Eczema in Babies and Infants
This is a huge area in all types of medicine and often quite complex. Modern living has seen an enormous increase in many types of skin conditions in new born babies and in infants.Sadly modern medicine has few answers and generally looks to use topical or internal treatments that often contain steroids and do not address the underlying condition. Over time these chemicals add to the build up of toxins in the body and the condition gets worse. Once the treatment is stopped the skin may remain well for a while but generally it returns soon after stopping the treatment and often it is much worse. There are few children that ‘grow out’ of their skin problems and many develop problems again at a later age.
I have successfully treated lots of children with eczema over the years and have found a way through these difficult disorders using only natural medicine and diet.
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Causes: there are several causes of eczema in babies and infants that are often different to the causes of eczema in adults. The following list is for information only. Please take your baby to see a qualified health practitioner to diagnose the type of eczema that it is.
 Diet – this is a key area in babies. Most babies are fed large quantities of formula milk and not much of their mothers’ milk. There are many reasons for this but where possible the mothers’ milk should be the priority. It contains all of the necessary ingredients that the baby requires as it’s growing up. If the quality of the milk is poor then that can be altered by the mother making changes to her diet and maybe using herbal medicine for a short time to improve the milk quality. Most mammals breast feed and use milk as food until the baby is weaned. Cows have cows milk, goats have goats milk and humans have human milk. Never in nature do you see a cow suckling a goat or sheep or any other combination. The milk is made for that species alone as it is produced from the blood of the mother. Human babies therefore should only drink human milk! Cow or goat formula milk should be avoided where possible as it is too difficult for babies to digest. It causes the immature digestive system of a baby to become weak and this causes an accumulation of toxins and waste in the body, generally in the form of mucus. This lodges in the skin and causes a type of eczema that is often red, with raised ‘spots’(papules or pustules) that may contain fluid and ooze a clear or yellowish fluid when scratched. This fluid causes further erosion of the skin and the problem begins to spread. The itching can be very painful and the skin will eventually become raw and damaged. In western medicine this is often diagnosed as Atopic Eczema or just Eczema.
Emotions – this is a difficult area in babies as we can’t clearly define how they are feeling. We can assume their emotional state until they are able to talk. When born a baby is immature in its organ function and its emotional state. This means that it can cry, laugh and be very angry all in a matter of a few minutes. This is caused simply by the body not being able to stay stable due to the immaturity of the systems within the body. As we get older we gain more control over these aspects of ourselves. Anger, sadness, grief and fear can all be causes of a specific type of eczema that is predominantly related to emotion. The imbalance in the emotion causes the body to also get out of balance and this affects the digestive process and again allows a build up of toxic waste. This type of eczema may be red, angry looking but generally is dry and itchy. The face of the baby may also be flushed at times or red. At this stage it is difficult to treat this with diet as it is not caused specifically by milk (however please follow the advice above about mothers milk) as the above case. However herbal medicine will help when mixed with their diet. In western medicine this is often diagnosed as Atopic Eczema or just Eczema.
Contact with Chemicals – this is a big area so I’ll keep it short and to the point. Chemicals are in everything that we come into contact with nowadays and they generally have a negative effect on our health. Recent research has found that when analysing the blood of newborn babies, they found over 200 foreign chemicals that should not be present in the blood. This baby is at the beginning of its life. How many chemicals will it have in its blood by the time it reaches 30? It’s time we moved back towards a more natural way of living. Chemicals have been used because of cost in most cases – they are cheaper to produce than a natural alternative. I would suggest that when using any product for your baby (including external products such as creams, lotions, shampoos etc.) that you use only 100% natural. You must read the label as labelling laws are slack and many ‘natural or organic’ products contain synthetic chemicals. Contact with various chemicals may cause damage to the surface of the skin and cause the immune system to react causing another type of eczema. In western medicine this is generally diagnosed as contact dermatitis.
Treatment: treatment for all of the above causes of eczema can be applied using herbal medicine or paediatric acupressure. This is done in an external and internal combination. Herbs can be given alongside steroids if the case is very severe but will not be 100% effective until the body has removed all traces of the chemical steroid. If using steroids and then going on to a natural treatment it is important to expect a possible worsening of the skin for a time period until the body detoxifies. This will generally not be too long. Once the body has removed the excess waste then it will start to heal the skin. Diet should be changed and cows and goats milk avoided if possible. Soya is an alternative but ideally mums milk is the best even if expressed. Externally I use my own range of 100% natural skin balms that are very effective for treating eczema externally. I have not used any other products for over 4 years now and so I’m reluctant to recommend anything else – just please read the labels carefully.
Any herbal medicine given should be prescribed for the individual baby or mother. Please do not try to self diagnose as this may cause further complications. Although herbs are natural they are complicated to use and should only be used by a qualified herbalist.
As mentioned above any product used on your baby externally should be totally natural. When very young, babies do not need soap, just warm water – this is sufficient to clean the skin. If you want to use a moisturiser either buy a 100% natural product or use a little bit of sunflower oil, cold pressed sesame oil (this has no smell) or even olive oil – all of these are very effective. That really is all that is needed. Alternatively you can use a balm as I’ve described above.
Treatment time varies with each baby but generally I see results within the first week although they may only be slight changes. By the second and third week there should generally be a good level of improvement.
For further information visit my website.
Andrew Loseley
January 2007 |
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