That human subject would be Jack.
Having heard from about ten gazillion people that eczema is often related to consumption of dairy products, and given the fact that our human subject's father, aunt, uncle, and a handful of cousins are lactose intolerant, we decided that further investigation of a rash-milk connection would be well worth the time (and money).
For the last few weeks we have been going milk-free followed by a day or two of allowing milk. As for the eczema, it's definitely not going away. But it's not getting worse (but is that because of the milk? or is it his homeopathic cocktail of local honey, cod liver oil, and a rich slathering of aquaphor/eucerin three times daily? obviously these were not controlled for in my experiment. which explains why I majored in political science).
However, this much I know. Jack has the foulest, stinkiest, gas for an entire 24 hours following the consumption of milk.
Which brings me to yesterday. I am pulled of Primary to take Jack to the bathroom, because according to his nursery leader he has "either had an accident or didn't wipe real well." I take him to the bathroom, check out the situation, and agree with him that "it's just stinky gas!"
There is nothing worse than a stinky child who is not your own. Especially when that child's face, arms, and legs are covered in a scabby rash. And then add the slick covering of gooey, shiny ointment slathered all over the rash. Not really easy to love such a child if he's not a branch on your family tree.
Oh, and we completely forgot to brush his teeth that morning.
Awesome.
12 comments:
YIKES! And good luck with the rash. Sorry I have no suggestions.
I love him. I relate to him so well it'd be impossible for me not to.
And after doing Sarah's cleanse and abstaining from milk for 2 weeks, I never saw a difference in my eczema. Sorry.
Our 4 year old has it horribly too! everyone always asks if he has poison oak. I hope that someday he outgrows it. He has been on everything, and finally got allergy tested. He's allergic to grass. try to tell a 4 year old to stay off the grass, yeah right!
The only thing that has brought it under control is a juice that he drinks daily. It is called Monavie, and he loves it. If you want to talk about it, or just commiserate, write me at kiarlvsu@yahoo.com. Its so hard to see them itch and scratch all the time, huh?
Must be a family thing because I could slather that "stinky gas", eczema ridden kid with hugs and kisses!
OH, poor Jack. He is like is Aunt Molly-not that gas, Molly, just the eczema. I am so sorry. I remember Molly just scratching and scratching in her sleep. Poor thing.
Bad gas explains why I didn't have friends in high school. I'd pick the eczema.
Love the experiment.
My Jack has bad eczema as well. We've got an appointment with the allergist in a couple weeks, though, because we actually think he's allergic to soy (though we hope not-- soy's in so many, many things and severely limits our restaurant enjoyment) or possibly grass. Whatever it is, we just want to know because he's clearly uncomfortable, and I'm constantly slathering him, too. Does your Jack do okay with the Eucerin? My Jack acts like he's on fire when I put that on him-- I think any open spot (where he's scratched himself) burns with that stuff. I've been doing this water-wasting process of an oatmeal bath (any shampooing goes here), drain tub, refill tub with a tbsp. of mineral oil in the bath, followed by Vaseline-slathering, and the prescription cream on the worst spots. That process has worked the best for the itching, but I can't wait to get to the bottom of this.
Poor guy! Good thing he is so cute, eh!
A/C/D/E/ in addition to your repertoir (sp?)- Anna's gets so bad, but that cures her every time. Completely - her skin is so soft and smooth now. Not that Anna and Jack are the same....but it got really bad at one point - her skin was scabbed all over, itching till she bled ( her hands, legs, arms.) Also, the milk avoidance could take months to show results.
We very rarely have milk in our home anymore and everyone seems to be better off. Although, I am going to order some raw again. It is expensive, so we will limit it, but it doesn't seem to "affect" anyone and it has all the good stuff.
I have heard that raw milk helps a LOT with eczema- anecdotally. I don't know about the stinky gas side. I do know that Megan and I are much happier campers when we drink lactose-free milk, soymilk. Raw milk doesn't seem to make much difference for me, tho'.
Does cheese affect him as much?
I can't wait to hug him and wrestle with him, and have FUN with him in another 10 weeks! Slimy, scaly, gassy thing that he might be. He's too adorable to not love.
Good luck with the eczema thing. Jacob has it pretty bad too and the only thing that kind of works for him is Aquaphor. Kind of. That you forgot to brush his teeth made me laugh and feel so much better. For some reason on Sunday morning we seem to forget too often. I always wonder what his teachers think about me.
I appreciated your non-scientific study. Did you make a chart? jk. Sorry to hear you have the stinky kid. Hopefully everything works it's way through.
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