The Better Question: What’s Really Behind Eczema?

Opening Question on Reframing Hard Situations 0:00

like to ask you, put you on the spot for a particular question. Okay. He's talking about what's a better question someone could ask that would might get a parent to kind of think about this situation in a little different light. What would be that piece of advice you would say a question they could asked themselves that might them kind have shifted from being overwhelmed and stuck to being able to be empowered and in action around the situation. If this situation is trying to teach me something, and I believe asking yourself this for every hard thing, it's very hard to do when you're in the hard things.

But if this was a lesson, why do you think, what am I supposed to learn? Not, Why is this happening to me? But, if it is a Lesson, What am i supposed learn from this? Welcome to the Resiliency Method, The Truth About Healing. I'm Dr. Erica and we are here to uncover the root causes keeping you stuck. Together we'll restore your energy, your focus and your resiliency so you can finally heal, regenerate and feel truly alive again. Welcome back to the resiliency method, the truth about healing podcast.

I am Dr. Erica and today we're diving into a topic that affects so many families, childhood eczema and what it really takes to reverse it naturally. So if you're a parent who has dealt with the sleepless nights, the non-stop itching, steroid creams, and the frustration of being told your child will just grow out of it, this conversation is for you.

Podcast Introduction and Eczema Overview 1:28

We're going beyond symptom suppression and talking about root causes, gut health, immune regulation, detox pathways, rebuilding the body from the inside out. I'm joined by Andrea McHugh, founder of EximaKids and host of the ExamaKIDS podcast. After walking through severe eczema with her own children, she developed a practical and sustainable approach that helps families restore resilience and truly heal. So let's get into it. Welcome back, everyone, to the Resiliency Method, the Truth About Healing podcast.

I'm Dr. Erica. Today, I am joined with Andrea McHugh. She is a founder of Eczema Kids and the host of the Ezzema kids podcast, she helps families reverse childhood eczima naturally through her proven exima elimination method and her exima safe skincare line. Welcome, Andrea. So great to have you here. Thanks, Dr. Erica, I'm really excited to be here. Yeah, we were just putting together that we're neighbors, which is awesome. You're Colorado fellow, Colorado. Yes, it's like 70 degrees right now. I know, It's crazy.

It has been a crazy winter, quote unquote. But yeah, yeah I am excited hear from you today because I that you have a specialized way of working with especially kids and reversing eczema naturally. And I assume you also work with adults to do some of that work. Yeah, I have many adult clients because as you know, eczema comes from the same reason. It does, whether you're a kiddo or a little or an older kid. Right. Yeah. So let's dive right in here. I want to learn from you. What would you say when a parent is looking at their child and they're having issues, sleepless nights, non-stop itching, crying, all those things that happen that come with discomfort with any sort of skin condition, but specifically eczema, and it's relentless, what would you say that you tell them in terms of a place to start that maybe other doctors aren't actually getting to out of the gates?

Well, we first acknowledge that this is not a skin issue, right? Like this, this a gut signaling issue. This is a digestive issue it's an immune regulation issue It's a lymphatic issue you know the skin barrier's not doing its job. It needs to stay out out not keeping what needs stay in in and And the nervous system, you know, isn't doing its job like buffering what it needs to buffer as well. So they're just highly reactive. And parents go to the dermatologist, they go the pediatrician, and they are well-meaning and like, what do we do?

And they say, put steroids on it, like let's suppress and kill for a little, just to get things under control, to things manageable.

Andrea's Personal Eczema Story 4:12

A lot of these people are in pretty dire straits and it makes a lot sense because it can take away some pain and some itching and redness right away. Yeah, it kind of stops there. It's like, let's do that, and a hope and prayer that they grow out of it. And it's just such dangerous advice, because when you're not addressing that systemic inflammation, is just going to morph into something else, you know, when seemingly grow it out. Or you just continue on with eczema for your whole life, like you said, I see plenty of adults, this is not just a childhood issue.

So we start there, The next thing we do is we just start in the kitchen, which, you know, like just isn't acknowledged by most allopathic medicine, but it just makes sense. Like, we eat to fuel our bodies and nourish our body, and especially when you're caring for somebody with this type of thing, bleedy, itchy, scaly skin, my kids were bleeding head to toe. I mean, it was horrible. That's all you can do, is to start at your next meal. And thankfully, there's, that helps a lot. So tell us about that.

What was your story? What's your path that led you to the point where you are talking to people now about these issues? And what got you the to point were this is an area of focus that you're so passionate about? Well, we're the classic make your mess, your message family. I used to work in the dental world. And I did OSHA seminars for dentists and I worked in, the big, I work at Denver health in dental unit here. and so, you know, was exposed to a lot of radiation and a of chemicals and just, it's a really deleterious profession, unfortunately.

