He is Cured!

When Will was about 3 months old he started getting horrible rashy red dry skin patches all over his body. It started on his chest and moved to his back and arms and eventually got to his face and legs. His pediatrician kept telling us that it was from his cradle cap falling down and irritating his skin...well that seemed a little sketchy because we had the dry scalp under control and it really was not all that bad and eventually went away after a month or so. We tried everything we could think of to help his skin. It was diagnosed as atopic dermatitis (eczema) which is pretty common, but my father has had it very severely his whole life. We took Will to a dermatologist after trying everything we could possibly think of including every home remedy and lotion and detergent and what not. The dermatologist told me that he will have it off and on his whole life and there is nothing we can really do about it. Ahh! I was hesitant to go to this doctor in the first place thinking he would tell me something like that, but I knew that was not true and I was determined to find out what else we could do. My poor baby was itching himself like crazy all the time and I had to consistently have his body clothed so he wouldn't scratch himself up. He had lots of gashes from scratching and was constantly irritated unless I kept him busy. Here are a couple pictures to show you how bad it actually got.

 

In the mean time Will was getting weekly adjustments at the chiropractor and that seemed to be the only thing that would help relieve a little bit of irritation...and it helped immediately! But then after a few days it would come back get really irritated again. I was done with doctors appointments all the time trying to figure this out and did not want to put him on steroids to make it look better but not fix the cause. So for a long time we just kept getting him adjusted and it was the best thing that helped...until my chiropractor suggested that since Will is exclusively breastfed for me to stop eating dairy. So for 6 weeks straight I had nothing made with milk or dairy and his skin completely cleared up! We were totally amazed! It just took a few weeks to get out of my system, and when it did Will had beautiful healthy skin! I could hardly believe it. So just to test it out I gradually brought back dairy for a week and he flared up again. So we know for a fact what the cause is and I went off dairy completely. It is amazing how many foods are made with milk! That also means no ice cream! no cheese! no pizza! no yogurt! ahhh!...oh the things we do for the ones we love. :) It took 5 whole months to figure out what the cause was, but he has now been totally cleared up for almost 2 months! yay! So as long as I am breastfeeding I will not be eating dairy. It is a hard change considering how many calories I usually get from dairy products everyday. I have learned to like almond milk and soy products. It is definitely not the same, but worth it for a healthy babe.