Why Eczema Keeps Stealing the Season

Opening Reflection on Eczema's Cost 0:00

Hey team, before we get into today's episode, I want to ask you something and I actually want you to sit with it for a second. How many summers have you lost to eczema? How may full days did you spend anxious instead of present? Damage control. How many times did you watch your child scratch through the night and think, what am I missing? What am i not doing right? And here's the harder question, friends. What is this costing you to stay in that place? Because eczema is not just about the sleepless nights, though those are real real and they make you feel like the best vacation that you could possibly have is you know, like the Drury Inn on the street by yourself, right?

If you could just have 48 hours to sleep, you can be okay and continue to function. And it's not about the money, it was spent on appointments and the supplements and all the things that didn't work. Although that's really real too, we spent so much money. So much before I figured it out. But I know eczema is costing you the version of motherhood that you're not getting to live. And it's costing you, your child not, getting, to just be a kid and carefree and comfortable in their own skin. It's you not being fully present because you are always managing and always bracing and waiting for the next flare or you just living in one full flare all the time and you can't even muster the energy to smile.

That is the real cost of not having not only the right information, but just what is actually going on with your child? Like, what IS it? What are the host of things? Because you know it's not just about one thing that is making your life so difficult. What does your children need? Why is this happening? I mean, all of this is just really top of mind for me tonight because I was at the pool with my kids today and They had Snack Shack. I mean, they asked every single day, not every day do I say yes?

I said yes today. And they had a chocolate thing that's not really chocolate, you know, with the nuts on the outside and the vanilla ice cream on inside. You know that is obviously not even vanilla.

Personal Story and Root-Cause Healing 2:25

Ice cream. Then I just let them. So I sat there in the sun and I watched them eat it and laugh with their friends. and i was talking to my friends and didn't feel anxious. And I didn't spend the rest of the afternoon bracing for a flare or throw up, because that's what healing actually looks like on the other side. It's not a perfect protocol forever. it's getting your child's body strong enough and resilient enough that life can just be. And that is what I want for your children this summer. Not perfection, freedom.

And that is what today's episode is about. If you're ready to stop surviving and start actually moving toward that, this episode it is for you. And if by the end you want to talk about what a real plan could look like for your child, specifically your children, your family, or your circumstance, the link to book a free call with me is in the show notes. Okay. Let's get into it. Is your child struggling with itchy nights and endless flare-ups? I'm Andra 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 eczemat without steroids, without the overwhelm, and finally see calm, healthy skin again. Let get in to it! I want to tell you something I wish someone had told me years ago when I was in the thick of it with two of my kids. Both of them had severe, severe eczema. I mean, like severe is not even the right word. They didn't have skin. And I wasn't someone who just threw up their hands. I had a dental background.

I understood the body. What shows up on the surface is connected to what's happening underneath. And I did everything. Everything, allopathic and natural. I even went to a hospital program. Everything that I could do, I tried every protocol, every cream, ever elimination diet that could possibly find. We spent so much, so, much guys. Did not sleep. For real, did not. And for a long time, nothing moved. Nobody told me it was that was treating the wrong thing. Chasing symptoms. when I really needed to be addressing the root cause.

And the route cause for both my kids was very, very different. But just like all of the kids that I see now, it certainly starts in the gut. Yeah, there's different stuff going on in there, but we have the tools to address it. Once I understood that, and once I started working in whole picture, the food, what was going for their skin, was coming into their environment, Everything directed to remedying this specific condition, this specifically imbalance, the specific dis-ease, things started to shift.

My kids healed in about six months. Six months! And I'll be honest with you, if I had known then what I know now, it would have been three. That's why I say within the eczema elimination method, we can reverse this in 90 days because kids can bounce back so quickly if you have the right inputs in place, but it's not just one or two or even three things, It's a whole array of things. But if, you know what those things are and you had those results and know exactly what to do all throughout the day, that is how quickly,

Why Summer Is the Best Time to Heal 5:47

everything can change. And I don't say that to make you feel behind. I say it because I want you to understand that there is a gap between where you are right now and where do you want to be and it's not as wide as it feels in this moment. It's just an information gap and a support gap. This information is not at the practitioners that you're visiting right I told you, I went everywhere. And it's not in AI and it is not on Google. You've done all those things. Like, of course you have. If you would cut off your right arm, if you thought that would help your child's skin and give them clear, calm skin, and let them smile and just be with their friends all day.

