How many of you have taken your baby to the Dr. to have a look at a recent eczema outbreak, only to be told to change your baby's formula, eliminate dairy from your diet (if you're breastfeeding) and leave with a prescription to a steroid cream which just suppresses the issue and ultimately leads to other health problems? I see and speak to many of you and my heart breaks with the lack of answers/info you are actually provided with - I was you, limited answers and lots of prescriptions that just ended up in the trash!
Our skin is an external view as to what is going on inside our bodies. Eczema is often tied to the gut but not always, it can run deeper than that. Often we come to this conclusion when diet is assessed & addressed and yet there still is no resolve. There actually can be many possible contributing factors, the simplest often being a change in laundry soap which often holds toxic skin irritants. The most difficult root cause being contributors during pregnancy – mom has deficiencies/infections, a traumatic pregnancy or birth, or even toxic environmental factors.
So let's dive in...
Yes, dairy can be one of the most common causes of eczema but honestly... I've seen many other root causes that once determined and addressed the eczema clears completely. Often the more difficult triggers will be more tricky to pin point and these are usually recognized once all other options have been exhausted, process of elimination is the best path when battling eczema.
I always recommend to start with the laundry products - are you using non toxic, unscented soaps to wash babes clothes in? If you are just using a mainstream brand that has the label "sensitive" on it ... the chances of it containing toxic skin irritants is still relatively high. We recommend the Attitude brand of laundry soaps, they are all plant derived and EWG Certified naturally clean and safe. The laundry soap is actually quite a common contributing factor to baby eczema so this is always my first question when speaking to parents about their babes eczema.
Once you have addressed the laundry soap issue and there is still no change, it's time to move on to what else is coming in direct contact with babes skin. Sometimes a rash or skin irritant can look very similar to eczema. So ask yourself – are there any other fragrances that are coming into direct contact with your babes skin? I've had parents determine that the rash their baby randomly develops is actually associated with a parent, grandparent or caregivers perfume/cologne! My point here is that baby's skin is very sensitive, eliminate all artificial fragrances especially anything containing fragrance oils - toxic, toxic & toxic.
Another important factor - wash all new clothes prior to coming in contact with babes skin. I had a customer take her son to a well known baby shop and she tried a hat on him, by the time they returned home there was a full blown chemical burn on his head where the rim of the hat sat. With germs being a huge concern this past year +, businesses have been spraying everything with very harsh chemicals to kill germs off... often these chemicals are not even being mixed properly by employees! So, lesson here is wash everything newly purchased, even a few times, prior to babe wearing them... even clothing production has loads of chemicals, my fave has always been hand me downs or second hand clothes for my son!
Ok, so clothing, fragrance & chemicals are not the culprit. On to the next - dairy. This is usually the first assumption by many Drs. Eliminating dairy can help in many cases, however you may not need to go to the extreme of eliminating all dairy... it could simply be a milk protein issue in which case going from a cow formula to a goat formula can work wonders. Goat formula is actually a more easily digestible protein making it more gentle on sensitive tum tums. If you're breast feeding, try swapping your cow milk products for goat or sheeps milk and see if that helps! Whatever you do, absolutely NO SOY! No soy based formula... baby's can not digest soy and I'm not even going to get into the studies which have been done to prove how toxic soy can be for humans – I'll save this for another blog post! There are work arounds if it is a dairy sensitivity, it may just take a few adjustments in diet to figure it out. Check out all the European formulas we cary which work well with sensitivities at yumibabiwholesale.com
Alright, so now we get into the more difficult root causes of some baby's eczema. I've suggested to some parents to just change their filtered water and turn off wifi or add a good quality air purification system in the room and their babes eczema started to clear very quickly. Unfortunately environmental factors can often come into play when dealing with both babes skin and mom & dad's. There could be the issue of having environmental mold in your home – very beneficial to have a home mold test done for the health of the whole family but especially for the good health of a new baby. Invest in a good quality air purification system for your home, especially if you live close to train tracks, highways or flight paths, all contribute heavily to poor air quality in the house. Plants are another great way to cleanse the air in your home, just make sure they are kept out of babes reach in case your little one decides to pick and eat a leaf! EMF is also a contributor to throwing our body frequencies completely out of whack, now with 5g popping up everywhere we are getting hit in all angles with electro magnetic frequencies which I can very confidently assure you is not good for our health. What can we do? Start by keeping wifi off in our homes when we can, also use EMF blockers on laptops, smart tv's and smart phones. Invest in some shungite (a specific type of carbon rich stone from Russia which won a Nobel Prize & is proven to block EMF), plug in some Himalayan salt lamps around the house – our son has always slept with one as a night light!
