Sweet Wonders- My Story
**Quite some time ago, I agreed to submit a story to the Sweet Wonders community page at Baby Purity.com. This is my story, of how we dealt with some health issues when our daughter, Abigail, was a baby. To read some more from other moms, make sure you check out the Sweet Wonders link above.**
When our first child was around 14 mths old, we noticed that she had been slowly developing little patches of eczema on the back of her legs and arms. Shortly after, this also began to translate into bum rashes, full of red, painful little bumps everywhere. It was awful. I had no idea what to do.
We first began trying to deal with the bum rash by taking her to see a doctor. Big mistake. He asked nothing, and simply prescribed. A little sheet of paper produced a vial of cortisone cream that sent my poor, sweet baby into crying fits of hysteria. It must have burned so badly on her sensitive skin. The only thing we could do was immerse her in a tub of lukewarm water with oatmeal until the cream washed off and the pain subsided. Never, ever again!
Instead, I got on the phone with my Mother-in-Law (naturally minded as I am, but far more advanced in her knowledge!) and we began to put our heads together and come up with a solution. From what we could tell, it seemed to be a Candida (yeast) rash. So how do you kill yeast?
We combined grapeseed extract and colloidal silver to give her orally, because both have strong anti-yeast and anti-bacterial properties. We also gave her probiotic powder to take in her food, to help rebalance her intestinal flora with good bacteria to fight the bad bacteria. We used a naturally made (Burt's Bees) diaper cream to soothe her
bottom, and sprinkled probiotic powder (taken from capsules) on top of
it.
So did it work? Within about a week, the rash was much, much better, to my great relief. Within two weeks, it was completely gone!
Next, we went to work on the eczema. We took her to a Naturopath, assuming that there were likely food allergies or sensitivities that we didn't know about, even though we had been very conservative in how carefully we introduced new foods to her.
She received a Vega test, which indicates reactions to different foods, and we discovered that not only did she have sensitivities, but she already had a Candida yeast overgrowth in her body (something that most North Americans have, due to our poor diet and excess sugar intake).
The Naturopath placed her on a strict diet for 4 weeks, along with giving her some anti-yeast supplements and a very high quality probiotic. We took her off of nearly all grains, yeast, cow's dairy, sugar of any kind (even natural sugars), citrus fruits and strawberries, and a few vegetables she tested sensitive to (there might have been more than that, but it's been 3 years, so my memory is getting a bit hazy).
When she returned for testing after the 4 weeks, I was amazed to see that the Candida was completely gone, although a few sensitivities remained. To this day, we do our best to avoid wheat for her (though as she gets holder, she can handle small amounts), to keep sugars very minimal (and stick to natural sweeteners), and give her only raw, grass-fed milk or cultured organic dairy products, in addition to an overall very healthy, balanced diet consisting entirely of whole foods (nothing processed!).We have also opted out of all vaccinations, and completely avoid conventional medicine (she has never had a single antibiotic or prescription for anything, though we would allow it if there was a more life-threatening illness, of course).
The rash did try to creep up one more time shortly after and we immediately restricted her diet for a couple more weeks and put her back onto the regimen of grapeseed extract, colloidal silver and probiotics. It was gone after a week, and we never had a problem with it again.
Today, she has recently turned 4 and is incredibly healthy. She rarely gets sick, has had no outbreaks of eczema whatsoever, learns quickly, sleeps well, has boundless energy and is a joy to be with!
What's your story? How have using good nutrition and natural alternatives to conventional medicine have helped your family to overcome illness and grow in good health?
Hi Susan- nice to meet someone who lives so close! How great that you’ve come up here to church plant! Thanks for saying hi!
Both my children, especially my daughter went through the same thing. It was very frustrating at the time that the DR and dermatologist just prescribed and when this was not helping really threw the towel in and pretty much said live with it. The naturopath saved her and her bottom. We went on a similar diet and still live by it today, though I have slacked on the total elimination of wheat and dairy, but I make sure when they do get it, it is high quality stuff. Thanx for sharing.
What a neat story. We battled through 5-6 ear infections w/out antibiotics, using onion poultices, probiotics, GSE, and garlic oil. It amazed me how quickly the Dr.s were to prescribe an antibiotic, and then talk of tubes. An excellent book on the topic, BTW, is Childhood Ear Infections by Schmidt.
Do you have any suggestions on how to help your little ones WANT to eat the healthiest foods? My son eats a minimal amount of processed foods (organic graham crackers, nitrate-free beef hot dogs…) but he’s always loved breads, dairy and fruits, which, even though healthy, are high in sugars and gluten. I’d like to balance his diet with more veggies and nuts, things like that. I’ll go look to see if you’ve posted about this before 🙂
Our daughter has terrible eczema as well. She has many environmental allergies and a few food sensitivities. After years of several doctor visits and hundreds of dollars worth of creams and prescription drugs, she still suffered terribly. I finally got on the internet and researched natural treatments. We took her off all allergy medicines and topical treatments and started a combination of coconut oil and Vitamin E oil. Within a week, her eczema was drastically better, and now she is almost completely clear. Now that she feels better and isn’t constantly itching, it has translated into better appetite, more energy, and better behavior. I can’t believe it took us so long to try a natural remedy!
