5 Reasons Your Child’s Eczema Keeps Coming Back (Even When You’re Doing Everything Right)

Opening Hook: Why Eczema Keeps Returning 0:00

If your child is still waking up at night and scratching until they bleed and nothing that you've tried is actually fixing it, this is why it's still happening. It's because this isn't just eczema. That's just not a big enough word. And if you keep treating it like it is, like, it' s a skin condition, you are going to stay in this cycle. You're not going to want to miss this. Let's get into it. Is your child struggling with itchy nights and endless flare-ups? I'm Andrea McHugh, mom of four and host of eczema kids.

Here, you'll find natural solutions that actually work so you can heal your childhood eximote without steroids, without the overwhelm, and finally see calm, healthy skin again. You hear it before you see it. All of you know you hear the scratching and it's on their arms and behind their knees and on the sweet little face and you're watching it happen and trying to get to them to stop. You pick them up or you give them a hug or daycare's calling you and they're telling you come get them because they are scratching too hard because it's too distracting or school is calling the school nurse.

They're in there again and you try and distract and 30 seconds later they right back at it and night comes around and it actually gets worse from there. You can't even believe it but it gets actually worse. It's 9pm and just feel this pit in your stomach like how will I physically muster the energy to make it through another night like the nights that we have been having. and they're supposed to be sleeping and you're suppose to sleeping, and instead they are up again, again and again.

The Nighttime Itch and Family Exhaustion 1:24

And you are changing pajamas in the dark. You are trying to keep their hands down and your wet wrapping them and wiping off skin flakes off of their sheets. Changing their sheet because of blood. Putting on more lotion. Giving them Benadryl because you know it stunts their growth. What else are you going to do? You have to sleep and putting on another layer of steroids even though We also know this doesn't work. It's just, but what else can you possibly do? You are in dire straits and you hold them because that's the only thing that helps.

But it breaks your heart because they're crying and your miserable. and your evenings aren't any better either. They're just rushed, and you have to do all the baths and all of the things, not for relaxation, but just as a part of damage control. And you are so beyond exhausted that you're barely functioning, your bones hurt, you drag yourself to all other things that need to be done, questioning what is it that I'm possibly missing? What could I possibly be doing? And you've read all the books, you have many, many on your shelves, and you bought the spelt flour and went to H Mart to buy the mangosteen juice and bought all of the supplements.

You're considering a parasite cleanse. Maybe you tried it. One day you got really audacious and made a whole bunch of chicken stock and put it in jars in your freezer and now you're scared to use it because it feels like maybe they're even allergic to chicken. if that's even possible. And you've removed the foods and you removed more foods, and then even more and tried everything natural. You've tried the prescriptions and go back to the prescription because what else are you supposed to be doing?

And then you're midnight searching and scrolling and just hoping for the next thing. Still, you are here. Doing your very best. And it's not getting the results that your family needs to survive, let alone thrive. And you're not there. A lot of people don't see that this isn't a skin problem. It looks like one with the dryness and the redness, and itching. But what you are actually dealing with is a body that is massively overwhelmed. Why is that the case? It's different for everybody, and we have guesses.

And a lot of times, it doesn't even matter. I had to just surrender the why.I had a lotta guesses, I know for sure the Caesarian births had alot to do with it.

Trying Everything: Diets, Supplements, and Steroids 4:00

That was a bummer. My career in dentistry was big part of it, that's a very deleterious career, you're exposed to alot of radiation and chemicals and all that. but it also happened and it's also part of our story and you have to release and let go and start where you are now and do the very best you can given what you now. And just day to day you're noticing things that just don't really make sense that they don' really add up. They react to foods that are supposed to be healthy and one day it is okay and the next day, it flares or you cant really tell if it a flare because it always a flair.

It's always bad. That's where we were and their digestion is off and Some days they have constipation and some days, they diarrhea and sometimes it's runny and it is just a mess. You don't even know where on the Bristol stool chart your child would be because it just changes day to day and feels like they're in the separate category that isn't acknowledged on that chart. And you know that their food doesn't seem to be fully broken down and they get sick easily. Spring has been a nightmare. It takes them forever to get over something really small, whereas their sibling just bounces back.

