5 Signs Histamine Is Driving Your Child’s Eczema

Introduction: Eczema as an Inside-Out Issue 0:00

Hey friends, welcome back to the eczema kids podcast. Today we're talking about something that every eczema family needs to hear on repeat. This is not just a skin issue. That rash is your kids' bodies waving a giant flag saying something is going on inside. And to help us unpack that, I invited Dr. Jen Flogar. She's a board certified OBGYN, a functional medicine doctor, and the creator behind Healthy by Dr. Jen, an integrative doctor mom. In her practice, she's constantly looking at birth history, gut health, environment, stress, all the little normalized symptoms like constipation and bloating that are actually major clues.

In this conversation, we get into why eczema is an inside out problem and what those dry little patches are really telling you about the gut and how birth interventions like C-sections and breastfeeding and early formula choices can set the stage for gut health and why histamine and mold and candida keep so many kids stuck in those flare cycles and then what to actually do about it and what vagal nerve tone has to do with itch sleep and constipation and how to remedy that and a real life food strategy for kids who don't live on Instagram and don't want to eat sauerkraut.

I know none of yours do and before we dive in a quick reminder that you can start supporting your child's skin from the inside out and the outside in with just two simple tools. Our prebiotic tea is a gentle daily way to feed the good gut bugs and lower inflammation without adding more histamine to the mix. It's an easy entry point when you're working on diet and digestion, but life is still crazy. We incorporate just a little bit into our daily smoothie or just as a regular tea to help nourish the beneficial gut bugs that I want my kids to have.

And our herbal healing oil is what we use for that pre-bath oil massage that I talk about all the time. It protects their skin from the water, infuses anti-inflammatory herbs into the tissue, and it doubles as a calming vagus nerve nervous system support ritual before bed. And if you are in the thick of flares and you want just somewhere solid to start, go grab the prebiotic tea and the herbal oil at eczemakids.com slash shop. These two products alone will move the needle in a big way. All right, 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 child's eczema without steroids, without the overwhelm, and finally see calm, healthy skin again. Let's get into it. Hi, Dr. Jen, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you so much. Excited to be here. I'm so glad you're here. To get us started, I'd love to just ask you a grounding question that sets the stage for everything else that we're going to unpack today, given your expertise and your history.

But when you're working with chronic inflammation, with anyone that comes into your practice, what's the most reliable pattern that you start to investigate first? Definitely gut health. It all goes back to the gut and we really have to look at their history, their birth, their childhood home. You know, if they are kids, look at that birth history, look at what they're eating, look at the house they're living in. So yeah, but it all starts with the gut. Yeah, I know. And so everyone listening is a parent of a child experiencing eczema or they're experiencing eczema, you know, for themselves.

And that's the first realization, right? It's like, this isn't just a skin issue. This is 100% a gut issue. And that makes it 10 times harder to solve, right? Yes. Yes and no, but we have to look at that, like, God gave us these symptoms that, you know, it's a blessing that we know that something's going on, especially with rashes. So if we have rashes, then it's inside out. And it's so funny because dermatology, which is where you're going to take your kids, if they have a rash, you're going to take them to the skin doctor.

Well, we made a joke because it's one of the hardest resonances to get into. You have to be at the top of your class. It's very competitive because that's really easy hours. Yeah, because it's easy hours.

Gut Health as the First Root Cause 4:06

You don't have call, all this stuff. But all they do, if it's wet, make it dry. If it's dry, make it wet. And they just prescribe a cream for that and maybe they'll do some biopsies and check for skin cancer, but it's like they're not getting to the root cause. They're not asking the questions like, well, if you have eczema, what is your body trying to tell you? Why is your body freaking out, you know, and providing this external clue? Well, especially when kids, it's a blessing because your kids, your babies are not going to be able to tell you, Hey mom, my gut health is messed up.

You know, when they're three months old, like I have a belly ache, like, no. And sometimes it could just be starting to get bad where you're not having other symptoms like constipation or bloating. But another problem is, is that. It's normalized so much in our culture for our kids to have constipation, to have, you know, bloating or gas that we're not looking at that as a clue either. So then they have to just get so bad where they have rashes everywhere. So it's really tough. I know, I know. And those are the first signals, like you said, they've just been 100% normalized.

And when you bypass those, yes, it just gets exacerbated. Or maybe there's like a little bit of eczema, but they're also very bloated. Constipation is a common complaint. All the things like what's your body saying in that case? Well, that's the start of it. You know, a little dry patch somewhere, that's your gut saying, I'm inflamed, maybe there's autoimmune problems starting. So when we have gut, when we have good gut health, we have these tight junctions that line our gut and they're close together and that's how they should be.

