April 24, 2016
In the latest of our fan stories, Charlotte shares her battle with eczema. When your children are hurting or uncomfortable, most parents will do anything to take away the pain but unfortunately you can’t hug and kiss away eczema.
Charlotte’s two children – now aged five and three years old – struggled with terrible eczema. Her daughter was so badly affected that she was born covered in itchy sore patches on her back, tummy and bottom.
“By the time my little girl was two years old we’ tried all the medicated cream, the supposedly ‘natural’ creams and nothing seemed to work,” said Charlotte. Allergy tests were inconclusive, so we then went through various food exclusion diets to try to find some sort of trigger.”
After painstakingly excluding dairy products and gluten from the family’s diet, then citrus fruit and strawberries, Charlotte and her husband saw no change.
“It was so frustrating. At the time it felt as though nothing was going to help,” said Charlotte. “Then we started to look at the household products we were using. At the time we were in the habit of buying budget detergents and laundry powders to save a little money.
“We wondered whether these products were part of the problem, so we decided to replace the budget brands with the most natural alternatives we could find. That was when I discovered Earthwise.”
Charlotte bought the full range of Earthwise products; from soaps and hand wash to washing detergent, kitchen detergent and household cleaning products. And then the family waited to see if this would make any difference.
Within a month or so, Charlotte began to notice a change, particularly in her wee daughter’s skin – which was most badly affected. “The eczema wasn’t all up her arms and legs anymore, just in the crook of knees and elbows and other stubborn spots. Gradually these too began to clear up.”
“It was like a miracle,” said Charlotte, “Over a month or so the eczema just got less and less. At first we didn’t really notice but gradually we got to the point where we were finally able to ditch all the creams and lotions as our kids weren’t covered in a mass of itchy eczema anymore.”
“We kicked ourselves for not changing products earlier,” continued Charlotte ruefully. “But we are so thankful that we were finally able to discover the root cause – we personally believe that the household products we were using were to blame. Occasionally we still get the odd little flare up but it is nothing like the eczema we were dealing with three years ago.”
Now five years old, Charlotte’s little princess is starting to get really good at choosing products that keep her skin feeling comfortable. “She was given a Frozen bubble bath a little while back,” remembered Charlotte. “After a day or so, she came up to me and told me that she didn’t think she should use her new bubbles because they were making her skin feel itchy.”
These days, the family take a selection of Earthwise products everywhere with them – even on holiday. Charlotte isn’t prepared to go back to the bad old days of red, sore, itchy skin. She also goes out of her way to tell friends and family suffering from skin problems about her experience – not wanting other families to suffer unnecessarily.
“I thought my kids were in for a life of pain and itchiness – I am so grateful to Earthwise for coming up with their gentle and affordable range. I also like the fact that I know I’m putting something natural down the drain instead of harsh chemicals – for us it’s a complete win, win.”
Also read From Chronic Allergy to Clear Skin: Melissa’s story about her three year old girl’s chronic eczema.
Photo: stock image. Real names used.