So, You know I was doing that for a while and. My third daughter was just born with eczema, you know, and I just, I think a lot because of those exposures that I had while she was in utero and, it just got worse and worse. And simultaneously, my two-year-old just came down with that smile. It was like, an acute cold, but it started like this little red bite in the inside of her thigh and just grew to her whole body. I know, it was so sad. And like I said, I just then had two kids that were bleeding, flaking skin, head to toe, completely miserable, not sleeping.

We went to the pediatrician because I don't have any history with this and my husband doesn't. That was the advice that they gave us. They also said throw some bleach in their bath. No, please use your bath. Yeah. No. Really? Just fill the staff that's on the skin. Because yes, there is an increased staff count on anyone who's exhibiting eczema. Obviously that doesn't fix it. And so I just left there knowing I had to go a different route. They were so little. My baby was just a month old and I got a two-year-old and it was, you know, I couldn't put those prescriptions on.

He said put gloves on before you apply these onto your kids because they're admittedly toxic. It's like, well, as an adult, if I shouldn't be touching this, my month old and my two-year-old should really be exposed to this. We just had to forge a new path. Then I went to a whole bunch of specialists and more naturally minded specialists, and even an eczema program at National Jewish, all the things. Nobody really had an answer. If you go the more natural route, they suggest tests and a lot of supplements, but they were so little.

you know, National Jewish, their whole thing, steroids and wet drops.

Why Eczema Is a Gut and Immune Issue 8:12

Like none of this is going to do it. So that's why we just, we really had to forge our own path and we did. And that and then from then on, I just knew it was my moral obligation to teach other families to the same thing. Yes. There's so much suffering that going on out there needlessly. It doesn't have to. I mean, thankfully this a reversible condition as dire as things may seem right now, right? It's not the worst of the worse by any means. And you said something a moment ago, too, about I think it's really important point.

When you talked about, yeah, maybe the kids will grow out of it. And then you mentioned also, but it's going to show up somewhere else. I love that you bring that to light because I think that's an important point for a lot of parents because they do, we can sometimes see things that perceivably we're interpreting as they had that but they grew out. But then downstream, something else shows up. parents don't put that together or people don�t put it together, that the same pattern at play that was suppressing the immune system, forcing the body to detoxify somewhere else besides its normal channels, the skin in this case, those things don´t really necessarily go away or we don �t usually grow out of them, they just show up in another way.

Do you have some examples of where you've seen that? Well, I mean, asthma, autism, all these things, they're on the same spectrum. They really are. And when I first started to research, that's what scared me the most. Even at the doctor, at Allopathic Medicine, and they acknowledge the atopic triad. And it's like, okay, eczema and allergies and hay fever and asthma, they're connected. But then in the same breath they just say, well, hopefully they'll grow out of it. It's, like you're contradicting yourself, but that's it, it doesn't just resolve on your own.

If you are in this state of dis-ease and you've so far out-of-balance, you need to put in some intentional work to get get back to baseline, to get your systems back, too, a place that they can actually defend and neutrify and detoxify your body appropriately. You can't skip it. Absolutely. What do you think are some of the inflammatory or the perfect storm conditions that will create eczema in the first place? Well, like I said, just they inherit our exposures. You know, that was a big one for me.

And there's not a lot you can do, except for just when you know better, then you do better. not ideal, right? And like is what it is, but not idea because then they're born without being inoculated with those beneficial microbes that I'm sure everyone on your show knows exactly why. So that was another walk against my kids and over 30% of the kids globally or maybe just here. And then formula, like not getting, not nursing, that doesn't help our kids' immune systems or the beneficial gut bugs that you need to be happy and healthy.

The glyphosate that's been sprayed on our food for however long and they just outlawed it, but they just replaced it with new chemicals and the half-life

Root Causes and Common Misconceptions 11:48

of glyphosate is 21 years. So that's going to be around for a really long time and all the processed and bleached and processed foods, it's just nothing is really helping those beneficial microbes flourish. And so eventually the dysbiosis wins out. Absolutely. What do you think are some of the misconceptions that people have about eczema? Well, we mentioned like one, it's not a skin issue, right? So addressing it that way, is not going to do it. And a lot of people think it is a food issue. It's like, well, no.

Also, exema doesn't exist because it has gluten, Right? It just means your body isn't resilient enough to tolerate gluten. Thank you. You're singing my tune. I know. Because we do see that in the world of natural medicine or holistic health or whatever you want to call us. the whole notion that your food is what's causing these issues. And to some extent, there are some, like you mentioned, the glyphosate, some toxicity, somethings that are happening with our food. But we were never made to react to the thing that is supposed to be our fuel, which is our foods, right?

