It took me a long time to learn all of this, and I share this information only so that I can prevent these painful rashes in your little one.

As I said in my previous post, I most likely developed these rashes because I was fed formula and was allergic to the formula.

After many years and much trial and error (and avoidance of certain foods) I discovered the following:

• Steroidal creams temporarily help the problem and the rash comes back WORSE when the cream is stopped. Since you can’t use the cream forever, you’ll have to uncover another solution if you want a permanent change.
• Adding probiotics to the diet is important. I really like Primal Defense; it works well for me. Since we’re all different chemical beings, another brand might work better for you or your baby.
• Adding raw cultured vegetables to the diet helps. I buy them them from Rejuvenative Foods in my local health food store.
• Using a protective cream such as calendula (mmmm, smells good!) or Aquaphor helps seal in the moisture and relieve pain and redness.
• When the itching is really bad, a little hydrocortisone cream can help. This isn’t my favorite option since it’s not natural, but it’s better than going crazy due to the itching.
• I eliminated dairy, wheat, tomatoes, bananas, eggs, sugar, and gluten from my diet for several weeks. I experienced ENORMOUS improvement.
• Foods that can be used instead of the above include: quinoa, amaranth, millet, brown rice, jasmine rice and any number of fruits and vegetables.

I ate macrobiotically for a while, too. That really helped me a great deal, and it was hard to continue it since so much socializing happens over food. However, I did keep some of the healthy recipes in my file for the kitchen. Miso soup has a lot of enzymes that are good for the digestion. Grated daikon is delicious and helps with skin problems. I felt lucky that my skin woes led me to such a delicious way of eating!

What I’ve written above is not a comprehensive program. It’s simply an outline of where this health adventure took me and what worked for me personally.

Good luck!

Every time I hear about a baby getting eczema, my heart breaks in two.

Many years ago, I was a baby like that.

I chalk up my painful, agonizing eczema to an allergy to my formula and to not being breastfed. Rashes covered my entire body. I itched constantly. My parents, who rarely used A/C, used it during the summer so I would not scratch as much.

I cried.

Visiting the dermatologist, for me, was a regular event.

I got steroids and creams (even prednisone in my later years!) and the rashes always came back. Prednisone made me hyper but it didn’t help my skin for the long term.

The dermatologist said it would disappear when I was 13. I’m not sure why 13 was the magic number according to the doctor, but I looked forward to that age for 6 years or more. I wished away days and weeks and years just waiting to get to age 13 when my problems would disappear.

That age came and went, and I still had rashes. Although the rashes were NEVER as bas as when I was a baby, they were still painful and uncomfortable — and embarrassing. As I grew older, the rashes (sometimes dermatitis and sometimes eczema or sometimes just plain ol’ redness) confined themselves to a spot on my elbow or on my hand.

One day, I had a revelation.

My face had turned red. I was quite upset about it. I decided I wasn’t leaving the house until I’d found a solution. By then, the internet existed and so I began my search.

I was determined to find a nonsteroidal solution. Steroid creams will solve the problem fast and then the rash comes back twice as bad. That’s because the steroid stops the reaction without curing the underlying sympton.

My time spent on the internet taught me diet was a big part of the puzzle.

That’s when I began a long search for a solution…SOMEthing had to be causing these problems. To every problem, there is (usually) a solution.

Eventually, I discovered what to do…

Stay tuned for the rest tomorrow!

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