They just open up a little bit to let nutrients in. Well, if we have an insult to our gut, and then it becomes leaky gut or intestinal permeability and our body gets confused and everything comes in. It's like open borders for the guts, things come in that we don't want to, they cause a ruckus and then we're in trouble and then we can see these symptoms. So, some of the things that can cause this intestinal permeability are gut problems to start. Well, think about childbirth, you know, nowadays in the United States.

It's stressful. A lot of these are inductions. We're having more C-sections. You know, we have bad mortality and morbidity for mothers now, which it should be opposite. But we're having this hospital births, which I did hospital births and I'm a fan of because if something would go wrong, I have my doctor there and the nurses. But we have to like, We could make the hospital birth calm. We could have music. I had a doula with one of mine. Your husband needs to be on board rubbing your back, you know.

We need to have a birth plan where if these things happen perfectly great, if they don't, well then what's our next alternative? Instead, it's very sterile. It's these hospital lights. You know, I mean, I was like infusing essential oils. I had a crock pot with arnica infused rags for when I was sterile. Yeah, I mean, we can make things more relaxed because if you are anxious or worried as a mother going through childbirth, I mean, that's going to affect your child. And stress is going to cause leaky gut.

So that could be part of it, not breastfeeding right away, could be another part. And then we are introducing corn syrup solids, which are not going to be good for the gut. So all these different things can really just start an infant off because it's like, well, why is this happening to my infant? Well, there's like hundreds of reasons, right? And that's just like a few right off the bat. So I've had four cesareans, unfortunately. But fortunately, I mean, I have four healthy, happy kids now, which is great.

And they're all here. So thankful for that. But just since you were mentioning things that you could do, you know, a vaginal birth, like what could you do to make a cesarean experience if that's what is happening for you? Yeah, a little bit better. Well, I think no matter what the birth experience, we have to make sure that we are going to just be okay with it and be positive, you know, and not everything goes our way. We live in a broken world. So If, you know, for me, I had to have pitocin with my birth for two of my kids.

One, because I was leaking already. And that first birth, I was so mad about the pitocin. I was angry. I was like, I'm so annoyed. I wanted to have this perfect birth. And then after that, I went with the flow. You know, the more kids you have, the more you go with the flow. and you're more relaxed, which is good because if we're uptight about it, about things that happen, you know, things happen. So we need to just make sure that we're grateful that we have a happy, healthy baby and then just make sure that we're advocating for ourselves.

So C-section. Well, you can ask the OB-GYN to do vaginal seating where they take a little vaginal swab and put it in the vagina, it's vaginal seeding, and then rub it on the baby's face and oral nose, all of that. Because when the baby is passing through the vaginal canal, they get all that vaginal microbiome, which helps seed the good gut bacteria in their gut.

Birth Factors and Early Microbiome Support 9:26

And that's what we need. We need lots of different species of trees in the forest. We can't just have one crop or it won't do well. So that could be one of them. The next one would be breastfeeding. So, you know, baby to the nipple right away. And another misconception in the hospitals or, you know, just when you give birth is that the baby needs like tons and tons of volume of milk. No, baby's tummy is so tiny. So that beautiful liquid gold or colostrum, we call it, that can just be really good and feed the good gut bacteria because we have to feed the good gut bacteria.

And it's funny because colostrum, that's like the new health kick right now. Everyone's on colostrum and they're all like, oh, it healed my gut. Well, that's colostrum from cows. So if colostrum from cows can do a body good, imagine what your own colostrum can do to that infant. So that really helps with cesarean. you know, for the microbiome on the skin, you can delay bathing. Yeah. So you get this fur mix, which it basically rubs in, the baby's coated in it. I mean, what we don't want to do is take a baby that just passed through the vaginal canal or C-section vaginally seated or just came out and put a bunch of dish soap on it.

So that's not good either because that is going to affect the microbiome of the skin and possibly the gut too. So now baby's older and they're experiencing eczema or maybe they're toddlers or you know maybe they're 14 and now they're experiencing eczema and we need you know lots of species in the forest so you say like now we're here What are some things that we can do to start to decrease the opportunistic bacteria and help increase the beneficial bacteria that's in the gut? Well, it comes down to diet and we need to have a variety of diet and not just eat the same thing every day.

So if your kid is like, I only eat chicken fingers every day, every meal or macaroni and cheese, try to give them some vegetables and try to diversify their diet because different gut bacteria need to feed on different things. Prebiotics are overlooked a lot. And prebiotics, if they're not eating them, you can supplement. Also, you can give fermented food if your kid will eat it. Mine won't. Mine will have kombucha. That's about it. But that could also be helpful. So when we eat different foods and we're feeding all the gut bacteria, they're going to thrive.

