Doctors told us there was no cure.  No cause for the debilitating rash that covered his body.

This is the detergent that changed my life.  That changed my sons life.  That came from the realization that someone CAN be allergic to even hypoallergenic “free and clear” products as well as  natural and organic chemical free products.  Using the most basic recipe for home made laundry detergent I could find, I experimented with the one and only bar soap that does not irritate my sons skin.  It worked wonders, and we have never looked back!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups Borax
1 1/2 cups Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
1 bar of Kiss My Face Pure Olive Oil Soap

With a sharp knife, cut the bar of soap into large chunks, then place in food processor and pulse until it is the consistency of small crumbs.  Add remaining ingredients and process until it is a fine powder.  I store mine in a quart size wide mouth mason jar and use about 1 Tablespoon per load in my high efficiency washer.  In a regular washer, I would probably use 2-3 Tablespoons.

That’s it! Quick and easy.  I can usually make a batch from start to finish in about 15 minutes.  If you try this, let me know how it works for you.

If you are struggling with finding the cause for your child’s (or your own) eczema, don’t give up!  Despite what doctors may tell you, something is causing it, and it is possible to heal if you find the right answers for your body.  For more info on our fight for a cause and the products and solutions that worked for us, click here.

It took me a while to emotionally recover from the experience I had at Children’s Hospital.  It was as if I had been let down by, well, America I guess.  The little faith that I still had in our medical system was banished completely and I was left more determined than ever to find the real cause of my son’s eczema, and to treat it naturally.

After that appointment a lot of things clicked into place.  I had had sort of an “ah-ha” moment a few weeks prior, regarding the soaps and lotions and detergents we had tried, and we decided to eliminate everything, whether it was hypo-allergenic or not.

Here are the steps I took:

1. I kept him on his inflammation diet recommended by our naturopath (no gluten as usual, but also no dairy, eggs, soy, beans, garlic, and a few more foods that he tested high on)

2. We bought him brand new clothes to ensure there was no detergent residue near his skin (I washed in hot water only without detergent).

3. When soap was necessary, we used a pure olive oil soap from Kiss My Face on his body, hands, and hair (ingredients: Saponified Olive Oil, Water, Sodium Chloride)

4. We moisturized with a completely natural cream called Bee Magic – (ingredients: organic extra virgin olive oil, organic beeswax, organic honey, propolis extract, organic bee pollen and royal jelly)

Within days of this new routine, his rash was gone.  GONE!  Without steroids.  His eyes were no longer swollen.  He was happier.  Friends and family instantly saw a difference in his appearance and his attitude.  It was amazing.  I couldn’t believe it was something so very simple, and it had taken me two and a half years to figure it out.

It has been four months now that we have had our sweet healthy son back, and it has been amazing.  Every day I look at his skin and I am greatful that we have come this far. We have done some trial and error over the last few months and found that the eczema seems to be triggered by a combination of a few things:  Eggs (if he eats even a little bit), Cow’s milk dairy products (if eaten more than every once in awhile), and contact with any lotion, soap, shampoo, or laundry detergent.  We still have not figured out exactly what it is that he is allergic to in all of the body products and detergents.  Every time we test out a shampoo, his eczema breaks out again, so we are sticking to what works.  I ended up and made my own laundry detergent out of the olive oil soap, washing soda, and borax, which is working great as well.  I’m planning to do more research and hope to find some more options for soap eventually.  But for now, I am just enjoying my happy boy and doing a joyful victory dance.  We did it!  Cured, without medication!  Natural health wins again.

My car crept slowly down sunset blvd, the infamous LA traffic stopping us at every light to watch dark eyed residents and interns in hospital blue scrubs and motionless faces cross the street, coming or going to their long and grueling shifts. We were surrounded by medical buildings full of average Americans with hope in their eyes,  blindly putting faith in their physicians, medical system, and in the drug industry to save their lives, heal their children, prevent disease and ensure good health.

I was excited.  Full of hope for my son, the idea of healthy skin and a more normal life seemed to be a glimpse away.  Inching along the street, I took in the sights.  We passed the Church of Scientology, oddly placed in between branches of the hospital and other medical buildings.  I kept my eye out for Tom Cruise but no such luck.    I can still smell the  early summer LA air, warm at 9am and grey with smog.  I can see the blue sky, the few clouds. I can still see the man in the basement parking garage that took my three dollars, and I can still feel the quickening of my pulse as we headed up the elevator looking for a new beginning.

