Well in response to the ‘Yet to Try’ page it only makes sense to have a verdict’s page summarising the issues (if any) with any of the lotions, potions, cream and myriad other remedies may have had. I’m not really sure how to lay this out so maybe a big alphabetical list would be easiest.
I won’t link from this page through to the blog as the blog is being continually updated. If you want more in-depth reading on our experiences and generally more information please search within the blog for the relevant topic. Most are tagged with the appropriately.
Homeopathy – We had seen a private homeopath for a while when Jasmine was smaller and we were given a thousand and one remedies to try in quick succession. Beyond a couple of ‘wow-that’s-made-a-real-difference’ moments the results we tentative. However, we are much more impressed with the homeopathy we have received from the Homeopathic Hospital in London. The homeopathist was classically trained (as opposed to progressive) and this transpire into a just a couple of remedies over a longer amount of time. Jasmine seems to be responding well to this classical approach, at least so far!
Naturopathy – We found ourselves a Naturopath on the advice of one of Steph’s work colleagues and the noticeable improvement in their health. A good an endorsement as possible really. The naturopath is a dietary specialist and believes that essentially by coordinating Jasmine’s diet accordingly her body will respond and heal. Generally this involves the restricted diet (free of dairy, wheat and gluten) We throw egg in aswell as she is almost anaphalactic with it, but I’m not sure if this is one of the ‘big‘ allergens. We have only had one appointment so far, but the changes we’ve seen so far reinforce the approach. A strong positive!
Water Softener – I remain unconvinced that the water softener we had installed for the trial made any difference to Jasmine’s skin. The softener was a sodium based solution and we’ve been adding rock salt to Jasmine’s bath instead of the usual smellies since I can remember. I’m still tempted to tackle the water issue, not so much from a bathing point of view as from a consuming point of view. I’m interesting in getting a reverse osmosis system installed. This removes everything from the water (good and bad) but seeing as she is already taking a multi-vitamin supplement I think Jasmine will be okay. …It’s not like we can get her to drink much anyway >.<
Wet Wraps – We possibly didn’t give this approach as much time as we perhaps should have. I believe we succeeded in the technical side of things (ie a damp underlayer and a dry overlayer, both underneath pj’s) We ended up changing Jasmine in the middle of the night as she was just too damp and generally uncomfortable. It clearly didn’t have time to impact upon her skin, though I’m not at all convinced that being damp is a good thing. Another point worthy of note is that the regime is pretty tough aswell. The logistics or getting her out of the bath, then creamed up, then into the damp set of tights and tight top, then the dry set, then the pyjamas. Too much and too stressful, so clearly not a fan. =]
Hi Dan
We were at Kimbolton school in the same year (known in those days as Amelia Jarvis)…seems a long time ago now! I stumbled across your site and although my son (Tristan who will be 4yrs old in April) hasn’t suffered as badly as Jasmine I do empathise. As a new born his skin would very quickly react to heat and so in the summer of ’06 when we had a hot summer he was covered in an awful heat rash which made him very unhappy and uncomfortable. As he grew he became prone to eczema which continually got infected and he ended up on antibiotics too many times for my liking. I have tried a number of different methods, like you. However I thought I’d tell you of a wellbeing centre in Botley, Oxfordshire called the wellbeing clinic, which had a brilliant accupuncturist who treats children. She met Tris a couple of times and the sessions had instant benefit. Obviously it’s been a few years and I can’t recall her name but thought it worth mentioning to you as I’m sure they’d be very helpful if you called them up. I would also reccommend cranialosteopathy too. That’s been very good for Tris and so has homeopathy – however with these two treatments he did get a number of healing reactions whereas with the accupuncture there was only improvement. Also chinese herbs have been very powerful in reducing his eczema to a point that it doesn’t get infected and is liveable with for the time being. Am hopeful now it’s just a question of age and he will grow out of it.
Wishing you and your family all the best.
Amelia
Hi Amelia,
Yes I remember =] Sorry to hear your little one suffers aswell. We’ve not tried acupuncture yet, though we’re not ruling much out for the future. We’re about to embark upon some NAET treatment which we hope will improve her condition and take steps from there. A friend mentioned cranial-osteopathy soon after she was diagnosed but I haven’t looked into it in any depth. I’ll check out that clinic in oxon, thx for the heads up! Hopefully Tristan will leave it behind him now, we can’t wait for Jasmine to be in the same place!
Dan
http://whatstheharm.net/osteopathy.html
http://whatstheharm.net/naturopathy.html
http://whatstheharm.net/homeopathy.html
Please stop giving quacks money & direct it to the scientists!
=] I feel I’ve given them plenty of money for their piece-meal approach to Jasmine’s issues. I don’t really believe Pharma have a vested interest in curing an ailment that earns them bucket loads of cash with their ‘make it comfortable’ approach. Otherwise, we may have seen a different set of ideals instead of the same approach used roughly 40 years ago…. (I love the fringe site btw, kinda worst-case scenario combined with user stupidity
…I bet there are a thousands of pharmaceutical trials that have lead to nastier ends …but that’s ok, they were conducted by ‘scientists’ )