The raging war against eczema started way back when she was a wee baby. The symptoms were all there.
At 6 months old, due to my dwindling breast milk supply, I started her on formula milk. Her over reactive immune system triggered an instant reaction of severe hives on every single part of her skin, that included her face. Panicked, we rushed her to the hospital’s a&e. It went away with the administering of anti histamine. That’s the first sign of her brush with allergy.
She was on and off allergic to various food. Luckily I was diligent on the 3 day food introduction exercise and managed to identify the cause. She was on an unprocessed, no condiment food diet until 3 years old. Fortunately she was an easy going child who loves food.
Her relationship with atopic eczema started when she was 8 months old. Berries triggered a mild reaction which quickly ceased when she stopped the intake and with external application of the Sebamed baby cream, religiously, every 2 hours.
Whenever she had a flare up, the sebamed baby cream ritual started. It all went well and suddenly, one fine day, it stopped working. No matter how much and how frequently we applied the cream, the redness spread. We switched to the California Baby Calendula Baby Cream. It ko-ed the eczema.
We had a 1.5 years relationship with the CB calendula cream until it stopped working as well. I switched to the Weleda Calendula Ointment. It pushed the eczema wave back a little, the redness spread, pushed it back a little and then it came back. It went on like a daily tidal cycle. It started from the right crook, then the left crook, her right wrist, right elbow, the back of her left knee, her neck.
She itched, she scratched and she cried.
Every bath was a crying affair. She screamed when the water and soap trickled down the open lesions. I asked her,”Do you want pretty arms?” She tearfully nodded. “Well, then, you can’t scratch them.”
I would start applying cream on the areas without open wounds then the 2 crooks would be the last to be treated. After I massaged cream into her left arm crook, she would chant,”not pain not pain”, although tears started to well in her eyes. She’d bent her arm so that she could resist scratching. After the application on her right crook, she would bend her arm and whimper, “Mama please hug me…” I’d hug the poor girl who still had both arms bent. She’s my brave little soldier.
The external application seemed to be helping but it wasn’t good enough. It seemed like a never ending battle, back and forth, every day. I decided to bring her to the TCM.
He’s a renowned TCM who used to be a Professor at our local university. He prescribed some medicine for her at a reduced dosage for her age. It looked brown and unappetizing. And he recommended her diet to be free of prawns and shellfish. She agreed and henceforth, whenever she is offered the taboo food (even when I am not with her), she will politely reject it.
It helped. The back of her knee healed, the ones on the neck too. But as you can see from her expression, it looked like I was the evil stepmother who was trying to poison her! =.=”
It took 30 mins just for her to down a few ml of brown medicine, amidst lots of coaxing, coercion, intermittent licks of honey. And I had to administer it to her twice a day!!! It was just too much a mental stress for me!
I seeked help on Facebook. Ah! It’s a useful thing. Many people left me messages on various medication, alkaline water etc. Thank you to all these kind souls out there! I’ve written down everything and I’m going to try them all one-by-one.
I’m now trying LactoGG.
LactoGG is a probiotic. It is a special, unique good bacterium, which has been proven to promote health in the human being.
Well, in short, it is an army of good guys introduced into your body to fight the bad guys!
She’s had it for about 1 month. The patch on her wrist looks somewhat better. The patches on her arm crooks too. But they still have a long way to go to being totally gone.
I’m still administering the Chinese medicine to her, when both of us are in good moods. I may change her external application cream when it runs out, to another one on my list to see if it can help push the tidal wave back.
I’m determined to win this eczema war with her! Eczema, we will triumph over you!!
