Eczema in Children and Natural Herbal Solutions

If your child has eczema chances are your child is experiencing intense itching and irritation that is driving them crazy. Often the child’s mother and/or father also experience some form of allergic reaction as well, such as asthma, eczema/dermatitis or hayfever. So the child may have a genetic factor making them intolerant or allergic to something in their environment or to something they are ingesting.

Baby with Eczema On Face

Eczema can be managed and even eradicated by making changes to diet and taking supplements. The following suggestions may help:

1. Take out dairy and wheat from their diet. Both dairy and wheat are potential food allergens. Dairy can be replaced with calcium enriched rice milk, coconut milk and oat milk – or you can buy all three and mix them together. Wheat can be replaced with spelt bread or wheat free breads from the supermarket or health food stores.
2. Take out artificial colours and preservatives. Become a “label detective” and buy your child more natural foods that don’t have colours and preservatives. Foods such as fruit, nuts, seeds, rice crackers, carob coated licorice etc make good healthy alternatives for snacks. Your local health food store is full of yummy alternatives.
3. Increase the “good” oils. Often eczema sufferers are deficient in essential fatty acids (EFA’s). The EFA’s are the “good” oils that can be consumed from fish, nuts, seeds, avocados, coconut milk and olive oil. They can also be taken in supplement form such as fish oil supplements.
4. Good gut flora. A good acidophilus supplement for kids is very important for children with eczema. In fact you can add it to their rice or oat milk and they won’t even know they’ve had it.
5. Decrease red meat and sugars. Red meat and sugars are acidic to the body and are best kept to an absolute minimum. Instead increase fish and lots of vegetables into the diet, and use alternatives to sugar such as local or raw honey on rice crackers or spelt toast.
6. Apply herbal creams/ointments. A number of natural herbal substances can be used for the temporary relief of eczema. Creams, ointments or plant oils containing extracts of licorice, German Chamomile, Calendula, Nettle and Lavender are effective alternatives to the cortisone-containing ointments.

Suggestion – Eczema smoothie for kids:

½ cup calcium enriched rice milk
¼ cup oat milk
¼ cup pineapple or apple juice
2 tspns of coconut milk
1 tspn olive oil
acidophilus powder (use dosage recommended on bottle)
½ banana
Just blend all the ingredients until smooth. Add ice to chill if you wish.
And serve “Drink it Freddy, Drink it”. One of these a day may keep the eczema away.

Eczema requires time to heal. So give it at least a month before you start seeing results.

The information provided in this article is a general recommendation only. Each child and adult is different and it is always best to see a health practitioner or naturopath to receive a truly wholistic approach and management specific to the individual. If there is no relief to symptoms using the general approach above after 1 month, or you have questions regarding making changes to diet, finding recipes suitable for children, or even obtaining a herbal cream right for you or your child.

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