And then you could also give probiotics, and probiotics are going to seed that terrain and help that flourish. Now, I will say, if your kid is only eating the same thing all the time, that could have to do with the function of their tongue and how they swallow. So this could be where you might want to see someone, an airway specialist or a myofunctional therapist, that they can evaluate their tongue, their tongue placement, their swallowing, because another sign of picky eaters could be their oral health.

And if their mouth breathing, with their mouth open all the time, then their flora in their mouth is gonna be altered and that's gonna lead to problems because our gut health is mouth to anus. It's not just our stomach or small intestine or large intestine, it's all of it together. So it all works together. So definitely focus on food first. And if you're like, my kid won't eat different things, they won't try different things, well, try harder, but also look at their tongue and their mouth, right?

It's one thing like an 18-month-old versus an 18-year-old or something. Well, technically they're an adult then, but having kids of all different ages, like one of my kids, like six months we did baby-led weaning, went up until he could start choosing his own. He was my best eater, so we should have better eaters there because they literally are eating what we put in front of them. So use that opportunities the best you can because they don't know better. I know with each kid, this probably happened for you too, it gets harder because they see what their older brothers are having, their older sister, and somehow someone gave them a gummy when they were too young.

I mean, I'm realistic. I get it. I'm a mama four, and it's hard. So just do the best you can, and then you could always supplement too. But especially for eczema kids, you want to look at the food they're eating as a big positive impact that you can have on their gut health and their eczema. Parents, are you exhausted from battling your child's eczema? You've tried the prescriptions, the creams, the elimination diets, and the flares keep coming back. I'm Andrea McHugh, mama for and host of the eczema kids podcast.

Two of my children suffered with severe eczema and I know the sleepless nights and the nonstop itching and the frustration of feeling like nothing works. That's why I created this podcast to share what actually does from natural solutions that calm the skin to practical everyday tips that make healing actually possible. You'll find hope, clarity, and a path forward here. Follow eXimaKids wherever you get your podcasts and head to eXimaKids.com for free recipes and resources to start your child's healing journey today.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, for us, it's pillar one, right? That's just something you can do immediately. Their next meal, it can start to help their mitochondrial health, help their detoxification processes, help everything, right? We know that they haven't been absorbing the nutrients from their food for a long period of time. food as medicine goes such a far, far, far way. And I would say even more so for this pediatric population, you know, or even adult populations, like you can't out supplement a bad diet.

And I agree with you, this variety, like as easy as it is to make the same thing every week. You know, and I guess even if you get like a varied plan, three meals a day, seven days a week, that's probably enough. If you just shift it seasonally, That's probably enough variety. Candidly, that's where we are right now, like in our season of life, because it's just so much of our time. But as a mom, as you know, and I know you're known as like Dr. Mom in a lot of circles, like what are like your biggest wins at home as far as like nutrient dense meals for your kids?

So we do a lot of cooking at home and you know my husband will grill too but sometimes I like to be a little sneaky or I shouldn't call it sneaky just shrewd right like it's not it's not a bad thing is all put in like organ meats into ground beef a lot So that will be helpful if I'm making meatballs or taco night. And then we've also made our own tortillas, which has been really fun as a family. So we got a tortilla press because we do corn tortillas because we do gluten-free. The other thing is I use pluck seasoning, so organ meat seasoning, and I'll put that in stuff just to get more micronutrients in there for them.

Food, Prebiotics, and Expanding the Diet 16:48

So little ones like that, protein too, because I have growing boys, so getting the protein in. Oh, recently I've been doing with my five-year-old, he has just been like, he wants steak, sometimes burgers, but like other meat has just been like, not trying to eat a lot of meat and it's just been challenging and It's just a phase, but he's just like preferencing carbs and stuff. So he's doing myofunctional therapy right now, so that can be part of it as we're working on a lot of different things. But a win for him is putting that seasoning on everything and getting that organ meat in.

And then also we've been doing bone broth hot chocolate. and he loves it. So I'll use milk and some bone broth hot chocolate and you know put a little whipped cream on it and and he's getting like 20 grams of protein and I'm like excellent. So that sometimes is good for it because bone broth is going to be good for gut health too. So just every kid is different. I know it's hard because you don't want it to cook five different dinners, but at least try to have a part in the dinner that's healthy that everyone like, or that, you know, that everyone could pick a little part, right?

