Elias had his first outbreak of discoid and seborrhoeic eczema when he was a little
over two years old.  I took him to an alphabet soup of medical experts including
pediatricians, dermatologists and internal medicine specialists.  They each
diagnosed eczema and prescribed their favorite combination of pharmaceuticals
and cleansing preparations.  We had varying degrees of effectiveness and none of
them was what I consider successful in eliminating or managing the symptoms or
eruption of the condition itself.

Bottom line, my young son, who was born with skin so perfect it would make you
cry, had developed a skin condition that made him so uncomfortable that he was
driven to scratch until it was an infected painful bloody mess. And then, he would
scratch some more.  I taped mittens on his hands.  I kept his fingernails clipped to
the quick and I covered the effected areas.  He would always devise away around
the barriers.  I felt painfully impotent as I watched my child suffer.  After hours of
research and a fistful of money spent on services, technology and gadgets my son
had no lasting relief.

     I called my grandmother and talked about the remedies for ailments that I recall
she and my great grandmother using when I was a child.  Armed with that
conversation, a basic knowledge of chemistry and biology and organic botanicals, I
went into the kitchen.  What I emerged with has brought Elias not only comfort but
real change.

     Elias originally had ongoing eruptions that would appear anywhere on his body
but mostly on his arms and legs.  There was no time in the first year and a half that
he did not have an eruption somewhere.  For the past four years, he has had no
more than 4 eruptions in a calendar year.  When he does have a skin eruption it
does not last for more than a week and the scarring is minimal, if any.    2 years ago,
Elias noticed that there were other children at his school who had similar skin
issues and suggested that I help them because it wasn’t fair that they had to suffer.  
In response to his concern, I founded our company, Fresh From the Farm and our
brand of soap, Aunt Ann’s Garden Soap.  Elias is the vice president.

     There are several ideas that I formed his treatment around.  The first step is to
control inflammation and seepage.  I achieved this bathing him in warm water and
soap made with salt and baking soda (Just Clean Bar).  I patted him dry and
applied a combination of light vegetable carrier oils that was easily absorbed by the
skin with organic botanicals that gently dried the weeping and retarded bacterial
and fungal growth.  I believe that the dramatic scarring is caused not by the original
eruption but by subsequent corruption of the skin from scratching and the
proliferation of infection.  This treatment reduced the duration of individual
eruptions and increased the time between outbreaks, however, outbreaks still
occurred every few months.

     In between outbreaks, I changed the soap that I used on Elias to what I felt was
a preventative measure.  The soap has a combination of organic botanicals that are
antifungal and antibacterial (Elias' Favorite Antibacterial Bar.)  It also has
contains Evening Primrose oil which adds gammalinolenic acid. (Some research
indicates that patients with eczema have a deficiency in this compound.)  I
continued to use the vegetable oil mixture after bathing him.  I currently use this
process.

     I believe that it is important after cleansing to reduce the growth of pathogens
on the skin’s surface without completely destroying the natural ecosystem of the
skin.  I also believe that by using organic ingredients, I have reduced not only
general toxicity issues but also potential allergens that cause and/or exacerbate
histamine reactions.  Finally, I am certain that it is important to distinguish the
difference between oiling the skin to help reduce the rate of moisture loss and
sealing the skin.  Sealing the skin with heavy oils and preparations blocks pores and
prevents the skin from using its natural defense mechanisms and makes the
problem worse.  

     In short, (I know it’s a little late for that) the approach behind all the things that
we have found success with is not to force the skin to behave differently but to
support the skin in fulfilling the functions for which it is designed.  
Elias’ Story:
A Boy and His Eczema