When my daughter was born in 2003, I expected her to develop normally like other children. Around the time she was one year old, it was clear that something was really wrong. In needing an answer, my husband and I were forced to put our small child through a brain scan, heart scan, and numerous blood tests. Through this, we discovered that our precious little one had been born with a non-specific metabolic disorder. There have been two major effects from this disorder, one being that she has moved through developmental stages at a much slower rate than other children, and the other has been the adverse reaction of never-ending eczema.



If you have a child with eczema, you know the horror of watching your child scratch, itch, and seemingly never get relief. In most children, it comes and goes from time to time. In our daughter, there was never much of a break from it. It was ever present, ever annoying, and ever heart breaking to us. So what is eczema, formally known as Atopic Dermatitis? Allergists and dermatologists tell us that it is a skin disease found often in children who's parents have suffered from asthma (as my husband has). Children typically grow out of it by the age of five, though it can re-appear in adulthood from time to time. Extremely itchy, red, blotchy skin will appear most in the creases of a persons body (behind the knees, in the bend of the arm, under arm-pits, and on the neck). It can also appear on the hands and feet. When eczema is scratched, it actually begins to itch worse. If left untreated, or if treatments are not effective, it can become infected and ?weep? meaning it releases a type of puss from the dry cracked sores.

Certain environmental factors can also bring on outbreaks of eczema, and as mentioned before, there are other diseases that seem to go hand in hand with eczema, like our daughter's metabolic disorder. Treatments include steroid creams, and thick lotions put on several times a day to keep the skin moist. We began to try every cream available that claimed to help with eczema. Though we hated to use steroid creams, they seemed to be the only thing that made a difference. As soon as our daughter's skin got clear, it was merely a few days before it started all over again. We felt helpless.

Around 2006, I discovered organic baby products. I opened an on-line retail store carrying organic baby mattresses and accessories. As I read the information about the benefits of organic mattresses, I felt that this could be a huge help to our daughter's skin condition. I also got really excited when doing research on the dust mite cover we offer. It appears that dust mite fecal matter can itself be one of those environmental factors that bring on outbreaks of eczema. When we finally had saved enough money to purchase these items, we couldn't wait to try them out. After days of sleeping on the organic baby bedding, we did see a marked improvement in our daughter. It seemed however that there was still a missing key to getting this condition under control once and for all. A few months later, we found that key.

My husband and I go to church with an indoor environmentalist. My husband suffers from quite a few allergies himself, so our friend explained that the air we breathe in our home could be of poor quality. We had him test the air and send it to a lab. The results he found were exceedingly surprising. Fiberglass particles and an array of fungi were in very high concentrations in our home. With these kinds of results, it was no wonder we all felt sick, tired, and void of energy. We found out that just one type of air filter doesn't work. There are filters that claim to be ?whole house? air cleaners but really only clean about 30% of the air. You have to use them in conjunction with another cleaner that is installed into your ducts and releases negative ions. Not only that, each and every vent in your home has to be sealed with mastic. With all of these put together, you can breathe clean fresh air in your home.

After about a month of breathing clean air, we started to notice our daughter's skin clear up. It was amazing. I started to notice because I had forgotten to put her cream on five times in one day, and when I went to remedy that issue, I noticed clear beautiful skin. As they days passed, the skin stayed beautiful and clear. We had finally discovered the way to keep our child eczema free without the use of constant steroids. Just as the clean air needed many different components working together to be truly clean, clear skin needed many different components working together to stay clear. An organic mattress, an organic dust mite cover, and clean air to breathe (especially at night when you sleep.) Of course we still put moisturizing cream on her skin, we just cut it down to twice a day rather than having to remember to do it five times. We cracked the eczema code!

Knowing that eczema is a skin disease, we won't be surprised if our daughter has an occasional outbreak. But we now feel such relief that breakouts will be few and far between. If your child deals with never-ending eczema and are looking for a way to stop the madness, we greatly encourage you to use an organic mattress and pillow (if your child is old enough to use a pillow). It is imperative to get an organic dust mite cover for both. Finally, get the air tested in your home. With all these factors put together,eczema-free skin in no time.