Because it's not easy. And I think it's hard when you listen to people giving advice that they're like, this is how you do it. This is how it has to be. And like their kids are compliant all the time or something. I'm like, that's just not like, not the case. That's just not how it is. And sometimes your kids like won't eat it. Like, you know, I made peas last night and only one of my kids ate peas. And I just, I'm not going to argue. I'm just like, nope. So that can be tough. But when they are little, I would say really try to expand their palate when they're little.

And then just that's just the best time to do it and then continually try to have stuffs in their diet That's different for them to try they might not try it, you know And some days you'll be like you have to and you're gonna put that fight in but some days you're not We also don't want to increase stress for you or the kids because that is not good for cut health. So it's definitely, it's hard. There's Instagram life where you see everyone's kids eating perfect. And then there's real life, which, you know, when I talk to patients and I'm sure when you're talking to clients, like it doesn't correlate.

It's not the same. Yeah, so I was hoping given your expertise that you could start to break down because some of the foods that you're mentioning like bone broth and fermented foods like these are absolutely like gut helpers in a child that isn't experiencing Eczema, really. What we found there is just that the histamine is a big time player here. And if you're already experiencing eczema, these types of food, the fermented food and just the high histamine foods like bone broth really aggravate it while we're doing the healing work.

And I was just hoping that you could talk a little bit more about like these histamine and mast cell clues so parents can get a handle on it a little bit better. Yeah, and even leftovers, right? Yeah. Could be like histamine and aggravate that. So this is where root cause. So if we're still having mast cell, histamine response, all of that, then you have not addressed the root cause. And I would say big histamine triggers are poor vagal nerve response, poor vagal tone. So that would be something that you would need to look into.

Why is this? What is stressing out their body? This could also be root causes, can stress out the body and impact vagal tones. So when we're looking at kids, that would be like traumatic birth, maybe an infection. It could stem from gut health inflammation, them not feeling safe, them not sleeping well. Are they not sleeping well because they're mouth breathing? Is this a functional issue? So you need to go down the history and see why. But a big histamine load would be mold. and mycotoxins. And then candida goes hand in hand with them.

I mean, I can't tell you how many organic acids tests I've gotten in kids that they have candida. And then we dig even deeper and they're living in a moldy environment. It's in their window panel or something like that. And with 40% of homes being residential homes, having mold in them, mold is big. It's big for kids. And I would say if your kid has eczema, you get an organic acids test, you get a mycotoxin test, they're urine tests. If your kids are really young, you could put a little sticky bag thing on their parts so you can grab the urine.

But these are non-invasive testing that we can see, is this the cause of the mast cell and the histamine response? And mold rashes, like hives, especially eczema with hives, mold is a big root cause for that. And first you have to remove them from the environment or remediate the environment. and then you have to go over the mold. If it was a long-term exposure, it's usually colonized in the gut and or in the nose. So that could be something big for eczema and the histamine issues. So histamine, vagal nerve need to address that.

And then also going back to gut health, you know, when we have these invaders, when we have these pathogens, these stealth infections, that's going to ramp up the histamine and you're trying to eat these good foods that are higher histamine. Well, no, it's not going to work until you remove the pathogens first. So what are some other ways that you could just like tone that that vagal nerve? Like I've heard things like chanting and singing help, but what are some other things that parents could start to implement with their kids?

Yeah, humming, singing, gargling. For older kids, you could use a vagal nurse stimulator, probably not indicated for the young ones. You could do massage would be a good one. You can just let them be outside. You know, I don't know if you see this a lot and I don't judge, but I mean, I will see parents put a phone in front of their like one-year-old, like put the phone on their stroller like you know like the kids strapped in on a walk outside where there's birds to look at and there's a phone there and how can they ground how can they have that response of that calming response of nature if they're on blue light which is terrible for us yeah and and they're just this constant like stimulation, you know, that is sympathetic.

Like if we're watching like, oh gosh, like I was watching a movie last night with my two older boys, Maze Runner. Have you seen those?

Histamine, Mold, and Mast Cell Triggers 23:58

I have not. Oh, they're so good. Okay. We put my little one, my six year old to bed and we stayed up late and watched it. And I had to like leave the room during the fight scenes Because my nervous system, I'm like, I'm not. And I'm like, tell me when it's done. He's like, no, you can't miss this. I'm like, OK, well, I'm going to fold laundry. I'm like, no, just listen and not watch it. It's like too stimulating. So we're literally letting our kids watch this stimulating stuff. these bright lights come in all the time.

