Childhood Eczema Natural Remedies: 10 Tips To Heal Eczema-Prone Skin
Did you know one in five children in the UK suffer from childhood eczema? That's six children in every school classroom! My eldest daughter developed childhood eczema from around 8 months old. She is now nearly 10. We've tried lots of different eczema remedies over the years, and I wanted to share what works (and what doesn't!)
Fortunately, we have come a long way on our eczema journey. When she was younger, she would get bad flare ups, especially in the summer. Suddenly the eczema would spread, with red, itchy, scaly skin covering her legs, arms, torso and face. The doctors could only offer us a reigime of thick, sticky ointments to moisturise and steroids to calm down the inflammation. Eventually we reached a point where she was starting to need stronger and stronger steroids to take control of the flare ups, and I decided enough was enough.
Over the past year we have worked really hard to understand the underlying causes of eczema, and heal my daughter's skin. Happily, we have had great success and no longer use any prescribed emollients or steroids. Although the eczema hasn't completely disappeared, she now only has a couple of small patches that rarely flare up. Thankfully, we can manage this just using natural remedies.
What is Childhood Eczema?
Eczema is part of a group of related health issues known as 'atopy'. This family of conditions includes eczema, asthma and allergies - including food allergies, hayfever, pet allergies and so on. These tend to run in families. So if you have any of these conditions, there's a higher chance that your kids will get at least one of them too. It's very common for children to have all three of these atopic diseases together.
If your child suffers with childhood eczema, they will have red, dry itchy skin. Eczema is actually thought to be a lifelong condition that comes and goes. This means your child may appear to outgrow their eczema as they get older, but it is likely that it will return in later life.
