In Search of an Eczema Cure

If you ask my grandmother, she would tell you that allergies don't "run" in our  family, they gallop.

Little Dude's eczema started about two months ago, at about three and a half months old. It started with his face and chest, then spread to his legs and diaper area, and when it continued spreading to his sweet little elbows I knew I had to do something about it. I could bore you with more information than you ever wanted about atopic diseases like asthma, eczema or food allergies; but suffice it to say that I have done my research and knew that to attack Jonathan's eczema I had to go after my diet.

            Enter the elimination diet

The concept of an elimination diet for breastfed babies is that because something in mom's diet is likely what is causing the symptoms (this goes for colic as well as eczema), then mom should pare down her diet to only the foods least likely to cause a reaction, and then slowly add foods back one at a time until the culprit(s) can be identified. So after reading stories about other moms curing their babies' eczema with minor diet modifications I dove in.

The most stringent form of the diet involves eating nothing more than "range-fed turkey and lamb, baked or boiled potatoes and sweet potatoes (with salt and pepper only), rice and millet as your only grain, cooked green and yellow squash for your vegetable, and for fruit, pears and diluted pear juice." If you want more information on this torturous plan you can find it here. In all seriousness though, there is some good info there on how elimination diets can work. (I will detail my modified version of this plan that I am currently using in another post.)

I am currently finishing day three of the first two week period where the diet is the most restricted, and I have to admit it's not as bad as I thought it would be! Yeah, it stinks that I can't eat pizza or my favorite peanut butter smoothie (oh peanut butter....), but I know that I am doing what I can to help Little Dude and that it will not last forever!

So whether your a friend or family member keeping up with what's up in the Hough House or you are a fellow mom struggling to help your own little one, hang in with me and will figure this out together!