What do you think that's doing to their gut health? What's that doing to their nervous system? So, you know, we should not have screens. I think the American Academy of Pediatrics says none before three, right? I think that's it. So just don't do it. I don't care if you're at a restaurant and people are looking at you. People give us wild looks all the time. Now, I will say that we do let our kids, they're all older, but when we're driving back to Ohio since we moved to Tennessee, yeah, it's a screen frenzy.

And then we could tell the next day in their moods, but it's a driver safety issue. We can't have fighting boys in the back. But this is the problem. If your kid's not getting outside and getting that calming feeling, and their body's stressed all the time, and if they're going to daycare, they're under those LED lights all day, and who knows? Get them barefoot. Get them outside. Get them in the dirt. The dirt is also good for their gut health. Get them out there playing, or their gut is going to suffer.

And it's just very hard because you know, when you look at eczema, it's not just one thing, it's multifactorial. So you got to kind of go through and work at it all one at a time and just do better and make sure you're surrounded with a community of people that want to do better, that don't want to make excuses like, oh, they need to just be on their phone. No, no, you're fine. You can, you know, our biggest responsibility is to raise these kids, to raise them healthy and strong. We got to double down on that as mothers.

I'm kind of like a no BS about this because I think we all need to be told this because when we go to social media, sometimes it favors escapism or not doing the hard things and recovering your child from eczema is a hard thing. You don't want them on a biologic Every time I see, you know, I'm on my Facebook and I see a mother posting that they put their kid on a biologic cream for eczema, I'm like, you are just covering up what is really happening. And if we don't fix the gut and the immune system and the inflammation burning on there, I mean, Think of like the California fires.

That started with one little spark, one little fire, you know, and then it's taken off. So you want to help your kids with this external sign, this rash, help them now so it doesn't turn into an autoimmune disease when they're 12, you know, or when they're in their adult years. So it's all about, think of it as not just helping with the outward sign. It's preventative for long-term health. You're doing everything right. You've cleaned up the diet. You've swapped out the soaps. You've put air filters in every room.

Maybe you even live on an organic farm and still your child is scratching, bleeding, awake all night. The flares won't stop and no one can tell you why. No parent should have to watch their child suffer, especially when you're already doing everything in your power to fix it. That's why I created the eczema kids podcast. I'm Andrea McHugh, mama for health coach and the founder of eczema kits. Two of my own children battled with relentless eczema and I know firsthand how heartbreaking and exhausting it is.

Here we go beyond surface level fixes. You'll learn how to uncover hidden triggers, prepare your child's gut and calm their skin from the inside out. You'll hear the real stories of families who found freedom and insights from practitioners who are rewriting what's possible. Because eczema isn't just a skin condition, it's a message from the body. And when you listen, you can heal. So follow eczema kits wherever you get your podcasts and start your child's healing journey today. Absolutely. And we put a lot of emphasis on that here because it is hard, right?

And not sleeping and, you know, waking up to a screaming miserable kid every three hours and all of that. Like, what a miserable way to live, right? But unfortunately, once you're there, there's no way out but through. and you gotta just buckle down and like it's horrible to hear but like knowing it will get better like with all the work that you're putting in 100% that next round of cells is gonna come back healthier and if you just keep on and keep with the consistency over and over and over and all those things that you mentioned are so integral and they're easy to do and all baked into what we do here like we do you know avianga like an oil an herbal oil massage before bath or a shower and one it's for protection from the water because like a lot of these kids are like reacting for the water but also it's just like infusing those anti-inflammatory nutrients and like you know the lipophilic properties it just like puts it into the tissues and also helps the bagel nerd tone, like all the things, like it just all comes together.

Every simple practice and the same with, you know, this circadian rhythm balance is so important and it can be resolved with like 10 minutes outside in the morning. And like you said, just pre-decide, pre-decide on the screens. Like also mama four, we don't do screens that like the rules that have helped me and I'm just sharing, cause these have helped us in real life is like

Vagal Tone, Screens, and Nervous System Support 29:38

none during the week. We have a school computer. And it's used for school time, but like none of that. And yeah, we have two iPads for the four kids and we use them only for travel. And there's like, we have a travel bucket and that's it. And we just drove home from Arizona yesterday and even on the drive, I was like, God bless, you know, Apple and iPads. Cause like, you know, it makes it blissful, but if you reserve it for just those times, right? They're like super happy to check out. Yes, they're hung over the next day, but you know, you can get back to it.

It's just. you gotta make those experiences like eating out and just doing day-to-day normal like make that normal for them and if it's not your current reality little kids like you can break that up I swear within three days like you know if they're used to like always watching tv after nap or something like that and you don't like that pattern you know you can stop it and you have to deal with it for maybe two or three days and then they're over it and they forget it's just like if they punch their sibling and then Five minutes later, it's like, oh, well, you know, we're friends.