And so that drives me crazy to an extent where I just see a lot of practitioners stopping there. It was me for a long time. I did that for a very long time myself. I was, you know, down to a restricted diet. And what I seeing was I still eating very few things. But then I also, over time, because we hadn't really truly arrived at the root cause, that really didn't help anymore. Right. Yeah. When I saw that we could reverse the food sensitivities by healing the immune system and the nervous system, Then it was like a game changer, right?

But a lot of practitioners, they're stuck there. Yeah. So it's hard to watch. And I was there too, when my kids is like, you know, their reacting to everything. You just keep whittling it down, and you whittle it, down and then you're afraid to feed your kids and their kids, then their job is to grow. Right? And so they just need as many nutrients as possible and they are feeding them five things. They're likely not even nutrient dense foods. They just don't have the nutrients, the proteins, amino acids to one, get over this disease and two, to grow.

So, a lot of these kids are not meeting those growth milestones and things like that. It's tough to watch. And to rebuild your digestion, you need variety. You need all the colors of the rainbow and you all those phytonutrients. So, you're skipping a big step. That's what the work's about. It's like healing is healing that gut lining. So you can process. I mean, yeah, like you said, ideally, everyone could run through a field to a birthday party and eat cake and write in V-shape and go on their merry way.

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And you said it, like, we start to create this culture of where being healthy has this, you know, concern about everything in our environment and everything that almost we can't really don't have a ton of control over even to extent. So, I'd always encourage practitioners to look at, if you're afraid then how are you going to bring others along to not be afraid and to find freedom with

Healing Through Food and Digestive Support 16:48

their house and freedom, with our life and more expansion. And that needs to be our goal and our focus, right? As clinicians is to really help people adapt better to their environment. Yeah. Yeah, I think it gives me a like up as just a mom, like just living it. I have four kids now and it's like you can't just go into a cave and live in fear and just throw up your hands and say, well, you know, everything is doom and gloom and too much and I just can try anymore. Like that's not an option, right?

You have to be able to navigate all of it, the school and the travel and daycare and grandparents and you, know the sicknesses, all the things that come with it and your body, your Absolutely. Flaring. So you teach parents how to rebuild their child's gut lining and work on detox pathways. And so what does that actually look like though, day to day, in terms of how would you go about that? And how do you do that in the context of, you know, parents have a lot go on their plates, sometimes getting healthy is just one more thing they have to do.

You know, silver lining, like if you picture this as a reframe, the silverlining of especially if your kids are young and exhibiting these symptoms is like, okay, and the time is now. Like we have to address this, but there's no choice because you're not sleeping and they're miserable and nothing tugs at your heart more than watching your kid's be miserable. The tolerance for that is so much less than being miserable ourselves, right? You know, they have to. It's like there's, but the good news is...

you don't even have to turn yourself inside out. Like if you have kids, you're already, he's already signed up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every single day, right? Like every day you are already making these things. And if just made these with real whole food, ideally that they're seasonal, like that's next level, digestible first and foremost, that is required. But it just requires a few different cooking techniques and pair them appropriately so that it is digestible so that you don't have competing digestive enzymes in there at the same time and nothing is left in the stomach to ferment and then encourage that systemic inflammation that's already going on.

I love that. So a lot of the guidance you're giving to your clients is around how to just take foods, how do be strategic about things, give people even like down to how the meal plan and prep and such in that context. Yeah. Do it all because it doesn't do any good if it's not sustainable and you can't it day in and day out. You feel My clients always report back to me. I just feel better as a parent. Like I feel like I'm really nourishing my kids, I've learned so much, and I can whip something up in 20 minutes that's actually good for their bodies.

There's just a solace that comes with that. When your head hits the pillow, And it doesn't mean you've overextended yourself. It's just like I really gave what I could to my family today, to make it today. And that makes you feel good. I love that. Number one, I always say for people is health, right? If you have that piece in, we can talk about all day long about parents investing the amount of money that they'll invest in sports and things like that for their kids. The kids love them and that's fantastic.

And if we can give them the gift of help and make an investment in them now, like that has a multiplying effect as they grow older. Wouldn't you agree? Oh, it really does. It really doesn't. And going this route is cheaper than testing, you know, especially if they're under 12 months old, testing isn't even an option. strongly, strongly encourage getting these things dialed in before we go testing because it's going to ultimately do good. If two months go by and you're still dealing with unfavorable symptoms, things will be better.

if it is not resolved or looking like it will resolve, then we know something unfavorable is living in there and we got to find out what it is and then target it. But the body isn't strong enough to withstand that kind of treatment initially, right? Because they're just reacting to everything. And if you take a test at that point, it's just going to be lit up like a Christmas tree and the results aren't that helpful at the point.

