My experience as a mother dealing with my children's eczema

Eczema is a skin problem that affects around 20% of the population. Through my experience as a parent of a child who suffers from eczema, I discovered that 3 areas are essential for treating this pathology.

Discover in this article how I managed to treat 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 stress of another nature. That of seeing our daughter's skin covered with small pimples. At first, these small pimples were located behind the knees, the elbow, and on the calves.

Then these spots grew bigger and became all red, eventually becoming bright red patches that itched all day long. Suffice it to say that the induced stress relegated to second place the question of whether Easy Jet was going to be late or not!

Eczematous patches

At the time I didn't know that it was a common illness in young children but also adults. The most confusing part is that there is neither a specific cause nor a universal cure. My daughter suffered from eczema.

There is no age limit for becoming 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 my three-year battle with this disease is that there are several reasons why it appears. To make the symptoms disappear, you must therefore work on 3 main areas.

The 3 areas of treatment for eczema

The three axes of treatment for eczema are the internal level, the external level and the mental level.

The internal plan : Make sure you give your body what it needs and foods that don't promote inflammation.

The external plan : Treat the skin with natural cosmetic products that nourish, re-lipidize and restore the skin barrier.

And finally the mental level , because eczema is often induced by diffuse or acute stress, which causes the person to be literally on edge.

There are of course other reasons which can be the cause of eczema: allergies , contact with certain chemicals or detergents, or even a medical reason such as a weakness of the immune system . These causes will be the subject of another article.

Now let's get to the heart of the matter.

Treating Eczema Internally

Internally, it is important to strengthen your immunity . To do this, you must rely on certain supplements such as: probiotics, vitamin D, internal cures (borage and evening primrose oil, blackcurrant or cedar bud).

In addition, it is necessary to avoid the consumption of hydrogenated oils , which not only provide nothing from a nutritional point of view, but can induce inflammation due to their high content of trans fatty acids.

Refined white sugar, as well as industrially processed foods such as white flour, are also suspected of accelerating inflammation.

Be careful, refined sugar is very inflammatory

Unfortunately, we live in a world where it is difficult to completely do without industrial food. However, it is always possible to limit them. For example, systematically opt for fresh fruit for snacks, unsweetened yogurts for children or wholemeal bread.

If your schedule allows it, opt for home-cooked meals . Little tip: use frozen vegetables or fruits to make your life easier.

Finally, increase your intake of foods rich in omega 3 (oily fish, nuts, avocado) because they are anti-inflammatory.

Treating eczema externally

The skin is our largest organ. When it suffers, our entire body is impacted. Fortunately, nature offers us several solutions to take care of them. In the context of eczema, which is localized excess inflammation, the most effective natural products will have an anti-inflammatory and healing effect. In fact, this allows the skin barrier to rebuild itself. Certain vegetable oils and essential oils have these properties.

They are detailed below.

Vegetable oils

- Calendula officinalis macerate : This oily macerate of Calendula flowers is naturally rich in faradiol and will calm all types of inflammatory problems. In addition, it soothes, nourishes and firms the skin.

Calendula oily macerate is a powerful anti-inflammatory

- Vegetable oils from:

• Hemp : Rich in omega-6 and omega-3, this oil restores softness and elasticity to the skin. It contributes to the regeneration of skin cells and fights against dehydration.
• Rosehip : Due to its composition rich in essential fatty acids, this oil is restorative, regenerative and healing.
• Tamanu or Calophyl : This oil from Polynesia has incredible healing and anti-inflammatory properties. It is recommended in cases of wounds or “damaged” skin, such as eczema or psoriasis.
• Sea buckthorn : Rich in vitamin E, carotenoids and omega-3, this oil is toning, softening and restructures the skin.

To make your life easier, we created Olie Neela's Intense Magic Balm . It incorporates all of the above oils into its formula.

Its effectiveness is proven by the feedback from our many satisfied customers. For an enhanced moisturizing effect, the formula also contains West African shea butter.

Essential oils

Essential oils are also known for their anti-inflammatory and soothing effect on dermatoses such as eczema. These are mainly essential oils from the Asteraceae family such as:

• Roman Chamomile : it softens, soothes and relieves itching.
• Matricaria Chamomile : it effectively soothes thanks to its richness in chamazulene and alpha bisabolol. It also promotes healing and decongests the skin.
• Immortelle : Powerful anti-hematoma, it also regenerates skin cells, decongests and tones.
• Yarrow : Powerful anti-inflammatory, it also soothes and repairs the skin.

For children, hydrosols are more recommended because they are less concentrated. Roman chamomile hydrosol and rose hydrosol are our favorites.

Other natural products that relieve eczema

Other natural products are known to relieve eczema symptoms.

These are baths based on sea salt or oatmeal , or even superfatted cold soaps enriched with oils. We will soon offer these products in the Bath section of our store, because I have personally been able to test their benefits.

Furthermore, a technique that I use consists of applying an oil before bathing which allows the skin to avoid the drying effect of certain shower gels.

Treating Eczema Mentally

Some people develop eczema following stress or anxiety . It can even be caused by mild stress. Furthermore, a vicious circle can set in, because stress increases due to eczema itself. These people are generally on edge , and the body uses this skin condition to express that something is wrong.

To find out if this is your case, try to connect your eczema outbreaks with recent events that may have stressed you out in one way or another.

In children this can for example be caused by significant changes (nursery, arrival of a little sister, etc.)

Therefore, it is important to manage your stress or anxiety so as not to suffer the psychosomatic consequences.

There are several techniques for this:

• Start by identifying the reasons for the stress. Techniques like guided meditation, hypnosis or visualization can help you engage with your mind and relax it effectively.
• If you are more physical, practicing Yoga could help calm and soothe your mind.

• If you like to practice a sport , walk 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 on repeat, stop doing them!

For children, techniques that work are massage before bed , or guided meditation found online. There are also yoga videos for children on YouTube.

Finally, having an open-hearted dialogue with your child is important to understand what is blocking you. Sometimes they have difficulty opening up, but by insisting with kindness and being patient, they end up confiding.

Conclusion

To summarize, the 3 axes to adopt to live better with eczema and reduce its symptoms are:

1. On the internal level:

• Adopt a healthy diet that is as little industrially processed as possible.
• Avoid or reduce sugar and anything that is white flour.
• Take courses of food supplements to strengthen your immunity.
• Ensure that you have a balanced and sufficient intake of Omega 3 and Omega 6

2. On the external level:

• Avoid unnatural cosmetic products
• Adopt Olie Neela products specially formulated for dry, sensitive and atopic skin, or apply oils such as hemp, Tamanu or Calendula oil as a massage on the skin.

Olie Neela products

• Moisturize your skin regularly, even when there are no patches of eczema.

3. On a mental level: Identify the causes of stress, do an activity daily to soothe your mind (meditate, do sports yoga or hypnosis, etc.)

For even more advice on eczema, discover our complete guide to taking back control.