And I still feel the passion that burned in my blood as I left the city that day… We did find a new beginning.  It just wasn’t the one I thought was there.

Here’s the shortest version I’ve got.   We were checked in, brought back to an exam room, and the nurse took Lucas’ vitals.  We waited less than five minutes and a very young woman (younger than me!) walked in and introduced herself as Dr. Something.  She was clearly a resident, just beginning her career in dermatology.  I gave her a brief version of our story and as I spoke I watched her physically stop listening to me.  She had already decided what she was going to say.  I still tried – I showed her photos, I pulled lotions and supplements out of my bag.  I practically begged for her expertise to help me find a cause, rather than a cover up for this debilitating eczema.  And then she launched into the same generic eczema speech that I had heard from every. single. person. at least a bazillion times.  I interrupted.  I showed her labs.  I asked for specific testing and was told no, that he would test positive on everything because he is an “allergy kid”.  She could tell I was getting upset, and left to get her superior.

Five minutes later they were back, with an additional three doctors trailing behind.  I stood in the very crowded exam room, Lucas oblivious to my frustrations and the seriousness of the conversation.  He was opening drawers and making smiley faces at the doctors.  I was surrounded by opinions.  Voices telling me to just accept the diagnosis and treat it with the medication.  That there was no real cause for the eczema.  NO CAUSE! That I just needed to “grease him up” and keep the medication coming and he would “eventually” grow out of it.  That I was doing harm to him by not using the medication.  HARM!! I’M SORRY, BUT NOT PUTTING HORMONE ALTERING CHEMICALS ON MY SONS LARGEST ORGAN ON A DAILY BASIS DOES NOT MEAN I AM A A BAD MOTHER.  I AM KEEPING HIM SAFE FROM YOU PEOPLE WHO DON’T ACTUALLY WANT TO SPEND THE TIME TO FIGURE OUT WHAT IS GOING ON!

I wanted to scream in their faces:  wake up! wake up and look at what is happening to our children!  Look at what is happening to America.  We are getting sicker.  We are dying earlier.  We are full of cancer and heart disease and mental illness and we are all pumped full of medications on top on chemical laden crap food and our brains are so screwed up by it all that we just keep on keeping on, doing what they say.  How can they feel good about sending a four year old child home with nothing but drugs – no answer, no hope or cause?!  It makes me sick.

My head was spinning, my mind reeling, my heart pounding.  At that moment I wanted to grab my son, wrap every inch of my arms around him and tell him we were done. With doctors and appointments, with asking these people for help and receiving nothing but another dose of medication.  I wanted to hold him tight and tell him we were never coming back.  That I would help him.  That I would do everything in my power to make sure he was never in the hands of America’s medical system.  And I pray to God that we never ever have a reason to rely on them for our own health. On the drive home that morning I promised myself that I would help Lucas.  That I would figure everything out.  That I would solve the mystery and help him feel well and be able to play and sleep normally with out daily applications of steroids.

I had walked into the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles Dermatology Clinic that morning full of hope for my son.  And I walked out two hours later, sickened by what I had just experienced. It’s taken me a long time to be able to write about this. It was beyond emotional for me.  It was life altering – a pivotal moment.  I will never forget it.

