Eczema.

Date: Wed, 5 Jul 1995 09:12:48 -0600
Sender: HERBTREARNPC.EGE.EDU.TR
From: Jaime <MATUTE_JL%ZOO.DECNETRELAY.THE.NET>
Subject: Eczema

I am a brand new member of the group and loving it. I hope this topic has not already been exhausted sometime recently, if so forgive. My six-year-old son has recently broken out in Eczema all over his body. A dermatologist said that some young children that are allergy-prone, breakout like this then later grow out of it. He prescribed cortisone cream to be used twice (sparingly). I used the cream for about a month, but I've been told it can have long-term side effects so I discontinued use.

My son seems to be allergic to cow's milk (it causes stomach cramps and diarrhea), so I have greatly decreased his intake of milk. He also seems to have allergies to airborne substances like pollen or mold. I have not been pleased with traditional medical advice on this subject, so I thought perhaps a herbal remedy might exist. I read that evening primrose oil is being tested as a cure to eczema, so I bought several bottles and slathered it my son twice a day for a month. The eczema continued to spread.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

From: David Epstein <depsteinMINDSPRING.COM>

This is what I would recommend to my own patients with eczema.

  1. Forget the steroids
  2. Find a supplier for Hemp Seed Oil. It's a better complex of fatty acids, less expensive, can be put on salads (in place of olive oil), may be added to toaste (butter sub), or put on rice, potatoes or etc. Don't need to slather it on the body, as with EPO it should be consumed. 1 tsp per day fro a child. If you're gonna slather anything slather hemp salve.
  3. Elimination diet - definitely take him off the cows milk if it's causing symptoms of allergies. Don't just reduce the intake, eliminate it from the diet. If he needs milk consider making your own, again, I'd suggest, believe it or not, Hemp seeds - I can give more info if you email request.
  4. Vitamin C to laxative effect, Cal-magnesium, lots of carrots, green leafies and complex carbos.
  5. Discontinue sweets and anything sweetened with corn syrup such as orange juice, cola's etc.
  6. Keep a food diary, and check pulses after meals that are considered allergy producers (corn wheat dairy).

Give it 6 weeks and reevaluate. Good Luck.
Epstein, DO

From: "Donna J. Logan" <revcoalPCNET.COM>

> I hope this topic has not already been exhausted sometime recently, if so forgive. My six-year-old son

The protein in cow's milk can cause eczema (I know, I suffer from it!).

You would not only have to completely eliminate ALL obvious cow's milk products, like milk, butter, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, etc., but you have to read the labels on ALL packaged foods to see if it contains whey and/or casein or sodium caseinate. Take my word for it, most all packaged foods, even those which are not obviously "dairy" products, contain one or both.

;->

From: Sandra Hoffman <sandrap.DRAGON.ACHILLES.NET>

My son's eczema is caused by eating citrus fruits or almonds. His reaction has reduced over the years. As a newborn any fruit I ate would cause the eczema to worsen. Now, at 5 years, citrus and almonds are the only foods he can't have in anything but very small quantites. This meant that there were no commercial vitamin c supplements that he could take either as we were never able to find any that did not have some citrus.

When his eczema was really bad we used aloe on it. As he has gotten older he has refused to have the aloe used because it stings. We also added stinging nettle to any food it could be hidden in. A very strong nettle tea was recommended to us but it would have been unpalatable to him so we kept a jar of dried nettle around and added it to any food we could.

We also only used cotton clothing for him as synthetics seemed to irritate and switched laundry soaps till we found one that didn't add to the problem. He also never had soap touch his skin until he was about 4 years old. Soap seriously irritates my husbands eczema so we avoided using it on our son.

My husband has eczema on his hand caused, we think, by accidental exposure to something in a lab he used to work in. It flares up occasionally and he uses aloe to alleviate it.