At 2 months, our son had a terrible case of eczema. Our pediatrician prescribed hydro-cortisone cream as medication and we're told to apply it regularly for two months. But his eczema didn't get any better after we stopped the medication. Actually it got even worse. There were many sleepless nights of crying and screaming, sore skin that covered his right cheek and on some parts of his leg, sometimes near his eyes. We can't figure out what he was allergic to, he was breastfed and was not on any formula milk, one time he was ok and next time there would be flare up of eczema again.
One of the worse experience we had was after a vacation. We were on a 9 hour flight back home, he was 4 months old and he was not crying, he was screaming in pain or maybe itch and rubbing his face with his hands and on our shoulder. His medication was no longer working on him. His face has lots of scratches and was very sore already.
The picture below is what he looked like when the topical medication was still working on him . Notice that the redness is still there. On bad days when his eczema flares up the skin get raw and sore, and sometimes it gets crusty.
I couldn't find a picture of him showing how bad it was. But this one closely resembles his eczema case. People would often ask what was on his face, it was very frustrating for us. We switched from one brand of cortisone cream to another but it would only lead us back to worse once we stop the meds.
I decided I have to try all kinds of natural treatment that I could. I kept researching. Until I learned about oatmeal mask and how beneficial oatmeal can be for the skin.
Oatmeal contains avenanthramides, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds that soothe itchy, dry and irritated skin.
How did I use it?
I didn't want to mix the oatmeal with anything else that his skin might be allergic to. So I mixed 2 tbsp of quick cooking oatmeal with some water just enough to make a poultice and applied it on the sore skin. Once the oatmeal dries on his skin I would reapply again, the usual interval is every 2 hours. He became calm and the soreness in his skin eventually subsided.
The first week was very promising, so I continued with it. I would also soak about half a cup of oatmeal on his tub (approx. 2 liters of water) for his bath rinse before bedtime. The milky water was starchy to his skin and it added relief specially at night.
After almost 3 months his face almost cleared up. There was still minimal redness that was like a scar from his eczema but it eventually disappeared, except for one patch on his leg that I did not paid so much attention to mask with the oatmeal poultice.
Right now he is 4 years old, and his skin is perfect. No more eczema!
©2015 Modest Runway
