Here is our story of Kingston, the real itchy monster and the multiple products and solutions we tried to make his itching go away. We'll also share what worked for us.
As parents, we feel so helpless when our children are in constant agony and pain.
I knew Kingston had atopic dermatitis when he began showing early signs of eczema around four months. His pediatrician would prescribe triamcinolone acetonide cream, fluocinolone topical oil, and hydrocortisone 2.5% Topical Ointment.
As little as he was, I did not want him to be dependent on steroids. I tried to use natural products on him, but being so tiny, I didn't want to load up his skin with all these unnecessary products.
I tried organic raw oatmeal baths, natural brown sugar, and honey scrubs when he was just about five months old. The oatmeal bath worked, but it would only calm his skin down for a few hours, and he would go back to itching his skin.
I read somewhere that milk baths worked, but unfortunately, I couldn't try it due to Kingston's dairy allergy. I felt so helpless because I tried over 20+ baby lotions and creams for eczema/dermatitis. I would say a few worked but only for a few hours. It came to a point where I thought maybe his clothing was affecting him. I switched all his clothes to 100% cotton and washed his clothes in hot water using just Organic Free & Clear Natural Detergent. He would have to wear footie pajamas the entire day just so that he wouldn't itch his skin. He would itch his skin so bad that he wouldn't notice his skin becoming all bloody and raw.
Day and night, my husband and I would take turns rocking him back to sleep. It became where Kingston barely slept, and we felt so helpless! If we could, we would take all the pain and itch away from him in a heartbeat.
I noticed Kingston's atopic dermatitis turned for the worse when the lesion in his inner arm was raw and took quite a while to heal. I had to wrap his right arm every day with a gauze pad filled with Aquaphor. Finally, after 3 1/2 weeks, it completely healed. Soon after, I noticed the Dermatitis was showing all over his body (knees, legs, left elbow, left ankle, scalp, and both feet). After more research, I came across the Eczema Honey Co and ordered a few items from their website, and after using 2 of their products, we noticed Kingston would scream and cry when using their product during bath times. Not only was the product hurting him, but it was not working for him!
I became so frustrated and was wondering why weren't there any products that would work on him. A part of me always feels guilty as Eczema, Dermatitis, and Psoriasis run in my (MOM) family history. That was when my eldest sister recommended Puriya's Mother of All Creams. She mentioned that she was using it on herself, and it helps with the itching and redness. We ordered it, and after using the product for more than nine months off and on, to our surprise, it helped calm his skin.
We currently have a skincare regime as followed:
We first mix the Mother of Cream with Aquaphor. The Mother of Cream is a very light cream and combining it with Aquaphor gives us a thicker ointment. Kingston's skin requires thick cream to fully cover his patches and skin to help lock in the moisturizer. Over time, Kingston tends to get flare-ups and get rash all over his body due to the weather or even food he may come in contact with. We'll use Triple Paste (diaper rash cream) to apply over the rash, which normally goes away within a week.
In addition to the creams and ointments, we came across Mary Ruth's Skin Care Probiotic Topical Spray. This spray helped stopped his itch (on both feet and ankle) instantly. We were recently introduced to this Asian product called Miracle Cream where it fights harmful bacteria, and we can say it WORKS! Kingston is almost two years old now, and he's never really gotten a whole night's sleep due to him continually scratching his skin (some days and nights are better than others), but we can say his eczema has gotten a lot better.
We still have a long road on finding the perfect solution, but we are very hopeful!
That is why the Happy Itchy Monster book is so important because that also calms him down. We hope your little one will enjoy this book as much as Kingston.
We would love to hear your story. Please leave a comment below with the products and solutions you're using that worked.
LIST OF PRODUCTS:
P.S: These products might not work for you or your child. These are just recommendations of what we used.