These winter months can be horrible for your skin. The air is drier and running the heater doesn’t help. I noticed my baby’s skin started to turn rough and raw as it got cold. The poor girl would scream when I tried to put regular lotions on her so I set out to find a better way to help her skin.
I started by using coconut oil. This helped her skin and she didn’t scream, but there was only so much it would do so I kept looking for solutions. All my kids went in for check ups and some point during this time and the doctor immediately wrote prescriptions for steroids and gave us a sample of a special eczema cream. I was hesitant to slather my kids with steroid creams with possible side effects. I did try the eczema cream and my poor baby screamed her head off, it must have burned.
Then a friend mentioned they had a great expereince with her son and probiotics. So I ordered Optiflora Probiotic Complex to see how it would work. I would much rather heal the problem from the inside anyway.
Here is Cadence before. Her elbow was a spot she rubbed a lot while learning to roll over and her chest and cheek were red and raw.
Here are her results after a week of taking the probiotic, no other changes (I continued applying coconut oil as I was before)
To feed it to her I simply set the pearl on her tongue before she latched on to breastfeed. She gagged on it a couple times since it was so foreign but no real problems with it. The reason I love the Optifola Probiotic so much – besides the results- is that it is triple coated so the bacteria arrive live to the small intestine and are effective.
After only a couple days, Cadence’s skin was improving so I thought I would try it on my 2 year old also. Ben has these spots on his leg that have been around a while. He scratches at them which makes them worse, but I could never seem to get them to go away no matter how diligently I applied a moisturizer. Until now.
To get him to take it without chewing it up, I put it in the bottom of a cup of milk or juice and gave him a big straw to suck it up (like the ones that come with boba smoothies or similar). I still had to keep him in jeans because he was in the habit of itching, but I didn’t make any other changes for him either.
Here is his results after a week
It was really amazing to put these pictures side by side after a week.
UPDATE: here is my son's leg's today (2/27/14)
UPDATE: here is my son's leg's today (2/27/14)
If you or your child suffer from eczema or psoriasis, I highly recommend giving the probiotic a try, really you have nothing to lose.
My kid’s issues were fairly mild, but here are some other tips for healing eczema or psoriasis
-Moisturize: find a pure moisturizer, something like 100% shea butter, cocoa butter, coconut oil, or I’ve heard great things about emu oil as well. These all work well at moisturizing from the outside. Don’t forget to address the problem from the inside too…
-Vitamin E: there are great benefits of vitamin E for the skin when taken internally as well as applied topically. The antioxidant properties of vitamin E calm skin redness and protect skin cells from free radical damage.
-Omega 3’s: the special fatty acids have a natural ability to reduce inflammation and calm skin redness in addition to moisturizing and nourishing the skin from the inside out.
-I use an all natural, organic cleaner to bathe my kids in. This really seems to calm their skin if they have a sudden flare up. Here is the ‘recipe’ I use for my foaming baby wash
You may also want to consider switching out your chemical cleaning products for all natural and non-toxic ones. You may not even realize it, but those cleaners could really just be making the air you breathe ‘dirty’ and toxic for your health. Breathe a little easier and give your body a break by trading those toxic ones out. I rely on Shaklee’s all natural cleaners daily. I love them; they are safe, they work, and the save me money!!
Do you have any other skin care secrets to help dry skin? What natural solutions have you found to work well?
Wow, what a difference! I will definitely try this if the need arrives. Do you think it would work for hives too? My husband had a random allergic reaction to who knows what a couple weeks ago (and I did a few years ago).
ReplyDeleteEver since I switched Caden from Johnson & Johnson products to BabyGanics and coconut oil, his skin has been smooth and evenly toned. Baby has known nothing but the good stuff, but his skin is still a little sensitive.
It couldn't hurt that's for sure. I know skin reactions are often an immune response so building the good bacteria in the gut would help. Yeah, Cadence has only known the good stuff too so it surprised me when her skin started getting so dry. But there are so many allergens in the air here in Vegas so who knows what it is.
DeleteHi! One of my children struggles with eczema from time to time. I made a plantain salve with bees wax, plantain weed and lavender essential oil. It is a miracle salve to say the least. Within a few days the eczema was completely gone. I wrote a post on it ( Plantain Salve) . Like you, I used coconut oil, but it just wasn't enough. The plantain will heal it on it's own, but to make it user friendly the salve is the best solution. The lavender is also antiseptic and anti itch not to mention it smells good.:) if you don't want to make it you can always buy it already made. Good luck!:)
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'll have to try that. I just found your post on it and will be pinning to try that. Thanks!
DeletePoor little pumpkin! We have some bad eczema in our household, and it's a constant battle. Thanks for the tips.
ReplyDeleteYes, I know what you mean. Luckily my 4 year old grew out of it. I'm hoping my other two do too. Thanks for coming by, have a great week!
DeleteThanks for posting! I've been suffering for years and my boyfriend is starting to have issues with it now as well. Definitely going to look into other options than the steroids we have.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard, I think a lot more people are developing allergies and eczema that don't have a family history. I think a lot has to do with all the chemicals and toxins around us each day. I've seen many people's health change once they started to detox their homes so to speak, so I'm hoping that now that we use natural cleaners, we can heal it from the inside. Good luck, I hope you can find relief as well!
DeleteThis is a great post, thank you for sharing! My 6-year-old has awful eczema that looks a lot like your 2-year-old's. I will check out these probiotics. What's been working really well for us is Simple Sugars: http://simplesugars.myshopify.com/ {just FYI, I'm in no way affiliated with them}. They're all natural, and the girl who started the company is only about 18 or 19 years old. She was on Shark Tank last year. Check it out, the scents are phenomenal, and they're the only thing that really works for my son. Good luck with this battle, eczema is the worst!!
ReplyDeleteYes! I saw her on Shark Tank and have been meaning to try her products. Thank you for reminding me! I'm really hoping they'll both grow out of it. My 4 year old did and it hasn't come back. Good luck to you too!
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