I recently wrote about tracking down what was leading to my baby’s recent breakout of eczema.  I was delighted to have solved the puzzle, and to have a plan.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, because coconut oil is so fantastically healthy), I was wrong.  His skin cleared up around the time I wrote my post, and last Saturday morning, broke out again – and I hadn’t had a bit of coconut oil for a week. His skin got a little better during the week, and then this morning, terribly flared up.

He has bumpy spots on his arms and legs, not very red, but still noticeable.  His face is where it’s most obvious. 

He’s also been cranky and out of sorts, and scratching at his face (and legs, when he’s wearing warm weather clothing).  When I touch his face, it’s noticeably warmer in the inflamed areas, and the skin right next to it is cool.  Even before this, I’ve been spending the last three months or so holding him all day long.  But at least he was happy being held.  

I’m having a hard time figuring out what he could be reacting to.  One big challenge in nursing infants is that the response to the allergenic food through breast milk can take up to 96 hours.  So I can’t tell if he reacted this morning to something I ate four days ago, or something I ate yesterday.  Confusing, isn’t it?

I already eat very simply, a plain protein with some fruit or veg at each meal, along with a grain or potato/yam, and some fat.  No processed foods, no hidden ingredients.  Most of the top allergenic foods I’m already either not eating or eating very little of. 

I don’t think that treating eczema topically will solve anything (since I want to find the root of the issue, which is probably digestive), but I’d like to find an interim way to alleviate his discomfort.  Not with cortisone creams, obviously (recently one of the commonly prescribed creams for infant eczema was found to be linked to cancer), and I know that’s the only suggestion the doctor will have for me.  Cortisone creams are powerful steroids that enter the body through the skin and don’t solve the problem, it only temporarily covers up the problem at best.   Eliminating the symptom is very different from eliminating the disease.  I’m thinking more along the lines of pure shea butter or vitamin E oil.  Tonight I put some emu oil on since I have some in the house, on just one side of his face to see if it makes a difference. 

I also took some flaxseed oil capsules tonight, and will continue with that in case he has an essential fatty acid deficiency that might be helped; he’ll get it through my milk.  I need to pick up some more fish oil, which I’m out of and haven’t taken for a while.  I’m going to add the coconut oil back in slowly, since I think it will help heal whatever is going on inside him.  I already drink homemade kefir (cultured milk – full of probiotics) but will up my daily intake, as that can only help. 

Sigh.  It’s so hard to see your baby suffer, not knowing what to do to help him.  I’ll be sure to share what works for us once we figure it out, since it seems that this is more common than I thought. 

Avivah

In the last couple of weeks, we noticed the baby was developing a rash on his face.  The first couple of days, I didn’t think much about it, just that he must have scratched himself somehow.  But then it got worse and worse, and his face was looking very blotchy, clearly eczema, which indicated to me an allergic response to something in his diet.

He’s now almost 7 months, and had only had tiny amounts of food other than nursing, so I was pretty sure it was something coming through my milk.  I looked at what I was eating to see what could be transferring to him.

I’m fortunate that I eat very simply, no processed food at all so there are no hidden ingredients to try to identify.  It was pretty easy for me to look at my diet of the last couple of weeks and see what was different from before that.  The only things I could see were milk and coconut oil.  I had run out of milk for a couple of weeks, and didn’t have any until I stocked up again.  But since  I’ve been drinking raw milk since he was born without any signs of problem, it didn’t seem that could be the issue. 

That left me with coconut oil as the culprit, which didn’t seem likely since if he was allergic to tree nuts, he should be reacting to the almonds and cashews that I regularly eat, but he doesn’t.  I recently upped my intake of coconut oil to 3 tablespoons a day, rather suddenly deciding to use it to replace all the fats I was using, and it was during this period that his skin got rashy.

I stopped eating coconut oil on Friday afternoon, when it first occurred to me, and his skin has gotten steadily better since then.  But this leaves me with a big question.  I still don’t believe it was the oil itself that was the problem.  So what actually caused the rash? 

Here are my thoughts.  Coconut oil is a powerful anti-fungal and therefore kills off yeast inside the body (among other things).  When the yeast dies off, a person will initially seem to be getting worse before it looks better, because the die off manifests itself as a number of unpleasant symptoms (skin eruptions are one).  When a mother has a yeast overgrowth (candida – as virtually everyone nowadays has), it’s passed on to her infant before he’s born, which is how a nursing baby would aquire it. 