It's okay. It's just the aftermath is so much quicker than you think it's going to be. And all that to say is that some of these kids, their parents, you know, have been told and are experiencing like they're allergic to the outside. And so what do you do in those cases? Like they want them to run around the grass. They know the health benefits. It's like, oh my gosh, when they do, they come in so itchy. What do you do then? Yeah, that's really tough and you can use supplements or homeopathics to help with that mast cell stabilization until you fix what's going on and that's the hard thing.

Similar to food allergies, like you have to take them out for the guts to heal and then you can put them back in. It's not that the food is inherently bad, it's just your body has leaky gut ends reacting to it. So we see that a lot and And it's hard to get to the root cause sometimes. And sometimes it takes a couple of years or sometimes it takes peeling back that layer of the onion again and again and again. So for going outside, I mean, gosh, when I practiced in Northwest Ohio, the glyphosate, they would spray so much of that.

So you just have to be like, what in their environment are they reacting to? If they're allergic to hay, don't have them run around in a bunch of hay or whatever. So you just have to be a little bit smarter with that. It's hard with the environmental toxins because most of these kits are going to be going to an allergist and they're given this list long of everything they're allergic to. They're atopic and that's more of like a gut health reflection. And my two of my boys that are my blonde haired light eyed boys, I mean they have more of that.

They have the rashes on their face and all of that. So we really had to double down like with their gut health and some of it too is their gut health integrity grows and get stronger, you know, more resilient as they age and their thymus and immune system is getting stronger. Some of it will get better just with time too. But we live in such a toxic world and eczema wasn't even really a thing, you know, 30 years ago. And there's a lot of things that can trigger that immune response to the body. The childhood schedule of jabs, that puts a lot of adjunct and pressure.

So there's a lot of things as parents that we need to go down the list of what's the environmental exposures that my kids, that's gonna be at play for them. And is the immune system and the gut health getting overwhelmed, getting stressed out? Yeah. Yeah. So we know, right? Like they're experiencing eczema and they're experiencing allergies. So it is, right? It's stressed out to the max. Their inflammation bucket is overflowing. What are some supplements that you start to lean on when you see these types of cases?

Yeah, well, it depends on the age of the kids too. So when we look at methylation, you know, you talked about like the bucket and the bucket overflowing. So are they methylated well? So this could just be like a good multivitamin, you know, even like a good gummy one if you find one that doesn't have a lot of sugar or seed oils or whatever or chewable or something. Make sure they have methylated vitamins if they're not eating a perfect diet. or they're not having breast milk anymore. This is where, you know, beef liver and organ meats have a lot of available B vitamins that are helpful with that.

You know, things like glutathione, there's different glutathione that you can get for kids if you will have them take it. There's a new chewable one that I actually like that's up and coming. So I'm going to start using that with my kids because glutathione doesn't taste good, but that's from sulfur too. So you could get broccoli sprouts in their diet. You know, broccoli is really good for that. You can also have them take an acetylcysteine or NAC, precursor glutathione, that can really help with this detoxification.

Just making sure their liver is supported. Depending on the age of kids, sometimes you can do a castor oil pack. You could just make sure their lymphatics are flowing, which could be massage, as you spoke about earlier, like the nice oil massage, or this is kids jumping on a rebounder, like a trampoline up and down. Or kids just running around and getting sweaty and playing tag. So that can help for detoxification too. So there's a lot of general things that we can do for kids to help with that.

Magnesium is also great. So they could take, you know, an Epsom salt bath or magnesium lotion. That is really good because we also want to make sure that the bowels are moving well. Yeah, all of that is a part of the protocol too, right? You know, like all of it is just like everything that you spoke to, they're true therapies. And a lot of it is just what kids are just naturally wanting to do.

Supplements, Constipation, and Detox Support 35:48

And so for the people listening that are dealing with constipation with their kids, I know, you know, when my baby was experiencing extreme, extreme eczema, you know, she was exclusively breastfed and I was eating the healthiest similar reversing diet it could and like she still you know had a hard time going to the bathroom it's like you can't eat healthier so I don't know really what to do like I guess how often do you see this like chronic constipation like playing a role in these types of cases and what can you start to do to change that?

Yeah, it's really hard, especially when they're like breastfed and just bored and they're constipated. And that goes back to maybe it's more of a stress response and cortisol because the vagal nerve and the parasympathetic system is responsible for the migrating motor complex and this peristolic movement of the gut. And sometimes it could also be due to water and drinking, but if they're breastfed baby, they're usually very hydrated and doing okay. This is where you'd want to look at lip-tongue ties, they're swallowing, maybe they're getting too much gas in their stomach and that's going to be stressing out their body.

