★★★★★
I am pretty sure I have shared eczema remedies in the past. My daughters and I have both had struggles with it.
13 years ago I had a flare of eczema (my first) that lasted 9 months. I tried everything I could find. Finally, borage oil worked for me.
For the last 13 years, anytime a bug bit wouldn't seem to heal, I realized it had turned into eczema. Borage oil for a few days and it was better. A few weeks for good measure.
Back in April I had my first flare up in quite some time. In hindsight I realize it may have begun after a round of antibiotics for a relentless UTI (That's another story! ) But I suspect things got out of balance. My "go to's" were not working. I went through so much Borage oil. I used probiotics, kombucha, and everything I have ever tried before and then some. It would begin to look better than flare back up bigger. The spot was on the inside of my arm near my elbow. The itching was unbearable. I could tolerate it if I kept it slathered with Gold Bond (healing, hydrating with Aloe)covered with hypoallergenic cotton pads and a sock.
It became infected with Staph. I resorted to a prescription antibiotic, hydrocortisone and an anti-fungal mixed together. (Similar to the Arcane solution that has been recommended for years on Earth Clinic's pet page! ) It did calm things back down.
The area grew, over months, from dime sized to something about 2-3 inches in diameter. To remain sane I was using a steroid cream for about a month. My diet would be considered pretty clean and anti-inflammatory. I have a lot of food allergies and avoid all of those things, too. Still, it was getting worse and not better. If I left the dressing off for 30 minutes it would begin to ooze, even if it looked like it was improving. Apparently, it wasn't.
Meanwhile, my daughter was experiencing a flare as well, but as she is pregnant, she had a lot less options and it was around her eyes.
I thought about how it is said that the state of the skin is connected to liver health. (An aside that is not completely unrelated - a local lay midwife is seeing more miscarriage and preeclampsia, which she believes it caused by long term liver damage from COVID. She is having all of her moms use a tea daily of dandelion, nettle, and burdock root.)
So I decided to make my daughter and I a very strong herbal tea every day. 2 Tablespoons Red Raspberry leaf (for her pregnancy, and good for me, too) 2 Tablespoons dried nettle leaf (anti-allergy and nutritive), and 2 Tablespoons Dandelion leaf (for liver health -I accidentally ordered leaf instead of root, which was what I meant to use.) I put that in a half gallon jar and added 6 cups of boiling water. After it steeped for 1-3 hours, I strained it and split it up. she lives next door so I would walk hers over each day and she drank it faithfully. I added stevia to mine and drank mine as well. I told her it would take at least 3 weeks to work because liver detox takes time. (In pregnancy, you need to be very gentle about such things, as it is.)
We have been on this for a month and both of us started noticing improvement last week! Three days ago I was able to begin leaving my arm uncovered. It does not itch and the skin is looking almost completely normal.
I am very happy to share this remedy and hope it will help others too.
~Mama to Many~
