Just a quick pre-face here guys. Some of the videos can be hard to watch and the writing may seem sad or dramatic but I wanted to convey our experience as honestly as possible in the hopes that another family that is going through the same thing may relate and find the answers they need to help their child. So stick with me here, there is light at the end of the tunnel. This story does have a happy ending I promise.
June 28, 2016 Allan at 3 months old.
Allan first showed signs of eczema when he was 3 months old. He was our first child and honestly, I didn't know anything about eczema. At first, I think I just chopped it up to be regular "baby eczema" something I could fix with a cream or maybe a change in his diet. All the advice I got from our family or friends (as good willed as it was) was that, "he'll grow out of it" or "have you tried this kind of lotion?" In those early days, I was hopping for a natural cure. Coconut oil, oatmeal baths and sunlight were, I thought, the answers.
As Allan got older his eczema became steadily worse. Once he became mobile enough to scratch on his own, things really took a downward spiral. It was at this time that I started to seek out professional help. This was one of the most frustrating experiences of our story.
You name it we tried it. I took Allan to a number of pediatricians looking for answerers. One pediatrician would tell me to use straight steroid ointment while another would tell me to never use steroid ointment on my 1 year old son.
The first 2 years of Allan's life were pretty dark. Looking back on it, I'm not sure how we all pulled through. I was lucky to get 2 hours of sleep a night with Allan sleeping only long enough to wake up crying in pain again. I would drag myself out of bed pick him up and try to distract him with a movie. Monsters Inc and Finding Dory were some of his favorites. There we were sitting on the floor of our condo at 2 or 3 in the morning watching Dory again. Distraction was the name of the game in those days anything to keep him from scratching. Anything to make him happy, if only for a few moments.
My husband Ryan, was working full time. I was working at Whole Foods 3 days a week along with starting my doula training which meant I was attending births a few times a month, sometimes I would be with a client for over 12 hours. Again, I have no idea how we were doing all this on virtually no sleep for a solid year and a half. I can only thank our family for all the help and support they gave us.
A few thing we tried that didn't work for us, but maybe they will work for you.
The hard memories
Allan living in footed onesies so he wouldn't scratch himself bloody. I still can't look at a footed onesies without having some hard feeling attached to them.
Shaking out his bed sheets and onesies every morning over our balcony to get rid of the dead skin that had accumulated overnight.
Every one of his fingers, covered in a bandage to keep them from bleeding.
Allan crying every time I gave him a bath. The warm water stinging his skin, no bubbles to distract him only oatmeal filled water that was splashed over him briefly. Then I would wrap him up in a towel for a little cuddle.
My fear of having another child. What if they had sever eczema too! I just couldn't see how I would handle having another child in constant pain.
Smothering lotion on him in the vain hope that it might help relive some of the itch. It never did.
Traveling anywhere with him was even worse. Without our carefully constructed routine and our clean, animal free home, it was virtually impossible to handle his eczema in any livable way. This was us stuck in not moving traffic. We were on our way home from my family's cabin in Utah. I remember poor Allan just screaming in the car, ripping at his footed jammies as I tried in vain to comfort him. I finally had to resort to putting him back in his car seat to keep him from scratching, praying that he would cry himself to sleep.
May 4, 2017 Allan at 17 months old.
September 10, 2017 Allan at 21 months old.
September 12, 2017 Allan at 21 months old.
What finally worked: The Aron Regimen
My best friend came with her sweet little family for a visit. She and I had dinner together just the two of us. I remember, trying to quietly wipe away my tears as I cried telling her "I spend most of my day just trying to make him happy".
It was my best friend that found the Aron Regimen for us. After almost three years of trying everything under the sun; every cream, lotion and elimination diets, seriously, there was a time we were only eating lamb chops and rice for every single meal, I wasn't feeling too hopeful that this would finally be our answerer. But it was. We ordered the cream. It's a mix of lotion, steroids and antibiotic ointment. Tailored to your child's needs and size.
My reluctance to use steroids daily on my son's skin lead me to try all the other methods first. But at this point, it was about our son's quality of life and everything else had failed us. I followed the directions exactly. I remember the first night I applied the medicated cream to Allan's inflamed skin and stuffing him screaming back into his footed jammies. His eczema was all over his body, excluding his face. The next morning, I applied it again and was surprised to see that his skin wasn't as inflamed and he wasn't screaming while I rubbed it in. Thing only got better from that point on.
We would still experience a few lows as he healed from his eczema and we still put a lot of focus on his diet hoping to heal him from the inside out. But, Allan's life would continue to changed for the better. I remember my husband turning to me one day as we watched Allan play with his cousins, unburdened by his once constant need to scratch himself, and saying, "So this is what it's like having a son".
September 24, 2018 Allan at 2 years and 6 months old.
There is always hope
Allan is eight now, yep that's how long it's taken me to write this, and we still use the Aron Regimen. But, now we only use it for spot treating when he get a rare flair up. Like I said in the beginning, I wanted to share our story so that it will hopefully help other families that have children suffering from sever eczema. The answerer you are looking for is out there. Maybe, for you the answer is the Aron Regimen too.
If you enjoy reading about my memories from motherhood, checkout these other stories here. Or, if you want to stay in the loop for my next blog post, just click here.
Comments