A Tale of Two Eczemas: Infant Eczema & Post Pregnancy Eczema, Part 1

They say that a daughter steals her mom's beauty during the pregnancy. While it was definitely more true with DD than with DS's pregnancy (although, I might have just felt a lot less beautiful because when I wasn't sleeping, working, or heaving over a toilet or sink, I was chasing after a toddler), it was several months after the pregnancy that I developed eczema on my hands.

Tale One: Infant Eczema
Now - I should be honest - I haven't been to a doctor - this is self diagnosed. Yes, I am one of those. But, from all accounts, this does, indeed, seem to be eczema. It's odd because it materialized on my hands at the same time as my daughter's eczema developed on her arms. She had it much worse, and it spread across her beautifully pale, smooth, skin so quickly from one day to the next. The doctor diddiagnose her condition as eczema, and told me that it would probably go away by the time she was 3 years old. THREE YEARS OLD. Two and a half years from then! Right. I wasn't going to just sit by and passively watch her beautiful skin become red, flaky, cracked, & itchy.
On her, I tried

• oils (Coconut Oil, Almond Oil, Olive Oil), 
• creams (Aveeno Eczema Care Cream, any other scentless cream on hand in the house), 
• mild exfoliate sugar scrubs, salves & balms (Grovia Magic Stick, DimpleSkins BumBum Balm & BooBoo Goo), 
• keeping her away from water & moisture as much as possible,

and nothing made a difference. Some of them inflamed it rather than calming it. It spread from her elbow, up her arm, across her shoulders, and then appeared on her left thigh & was working its way down. One week, I did 2 things:

1. I switched from President's Choice Low-Iron formula to Life Low-Iron formula (She was purely formula fed at this point)
2. I visited Anj @ Barefoot Babies and picked up this Pure Hazelwood baby necklace for DD. 

Within a week, the eczema had stopped spreading & was even receding. Within 2-3 weeks, DD's eczema was entirely gone. It hasn't returned since - it's been 6 months. I haven't taken the necklace off of her since that week, either. She's not on formula now - she's on cow's milk. I'm hoping that she won't have to worry about it again.
I'm sorry - I can't show you a photo of what her skin used to look like, because it wasn't a part of her history that I thought needed to be recorded. But I can promise you, it didn't look like this photo below. I, very vainly, wanted her eczema to clear up before summer when it would be exposed by such tops as this.

Clear skin. Zero Eczema. 6 weeks post Hazelwood Necklace.

I'll admit - I've been on the fence about known to be rather skeptical of Baltic Amber teething necklaces. It just seems like such a hard thing to measure - how do you really know that the necklace is doing any good? We start blaming all strange, odd, or cranky infant behaviour on those poor teeth as early as 4 months old - how do you measure something that you can't see, something that someone so small is unable to give definite answers on? So, when Anj suggested the Hazelwood necklace for DD's eczema, I hummed and hawed before buying.  Here's what she told me about Hazelwood: 

Hazelwood, when in constant contact with the skin, provides excellent results in treating joint pains (arthritis, osteoarthritis), digestion disorders (gastric reflux, heartburn, constipation) or dental pains (teething children, tooth decay or cavities), and some skin disorders (acne, eczema, psoriasis). a

I took a chance on it, and I'm glad that I did.  I'll never know which had a greater effect on DD's skin condition, the Hazelwood or the formula switch, but I DO know that she's been outbreak free for 6 months, so I will heartily recommend giving the Hazelwood necklace a shot.

Has your child experienced eczema? What have you tried in the search for a cure - what worked, what didn't? Has medicated cream worked for you, or have you tried to stick to home remedies or holistic medicine? 

Coming soon: Part 2: Post Pregnancy Eczema on Hands - Tips & Tricks

Disclaimer: This post was not sponsored by Anj or Barefoot Babies.  Anj did give me a discount when I bought a necklace for myself a couple months ago - more on that in the next post!), and she will extend the same discount to you, in store or online, when you tell her I sent you or enter the code that she'll provide in the next couple days (check back soon!).