And their skin isn't just dry. It is reactive. You can feel the heat from two feet away. Everything stings. Water stinks. Clothes irritate. Even gentle products don't feel gentle. And then there's the mental load. And you're thinking about this all day. What they ate, what changed, and what caused it. You're trying to connect the dots that just don't fully connect and you hesitate before any meal or even snack. Your second-guessing foods that you used to make without even thinking and your scanning labels like it's your job.

and you start building your life by avoiding the next flare. And it happens anyway. Then you just feel like you're back at square one and your family and everyone you know are looking at you because this is a very outward type of condition. Maybe they're not outwardly saying it, maybe they are. You're just not getting it done and know you are not. Everyone is suffering for it. you don't know. You don' know what caused it. you Don't what will help. I mean, if you knew what would help, you would just do it, right?

And you're going to try something different next time.

Eczema as a Whole-Body Systems Problem 6:24

And your whole brain just feels like a stack of tabs open of the things that you are going try and going do better next. Next time you presented with this opportunity to change, You're gonna do this. But there are so many things on that list and it's in your brain and you can't possibly keep up with all those things because you also just exhausted and work. And you have other kids, and you a home, you've a spouse, all the things that you just cannot. No person can possibly control all these variables.

But you try. You try to control these all variables and try and control the foods and the products and environment and then still somebody gives them a Kit Kat bar and your just like... can't. It just makes you want to throw in the towel, right? And the more you try to control, the unpredictable it feels and the miserable your life actually feels in day to day. And you are worn down because this isn't skin. This is living in a state of what's going to happen next, but the possibility of something good happening is doesn't feel likely.

And you've been to all the appointments and no one hands you a clear way out in your given pieces and you're trying things and your removing food and add the supplement and try the steroids and just go up in percentage because it stops working. No one shows you how it all fits together. You're just left managing symptoms instead of actually resolving what's truly driving it, the root cause. It's not random. It looks random because healing isn't necessarily linear and it might look better one day but worse the next and something helps until it doesn't.

We can't really identify it. It's just not that unpredictable and is not sensitive skin. it's a systems problem. Your child's body is doing its darndest to process everything that is thrown at it in today's world and its just more than it can handle. And it's not moving it out efficiently. And their lymphatic flow is very, very sluggish. That's the drainage system. It sits for much longer than it should. The detox pathways are completely overwhelmed. they can't keep up with what's coming in. And the bile flow is slow, and so instead of toxins being packaged and then eliminated, they just recirculate throughout the body.

The gut is imbalanced. I mean, there's the wrong bacteria. We're missing some of the keystone bacteria, There's a poor breakdown. There is more, you know, poopy water, as some doctors would say, that are in there. and the gram-negative bacteria that's in their, That's byproducts of some these really serious bugs that're in inside some our kiddos, which is just, insane that they're in there, but they are. How are we supposed to deal with that? It's mere mortal people and the skin barrier, it's compromised and it is reactive and inflamed and unable to handle the overflow.

So now you've got more coming in and you have less going out and nowhere to go and so the body has nowhere put it and can't process it so it just pushes it out through the scan and that's what we're looking at in the case of eczema. And that's the flare, that is the itching, and that the cycle that you cannot get out of. And this is why things work, but they do not last. That's why you change the diet and it can improve and you use a steroid and can calm, you suppress the immune system a little bit and will calm.

Why Treatments Help Briefly but Donu2019t Last 9:48

And you maybe add a supplement and you might see progress, but it doesn't hold. And it's because you're hitting pieces, not the entire system. It builds again and your right back at it and even trying to solve a systems problem with pieces that were never meant to stand alone. So what we actually have to do is support all the systems that are stuck. You have two support, all of them together. We get the lymph moving, gotta open the detox pathways, we have to improve the bile flow, We have address the dysbiosis, and we had to rebuild the skin barrier.

Not randomly, not occasionally, Not when we remember together as a holistic plan. Because if you do one piece at a time, you're just going to get partial results that you are seeing now. And this only works when everything works together. That's what I walk families through inside the eczema elimination method. you get a personalized plan. Not guessing, not trying for a few days, and then switching a cleared, structured approach based on your child and your family and what's going on for you. The food, the supplements, daily routines, your home, environment, lymph and detox support that the body can actually handle.