So, now you are at the point where you have eliminated dairy, clothing toxicity and environmental factors. On to mom. There are a few factors that may come directly from mom when battling stubborn, unrelenting eczema. One of which is amalgam fillings. Our mouths are a direct pathway into our blood system, we also have many meridians in our mouths which connect to organs and areas in our body. It's important to understand the toxicity involved with amalgam fillings which is comprised of 50% elemental mercury! This heavy metal is leaking directly into bodies and causing a storm of health issues. This is, surprisingly, one of the most common causes of eczema in babes and you likely would never even know it... but now you do. In this case a heavy metal detox would be best for babe – look into pediatric osteopaths & naturopaths who whole heartedly believe in holistic healing for ways to assist with the detoxing of heavy metals. This leads to another culprit aligned with the heavy metal over load and that would be scheduled injections, I've seen more times than I can count eczema outbreaks after these appointments. All I will say here is that it would be very beneficial to seek a pediatric holistic specialist (osteopath or naturopath) to help pull some of the heavy metals etc. from your babes system after these appointments. Visit www.mylkskincare.com and check out our Detox Drops, they are ideal for foot baths to pull toxins out but you can also toss a couple into babes bath water to help pull heavy metals out during bath time!
*** REMEMBER – Do not over bathe babe, you will just strip the protective oils on their skin and ultimately make it more dry and irritated. Soaps can be known irritants as well, check out all the organic and natural body washes we recommend for babes and keep ingredient lists short and simple to understand!
Eczema has also been known to be aligned with a very stressful/traumatic event in pregnancy or birth – remember skin is our visual on what is happening inside of our bodies. If the sympathetic nervous system is triggered then our skin will most definitely often show this. Just like when we are stressed out, teenagers and adults will breakout in acne or hives and even shingles – this is connected to our sympathetic nervous system being spiked. When this happens, it will take some work to try and tackle the issue and have the parasympathetic nervous system take control, once again best option here would be a holistic osteopath.
Another pass on from mom would be a mineral deficiency or imbalance, even chronic infections ie. lyme or root canals. Obviously mum, you want to treat these issues in yourself but also in babe too. Start by getting an in depth blood analysis done, you'll likely need to pay for this but it will be beneficial for your understanding of what's happening in your body as well as babes. Once that is assessed you can begin to heal... once again, a holistic healer is your best option here.
Now obviously you will want to provide your babe with some relief, so topical creams are always going to be a must have for babes who's eczema is really irritating them, however it's important that you remember these creams are not curing the issue – you need to go deeper, you need to go to the root cause, if you don't, you are just suppressing the issue. I will never recommend using a steroid cream, EVER! There are so many natural herbal salves and creams on the market that work wonders! My favorite, which has a 5 star review by hundreds of our customers, is the Martina Gebhardt Super Protect cream, honestly there is no skin irritation this stuff doesn't work miracles on! Parents usually notice eczema start to dissipate within hours of application! St. Francis Calendula Salve is great as well but more so for minor eczema spots. MYLK Skincare is our specially formulated skincare for both babe & mum - many of these products are formulated with probiotics to help prevent breakouts and irritations by balancing skin's pH levels, check out www.mylkskincare.com to see all the luxurious & nourishing products we offer which go far beyond the epidermis.
Beneficial supplements for eczema are Genestra Baby F probiotics, All Kidz Vitamin D & Carlson's Finest Fish oil. You can find all of our recommendations in this blog post on our online Canadian Apothecary under Baby Skin & Baby Supplement tabs!
Hope this helps provide some clarity on other contributing factors when dealing with a bub suffering from eczema. Answers aren't easily and readily available so it's important to do your own research when you can from reputable sources!