I've still been using the Green Tea to stop 'Lou's itching - especially at night to help him sleep, but he's begun to dislike being misted with it. It apparently has a cooling effect, similar to Noxema. Now that we have the air conditioning on, it really chills him to be misted with it when his skin is raw and inflamed and not able to maintain temperatures properly.
I've searched high and low for a cream, balm or ointment made with a base of green tea and nothing he is allergic to. The closest I came up with was a google search that returned info on a new prescription medicine for genital warts made from Green Tea. Interesting that even Big Pharma has caught on to its amazing properties, but not helpful to my toddler son's issue.
I checked with my wonderful compounding pharmacy and within hours they made me a heavy cream made entirely of Green Tea powder in Shea Butter!
My son's skin is actually too thin, inflamed and fragile for the Shea Butter base at the moment, so I need to call back and have it done with coconut oil or white wax or calendula or somesuch, but I am so gratified to have a resource like this! For $17.50, I got a jar of much more potent and concentrated itch relief for my little guy that will stay on his skin longer than the spray mist I have been using. This should also keep longer, as the tea I brew up spoils after a week or so at room temperature.
I'm sure this compounding pharmacy could ship it out to others wanting to try it - Physician's Compounding Pharmacy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. 248.758.9100.
It is "EGCG 1% in Shea Butter, 60 GM".
3 comments:
How is Lou's skin now? When my daughter was a baby her skin was so bad that the best way I could describe it was she looked like a hot pink elephant It was swollen and pink and sandpaper-like all over. She learned to scratch before she learned to sit up, she would rub her wrists on her crib sheets untill they were bloody and oozing clear goop. Anyway, I read in your flu post that you use aquaphore so I thought I'd share what worked for us (I know ever situation is different). I would bathe her 3 times a day, each bath needs to be at least 15 minutes long, we went 30 minutes, until the skin is pruney. Then we would slather her whole body with Aquaphore and put her in cotton feetie pajamas (with little fingerless gloves that I fashioned out of old socks to protect her wrists). Within a week we saw improvement. My youngest and my middle daughter (now 9 and 15) still put on aquaphore after every shower. I don't love that it is petrolium, but I haven't found anything else that works so well. I just have to tell you that I found your blog through the Circle of Mom's top 25 thing and I am so glad that I did! The more I read, the more I wish we lived closer so we could be friends! It's hard finding people who feel the same way about a lot of things as I do. My thoughts are with you and your family, I hope you are all doing well!!!
'lou is doing really well right at the moment, it's one of those rare and wonderful (and all too brief!) spells of near-baseline health.
thanks for your comment and for reading the blog, there are way too many of us raising children w/ these same issues! (i hope you remember to vote for us daily on the main homepage until 11/16 if you want to support finding a better way for kids like ours!)
my 2nd son had horrible eczema much like your baby and i would give him showers to get his skin good and moist, then slather him in aquaphor and the snug footie jammies also - with tight socks over his hands. when it was so bad his skin wasn't even like a human's anymore, i would also wrap saran wrap over his creased areas!
but it was always only a temporary bit of relief and yes, the petroleum base bothered me a lot. i don't know how else to describe this and didn't see it w/ my own eyes until i found raw, organic shea butter - but i came to realize that the aquaphor was trapping the little moisture he had from the recent shower onto his skin and it was also forming a nice barrier against things like the laundry detergent i was still using (and hadn't realized was still keeping him flared up!), but it wasn't actually doing a thing to truly heal, repair, nourish and feed his damaged and broken skin.
the 1st time i tried raw organic shea butter on my last little guy, it was like nothing i'd ever seen before. his skin was beefy, red, swollen and mottled w/ that lacy eczema pattern - not quite broken into cracks yet. he was a naked toddler and i rubbed it up and down one leg to start. he had been scratching and digging furiously and he just sat right down and started sighing and *rubbing* it in with me! as i watched, the skin went from red and beefy to paler in big swirling spots - like watching a storm recede across the sky. i was watching his skin heal right before my eyes, it was amazing. at 1st i thought it was going to be a reaction, but the skin was getting paler and less inflamed, not more.
he signed "more, more" and i slathered almost half a pot on him that 1st day, his skin just kept drinking it in. and by that evening, he was almost back to complete normal - it was like a miracle in a jar for us! literally watching it go to work to remoisturize and restore his broken skin showed me what aquaphor just can't do. we need to find natural, chemical free options that actually heal and infuse w/ beneficial healing properties, not just coat and smother their skin.
i've since gone on to also have good results w/ raw cocoa butter, coconut oil and emu oil, but nothing like the shea butter. however, it does make his skin tingle and burn if i don't get it on him until his skin is already broken, so it's best to use early on in a breakout!
that said, i do still prefer aquaphor for the nasal lining i talk about in the featured article on my home page right now. i like the idea of a more natural product like lansinoh for lining and sealing the mucus membranes in the nostrils, but as hyperallergic as 'lou is and its relationship to wool makes me nervous about using it right on a mucus membrane w/ him. lansinoh also wouldn't technically be a vegan product, if that's a concern.
also forgot to mention! one of the smartest things i've done recently (that i need to blog about soon!) was to create an album on FB of all his symptoms and breakouts - and jot down a brief description of his current diet, suspected triggers, etc...
it's a GREAT tool! it is a chronological timeline of all his breakouts w/ pics right there - so much better than just a food diary. it helps me pick out patterns and similarities in rashes, time of year, clothing, activities, etc... i advise all my clients to do it now. it is also worth its weight in gold when consulting a new specialist - i email the link to their office before we go in & they can review 'lou's entire life in actual pictures at a glance - it saves SOOO much time for both of us!
the most recent thing it helped me discover was that every pic i had taken of him scratching and crying at those 3 and 4 am episodes seemed to show him on our microfleece sheets. i began to wonder if it could be the sheets. sure enough, i learned that they can be made from polyacrylate (corn) - and even if they aren't - fleece is a known skin irritant and kids w/ skin issues like him should NEVER use it. i just got rid of all the fleece a cpl weeks ago and now we are enjoying him being totally cleared up for the 1st time in about 5 months!
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