My dermatologist says topical steroids are fine — why go through all this?

Welcome and listener support 0:00

Hey team, welcome back. I know that you have been to the pediatrician friends and that your dermatologist says that steroid creams are just fine and it clears the skin and you're wondering, so then why would I go through anything else? Why would i put myself or my family through? Anything else that question has been sitting in my inbox and in mind for a really long time and today I really want to answer that because I don't think it's the question that Any of us actually think it is, but before I get into it, if you're the parent who's been doing every single thing, which of course you are because you hear listening and you've tried every thing that you possibly can and your still lying awake wondering why none of it's sticking and up with your child multiple times a night.

You're likely sleeping in their bed and school already isn't going the way that it would. And you don't even know what to pack in the lunchbox or hand them for breakfast in morning on the out the door. I want you to know that there is a way out of that and it doesn't include a bigger to-do list. It's an actual way-out and if you want to talk through what that could look like for your specific child, for you specific family, your specifically situation, book an alignment call with me. Its free, its 15 minutes and its just a conversation, you and me about where you're at and what it could actually look to get to a place of clear, calm skin again.

And the link is in the show notes or you can find it at eczemakids.com. Okay friends, let's get into it. Is your child struggling with itchy nights and endless flare ups? I'm Andrew McHugh, mom of four and host of eczema kids. Here you'll find natural solutions that actually work so you can heal your children's ectomol without steroids, without the overwhelm, and finally see calm, healthy skin again. Let's get into it. So I want to talk about the thing that I know a lot of you are already thinking that my dermatologist says that topical steroids are fine and that they clear up my child's skin.

And so why would I possibly go through all of this? Everything that you're proposing that i see on your website and the food and environment stuff and tracking and supplements and testing the whole shebang. Why would i do any of that? And from the outside that probably looks like the much harder path.

Why steroids feel like the easy answer 2:04

and it looks like more steps and effort and more to think about. And I want to answer that. I also want talk about topical steroids just for a beat because they are the standard treatment for reducing eczema inflammation and they absolutely can work for the short term from what I see. And they absolutely have a place when used appropriately. I 100% agree. And this isn't about telling you whether or not you should use them. There certainly is a time and place, and I'm also very aware that they're immune suppressants.

Long-term, it's really not in your child's best health interests. And if you want to know more about steroids and that line of treatment, I have previous episodes that get into that and I'll link those in the show notes. Because that is worth researching and understanding to a point. If you are a parent of a child with eczema or for experiencing exema yourself, because this is the standard allopathic plan to treat it. This is what we have. But the problem is all of you that I speak to every single week on alignment calls and through one-on-ones, It's the same story that they work for a second and then they make life much harder because these are immune suppressants.

Because when you are suppressed and you choose to stop that treatment, the body reacts and it responds. And no matter where you are, I still believe healing is 100% possible for you. I have plenty of people inside the program that were taking steroids or biologics or whatever it was before. And then we are working through it and working on a plan to eventually have pharmaceutical free kits. But again, that's not really what we're talking about today. We're taking about, once you're in this boat, what is the easiest way to get through to the other side, to calm clear skin to health, to food freedom and to pharmaceutical freedom.

Because I know if you're listening to this, you are already living the hardest version of reality that there could possibly be. Of course you can, because you are so exhausted and you're overextended. And you absolutely cannot put on one more thing on your plate. So I'm definitely not trying to add to it. I am trying make this big thing called eczema reversal more manageable and bite size, just like how you eat an elephant, one bite at a time. How do we reverse a chronic condition in a little person who's sad and itchy and crying and bleeding and not sleeping?

Because if you knew how, you'd already be doing it and you're already doing all the hard work. And if there were one silver bullet to eczema management, guys, I would shout it from the rooftops every single week here so that every by this condition would hear me. But unfortunately, that is not the case. Eczema is very nuanced. As you know, it requires a holistic plan that differs from client to client, which is exactly why I work with you one-on-one, individualized throughout this whole program.

Because I know what your life looks like right now. If you're in it with a kid who has eczima and you are Googling at 11 p.m. and you're reading ingredient labels in the cereal aisle and your trying cream after cream and cream. And you are wondering about dairy and gluten and eggs and soy and switching detergents and re-washing sheets that you just wash because they have blood on them again and flaky skin. You are buying supplements that found on Instagram and taking pictures of rashes to track them but you aren't sure what you tracking for.

and you're replaying what they ate yesterday and your really worried about that birthday party that you have this weekend and that vacation next month

The hidden cost of managing eczema alone 5:49

and how are you possibly going to make it through Disneyland and eating out that much and are worried that time tonight. That's first and foremost, because you already know what's coming. And you're wondering about that steroid that has been prescribed. If you use it, you are worried about it. You're asking in a Facebook group at midnight, does anyone else's kid do this? You are talking about with your friends and they're just giving you a blank stare because they don't know, what you going through.

