The Scratch that Itches and the Itch that Scratches

Jahan's eczema at seven months old

The correlation between eczema and food allergies although undeniable, is often not common knowledge to all.  Jahan's food allergy journey began shortly after birth with full body eczema covering his tiny body by five months old. Weeping, bleeding, itching, repeat. It's the scratch that itches and the itch that scratches.  We have had ups and downs, learning a lot along the way, but around the age of 14 months old, Jahan's baby skin was finally just that, soft and supple, like it's supposed to be.

This lasted for six short months and then a chest to knee flare began. Wet-wraps, diet revisions, elimination diets, creams and ultimately steroids. Ugh, that feels like the ultimate fail, having to resort to god awful steroids on my toddler's young and still thin skin.  All to end up back with an unwavering flare.  We opted to see our functional doctor, think east meets west, a holistic, natural MD.  The marriage of the two had produced some amazing results in the past, so I thought, lets get in to see Dr. Wong.

As we meet with Dr. Wong, Jahan is fearful, he must be thinking what will this doctor do to me. He has seen more doctors in his short two years of life than I have in my 32 years.

Right away Dr. Wong takes a look at the eczema and then scans Jahan's tongue and suggests eliminating cow diary. That's all milk, cheese, yogurt, mac n' cheese, string cheese, pirates booty, milk chocolate and the list goes on. We will switch to goat dairy, no problem since we live in an area where we have access to these foods and Amazon basically delivers same day now.  Dr. Wong also reminds us that Jahan's eczema is his body's way of showing the internal inflammation and suggests we complete a stool sample to see inside of his gut, where two-thirds of his immune system lives.  We agree.  Then Wong as Jahan calls him tells me that I have to prepare the samples at home, FedEx them overnight to the lab and wait.

Eczema flare at 22 months old before dairy elimination

So off we go.  Waiting for Jahan to have a bowel movement was our next step, which thankfully was only the next day (Saturday).  Jahan does his business and quickly I start in on this home scientific lab.  This was not fun.  Spooning fecal matter into various tubes, mixing and smoothing, repeat. They should really consider sending a mask home with this sample kit.  Not one of my finer mothering moments, but someone had to do it.

I package it up and off the stool goes to the lab for testing.

The results are in and right away from them I can see there are issues that need to be addressed. Inflammation. Leaky gut. Dysbiosis. Minimal bacterial diversity. And worst of all, two pathogens. Shit, how did this happen to my little guy? He was born vaginally, solely breastfed for 6 months, no antibiotics for the first year of life, probiotics from birth. He's only two!

Jahan's eczema and gut resolution regimen 

We circle back with Dr. Wong and he confirms everything from above.  Mehul and I are not interested in putting a "band-aid" on Jahan's symptoms, we want to solve the problems at the root. Wong knows this. He works to find "safe" supplements for Jahan's issues. This is quite the task given all of his food allergies, but ultimately we go home with our list of supplements and prescription to remove all dairy, even goat. So now Jahan is dairy free and ingesting 11 vitamins, supplements and herbs multiple times daily in hopes to improve the gut.

With this routine, the eczema has dissipated entirely with the exception of one stubborn patch.

And now we will continue the routine for eight weeks and then I get to spoon, smooth and smell the fecal matter of my adorable two-year old....again all while hoping we can stabilize Jahan's gut and entirely eradicate the scratch that itches and the itch that scratches.