So the coconut oil was doing something – what I’m unsure about is: 1) was my baby reacting to toxins my body was throwing off as the coconut oil helped my body heal, and therefore the rash was caused from those toxins (in which case slowing down or eliminating coconut oil is the path to take) ; or 2) was he himself having his internal yeast killed off, and the rash was a manifestation of die off – in which case it would benefit him to continue to help his body detoxify (and continuing the oil would be the right approach)?

I don’t have an answer for this, and don’t have anyone to ask.  I’m delighted that his skin is looking better again.  At this point I’m thinking that in a few weeks, I’ll slowly reintroduce coconut oil in my diet.  The problem might have been that it was a sudden change in my diet, and by easing into it, I can watch his response and back off immediately if I see it leading to a problem again.  If the issue was die off, going slowly would cause the die off to be less drastic and he would still benefit from the healing properties of coconut oil.

Avivah

Last night I was speaking with someone I’ve gotten to know over the last month or so who just got a cancer diagnosis.  She got the impression that I’m more healthy than her typical aquaintance, I guess.  So she told me about her diagnosis and said she was open to alternative approaches, but didn’t know where to start.  I love Google and the amazing amounts of info a person can find to help themselves, but I also know how overwhelming a huge amount of information can be to someone not used to doing this kind of research.  So a couple of nights ago when I was up with the baby, I figured I’d do some reading on natural cancer cures and get her started with some good links.  I have a decent sense of what is good info and what isn’t, plus I’m a fast reader, so I thought I would help her by giving her a solid starting point.  After 3 hours of reading, I sent her an email detailing three sites I suggested she start with, as well as some specifics regarding vitamin C. 

But it seems to be so hard for someone not used to thinking for themselves to make decisions, even when they have the information!  People have gotten used to thinking of people with degrees in a field as the experts (like doctors), and have disempowered themselves with this kind of thinking.  It’s hard to overcome that kind of disempowerment just because you want to suddenly do things differently, and I understand that. 

At the same time, my approach to everything from childbirth to parenting or homeschooling is based on empowering others to think for themselves, not telling them the exact steps to follow.  The steps that each of us need to follow to be successful is different, since we each define success and happiness differently.  She kept asking me what she should do, and after discussing some basic points to work on with her, I told her she needs to make these kind of decisions about her health herself.  You can’t turn to others (including me) and say, “Just tell me what to do so everything will be okay”.  Who can make that kind of guarantee for someone else? 

 So she asked what I would do if it were me.  And I told her that I personally wouldn’t do chemo and would only deal with it alternatively – but that was consistent with who I am and my holistic approach to life.  (I actually had to deal with this three years ago, when I had a swelling on my neck.  A friend noticed and told me to get it checked out-  I did and the endocrinologist took one alarmed look and started talking about immediate surgery for a tumor that large, suspecting thyroid cancer.  To make a long story short, it disappeared when I eliminated sugar from my diet, without the help of chemo, surgery, or further diagnostic testing after the initial biopsy.)  She had to think about who she is and what approach she can feel good about, and she would have to feel comfortable about her decision.

But after almost an hour of conversation in this vein, she plaintively said, “But you aren’t telling me what to do!”   I’ll be honest – I  don’t know how to help those who want me to do their thinking for them, and once I’ve tried my best to help, I don’t have a lot of patience to keep having a conversation.  I have very, very little time that I can speak on the phone, I was jiggling a cranky baby the entire time, and it was 10:30 pm by now.  I’m willing to spend time with people when they are truly open to what I’m saying, but I can’t listen to someone go in circles.  It’s not productive for them and frustrating to me.  I realized that nothing I was saying was helping, since I had spent so much time speaking to her not only about specific things she could do, but explaining how crucial it is to claim her personal power with a diagnosis like this and not depend on everyone else to take care of her. 

So I finally said, “If you want someone to tell you what to do, go to your doctors.  They’ll be happy to do that.  And if you’re okay with the results of their decisions, then fine. But regardless of who makes the decisions about your health, you’re the one who is going to have to live with the consequences.”

So my point in sharing this is to say, don’t give away your power by being afraid to learn more and to apply what you learn, by feeling insecure that you don’t know enough or you aren’t enough in some way.  Personal power doesn’t come from depending on other people to tell you what you need.  It comes from taking the initiative in any area to see what you need, and finding a way to accomplish your goals.  It is so empowering to realize how many things we can do in various areas of our lives to help ourselves and our families! 

Avivah