They want to help, but they do not really know how to you. You're comparing your kid's arms to someone else's kid arms and a photo online and at the park and it's just making you feel much worse, not better. And you're doing so much more than you ever thought you'd have to do just to take care of your child's skin and your children still has eczema. Everything feels like it is in vain. And I really do want you to understand that you are doing the hard part now. That's what you're doing now is living in the heart and you doing it without a map and without the results that use so desperately want and those results just keep eluding you.

And that's the whole thing that he were already working so incredibly hard and I can promise you you working hard enough and he don't even have to work this hard. You just want your hard work to actually move you two place. that you want to be. You need to know that every step that your taking is actually the right work. And that's what we do here, because you're carrying that mental load without knowing what's actually mattering in your child's case and in their improvement, and you are living with this low-grade chronic fear of the next flare all the time and, in the background of everything else that are you doing and your second guessing yourself all the time, constantly.

At the grocery store and at the pharmacy and when you're up with a scratching toddler and you are doing all of it without the result, and that is the hardest way. And it's not because you have a plan, it is because don't have the plan. I can promise you the hard way is not following a plans that someone gives to you, that tailors to your child, to for exactly how to do this. It's waking up every single morning without having to invent what you're going to to today from scratch and then doing it again tomorrow and the day after for months and sometimes years without anyone ever telling you if you are doing right.

And I wanted to bring you this episode this week because this really hit home for me on a one-on-one call this weekend. A very sweet, well-intending mama signed on. She'd been a student for a week before we had our one on one call. And she got into the online portion, which isn't even required. It's just there as an extra bonus for you to look into in your own time. Before we'd even had our first call or I built her son's own individualized plan, she'd already seen meaningful improvement in one week.

And when we were talking, She said, ha, that's interesting when you put it together like this, it seems too simple. That's exactly what I want to hear, not because every child sees results in a week, But you should, you shouldn't see a little bit improvement. You should see when the inputs are in line, about 1% improvement every day. That's what we're going for. So in three months time, oh my goodness, You're gonna be dealing with a completely different child, which adds up to a, completely, different life in the best way, in a much more manageable way and a more happier way.

Cause now eczema isn't a part of that life. And when we were talking, she could see the forest through the trees. I mean, wasn't drowning anymore and she was doing a handful of things that actually mattered right now for her child instead of carrying the mental load of trying to implement every single thing that might be helpful for some other kid on every corner of the internet. And this has also been really tough of mine because now we're in week three of our new homeschool year, and I homeskool four kids now.

This is the first year where it's all four of them, where the little guy actually needs his own plan and curriculum and really needs to start to formally learn some things so that we can have some success in kindergarten. And if you saw my living room right now, You'd question every life decision I'd ever made.

Why a clear plan changes everything 10:21

And that's okay. It's four different grades and different math and English and writing and history and science, and it's all under one really small roof. We have good days and bad days, just like everyone else. The days that it feels completely unmanageable, it is not because we have a lot to do. I'm fine with going back, back and filling up my days, minute by minute, no problem. But when I don't feel clear about what I'm doing, when they fall into comparing math programs for the 10th time or, oh, I am editing these things and it just feels like a really inefficient way to use my time.

And I think about changing the schedule again, and then I go through this rabbit hole until midnight wondering if I'm doing enough and wondering, if this one kid needs something completely different than the others. And yes, of course I do, right? And you have to go to that editing process. Then that's when I lose my mind a little bit, honestly. So now I know what each child needs and when we're doing it. That's what gives me the freedom to enjoy the day and to be successful in the, to do the things that they all learn English and writing and math and how to, do an essay and divide fractions and all the other things.

Otherwise, it just feels like one big soup of inadequacy and it's expensive, PS. It's so expensive to try all these different random things and that's the exact same thing of healing eczema. So when I think about my role, As a homeschool teacher or as a real parent who has lived through this, researched this and walked hundreds of families through with very, very good outcomes, what I think my role really is, is not handing you 27 brand new eczema jobs on top of the ones that you're already doing.

It means Here's what matters right now. Here is exactly where it fits into your schedule, here's exactly what you do. And this is how it fit in with your other kids, with you job, your home, and your husband. All the things. Then here is the framework. So you start to develop this sense for yourself. Is this contributing or is this making my healing journey harder? And then what starts to happen is you understand the framework and you, I mean, it's layered and holistic and there's so many things to consider, but you start to understand those things as we go through this.

And you can look through those glasses of, is this actually helping my goals or is making our healing journey harder, even though it is dressed up as something healthy and marketed as healthy. Here's what we're actually watching for and then here's, what happens next. And another thing that's just as important for guides is I think an ability to say here of the thousand and two things that you're holding right now, here's what we can let go of that we don't need to spend another ounce of energy on right.

