Jaia has eczema. It started very early on in her life, but only became a serious problem in the spring of 2008. It’s not something that I talk about often, but it has been something we’ve struggled with for a long time.
Any doctor will tell you that “it’s just eczema” and that there’s not a whole lot you can do for it beyond the obvious: less frequent baths, keeping skin moisturized, etc. And we did it all. In fact, we thought, for a long time, that there was nothing more we could do. Armed with a prescription for cortisone cream that we’d use on the really bad days, just tried to do our best to keep her as comfortable as possible.
Our trip out west over the holidays was the last straw. Anyone who has been to Western Canada in the winter knows that it is the dryest place on Earth! Ok, it’s not that dry, but it’s the dryest place I’ve ever been and poor Jaia suffered while we were there. Her normally very irritated skin was 10X worse with what became open sores and brought with them, a lot of pain. It was hard to even look at. It really broke my heart. All the other kids were racing around the ginormous water slide heaven in the hotel and Jaia was kept away with long pants and long sleeves on to keep her from scratching.
I made the decision then and there that we would visit a naturopath when we returned home. Medical doctors weren’t getting us anywhere, so I was going to go a different route. After a 90 minute consultation I walked out of there with a renewed sense of hope. The naturopath sent us home with fish oil (which she claims EVERYONE should take) and probiotics because she felt, even before any testing, that the problem was stemming from something in Jaia’s gut. Neither Dan nor I have any skin issues (except for the unfortunate adult acne I am suffering from this week) and so she thought that we should start treating Jaia from the inside out.
She also suggested some allergy testing that with just a few drops of blood could test the sensitivity to 95 foods. We decided to go ahead with it and got the results back a couple of days ago. We are still in shock.
The results claim that Jaia is moderately to extremely sensitive/allergic to the following:
- ALL dairy
- gluten
- wheat
- oats
- almonds
- peanuts
- soybeans
- egg whites
- garlic
- red grapes
She’s been eating all of these things since she was able to eat and has not been sick, but the naturopath thinks that one, all or a combination of a few of these foods are what is causing Jaia’s eczema. We are officially omitting all of them for 12 weeks and will slowly try to re-integrate them back after the 12 week period. If the eczema does not go away or get better, we will be back at square one. If it does, all of this will be worth it’s weight in gold.
Today is the 4th day since started eliminating Jaia’s diet. I’m surprised by what she can still eat – but even more surprised at what she is no longer allowed to eat. Eggs, dairy and gluten are in almost everything. It is making Dan and I work overtime to find interesting recipes that Jaia will enjoy. We are learning a lot and are taking this in stride. We love a challenge and this is certainly one of the biggest. Thankfully, Jaia is almost unfazed. We ate really, really healthy before and this hasn’t felt like a huge change for her. For instance, she happily munched away on dinner of quinoa, Madras chicken and bean salad, washed down with rice milk. Mmmm.
Stay tuned for updates on the Fullerton food adventures………
Kris - Wow…fascinating. I can sympathise with the Bean. I had eczema all through my childhood and will never forget what that was like. I’m really interested to see which of the foods it turns out to be.
Heather - Aw, man. I’m one of those people that can’t eat gluten/dairy. It’s tough! I have also been thinking about taking an allergy blood test to see what else I should avoid.
I know that eczema is a kind of inflammatory condition and is auto-immune (like Crohn’s, which is what I have). Diet makes a lot of sense and I would be totally surprised if you didn’t see a HUGE difference within a month. It has helped a number of friends.
Fish oil is great – I take it as well. Just make sure you’re getting a really good quality one that has had heavy metals and toxins removed (stupid polluted oceans).
It can be tough to stay creative with meals.
I like to read http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/ as not only a good read, but for lots of recipe ideas.
Some quick and easy things that maybe she can have that are good:
-cashew butter (good with rice cakes or rice crackers or on apples)
-apple butter (mmmmm yummy spread with just apples in it, no dairy)
-lots of different kinds of pastas made from brown rice and or corn
-frozen grapes (my current fav snack)
-Rice Dream (“ice cream”)
Happy recipe hunting and good luck! It’s not the end of the world, it just means planning ahead and reading a lot of labels and being prepared. I hope that she feels better and you see a difference soon!!
Dr. Danby - You have been misinformed and misguided, I think.
Send me a real email address and I’ll send you the handout I use for my atopics.
There is SO much nonsense talked about eczema and SO much financial victimization of sufferers by fad salespeople.
Makes me really angry.
You have my email. Identify yourself as Shannen & Jaia so I don’t trash the email.
FWD
Heather - Typical westernized doctor response.
While it’s true that there is A LOT of crap out there, simple dietary changes are not difficult to make and are not the handiwork of “fad sales people”.
Western medicine only treats the symptoms and not the actual CAUSES.
Makes ME really angry, because it’s such a simple concept and at the very least, it’s not going to be harmful to Jaia (while so many of the creams that doctors use to treat things like excema are STEROIDS like cortisone cream…with sometimes bad side effects that are worse than the actual problem).
Nothing against western medicine, I just don’t think doctor’s should be so quick to dismiss alternate and less invasive methods of treatment. My doctors took a long time to come around but now are actually “prescribing” pro-biptics, fish oil, vitamin E etc and all the things that they blew off a decade ago, because they have now been proven to be beneficial!!
And that is my rant.
Kris - I wrote a similar response last night but held back…but Heather said it better anyways.
I feel for Jaia. I was that kid too, and while it disappeared for 15 years or so, my move to Bermuda triggered a return (though on a much smaller scale than what I experienced as a child). Keep us posted, Shan.