benefits of coconut oil.