A quick history. Alexa had baby eczema (on face only) at around two months, but it went away after a few weeks. She was also allergic to dairy. I breastfed her for one year and gave up dairy products. She developed asthma at 16 months, was hospitalized, then got another attack two months later and was again hospitalized. I camped out with her at the hospital both times. Neither of us got much sleep, since I was asked to administer her drug treatments at night every three hours. She was only at the hospital for one night both times, but she was prescribed Pulmicort and Albuterol for whenever she got sick or started wheezing. I did my best to avoid the use of these drugs, so I was very inconsistent with it. Then all of a sudden, her facial eczema returned and this time it looked like chicken pox. It took over six months before the red bumps went away and almost a year before the scars faded completely. She was 3 years old by then. After several months without using the drugs, eczema patches developed on her arm and on her leg. She spent a summer of scratching, peeling, bleeding and dried crusty pus. I learned later that this round of eczema was directly related to her coming off steroidal drugs. Steroids are immune suppressants, so when my daughter went off of them, the immune system suddenly had a chance to work again and it "overreacted."
Travis developed cradle cap and eczema at three months. His eczema is just about clearing out, much to my surprise, and the process which I underwent to finding its "cure" is the purpose of this blog. His eczema was on his face only. He was breastfed until he was nine months and after two weeks of fighting with him, I put him on goat milk with some brown rice syrup and a generic infant liquid multi, following Dr. Sear's advice. The goat milk formula gave him severe constipation and anal bleeding. Then I found Sally Fallon's homemade infant formula recipe with goat milk, which was fantastic for one week and then he had the worst case of eczema ever. It was so bad, I had to take him to see the pediatrician, who was equally horrified, gave him antibiotics, applied a multi-antibacterial cream on him and swabbed the cold sores in his inner cheeks and tongue with a Maalox/Benadryl mix. He could not eat well, because the sores had yanked his upper lip open such that he could not close it to chew. He cried and I cried with him for over a week before he started healing up again.
My daughter currently has no eczema, no asthma and has not taking a single puff of either Pulmicort or Flovent HFA or Albuterol in over two years.
Here is a photo of my sweet prince taken 5.28.08--
Taken 6.12.09--
Taken 6.19.09--
I can't take credit for the Divine power who guided me in this process, but I can take credit for not having given up and would encourage anyone to do the same. Your kids will thank you when they grow up, especially after you "torture" them with stories of your angst and suffering! I hope my sharing the journey blesses you.
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