Eczema 

If you have a child with eczema you may have felt like you are on an emotional rollercoaster as you attempt different remedies with varying levels of progress… only to end up back at square one. 

Not only is your child affected by the heightened chronic inflammation in their body, but eczema can start to affect your own stress and quality of life as a parent or caregiver. Your child’s quality of life may be limited by what clothes they can wear, avoiding or limiting vacations, owning pets, ability to get proper sleep due to discomfort, and their ability to participate in sports or extracurricular activities. In addition to all of this, you may start to notice your child begin to develop feelings of embarrassment and face bullying and teasing from their peers who don’t understand the condition, which can lead to social isolation and mood challenges.  

As a result of the discomfort, increased awareness of eczema, and restriction in so many areas of your child’s life, you may feel extreme parental exhaustion and feelings of hopelessness, guilt, anger and depression. I understand the lack of information and ambiguous information relating to eczema treatment is frustrating for parents of children with eczema who seem to have tried every product out there with inconsistent and/or poor results. 

I work with parents and healthcare providers to address eczema by looking through a different lens. I work to uncover triggers that could be contributing to your child’s eczema in addition to providing symptomatic relief of the condition so that your child is comfortable during the process.

Eczema is defined as a group of skin conditions classified by red, itchy, and inflamed skin. The most common kinds of eczema in children include atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis, dyshidrotic dermatitis and seborrheic dermatitis (also known as cradle cap).  

Eczema causes the barrier of the skin to become compromised which can make a child more prone to infection and increase dryness of the skin and cause subsequent discomfort. In addition to the symptoms listed above, some other symptoms of eczema include bumps and scaly patches on the skin and crusting of the skin, usually where there are skin creases such as around the elbows, knees, hands and face.  

Eczema is usually treated with topical steroid creams, antihistamines, and corticosteroids. Although these may help reduce symptoms of eczema short term, symptoms often return with the discontinuation of these agents. By using conventional therapies, we are simply masking the condition and do not address the root cause of eczema. For long lasting results, I combine conventional therapy with functional and integrative medicine to heal your child from the inside out.  

By combining different healthcare approaches, you may be able to get children on lower doses or off their prescription treatments without causing flare ups of their eczema symptoms. Through evidence-based incorporation of diet and nutrition, herbs, supplements, optimization of gut health and identification of a child’s root cause of eczema, I aim to help you manage and minimize your child’s eczema symptoms, reduce your family’s stress, and start living your best lives.