Eczema

Eczema...or as we call it in our house, "Boo boos".  Our daughter has some pretty severe eczema, which we have treated with topical steroids as minimally as possible due to it being painful to her and because I'm a self proclaimed hippy and don't like putting such harsh chemicals on her skin. Last summer we transitioned to a gluten free diet, and after about 6 weeks of that her skin cleared up.  We have been able to tell when she ate any gluten, due to her eczema flaring up again.  Over the last few weeks, I have noticed flare ups in areas where she hasn't had any spots before as well as larger areas of inflammation.  I've decided to remove grains and dairy in addition to the gluten free diet for 30 days to see if that will help her skin clear up.  Today was the first full day of this journey.  So far she hasn't asked to yogurt, granola bars or cheese.  However, I'm sure it's only a matter of time. 
I took some pictures this morning to document how her skin looks on day 1.  I am not sure these pictures do it justice, as she is dark complected and super tan, but I'm hoping there will be some good progress over the next 30 days.  This is totally unrelated to eczema, but C also has piebaldism, which affects the pigment in her skin.  She has multiple areas, which you will see in the pictures, of unpigmented, polka dotted skin. 

 She is also having areas of eczema around her hairline and some changes in pigment on her face which could be related to eczema or piebaldism. 

 

Breakfast this morning consisted of a sliced banana and paleo granola with almond milk. 
Morning snack was raisins.
Lunch was meatballs made from grassfed beef and zucchini fritters made with zucchini, eggs, almond flour and coconut flour.
For dinner she ate sausage and spinach stuffed into a sweet potato, kale chips, applesauce, strawberries and a chocolate chip cookie, made with macademia nut butter and enjoy life chocolate chips.  Yes she really ate all of that and yes she loves kale chips.
(I should probably preface this post by mentioning that I believe my kids will learn to like a food if they don't on the first attempt.  I also will not make them something special if they don't like what we are eating.  They eat what we eat, especially at dinner.  I am not worried about them going hungry.  When they are hungry enough they will always eat what I put in front of them.)

Here are a couple of pictures of what she ate today. 

 My granola recipe includes nuts, coconut, flax, coconut oil, cinnamon, honey, and a few other ingredients.

These cookies were so good- recipe came from The Paleo Kitchen (However I must make my cookies way too large, as I got 11 cookies out of the recipe when the cookbook says it makes 20..oops!)

 

Ok enough rambling by me for the night.  My goal for tomorrow is to make some gelatin gummies to help heal her gut, which I believe to be the cause of the eczema in the first place.  I'll post the recipe for those, and whatever else I decide to whip up. 

 

~Sarah