Josie-

My heart goes out to you. if you look through my old messages below, you will see that my wife and I are struggling with a very similar case with our now 9 month old son, Max. Our goal is to heal his immune system, and I believe that drugs interfere with that process.

We tried neocate too, but had to go back to breastmilk because Max was still breaking out on it, and it made him very very constipated, which is also a problem that will not help the eczema. Neocate is made from corn, and though the company says it is totally denatured, a few people have told me that their children reacted to it. Max did. If you can't go back to breastmilk, one lady told us that Alimentum (sp?) worked for her child even where neocate did not.

my wife is on a diet even more restricted than yours. Max is better, but the allergies remain, one wrong thing- like a banana- and he has a flareup that lasts days. She tried a little cod liver oil this week since it didn't show up on his allergy test, and is supposed to help eczema, but instead he reacted and broke out in hives and rash.

Right now she eats grean leafy vegetables, millet, quail, flaxseeds some oils and not much else. it works ok, but I really wish we could do more to try and help his immune system. we are trying an appointment with an MD who practices homeopathy next week.

John

Hi Josie. I used to work for a company where we focused a lot on problems originating from the GI. As you are already working on this level, that is excellent because eczema is very often related to food/intestines. The 3 primary allergens are cow's milk, hen's eggs, and wheat (whether due to gluten or to the fact that most wheat is now genetically modified into antigenic characteristics). I believe you already know this.

The 2 cents I'd like to add is that the immune system lining of your child's GI tract can also be investigated. There is lymph tissue called Peyer's patches that controls the body's reaction to foods, acting as a "customs agent" for the intestinal boundary. If damaged, then over-reactions to the foods can occur, even into adulthood. From my experience, the tests offered by Great Smokies Diagnostic Labs can provide you with further insights. NAET is an excellent choice, possibly also gentle chiropractic adjustments. There is a homeopathic remedy called Pleo Reb (aka Rebas) that is made from Peyer's patches - found it useful in situations of allergy/eczema since birth. Google search will reveal further info. Just my 2 cents...hope this helps.

Being a nurse and mother of 3, I thought I knew it all. Well when my third child was just 1 week old, I noticed that she started developing very dry patchy and inflamed areas on her arms and legs. After multiple trips to the doctor and trying to find the cause by switching detergents, foods, and soaps one by one I still was unable to find out the cause. After many hours of research on the computer I saw pictures and related the diagnosis of eczema. I continued by researching and purchasing numerous moisturizers and topical creams. After 3 months of playing with different things to help my daughters skin and about 300 dollars worth of products I have found some that may be beneficial to you. First of all let me also tell you the things that I have had to find out myself. Eczema is a treatable and not curable disease. It is hereditary and can possibly lead to asthma. It is a slightly disabling disease meaning since that the person who has it has limitations on what they can do so they are careful not to have an annoying flare-up. Areas that are initially affected in babies seems to be the face,arms, and legs. As they age it spreads to more areas of the body. First of all eliminate all the lovely baby lotions and stuff with perfumes or dyes that people love to make their newborn smell good, because this only aggravates it. Next only use a mild soap and shampoo(I use Huggies Baby liquid soap for sensitive skin/Huggies shampoo for sensitive skin). Next get a room humidifier for each room that the baby will be in for long periods of time and keep it between 40 and 50 room moisture level (this is because eczema lacks moisture that is normally trapped in the skin and humidifiers help keep flareups at bay). Next use sensitive skin perfume free baby wipes and change diapers often (it is harder to treat eczema in the diaper zone and can develop into an extremely bad and painful situation for the baby)The next best thing that I have found is the moisturizer AQUAPHOR intensive care made by Eucerin. You can use this as a moisture barrier between diapers changes and also as a lotion for baby's skin. It is WONDERFUL!!! You can purchase this in Walmart for about 6 to 10 dollars a jar and it lasts a long time. I have jars of it everywhere (at daycare, home, grandmas, etc) Sometimes you do have to go the medication route on top of just a bland moisturizer. Bathing should only last no more than 5 minutes and pat dry with a towel(do not rub with a towel as this would aggravate it) My daughter is currently enrolled in an eczema study that she will be in for 6 years and get all her medication for free. The purpose of this study is to see the correlation between eczema and asthma, because there is definitely a link to it. Luckily 75% of childhood eczema clears mostly up when a child is between 5 and 6, but they will always be a carrier and have occasional flare-ups. My daughter is currently using Elidel cream as needed and Cutivate steriod cream for extreme flare-ups. My daughter has also been put in the hospital for on of her flare-ups, so she does have the disease really bad. I wish you and your child the best and if you have any questions that I may be some help with then feel free to email. Best of luck.........