Even if that body is baby-sized, there's things that you could do. A skin protocol that is done correctly so that symptom management piece is actually doing what's job, like we're rebuilding the skin barrier, but we are also making tonight more comfortable. So you aren't spinning your wheels anymore. And I want to talk about the cost of eczema because that is so, so real. All the products and supplements and doctor's visits and testing, it didn't give you any answers and the testing that you had to repeat in the months and years of trial and error.

I remember I bought like lotus flower or something and it showed up at my door and I couldn't even remember. My intended use for it, you know, most families that I talked to have spent thousands, even if their child is just a baby and nothing has changed. So you can either keep paying monthly, weekly, all the things over and over again and still stay stuck, still having to go back to square one and keep addressing this problem and just cross your fingers that they grow out of it. Which doesn't mean they actually grow it out, it actually just means it morphs into something else.

if you don't actually address this systemic inflammation, or you can invest once and actually solve this to not actually think about eczema anymore, as some of my clients have said. This does not happen overnight, and it doesn't happen perfectly linear either.

A Structured Plan for Healing and Support 12:24

I mean, at this point, you've been working with a body that has been backed up and things will shift, but you do not stay stuck. And the families I work with see real meaningful changes within the first month. There's less itching, there's better sleep, and there are fewer flares. And from there, it gets steadier. From there we have real data from testing. We're getting real in from experience and trial and error within a framework that we know actually addresses this problem that is helpful for this pediatric population specifically with this specific problem.

And they do, you start to see a 1% improvement every single day and you're in it and your lotioning them and helping and putting on the diapers and potty training becomes an option because they can actually handle sitting on a toilet seat without their thighs burning and then if they're older, they start be able to handle recess without a flare. and they can handle a day at daycare. So you can actually do the work that you need to do to support all the things and you don't receive a phone call. And then over 90 days, three months time, all of this adds up to real visible change.

Every single one of my clients have just said like, you know, You're just in it. You are doing it every day, every, day every and then you look up one day and your like oh my gosh, This isn't an issue anymore. This is no longer a thing for us. But I do have to say, you have follow the plan. Not pieces of it, consistent. You have the follow plan consistently. And we go back and forth, and we talk about what it's like following this plan, consistently, day after day, what you're noticing and how should we tweak it, but we're not jumping from thing to thing.

We are committing. You can't be half in. That is 100% true. And you are not doing it alone. If you listened to Jessica's episode last week, she's a mom of four, soon to be five, and she said, Yes, not easy, but when harbors a doable and our life is a million times easier now, now that this isn't an issue in our household anymore. Now that we have four happy, healthy kids, my goodness, is life easier, and I would mirror those same words. And as would everyone who has been successful would say that same thing.

And it's because you're not doing it alone, you are not in a vacuum. You have a one-on-one plan and we have access to testing at practitioner pricing if needed. But we first calm down the system because if we start off with testing, which is what happens when you go into a naturopath's office, It's very, very expensive. And the results that you're going to get are lit up like a Christmas tree, and they aren't going be very clarifying or very actionable. They're actually going have the opposite effect where you feel afraid to give them any sort of food and any nourishment and put them anywhere in any sort

Results, Hope, and the Call to Action 15:24

of environment because there's so many things going on. So we need to spend that time and that intentionality of really calming down the system, all those systems that I talked about previously. And then we refine based on results because that is very, very clarifying when you do it in that sequence and you have full program access for 12 months group coaching and boxer support and everything in one place. And I want you to picture this. I wanted you dare to dream of something so bold as your child sleeping through the night.

Not scratching, not itching, no crying, just clear, calm skin and running and playing and comfortable. And you're not second guessing food and you don't have prescriptions lined up on the counter. Your kid is just being a kid and they are healthy and vibrant and pharmaceutical free and joy filled. That's the kind of life that they're living now. Honestly, friends, the decision is this. How much longer do you want to keep doing this? Are you ready for a plan that actually works? If this resonated with you friends I invite you to check out the eczema elimination method at examakids.com.

We will map out exactly what this needs to look like for your child in your home with your tools and what you have available to you. I just want you to know, first and foremost, you do not have to stay in this. This is reversible, and you can honestly, if you jump in now, it is April, fix this before the next school year starts. You can have this done by summer, And you will experience a more fun summer. this is not a summer of deprivation. It is a Summer of expansion, of freedom, because you won't be living in these shackles of eczema anymore.

Take care, friends. Check out eczemakids.com and I will talk to you next week. Thank you for helping with my exema. Love you.