Then when they get older, constipation, like eating solid foods, then constipation could, once again, be coming from leaky gut. Inflammation in there could be coming from stealth infections, like candida, like small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, mold, all of that, and that's affecting the peristaltic movement. So massage, supporting liver health and detoxification, as we kind of spoke about before. And there's supplements that kids can take, multivitamins, and then other supplements that can help with liver health.

You know, they have a lot of tinctures and stuff that could support, artichoke root is good. Things like milk thistle, as they get older, then they can start incorporating those too. and that will help that parasolic movement. But then you're also working on what we spoke about before, vagal nerve tone with grounding, massage, getting off screens, trying to get the stress low. And then when it comes to constipation also, we want to look at things like the thyroid hormone. So if they are at any age really and they haven't had their thyroid looked at, I mean, thyroid is a cause of constipation.

So you would want to roll out stuff like that. And then there's like hersprungs disease and other things too that could cause constipation. So you also want to make sure that you have things rolled out that are more zebras and not horses. So zebras are more rare medical things, you know, like thyroid, like hersprungs and stuff like that. But usually it's horses. Usually it's the things we talked about, diet, vagal tone, liver needs support, all of that. And that's like, you know, talking about the epsom salt path.

It's detoxifying. Then you get the magnesium. It's calming for the nervous system. Kids are just in there playing. Don't give them a screen in the bathtub and they'll be good. Or even a rubber ducky, right? Oh yeah, cuz the phallates. You know, we gotta have some balance. I know that's awful, but yeah. Yeah, they can have a good time even without either of those things, I think. Bubbles. Make sure they're fragrance-free. I mean, just do the best you can, swap out one thing at a time, give one idea at a time.

I mean, I have let my kid before watch TV in the bathtub, right? But it's like, it's this 80-20, like 80% of the time, be awesome. and do awesome and try to do the best you can. And then that leaves you that space where you're exhausted or you have something to do, you know, but it's sometimes it's flipped. I feel like some people are just taking the easy road every day and it's like, no, we can do hard things. Absolutely, absolutely. So for this population, right, there's stuff going on with these kids and it's really hard.

Would you say that 80-20 rule, like I would say we live by that now, you know, but back when we were really healing It felt like it needed to be closer to 99.1. Would you say that's accurate to like really during the healing phase to get over something like this? Or do you think you could maintain like this kind of 80-20 role and still get to where you want to be? Which for us, it's, you know, ultimately food freedom, pharmaceutical free, and healthy, happy skin. Yeah, that's a great, great point.

For things like gluten, which opens up xoluline and opens up those tight junctions, it has to be 100%. And it's so easy to do right now to be 100% gluten-free that, I don't know, I still would have parents and they're like, well, we're doing like, okay. And I'm like, no, one little particle of gluten can, you know, just cause inflammation in your body for a couple of months or, well, like 68 weeks. So that's where I'm like, yeah, like some of the diet stuff needs to be 100% for a while. And these are kids that you're feeding.

It's not emotional like adults. If you put them on a very restrictive, like eliminate everything but five things, I see that in women actually cause them more stress and more harm. But these are kids that you're preparing their food. They're literally not going to know if you give them gluten-free crackers versus regular, like whatever, unless you tell them and make a big deal about it. So diet, I would say that needs to be a little more strict on the parents part because the kids don't know any better.

So you need to be more stringent with that. But some of the other things, if you miss a massage or they can't go outside one day or something like that, I mean, we could be a little more lenient on for sure. Yeah, agreed, agreed. And it's just, if you really buckle down, it's just like 90 days, you know, diet wise, like you said, it's just, you can really, really turn around and it's just not that hard. Like the whole real foods are on the table, right? Like just all the fruits and all the vegetables and all the meats and like the gluten-free grains and you know, like there's things that it's just widely available.

It's really not that hard once you like just change the way that you cook like a little bit, learn a few more skills, maybe get it into pot and you're good to go. Yeah. Crocbot, Instapot, you could set it and forget it. Yeah. Once you see that repairing, what are some signs that you can tell that maybe some food reintroduction is that they're ready for it? Yeah. That the rash is doing better. I'll see this a lot with mold patients is that they have chronic eyes or they have patches or eczema and they're getting better or almost gone.