Who says Eczema CANNOT BE CURED? If I can cured of mind who dare declared false hope to others.

All you need to do is kill the intestinal fluke( some fluke may be in your pancreas, some in liver and so forth) and kill the Ascaris parasite. Your problems solve.

According to dr clark, "Asthma is just one of our common respiratory problems. The
causes are always a combination of ASCRIS and other parasites wit pollutants (allergies)." The Cure for All Disease, p.140.

Dear Josie,

If you read my threads, I had similar problem when my baby was 2 months old. However her was because of formula because I did not breastfeed. I have posted my update yesterday for my baby who is now 20 months old and 90% recovered from the eczema problem. Although she is still allergic to some food, but there is no flare up any more. We found the solution when she was 7 months old using a probiotic powder called the Primal Defense. It helps the digestive system and improve immune. It becomes effective after 4 weeks and cure almost completely after 6 weeks. You can try this too.

I am pregnant now with my second child and this time I am going to breast feed. I do not realize until now that even breast feeding can cause the same problem. I will also learn from the forum from the advices given.

I know how it's feeling with eczema problem in our baby. But take heart. It will be gone one day.
Best wishes,
Jasmine

Hi, I sympathize with you and have spent so many nights crying over my baby because I couldn't do anything to relieve him that felt safe to me. I never wanted to go the cortisone route and had severe reservations about doing protopic/eilidel. My pediatrician was not cutting it for me (only treated the symptoms) so I went the naturopahtic route.

My 2.5 year old son Brendan has had eczema since he was about 3 months old, but in retrospect, things started happening much earlier than that. He started with reflux upon his first breast feeding and at 3 days, he turned blue for a fleeting moment. He continued having reflux but nursed all of the time and never had a problem with weight gain (birth weight was almost 9 lbs) and never turned blue again. At 2 weeks he had RSV. At about 3 months his eczema surfaced. Two of my other children The eczema and the reflux worsened as he grew. He was never a good sleeper, his bowel movements were always loose and he seemed to have stomach discomfort. Finally, at a year his eczema was so bad he got impetigo and his little body literally from head to toe was just covered with scabs and pustules and he was absolutely miserable. I had this gut feeling it was food allergies . At 15 months we went to see a naturopath who immediately put us both on an Elimination Diet for candida and other major allergens. This was not the answer so we did some expensive blood tests for IgE and IgG and found that he had a severe peanut allergy and was sensitive to 19 foods as well as being allergic to dog and dust mites. I believe Brendan's earlier problems were related to these allergies. My husband has mild hayfever and I have very dry skin, but neither of us nor our 3 other children have any known food allergies . After 2 weeks of being on the new diet, Brendan improved significantly. However, after a month, he plateaued at a better, but not good level. I went to an allergist with a group that was supposed to be renowned for food allergies . The doctor was arrogant and condescending telling me that the testing I did was a waste of money. He prescribed Keflex (an oral Antibiotic for the staph infection) stating that if he cultured Brendan's skin he would find staph (if you culture almost anyone's skin you will find staph), Zyrtec, and Protopic, which he wanted me to apply once a day to everywhere Brendan had eczema and to top it off he wanted me to give Brendan bleach baths after the Keflex treatment to keep the staph at bay. After spending $125 in prescriptions, I just couldn't give this stuff to my baby. Bleach baths for a baby was akin to poison to me. I continued with the diet, but I was going crazy eliminating more and more foods never seeing a direct link between a particular food and a flare up. Throughout the treatment we used various supplements including zinc, flax seed oil, vitamin C, evening primrose oil, astragulus, and echinacea. I stopped breast feeding at 2 years. Shortly after that we tried another naturopath that practices NAET and does cranial sachral therapy. It has taken about 5 months of nearly weekly visits, but the last 5 weeks have been the best weeks of Brendan's skin condition. Some days you can only see the eczema on his legs. Even his heels, which were scabbed so badly that sandals hurt, are healed. I believe the NAET (and a whole lot of prayers) is responsible for his improvement. He is not out of the woods and not totally recovered, but he is so much better. I have begun to introduce some of the foods I had eliminated from his diet. I feel such an incredible sense of relief. Prior to this, Brendan never went more than a few days without an outbreak that would last several days. Recently, he has had a few flare-ups which I attribute to beach sand, but they have been very short lived - even just a few hours. I am so glad I did not follow the allergist's advice.