As many of you know, one of my twin boys had fairly severe eczema from four months of age until his first birthday, which is when it finally started to heal and fade away. For those of you fighting this battle, I thought I would share the combination of steps that was ultimately effective for us.
- We eliminated all fragrances and chemicals from our lives (no more dryer sheets, switched to organic diapers, bought new shampoos, lotions, deoderants, cleaning supplies, dish soap, etc.). We are only using products with a rating of zero on http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/.
- We are not letting him play on any carpet; instead, he’s in rooms with wood floors.
- He takes borage oil in his morning bottle, gets a 1/2 teaspoon of cod liver oil daily, and takes probiotics for babies in his evening bottle.
- I used vaseline ONLY to moisturize and protect during the first few weeks of this routine.
- We bought two humidifiers (one for upstairs, one for downstairs).
- We removed all clothing and toys with any polyester or synthetic fabrics…that goes for the adults that touch him, too.
- We removed all baby foods with citric acid in the ingredients.
I have no idea which one of these steps was magical or if it’s the combination…don’t really care. All I know is my son now sleeps through the night without itching for the first time in months, and his rashes are nearly gone. I am not naive enough to think that something couldn’t trigger a new outbreak, but I am enjoying momentary success and trying to be optimistic about the future.