Abigail has had 2 outbreaks of exczema that have been terrible. One similar to the one Stephanie described as a baby and one on her arms the past 8 months. She is finally better. Unfortunately, I did not find any natural alternatives in my original search via the internet. When she went for her yearly check-up in January, the doctor suggested a steroid cream, which I DID NOT want to do. However, we were very concerned about a skin infection because of how weepy, nasty, and itchy her arms were, so I went ahead and did it. It started to get better with in two hours and gone in 3 days. Now, I really don’t want to do this again, but in this situation I am glad we did. It just had gone on so long and I didn’t know what to do. We had tried to cut foods out of her diet, but nothing seemed to be working. We have only had one short outbreak of it when she used some of Mommy’s special bath soap when she wasn’t supposed to, but it quickly went away. (Thank you Lord!)
We had a follow-up visit with the allergy doctor, where he was very understanding that I wanted to find the root cause, but happy that the exczema was better. He gave me the papers to get Abigail tested by the SAGE test (which tests food sensitivities). We’re in the process of getting the paperwork/doctor/insurance stuff done than getting the test. This test was the only alternative hope he could give me for discovering something.
I would really love to read some solid research on these areas of traditional medicine versus alternative medicine. I have a nurse practitioner friend who won’t even hear the talk of alternative ideas, saying they are not based on factual evidence, but I have heard so often how these natural remedies have not only been helpful, but life-changing for individuals as well. It is a real dillemna for me because I lean more towards trying natural alternatives, when my husband is just starting to lean a little bit towards those ideas. It is hard when you are fighting the “mainstream” thoughts of society.
This post has come at such a good time for me. My 3 1/2 year old is having an awful time with her Excema. We had it under control for awhile but it has gotten awful, we are taking her to the allergy doctor tomorrow. I hope that we can see what’s bothering here and I really like the idea of using grapeseed extract, and colloidal silver. What brands did you use? And did you use an adult form but just give her small doses? We already use probiotics. I would love to know what children’s brand you use in that as well. Thanks!!
I’m going to have to bookmark this entry. Eczema runs in my family, and we’ve only ever treated it with steroid cream. I have flare ups several times a year and I am keeping an eye out for it on my son. I am going to take note of the remedies you described.
I am curious about the resources you used while learning about holistic health and natural living. Have you ever done a post about that? I know I would definitely be interested in knowing where to start researching as I am just beginning this journey.
Just to be clear was it grape seed extract or grapefruit seed extract?
I have a story for you! When our son was 2 he got the typical cold but also a rash that wouldn’t go away. We went to doctor after doctor, tried all kinds or medicines and finally two years later found out that he has a rare skin disease and evidence of pre lymphoma. Have you ever heard of “pre” cancer? I didn’t until then,but essentially they found cancer cells in his biopsy that were above normal. We are in a time will tell state, and hoping and praying nothing ever develops. We began to eliminate all processed foods, dyes, anything with high fructose corn syrup, msg, nitrites etc and noticed an improvement pretty quickly. Then we began giving him cod liver oil daily, along with light therapy that he recieves every other day. Our latest doctors visit revealed that his lymph nodes were almost normal, which I absolutely contribute to our diet changes. I really believe the wrong foods were feeding those cancer cells. He also has excema, which up until now has been the least of our worries, but I have found that the cod liver oil has done wonders for it. He still has the skin disorder (called PLEVA) all over but it has been contained and is being managed now. I have learned so much about health and nutrition in the process, and although the doctors would never agree with me that diet changes have helped, I *know* that it did.
Stephanie, what an amazing story! I completely believe you that the changes in diet have made such a huge difference. It’s too bad that most doctors aren’t willing to accept that. 🙁
Praise God for leading you to learn more about nutrition for your son’s health! Lord willing, it sounds like there could be complete healing over time!
I’m so happy to hear the happy ending to this story and that you found a natural way to find relief for your little sweetie.
I love this story. As much as I appreciate doctors, I am so indebted to those who have showed me about nutrition. Otherwise it might have taken years for us to figure out about Lane’s celiac. Doug’s doctor had put him on heartburn medicine for a year before we realized he had a milk intolerance. It’s funny how food is usually the last thing to be suspected or changed.
Just like Rebekah posted, I am also just starting out on this journey and would love to know what resources you suggest and where to begin. My 9 month old son has horrible eczema and I feel very frustrated by all the dr.’s he has seen about it. Since I live in a small town my resources feel very limited. Would love to hear more!
I would love to hear your experience,the daughter of my friend have the same issue.I think it’s really help to her.
-Kaylee