Moving Beyond The “BandAid Approach” to Eczema – A Deeper Dive

by Mar 31, 2019

About Dr Melissa

Headshot of summit speaker and host Melissa Raymond
Dr Melissa Raymond, PhD, is a physiotherapist with 20 years clinical experience and 15 years experience as a researcher. More recently as an Eczema & Allergy Coach, she has loved sharing her knowledge and experience with other mums to help them gain confidence and the skills to help their own children in their eczema allergy journeys.

Dr Melissa is the research nerd so that you don't have to be - and her skills enable her to dive deeper into the evidence of what works - and what doesn't - for eczema, allergies and asthma.

Melissa is a mum to two beautiful boys and wife to an amazing husband. She loves spending time with her family, writing research papers, and pottering about in her vegie garden.

Our journey to healing started towards the end of 2010… when our then 4 month old developed severe eczema and allergies. 

He started to react to the foods that I was eating.

He was breastfed at the time, so during a breastfeed, he would actually start to develop hives all over his body.

Now, the eczema and the allergies were a real surprise for my husband and I… we didn’t have eczema or allergies ourselves and neither did our immediate family.

We sought the advice of various health professionals.

Specialists told us he would likely need topical steroids for life….

…Warned that our son may need wet dressings in hospital.

We were taught how to make up bleach baths…

And shown plans of how often and how to apply moisturise and apply steroids….

…and that if things did not improve that they would prescribe antibiotics for a year.

There were three words on the 4 x A4 pages of notes that we were given with what seemed a passing comment – to be aware of environmental triggers.

At the time, it didn’t occur to me that this advice was so one-sided (that looking at potential triggers was not a focus.)

And when I brought up the potential for food triggers, the advice was not to bother with changing my diet.

…and to just put the steroids on.

Because there was no link with eczema and food

According to this health professional.

But for me, this did not make sense.

As a teenager I had severe acne, I was on some very strong medications twice in my late teens and early 20s…

But once I paid attention to what I was eating, I discovered that my skin would worsen with certain foods.

So for my son, I was so worried about the future he would have if we continued with a bandaid approach and not addressing potential triggers.

All I wanted to do was to fix him

So that he wouldn’t have this life of having to deal with the creams… the sleep issues… and the limitations that having eczema put on his life.

…To make sure that he had the best chance at life, without suffering physically, emotionally and mentally.

Isn’t that what every parent wants?

And I wanted to know why… why he had eczema, as I couldn’t accept that it was “for no reason” and that he may or may not grow out of it.

I wanted to do more for him.

I wanted to know how to help him.

For good.

So I searched.

I spent most of my daytime hours (and nighttime hours) searching for answers.

1000’s of hours reading full text medical journals…

 

 

Digging deep in email group forums with other parents with kids with eczema and allergies… (Facebook Groups were non-existent back then)…

At the library, I borrowed every book on eczema they had…

And I sought the advice of over a dozen different health professionals.

Trying to cover every single aspect of eczema – from causes to approaches, as best as I could.

There’s nothing a mother wouldn’t do for her child, right?

I couldn’t bear to see my little boy suffer and I was desperate to find answers.

And these answers pointed in the same direction.

Many different factors, but to look at one of the root causes, which was:

Gut Health.

But this seemed FAR. TOO. HARD.

The radical change in diet… everything made from scratch… weird foods that we’d never tried before.

Fermented WHAT?!

My child was NOT going to eat that!

I DID NOT WANT to eat that.

There had to be another way.

So I searched.

But it always came back to this.

How could I do this every day for months and months on end?

I was so exhausted already.

I don’t have the energy to do this.

I don’t have the time to do this.

The time needed to do the food preparation and sourcing every ingredient?!

The time and effort put in…

The money invested…

What if I put all of my effort in and it doesn’t work?

….But What. If. It. Does?!

AND…. If I kept doing what I’d always done for my son and his skin, then we would’ve kept on getting the same results, right?

The ‘same results’ = steroids every day… waking up 6-8 times per night… the fear of leaving the home… helplessness at not being about to work it out…

 

 

So if I wanted different results – better results, then things really did need to change.

Did I really expect a quick fix?

Did I really expect it to be easy?

Did I really expect a magic pill?

No!

(But oh my goodness I so badly wanted one!)

So I pulled all the pieces of the puzzle together…

The gold nuggets of wisdom that I received from different health professionals… the 100’s of different journal articles… the books I’d read and the helpful tips from a few amazing, generous mums and dads who had gone before me.

This evidence-based information pulled together from 1000 different places.

Over 16 months of research, trial and error… (all while my son suffered with eczema)

 

 

And 1000’s of dollars spent on finding this information for my son.

To create an amazing and comprehensive resource of Eczema information of where to start and which steps to take.

THE Eczema Roadmap.

The program that pulls together this wealth of knowledge…

Because I too struggled with so much conflicting information I constantly read and heard.

That “there is no link with food”, or that dairy and wheat were could flare…. that this moisturiser was the best…but it made my child’s skin worse…

Bleach baths… but bleach was for cleaning toilets…

I was not happy with the bandaid approach of symptom management

I wanted to look at the root causes.

And I knew it would take effort.

Change would not be easy.

It would be hard work.

But for my son, it was absolutely worth it for his future.

Who doesn’t want that for their child?

For all the pieces of the puzzle to come together and finally see improvement.

So that was over 8 years ago, and those many pieces of the puzzle to eczema has been lifechanging for us.

I can’t believe that it was so long ago, but that we no longer even have to consider our sons’ skin day to day.

You might be thinking right now, that doing this for your child too seems way too hard.

It’ll take way too much time…

It’s going to cost way too much money.

But I’m serious when I say, this process isn’t as overwhelming as you think.

You can get started with small, simple changes straight away, not weeks or months… but straight away.

I’m so excited for you to learn more and start making the same impact for your child -and your entire family too.

So if you’re ready to shave 16 months off your search for answers for your little one’s eczema..

If you’re serious about stopping the guesswork, then don’t worry, I’m leaving you here.

I’ve just released something really special…

Something totally brand-new, that will help you feel confident to help your child.

I’ve just written this letter all about it here.

This could be life-changing for your little one…

Which we all know can be life-changing for your entire family, right?!

Just imagine how amazing that would that be….

Melissa x

About Dr Melissa

Headshot of summit speaker and host Melissa Raymond
Dr Melissa Raymond, PhD, is a physiotherapist with 20 years clinical experience and 15 years experience as a researcher. More recently as an Eczema & Allergy Coach, she has loved sharing her knowledge and experience with other mums to help them gain confidence and the skills to help their own children in their eczema allergy journeys.

Dr Melissa is the research nerd so that you don't have to be - and her skills enable her to dive deeper into the evidence of what works - and what doesn't - for eczema, allergies and asthma.

Melissa is a mum to two beautiful boys and wife to an amazing husband. She loves spending time with her family, writing research papers, and pottering about in her vegie garden.

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