In April of this year we took Lucas to a naturopathic doctor in Santa Barbara.  She took one look at him and guessed food allergies and inflamed gut.  She also found it interesting that the eczema was triggered after a vaccine.  The first step was IgG testing for a huge range of foods and environmental allergies.  Lucas was a champ for the blood test.  Didn’t even cry.  I couldn’t believe that kid, he never ceases to amaze me.    We waited for two weeks and got our results.  As expected, he was basically allergic to everything.  Dairy, eggs, soy, corn, rice, beans, garlic, pork, beef, turkey, and about 80 other random fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and meats.   What this meant was that he had a leaky gut.  It was inflamed and everything he was eating was causing a reaction.  And there was no way to know what was causing the rash, or even if any of the foods were causing the rash.  So we cut them all out for two weeks.  We ate buffalo meat, duck, chicken, bananas, sauerkraut, millet, quinoa, sunflower seeds, and well… that’s about it for two weeks.  But nothing got better.  In fact, the eczema just got worse.  We had stopped using the meds before seeing this doctor, and now even with the new diet, he was getting redder and redder.  I called the doctor and we agreed to put a few foods back in like rice and almonds so that I could make him some bread and a few other snacks.  She recommended L-glutamine and Quercitin, so we started on those supplements as well.  Four weeks went by and I had nearly lost it.  It wasn’t getting better.  Lucas was confused and irritable all the time.  He was miserable.  Every time we went out, strangers would ask me what was wrong with him, wondering if he had had a reaction to a drug or something.  And then came the advice.  The last straw was the morning Lucas got up and looked like he was covered in the measles.  I called the pediatrician because I needed someone else to see this in person, and I wasn’t going to drive 40 miles to the naturopath.

I took Lucas in to his pediatricians office that morning and she told me it was the worst case of eczema she had ever seen.  She told me she couldn’t do anything more than she had, and it was time for us to try the dermatology clinic at Children’s Hospital LA.  She gave me a number to call.  As we were about to leave, her assistant for the day (a high school student hoping to become a doctor one day) asked me if I had tried hypoallergenic laundry detergent.  I was annoyed at first, because, well, DUH… of course I had.  I had tried about 4 different 100% natural, fragrance and chemical free detergents – the best ones you could buy.  I also knew that Lucas was highly allergic to all conventional laundry detergents because he broke out much worse if he wore hand me down clothes before I washed them several times.  Since he didn’t get those reactions when I used my natural detergents, I assumed they were fine.  But now, I was on to something.  I had tried a ton of different soaps, lotions, shampoos, laundry detergents, and sunscreens and nothing ever changed.  What if he was allergic to ALL of them?!

I started testing out that theory immediately and I also called Children’s Hospital to set up his appointment.  I started to feel hopeful.  With a team of the best doctors around, I was sure to find an answer, right!?

Meet Lucas.  My full of energy, Tasmanian Devil of a four year old boy, whose heart is bursting at the seams with love for the world around him and his mind is churning with curiosity.  I often liken him to George the monkey.  But I’ve got my eye on him a little better than that man with the yellow hat.  This kid is my everything.  (Well, half of my everything since his brother arrived.)  I would do anything for my boys, and all I want is for them to be happy and healthy.  Every mother’s wish, right?  Which is why I need to tell his story.  There just might be another sweet little person out there than can benefit from our experience.

For the last several years we were challenged with a mystery rash.  It seems as if this rash has been so much a part of our lives for so long now that it’s almost as if I have another child.  Lucas, Nathan, and the rash.  I’ve looked at my son’s face a gazillion times over the last few years and it’s all I have seen – the red swollen eyes, the dry skin, the patches of eczema creeping from his wrists up his arms to the insides of his elbows, around his neck reaching up to his chin and cheeks, covering his belly, his groin, the backs of his knees and legs.  I’ve watched him scratch constantly, redirecting his hands and keeping his nails cut short.  I’ve handed him hundreds of wet wash towels to calm his itchy eyes, applied nearly a thousand coats of oils, creams, and lotions to his face and body. I’ve cried and I’ve prayed and I’ve thrown my hands up in complete despair, looked to my husband for strength and reassurance, and I’ve kept on searching.  But it was worth it.  Because today I look at his face and I see clear eyes and a beautiful complexion, I see a calmer demeanor, hands that play rather than scratch, and I no longer cringe at the sight of his skin when I change his shirt or help him into the bath.

It all started when Lucas was about two years old and we agreed to let him have the chicken pox vaccine.  I was uneasy about it, but with our doctors urging, I went ahead as we had already spaced out most of his vaccines much more than the average schedule allows.  Within a few days, his baby brother had a rash that looked like Chicken Pox, and Lucas was starting to develop a red, raised rash along many parts of his body that looked like eczema. I took them in to the pediatrician, wondering if Nathan could have had some kind of cross spread chicken pox reaction from Lucas’s vaccine.  His doctor thought it was possible, and couldn’t diagnosis it otherwise.  She confirmed L’s rash was eczema.  Well, Nathans went away and never came back.  But Lucas’s didn’t.  It kept getting worse, so I started reading about eczema.  I tried the typical prescribed routine of a lukewarm bath, immediately followed by thick lotion like aquaphor, hydro cortisone cream on the bad spots and cool cotton sleepwear.  But it kept getting worse.

