Elias had his first outbreak of discoid and seborrhoeic eczema when he was a little over two years old. I took him to an alphabet soup of medical experts including pediatricians, dermatologists and internal medicine specialists. They each diagnosed eczema and prescribed their favorite combination of pharmaceuticals and cleansing preparations. We had varying degrees of effectiveness and none of them was what I consider successful in eliminating or managing the symptoms or eruption of the condition itself.
Bottom line, my young son, who was born with skin so perfect it would make you cry, had developed a skin condition that made him so uncomfortable that he was driven to scratch until it was an infected painful bloody mess. And then, he would scratch some more. I taped mittens on his hands. I kept his fingernails clipped to the quick and I covered the effected areas. He would always devise a way around the barriers. I felt painfully impotent as I watched my child suffer. After hours of research and a fistful of money spent on services, technology and gadgets my son had no lasting relief.
I called my grandmother and talked about the remedies for ailments that I recall she and my great grandmother using when I was a child. Armed with that conversation, a basic knowledge of chemistry and biology and organic botanicals, I went into the kitchen. What I emerged with has brought Elias not only comfort but real change.
Elias originally had ongoing eruptions that would appear anywhere on his body but mostly on his arms and legs. There was no time in the first year and a half that he did not have an eruption somewhere. For the past four years, he has had no more than 4 eruptions in a calendar year. When he does have a skin eruption it does not last for more than a week and the scarring is minimal, if any. 2 years ago, Elias noticed that there were other children at his school who had similar skin issues and suggested that I help them because it wasn?t fair that they had to suffer. In response to his concern, I founded our company, Fresh From the Farm and our brand of soap, Aunt Ann?s Garden Soap. Elias is the vice president.
There are several ideas that I formed his treatment around. The first step is to control inflammation and seepage. I achieved this bathing him in warm water and soap made with salt and baking soda. I patted him dry and applied a combination of light vegetable carrier oils that was easily absorbed by the skin with organic botanicals that gently dried the weeping and retarded bacterial and fungal growth. I believe that the dramatic scarring is caused not by the original eruption but by subsequent corruption of the skin from scratching and the proliferation of infection. This treatment reduced the duration of individual eruptions and increased the time between outbreaks, however, outbreaks still occurred every few months.
In between outbreaks, I changed the soap that I used on Elias to what I felt was a preventative measure. The soap has a combination of organic botanicals that are antifungal and antibacterial. It also contains Evening Primrose oil which adds gammalinolenic acid. (Some research indicates that patients with eczema have a deficiency in this compound.) I continued to use the vegetable oil mixture after bathing him. I currently use this process.
I believe that it is important after cleansing to reduce the growth of pathogens on the skin?s surface without completely destroying the natural ecosystem of the skin. I also believe that by using organic ingredients, I have reduced not only general toxicity issues but also potential allergens that cause and/or exacerbate histamine reactions. Finally, I am certain that it is important to distinguish the difference between oiling the skin to help reduce the rate of moisture loss and sealing the skin. Sealing the skin with heavy oils and preparations blocks pores and prevents the skin from using its natural defense mechanisms and makes the problem worse.
In short, (I know it?s a little late for that) the approach behind all the things that we have found success with is not to force the skin to behave differently but to support the skin in fulfilling the functions for which it is designed.
Dawn and Elias Worthy, owners of Fresh From the Farm, offers a complete line of biodegradable, vegan friendly, organic botanical soap. What is in the soap is good. What isn't in the soap is even better. There are no artificial ingredients. There are no manufacturing, coloring or fragrance additives. It's simple, Aunt Ann's Garden Soap is naturally good. We invite you to see for yourself at http://www.AuntAnnsGardenSoap.com.