And the last one is really, really big because you don't have to become an eczema expert yourself. That's my job. But what you start to understand is how to get your child and yourself to a place that's actually happy and healthy and whole and what it looks like. So that months from now, you're not living at the doctor's office and you can go to the birthday party and go on vacation. And if you ate out a lot last week, no problem. and if your children get sick, No problem, this is How we recalibrate and through that process, that how healing happens.

far beyond our time together. You become less dependent on doctor's offices and more self-reliant because you'll know what to do. And I'm definitely still in your corner when random things come up. But you're the one that's feeding your child, that spitting them, it's tucking them in, living your actual life. Now all that effort is pointing in the same direction instead of scattering in to 12 different directions. At the getting better because I'm not teaching you how to organize your life around eczema I want your child's skin to be better and then I Want your trial to just be able to beat it and as the skin improved that burden itself starts shrinking and you're not waking up to bloody sheets anymore and You're, not down a research rabbit hole every evening and your not reverse engineering every day's flair and maybe everyone starts sleeping again and And maybe you can go on a trip without packing an entire eczema to-go bag just in case.

And friends, life gets so much easier when you know what you're doing and your child is actually getting better, even just seeing progress before even like you've... quote unquote, cross the finish line, life feels so much more manageable.

Steroids treat flares, not the root cause 15:05

And that's the destination. The goal is never for you to become exceptionally skilled at managing an eczema household. the goal for exema to stop running your household and your thoughts and home and marriage and everything else. If we were to go back to our original question and you're at the dermatologist office and they say steroids are absolutely fine and why on earth would I go through all this? And we know topical steroids can reduce inflammation in the short term and are very commonly prescribed along with bleach in a lot of cases.

But there are two different questions hiding within that one question. One is, how do I get the flare that we're contending with under control right now? And two is why does my child's eczema keep coming back in the first place? What can we identify and address for long-term control and not just put this week's fire out? If you are completely at peace with how your child's eczema is being managed right now, I'm so glad. Truly, hooray for you. But if you're here and you listening to an exima podcast and your researching and looking for something else that tells me that you don't actually have the result that your looking yet and maybe your dermatologist is wonderful, I'm sure they are and they got into this field to help people.

I love doctors, I deeply respect doctors. It's so fun to be able to talk to them very, very often on the show and I have many doctor friends and, they're some of my favorite people So I don't want what I'm saying to be misconstrued, but this isn't an either or conversation. It's not, it's helping in the moment and we understand why this keeps happening. Those are two completely different conversations and most families that I talked to have only had the first conversation So if you ask why go through all this, it's because I don't want you living the way that you're living anymore.

You're already doing the work and you are spending the money and changing things around the house and thinking about eczema constantly and probably doing a lot more than you'd ever admit out loud. I mean, it's just like homeschool, finances, every single thing in your life. If it is not under control, then it consumes your thoughts far more than it does for someone who feels really good about where they stand in that department. And I will never ask you to work harder than you already are. That's not possible.

You're working as hard as you physically, humanly, And I'm not asking you to stop working this hard without a map. I am asking to put your efforts into a different bucket and start seeing results so that things start to fall in place. And most importantly, you can reclaim your child's health, your family's, health your sanity. My goal through this whole process is so you never have to question, do this, should I worry about this? Why does this matter? Here's what we're watching. Here is what to do next.

And then eventually, you won't need a guide for this department anymore because you'll just be living your life eczema-free. That's why when my client said this seems so simple, I thought, yes, that's exactly what it is supposed to feel like. It's not easy. it's perfectly linear. Not every kid feels better in a week, but a lot too, friends. they all feel better when they're consistent over 90 days. And that's the difference between easy and clear because you can genuinely do hard things when you know that why you're doing them and you see that they are working.

It's just like learning algebra or geometry or anything that you are that's to learn growing up. You know, if you understand how it actually applies to you, why you would need to know such things, while you should dedicate the brain space, then it gets much, much easier to take on and you feel much more motivated to get on. But you don't need more motivation because we're talking about your kids. And you're the most motivated person in the world to heal this. That is why it has to be you. And you need a guide to help you through it, because I don't want you to spend your child's entire childhood afraid of the next flare.

And, you just don' need eczema taking up this much space in your brain, in you sleep, and your family, your marriage. have a living, breathing plan just to guide you out of the complication. So thank you for sticking with me, friends.

Book an alignment call and next steps 19:38

And before you go, if anything in this episode just felt a little too familiar, If you recognize your own house in it, I don't want you to just close this podcast and then go back into living that life. You do not have to white-knuckle this on your own anymore. You can book an alignment call with me. It's just a real conversation about where you're at right now, what's actually going on with your child, and what it could actually look like to get out of this. And you don't have it all figured out.

This is what the call is for. The link is in the show notes, or you can find it at eczemakids.com. More than anything, friends, I want you to know that this is a reversible condition. for a moment longer. No matter what you do, no matter how you move forward, I can promise you can absolutely move past this. Your child is here to be well, and there is 100% a way out. Okay? So I will talk to you next week, friends. Take care. Thank you for helping with my eczema. Love you. Thank 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 exima kids and finally rest easy too. Follow, share, and let's help more kids heal. Take care.