We went back to his pediatrician, who did an IgE panel and prescribed Derma-smooth, which is a topical steroid oil to be used twice a day.  She also recommended vanicream lotion and cetaphil cleanser.  I picked up the prescription and the cleanser at CVS, waited in a never ending line at costco for the vanicream, and went home to wait for the blood test results.  Within 24 hrs using the Dermasmooth the eczema began to clear up and after a few days his skin looked normal again.  We were more than ecstatic to see him looking more like normal again.  A couple weeks later we got the blood results which showed a mild reaction to dairy and eggs.  His doctor did not think it was high enough to warrant removing them from his diet, but we wanted to give it a try and see what happened.  For about six weeks we kept him dairy and egg free, backed off on the medicated oil, and the eczema returned.  It was there, regardless of his diet.

Life was busy and as a mom of a baby and toddler, I found myself giving up the investigation for lack of time and energy and so the medication became part of our daily routine.  Everywhere Lucas went, the oil and lotion went too.  The eczema was under control, but it was never gone.  It was written all over his face.  Guilt sat at the pit of my stomach and churned every time I looked at his swollen eyes, his scaly head and dry face.  Every time he scratched his wrist and I ran to grab the oil to make the problem go away.  Once a week I would drench his scalp in jojoba oil, but a hat over his head, and once it soaked for a few hours I would use a fine comb to lift the thick layers of crust off of his head.  Like a baby’s cradle cap, only fifty times worse.  He would cry, run away from me, and I would apologize repeatedly, “I’m sorry baby, we have to do this to help your head”.  I would bribe him with lollipops and he would sit as still as he could until he couldn’t take it any longer and we would stop.

After about year into this routine I took him to a pediatric dermatologist who looked at me like I was nuts and told me my kid was fine, he was just an “allergy kid” and would some day grow out of it.  He gave me more prescriptions for topical steroids and told me to keep doing what I was doing.  I left, frustrated, furious that no one would take my concerns seriously, and bewildered at the thought that people seem to think eczema just comes out of nowhere.  Something had to be causing it.  I just knew it.

Another year passed and as I grew increasingly aware of the affects of chemicals and hormones on the human body, my mind kept going to Lucas and what I could do.  In my few years since having children I had replaced all chemical cleaners in our home with natural ones, all soaps, detergents, shampoos, toothpastes, lotions, etc etc etc were 100% pure and natural.  I replaced plastics in the kitchen with glass, threw away the sippy cups and kid plates/bowls and replaced with kleen kanteens, bpa free plates/bowls and (gasp!) let the boys use our nice dishes, which they haven’t broken yet.   We increased our food budget so that I could keep us eating about 90% organic foods.  I felt like we were doing all of these things to keep our bodies healthy, but poor Lucas was still being overwhelmed with toxic chemicals in the form of this steroid oil that we put on him every day.  I had had enough.  Two years was too long, and there was no end in sight.

So…  I talked it over with Ryan and we started our investigation again. Step number one was to take him to a Naturopathic doctor, and I will talk about that in my next post because this one is getting long!

]]> http://blog.suzannejeanette.net/2012/10/15/all-began/feed/ 0 http://blog.suzannejeanette.net/2012/08/24/every-atom-beautiful-universe/ http://blog.suzannejeanette.net/2012/08/24/every-atom-beautiful-universe/#respond Sat, 25 Aug 2012 05:48:47 +0000 http://www.suzannejeanette.net/?p=2136 It’s been slow on the writing front… I needed a little help and was inspired by this question today.  I even surprised myself a little bit by what came out.

Random writing prompt: What do you WANT, right now? 