Skin Barrier Care and Symptom Relief 21:36

Yeah, I agree. A lot of attention gets put on What is it? And I think sometimes people get tripped up because they almost think that if they know what it is, like somehow it's going to magically, that's gonna be all they need to know, right? It feels like you're doing something. It's like, well, now we're just a couple hundred dollars poorer. Nothing is like we haven't done anything to help ourselves. And I get it. I mean, part of the reason that I do it this way is because I spent those thousands of dollars like, we did not have it, right?

Because your kids are in school, you have to fix it and it's just not, there's a time and a place but. It's not first thing. Yes, and when you're a clinician you are kind of, you end up becoming, because you were a trailblazer, right? Really ultimately we're clinicians because we had our own health journeys that we were on, that, we have our ups and downs and the reason that were in front of people today is because, We want to help inspire them, help them get some efficiencies, some easier wins, Some gains that took us a lot of trial and tribulation to get to.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So I know a lot of families come to you after trying different things like the conventional treatments like steroids, the elimination diets, we're talking about probiotics. People are always talking probiotic. We'd love to have your thoughts on that. I have some ideas of my own. And even biologics, and oftentimes they're having no success. These approaches have fallen short. What do you think is the biggest thing that's just missing from the You've mentioned a lot of detoxing and looking at the gut and such, but is there anything else that you think is important for parents to consider around that?

They're not getting at their root cause. We're suppressing. And it works for a time. For some, it doesn't work at all. And for some it, works a short bit of time and then it comes back with a vengeance, right? Because it's been suppressed. It's like the same thing. telling a kid or your partner just like on the corner, right? Like if you had to come back angrier, like it doesn't help. So it's that. It's just knowing that he's like, okay, we're not actually doing anything here. If any, if we are kicking the can down the road at best and we were making things 10 times harder for ourselves at worst, you know, a couple of months down road or years.

I have clients that have been on Star Wars for years, Yeah, absolutely. And so we talked about, you know, your approach is to take a viewpoint of it starts with the gut, starts at the toxicity, and fully on board with that. I'm also curious though, because it is showing up on the skin, what are some of the things that you suggest to parents when they are having those sleepless nights or the, the kids just need some relief? What do you think are the best things to put on Yeah, well, the symptom management piece is big, because we have to deal with the here and now, and they're not okay, right?

They're no people. You can't sit down your baby because they'll just scratch themselves to death. And they are wearing scratch sleeves. It's just heartbreaking. My baby, candidly, my third baby didn't learn to walk till 18 months. she her legs were just so torn up, you know, by then she was clear. But like, during those formidable months, like year, she didn't learn to use her likes appropriately, because I could never set her down. Like that's, it's so sad. So we have to we had to start with the skin barrier, not as robust as it needs to be to retain the moisture and keep what needs stay out, out and keeps what need to stay in, in.

That's a skin barrier's job. So we need start rebuilding it and I started with herbal oils and it's like genuinely taking supplements through the skin because the lipophilic properties of the oil, fat likes fat and so when you infuse these anti-inflammatory skin nourishing anti microbial herbs into of base oil, like jojoba. it can penetrate all the way into the tissues. Like it really, really helps with that cellular regeneration. I love working with kids because they just, their cellular turnover is so quick, right?

So you can see the work that you're doing in pretty short order, but using those first, that's a really big deal. And then Epsom salt baths are huge, they're just... It's real therapy. You're remineralizing, you're detoxifying. You can add in some baking soda for pH. That's a real big part of it. It helps so, so much.

Consistency, Healing Timeline, and Mindset 26:36

And then after that, we put stuff on for itch to just give the body a way to have some relief. You can't repair if it's constantly being scratched. So we use some Chinese herbs that address the staff, but then also just cool on contact and help with the ith. And then we just follow that up with most nutritive bioavailable cream that you can possibly use. It's a tallow-based cream and it's, again, taking supplements through the skin. Its high in vitamins A, D, E, and K. These skin nourishing essential oils, there's castor oil in there.

Just so it is so thick because these people need moisture the most desperate way. So I created these products because that's what needed to happen. And everything that you put on your skin needs to be edible. Not in that, you could eat it and it would taste good, but in you that could you eat and not be poisoned. Because when you're putting things on you skin, it's the same as putting thing in your mouth. You're detoxifying from it, and you are circulating it just the That is what led to created a skin line.

