Every since birth, Ransom has had
eczema. I blame the formula that he had as a baby or possibly the vaccines. It could just be a combination of them both I suppose. In any case, something messed up his immune system and thus he now deals with eczema.
Since switching to only natural products and real food, Ransom really hasn't had any issues. Until last year. Last year, in the summer he got what at first I thought was a heat rash. However, it never went away. It stayed and stayed for months on end. I knew it was his evil eczema making a reappearance.
This puzzled me because as far as I could tell, we hadn't changed anything. I wasn't washing his clothes in anything different, well I was but it was even more natural so that wasn't the issue. He wasn't eating anything new. His bath products were the same (aka water with either baking soda, epsom salts, or vinegar added).
I really had no clue as to what could be triggering his eczema.
Then in yet another try to figure things out, I started
making yogurt again. I had previously stopped making yogurt because it wasn't turning out right and I thought it might have had to do with the milk we now buy. As it turns out, it was just because of the initial starter I was using... Nancy's yogurt does NOT make a good yogurt starter! Stonyfield however is great!
Within a week of using yogurt in Ransom's daily smoothie instead of the usual milk, his eczema had cleared up! There are two reasons why I think yogurt did the trick.
1) Yogurt has probiotics and those with eczema (anyone will benefit but eczema sufferers especially) need to re-establish good gut flora.
2) Yogurt is easier to digest than milk. This is why babies can have yogurt before they are 1 years old and yet they cannot have milk.
Ransom apparently cannot tolerate milk in it's natural state. Perhaps if we bought raw milk he could, as many people who can't handle milk can handle raw milk do to all the enzymes being there still (as opposed to pasteurized milk that has had enzymes and such cooked to death). However, raw milk costs $9 a gallon over here and I just can't afford that right now. In fact, I did the math the other day and almost 1/3 of our grocery budget goes solely to milk!!! It's insane.
From now on, I'll be taking the time and
making yogurt for the kids' smoothies. It's a bit annoying as they go through 3 cups of yogurt a day and therefore I have to make yogurt every 3 days or so but if it keeps Ransom's eczema away then I'll do it. Plus yogurt is has lovely probiotics and that's always a good thing.
Ransom seems to be okay if there's milk in a product like say pancakes or at least it's not enough to flare up his eczema so for now I'll keep that all the same. However when it comes to consuming larger amounts of milk (like in smoothies) we have to go with yogurt. Someday, I'll get around to buying Kefir grains so that I can make Kefir instead. Kefir has even more probiotics,it's a bit easier to make, and you can drink it straight so it'd be great to use.
I hate having to deal with Ransom's eczema and hate that he has to deal with it. However, I'm glad to know that we have found ways of keeping it at bay.