To be strong and healthy and patient.  To have the amazing ability to do “everything”, or at least everything I want to do, from homeschooling my kids to writing my heart out, to photographing moments that are drenched in emotion and silent stories.  To be healed of my shortcomings, my health issues – to no longer crave sugar and medication when I am weak or sick, to no longer feel anxiety and to leave behind forever the gripping knot in my stomach.  To be pure and free, strong willed and spirited, spirit-full, full of spirit and faith in the kind God that I believe in and feel present in my daily life.  To let go of everything my ego thinks I “need” and listen only to my heart, and the hearts of my children and family, which beat in rhythm with mine.  To feel the pain of the world and to be able to do something about it.  To see the wrongs and the rights and to be able to filter through them and lift up the good and roll through the bad until the light is once again sparkling and my mission is crystal clear.  To know my purpose like it’s written on my heart and reflected on every atom in this beautiful universe.

I want to inspire.  To grow.  To know my own heart and my own mind.  To not be buried in fog.  Or fear.  To live in the moment, today and everyday without worry for the future.  I want to choose life.  I want to celebrate every moment.  I want to live epic stories.  I want to remember and be remembered.  I want to give my kids beautiful amazing memories of happy family moments and I never want them to doubt for a second how much they are loved, how much they mean to me, how much they changed my world for the crazy awesome better.

I want to start living in color.  Stop letting the world stifle my desire for bold and bright color.  Paint cabinets.  Paint walls and furniture.  Make pillows.  Make quilts.  Make our home bright and cheerful and happy.  My favorite part of our home is the family room with the green wall.  I get so many compliments on our green wall.  I need more green walls.  No more black and white and brown and grey.  It’s time to be bold and beautiful.  Yellows and oranges and turquoise.  Greens, yes more greens.  And pink and purple.  Rugs and bedspreads and pillows and blankets and photographs and frames and art and beauty of all kinds.  ALL OVER the FREAKING house.  Because we only live ONCE.  Why be boring and plain and white and black.

And I want to keep reading.  Reading stories and memoirs and uplifting tales of challenges and hope.  Epic stories.  And I want more relaxing days.  Like today.  I read all day long.  While the boys watched movies and had quiet time and napped, even while they jumped all over me.  I still read my book, hooked on words written with joy and passion and full of beautiful language and emotion.  I need to read more.  and more.  because it inspires me.  And it helps me relax and write.  This type of inspiration and downtime is more important than a clean house and folded laundry.  More important than organizing the shoe bin or cleaning out clothes from drawers or making sure everything is done and crossed off my list.  So I want to designate time for the to do list – and spend the rest of the time living life out loud, making the most of my one wild and precious life.  I will only have this day once.  This moment once.  When it is gone, it is gone.  So I need to make the most of every moment, every day, every word I speak and every experience that is thrown my way..

Now that it has been two weeks on the elimination diet, we are slowly transitioning to more of a rotation diet with Lucas.  As we begin to add a few foods back in to his diet and determine whether or not they have an affect on his eczema, we need to rotate the days that he eats them to help his body adjust well and treat them as nourishing foods rather than immune invaders.  So, he will have to wait a couple days for more blueberries, but that’s better than two weeks, right?!

SO… on a very happy note, and I’m a little bit afraid to jinx myself, but I have to say I think things are getting better.   A couple days ago, his skin started feeling smoother but was still crazy red.  Then yesterday it seemed a little less red.  And today even less red again.  When I looked at him this morning I wanted to do a happy dance.  When I see his face I see my sweet little boy again, not puffy eyes and blotchy cheeks.  It is SO VERY REFRESHING and reassuring to have some progress happening here.  SO.  Onward and upward!  Only more good will come of this whole crazy diet thing now!

I’m off to the kitchen for some new random recipe creations…..  gonna go see what I can make with some amaranth flour.

Lamb, Kale, and Sun Dried Tomato Pasta

In a large pot over medium heat, add olive oil, lamb, salt, and pepper, and cook for a few minutes until most of the pink color has disappeared.  Add broth and greens, cover, and simmer until greens are bright in color.  Remove lid and continue to cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.  Add cooked pasta and stir to combine.  Add additional salt and pepper to taste, and serve with about a tablespoon of sun dried tomatoes per serving.  (We added these at the end on an individual basis because they are not elimination diet friendly – they could also be added in at the same time as the pasta if there are no diet concerns.)

It’s not enough that I have two batches of water kefir going on my counter all the time.  And a one gallon fermenting jar full of bubbling sauerkraut on top of the fridge.  I want more!  MUST. MAKE. MORE