It's called the skin comfort trio is those steps, the herbal oil and the comfort spray and soothing skin cream and using those in those sequence helps a lot, a Right, and you mentioned a tallow base. Can you explain to the audience what tallows is and why you choose that as the base? And I appreciate the fact that you're mentioning it's a whole food essentially. Yeah. And that's what I think I've seen clinically and where our process is really focused on getting the body back to where it'll accept whole-food because a lot of bodies are so toxic these days they won't even accept that type of a modality.

However, it is our fuel. It's what our body recognizes as the thing it needs to heal. Yeah, yeah, so tallow is, you know, beef fat, cow fat essentially, and so the body recognize it as it's a lot like sebum. So they can, just it recognizes it. And jojoba oil is a Castor oil is accepted by the body. I mean, just all the ingredients are like, okay. The body knows that this is nutrients. It's not something that it needs to fight. And yeah, like there's some people that have an IgE to beef. So no, it's going to work for you.

There's someone that has alpha-gal, no it won't work. Of course, everything, as with everything is a case-by-case basis, but in general it really does help when you're trying to rebuild the skin barrier. So, if parents and families, you know, have helped a lot of people reverse eczema fully, what patterns do you see in kids who heal the fastest, though? What would you say are the themes that you've seen that make them heal fastest typically? Well, consistency is number one. Number two is pharmaceutical history.

And there's nothing you can do about that. But if there is a pretty robust pharmaceutical history via antibiotics, you know, because they're really sick early on for a bunch of different reasons, ear infections or, whatever it is, or a long-term steroid use or biologics or all of the above, then your timeline is going to be extended out a little bit. Like it just is because now we have to first get over the dependency from those things, rebuild the microbiome from the antibiotic assaults, and then, deeper work.

And so that, I think, is like the biggest determining factor. Then consistency, yeah. If you're not consistent, then you are not going to be able to turn it around. Because right when you eat a food that you aren't sensitive to, and IGG Half Life is about like 21 days, you know, there are some things, we don't recommend a strict elimination diet, but we are strict about no processed junk and no gluten. And so those things, they need to be omitted for a little while, for few months. Got it, got it.

And parents that are dealing with these kinds of things are oftentimes feeling pretty flustered, pretty overwhelmed. What would you say or what would offer them on their mindset and their perspective about this whole situation? The best you can do is the best can you do. Like I mentioned earlier, like the thing that saved my mental sanity was just knowing that there was nothing more that I could do for my kids,

A Reframing Question for Parents 31:36

you know, in a given day. I was doing every single thing that could possibly do and way more than I needed to, so that. Because there's no time for extensive morning routines and meditation and you're not sleeping. So no, things are not well right now. just knowing like I am doing everything that I possibly can to get ourselves out of this hole as soon as humanly possible. That I think just reassuring yourself that and paired with knowing that this is reversible, that healing is 100% possible and I mean those two reminders.

I just remember like when I was changing my baby's diaper and it was this 20 minute process, right? So you had to completely re-moisturize her every time and I put on the oil and cream and all the things. But every-time I would just tell her, we're going to figure this out. I promise we will heal. And it still makes me tear up because it's like, oh my gosh, it was so hard. Nothing's going take away the hard, but just know it is not forever. Love that, love that. So on this podcast, we're big about critical thinking.

I'd like to ask you, put you on the spot for a particular question. Okay. He's talking about what's a better question someone could ask that would might get a parent to kind of think about this situation in a little different light. What would be that piece of advice you would say a question they could asked themselves that might them kind have shifted from being overwhelmed and stuck to being able to be empowered and in action around the situation. If this situation was trying to teach me something, and I believe asking yourself this for every hard thing to do when you're in the hard things, but if this was a lesson, why do you think What am I supposed to learn?

Not why is this happening to me? But if this is a lesson, what am i supposed learn from this? I love that. That's great. Great advice. Awesome. Well, great, Andrea. Is there anything else that you can think of that's important for us to communicate to our audience today before we wrap up?

Closing Hope and Next Steps 33:54

think so, just know that there's 100% hope that you really can reverse this from home, that, you can dial in the diet and get your symptom management under control and, get the environment stuff under, control, and layer in some supplements. And you, can really, really do this. It sounds like a lot, but you just one small step at a time. Love it. And in the show notes, we'll have a link to where they can get that three-step protocol that you were talking about referencing earlier. Sound good? Yep.

Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us today, Andrea. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. Are you ready to go deeper? Book your discovery call now at drericaonline.com forward slash discovery and take your first step today.