My experience as a mother dealing with my children's eczema
Eczema is a skin problem that affects about 20% of the population. Through my experience as a parent of a child suffering from eczema, I discovered that 3 key areas are essential to treat this condition.
Discover in this article how I managed to heal my daughter's eczema thanks to these 3 levels of treatment, and why I founded Olie Neela, a brand of natural and healthy cosmetics specially formulated for fragile and/or eczematous skin.
My experience with eczema
About 2 years ago, my husband and I were preparing to take my daughter to discover the country of her ancestors: France. It was our little L's first big trip, and we were going to take the plane.
To the stress of the trip was added a stress of another kind. That of seeing our daughter's skin covered with small bumps. At first, these small bumps were located behind the knees, the elbow, and on the calves.
Then these bumps grew and became very red, ending up as bright red patches that itched her all day. Needless to say, the stress caused pushed the question of whether Easy Jet would be late or not to the background!
Eczematous patches
At the time, I did not know that it was a common disease among young children but also adults. The most confusing part is that there is neither a precise cause nor a universal cure. My daughter suffered from eczema.
There is no age to be a victim, and as we discovered, even infants can be affected. Eczema symptoms can be mild or severe, but are always bothersome and not easy to treat.
What I learned during three years of battling this disease is that there are several reasons explaining its appearance. To make the symptoms disappear, you therefore have to work on 3 main approaches.
The 3 treatment approaches for eczema
The three treatment approaches for eczema are the internal aspect, the external aspect, and the mental aspect.
The internal aspect: Make sure to give your body what it needs and foods that do not promote inflammation.
The external aspect: Treat the skin with natural cosmetic products that nourish, relipidate, and restore the skin barrier.
And finally the mental aspect, because eczema is often triggered by diffuse or acute stress, which makes the person literally on edge.
Of course, there are other reasons that can cause eczema: allergies, contact with certain chemical products or detergents, or even a medical reason such as a weakness of the immune system. These causes will be the subject of another article.
Let's now get to the heart of the matter.
Treating eczema internally
Internally, it is important to strengthen your immunity. To do this, you need to rely on certain supplements such as: probiotics, vitamin D, internal cures (borage and evening primrose oil, blackcurrant or cedar bud).
Moreover, it is necessary to avoid consuming hydrogenated oils, which not only provide no nutritional benefit but can cause inflammation due to their high trans fatty acid content.
Refined white sugar, as well as industrially processed foods such as white flour, are also suspected of accelerating inflammation.
Beware, refined sugar is highly inflammatory
Unfortunately, we live in a world where it is difficult to completely avoid industrial food. However, it is always possible to limit them. For example, always choose fresh fruit for snacks, unsweetened yogurt for children, or whole grain bread.
If your schedule allows, favor homemade dishes. A little tip: use frozen vegetables or fruits to make life easier.
Finally, increase your intake of foods rich in omega 3 (fatty fish, nuts, avocado) as they are anti-inflammatory.
Treating eczema externally
The skin is our largest organ. When it suffers, our entire body is affected. Fortunately, nature offers us several solutions to take care of it. In the case of eczema, which is a localized over-inflammation, the most effective natural products will have anti-inflammatory and healing effects. Indeed, this allows the skin barrier to rebuild. Some vegetable oils and essential oils possess these properties.
They are detailed below.
Vegetable oils
- The Calendula officinalis macerate: This oil macerate of Calendula flowers is naturally rich in faradiol and will soothe all types of inflammatory problems. Additionally, it calms, nourishes, and firms the skin.
Calendula oil macerate is a powerful anti-inflammatory
- The vegetable oils of:
- Hemp: Rich in omega-6 and omega-3, this oil restores softness and elasticity to the skin. It helps regenerate skin cells and fights dehydration.
- Rosehip: Due to its composition rich in essential fatty acids, this oil is restorative, regenerating, and healing.
- Tamanu or Calophyllum: This oil from Polynesia holds incredible healing and anti-inflammatory properties. It is recommended for wounds or "damaged" skin, such as eczema or psoriasis.
- Sea Buckthorn: Rich in vitamin E, carotenoids, and omega-3, this oil is toning, soothing, and restructures the skin.
To make your life easier, we created the Olie Neela Intense Magic Balm. It incorporates all the oils mentioned above in its formula.
Its effectiveness is proven by feedback from our many satisfied customers. For enhanced moisturizing effect, the formula also contains shea butter from West Africa.
Essential oils
Essential oils are also recognized for their anti-inflammatory and soothing effect on skin conditions such as eczema. These are mainly essential oils from the Asteraceae family such as:
- Roman chamomile: it softens, soothes, and relieves itching.
- German chamomile: it soothes effectively thanks to its richness in chamazulene and alpha bisabolol. It also promotes healing and decongests the skin.
- Helichrysum: A powerful anti-bruising agent, it also regenerates skin cells, decongests, and tones.
- Yarrow: A powerful anti-inflammatory, it soothes and also repairs the skin.
For children, hydrosols are more recommended as they are less concentrated. Roman chamomile hydrosol and rose hydrosol are our favorites.
Other natural products that relieve eczema
Other natural products are recognized for relieving eczema symptoms.
These are baths based on sea salt or oat flakes, or even cold-process superfatted soaps enriched with oils. We will soon offer these products in the Bath section of our shop, as I have personally been able to test their benefits.
Moreover, a technique I use is to apply an oil before the bath which allows the skin not to suffer the drying effect of certain shower gels.
Treating eczema on a mental level
Some people develop eczema following a state of stress or anxiety. It can even be triggered by mild stress. Moreover, a vicious circle can set in, as stress increases due to the eczema itself. These people are generally highly sensitive, and the body uses this skin condition to express that something is wrong.
To know if this is your case, try to link your eczema flare-ups with recent events that may have stressed you in one way or another.
In children, this can for example be caused by major changes (daycare, arrival of a little sister…)
Thus, it is important to manage your stress or anxiety to avoid suffering psychosomatic consequences.
For this, there are several techniques:
- Start by identifying the reasons for stress. Techniques like guided meditation, hypnosis, or visualization can help you establish a dialogue with your mind and relax it effectively.
- If you are more physical, practicing Yoga could help calm and soothe your mind.
- If you enjoy practicing a sport, walking in nature (Park, Forest, Seaside, Mountain, or lake), do it regularly.
- Finally, if certain things have a negative effect on your mind, such as listening to the news repeatedly, stop doing them!
For children, effective techniques are massage before bedtime or guided meditation found online. There are also Yoga videos for children on YouTube.
Finally, having a heart-to-heart dialogue with your child is important to understand what is blocking them. Sometimes they have difficulty opening up, but by insisting with kindness and being patient, they eventually confide.
Conclusion
To summarize, the 3 approaches to adopt to better live with eczema and reduce its symptoms are:
- On the internal level:
- Adopt a healthy diet that is as minimally industrially processed as possible.
- Avoid or reduce sugar and all white flour products.
- Take dietary supplements to strengthen your immunity.
- Make sure you have a balanced and sufficient intake of Omega 3 and Omega 6
2. On the external level:
- Avoid non-natural cosmetic products
- Adopt Olie Neela products specially formulated for dry, sensitive, and atopic skin, or apply oils such as hemp oil, Tamanu oil, or Calendula oil by massaging them into the skin.
Olie Neela products
- Regularly moisturize the skin, even when there are no eczema patches.
3. On the mental level: Identify the causes of stress, do a daily activity to soothe your mind (Meditate, do yoga, sports, or hypnosis...)
For even more advice on eczema, discover our complete guide to take back control.