Sometimes I'll hold them at that pattern for a while. and then maybe start reintroducing food or like for mold, for example, like get them off the mold protocol and move on to other things. So that is big. And sometimes I will, you know, with kids to accelerate things, use things like colostrum or immunoglobulin, IgG to help with those tight junctions or a peptide called verazetide, just to increase the repair, help those tight junctions decrease inflammation a little more rapidly because you're doing the diet,

Healing Timeline, Reintroduction, and Final Advice 42:58

you're doing all the things to get to the root cause, but then there's like 50 more things environmentally just coming at us all the time. You know, I mean, they make up more toxic food spray on our vegetables, you know, appeal, like whatever, they just like keep coming out with toxic things. So sometimes those extra supplements or, you know, peptides in select populations can really just get them there faster to this place where now we're at kind of just a folding pattern and we're just maintaining Yeah, nice.

I will link some of that into the show notes, but I want to be respectful of your time. I could talk to you all day. This is all such really helpful and good information for everyone listening. What are some lifelong principles that you would maybe like take with you that you wish like the parents listening knew and they could just carry with them moving forward? Yeah, I mean, food is medicine, so really focus on foods and toxins in food and, you know, try to avoid the packaged foods with kids as long as you can.

But then if you are getting packaged foods, then just pick the better alternative. You know, it might be a little bit more expensive, but it's going to help with inflammation for sure. And just try not to beat yourself up about it. It was nothing you did. It's not your fault. You could be doing everything perfectly and your kid could still have eczema or a chronic disease or something. We all have something. So I would tell patients to just really to take care of yourself like the patient's parents because a lot of the time the parents then are going to have health problems because they're so stressed out.

So take it to the Lord, read scripture, praise in the valley, and you'll be out of it before you know it and your kid will be better. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Jenn. Where can everyone find and follow you? Yeah, so integrative doctor mom, integrative DR mom on YouTube and Instagram. I hang out there a lot. And then I have a website, healthy by Dr. Jen. And I have a new book on perimenopause. If any of the mothers out there are listening and are struggling with perimenopause or just hormones in general, I think it would be very helpful.

So just head over to Healthy by Dr. Jenn, and I also have a blog with lots of protocols and information. Amazing. All of that will be in the show notes. Thank you again, Dr. Jenn. Thank you, Anna. So good, right? What I love about Dr. Jenn is she just says the quiet part out loud. Eczema is the body asking for help. It's not random. It's not your fault. You're not crazy for wanting more than another steroid prescription, and they'll grow out of it. We covered so many important threads today, how those little things like constipation and bloating and picky eating and birth trauma and mold and screens and stress, they all stack up into that overflowing inflammation bucket.

And how much power, more importantly, you have in actually draining it. And yes, during this intense healing season, it probably does look a little more like 99.1. versus 80-20. It's a hard phase, guys, but it's also temporary. And I would argue it's significantly easier than nighttime wakings every three hours and 20-minute diaper changes and all the rest. But you can turn this around in 90 days. 90 days of focus can completely change your child's trajectory in life. And if you're listening and thinking, okay, I'm ready to actually do this, but I need a simple first step, here's where I'd start.

Use the prebiotic tea daily to gently support the gut and calm inflammation from the inside. It's designed with eczema kids in mind, so you're not accidentally pouring fuel on the histamine fire. And then layer in the herbal healing oil as your nightly pre-bath or pre-shower massage. You're protecting the skin barrier from water and you're soothing those angry patches and giving their nervous system a chance to downshift so that they can actually rest and repair. Those two tools fit perfectly with everything Dr.

Jen and I talked about. The gut, the liver, the lymph, the bigotone. without heading more overwhelmed to your plate. They're really easy to incorporate into your life. You can grab both of those products along with a few other very helpful products. You can sign up as a student inside the eczema elimination method and get all of those mentioned sent to you immediately as when you sign up. If you're not sure where to start, just start there. And if you resonated with Dr. Jen personally, maybe you're dealing with your own fatigue and weight changes and mood swings or feeling like your body is shifting out from under you, Go check out her new book.

It's the PeriMetaboz Reset. 28 days to energize your body, shed weight, and find peace with God. You're allowed to support your hormones when you're working on supporting your child's skin. Actually, you'll do a better job at both when you do. And the chronic stress that you are under right now in dealing with your family's subpar health It weighs on your hormones guys, so check out that book. It is such a good read. I love it so much. You're doing amazing. I'm so thankful for your time today and I can't wait to talk to you next week.

Thank you for helping with my eczema. Love you. Thank you for listening today, friend. I know healing your child's skin isn't easy, but you're doing it one smart step at a time. If this episode gave you a little hope or a better night's sleep, leave a quick review so more exhausted parents can find eczema kids and finally rest easy too. Follow, share, and let's help more kids heal. Take care.