That's not it. You can restore your child's capacity and their resilience. It is within the realm of possibility. First and foremost, I just want you to know, that their bodies want to be well. They came here to live out their life and not to become an itchy, scratchy, bleeding mess. what these little souls are doing here. This is a fixable problem, okay? But what I want you to think about today is not just what's possible, but what it costs you not to move towards it. Every summer, every day, week, month, year that passes without a real plan is another summer your child spends uncomfortable and itchy and embarrassed and sitting out of things and Every year you spend trying things that you don't address the root cause is another year of money out the door with nothing to show for it.

And every season you white-knuckle through on your own is Another season that You don' get back. Every season is challenging for different reasons and every Season is a blessing for Different reasons, and you Don't really get to experience those blessings when you are shackled by eczema. I know that sounds hard. And I also know that you are listening to this podcast because there's some part of you that knows that there is more available than what you've found so far, and I want to honor that instinct because it is absolutely right.

And this summer can be different, not because I'm going to give you a magic protocol in a podcast episode, but because i want you to shift how you're seeing this whole thing. Because when the framework changes, everything else can change with it. And here's the first shift. Your child's eczema is not a skin problem. You know this. And I know you've heard versions of this, but I really want you to let it land. The skin is just the place where the internal dysfunction is showing up. Their body is using the skin as a detoxification.

organ. And the inflammation and the constant reactivity and way certain foods or environments seem to push your child over the edge, that is the gut talking. That's an immune system that's dysregulated from the inside out. When we stop trying to calm the skin and start asking what is driving this fire, the whole approach changes. Summer is actually one of the best times to lean into this because your rhythm slows down a little, Your kids are whole more and you have more control over what they eat and what goes on their bodies and, what comes into their environment.

And there's just more room to be intentional than there is during the school year. I mean, the day is actually longer, right? It's, just daylight. More hours of the day. You can just get more in. And the second shift is getting really serious about what's going on the skin. I mean everything. The sunscreen, the bug spray, pool rinse, after sun lotion in the summer. Your child's skin barrier is more compromised than ever, which means everything you put on it is getting absorbed more deeply. And most conventional summer products are loaded with ingredients that are quietly adding to the inflammatory burden that your child body's already struggling to manage.

Their liver is overbooked. It's overburdened, and this is one of the most overlooked pieces, And it's one the more accessible places to start making a real,

Four Shifts for Real Eczema Progress 10:10

real difference. If you want to see what real sincere clean products look like that are actually targeted toward eczema, toward compromised skin barriers, to actually rebuilding and supporting from a place that doesn't add any extra burden, there's no Oh, it's moisturizing, but these couple of ingredients are in a plastic bottle. None of that, right? Okay. If you want to look at what that looks like, go to eczemakids.com, look inside the eXma shop and those products are what is sincerely, sincerely clean products look like.

I could not find them when we were going through it and I was forced to make my own. The third shift that I want to talk about is food, because I wanna be really clear. This is not about panic elimination. That's what's stressing you out about summer. It's not taking away everything and leaving your kid with nothing at the summer barbecue. it's about adding in. Nourishing strategically. Pairing things properly. eating with the seasons. It's about simplifying the digestive assets and the detoxification assets of their body.

And summer is full of genuinely healing foods. I just talked about my top five favorites. two episodes ago. Go check that one out if you missed it. But it is just that the bounty is so great. That is when all the genuinely healing foods that you know and you're looking for, the things that support the gut landing and calm systemic inflammation and balanced blood sugar, all that real food that works with your child's body instead of against it, it's all available in this season. And the fourth shift is Just Deciding.

Just deciding that this summer is not going to be another summer that you white-knuckle your way through. That you're done managing and ready to understand. Because the parents that I see make the real progress are not the ones that have the most resources or the more time. They are the one that make a decision and then get the right support behind that decision. And this is what I know about you. You have already tried a lot. And you have already spent a lot of money that you probably didn't have.

And I know you've lost a LOT of sleep. You have done a lotta research at midnight when you should have been resting. and you pushed through seasons that were genuinely hard. So genuinely, hard that, you don't know if you're gonna be able to make it through another. you are still here, and still looking, still believing that there is an answer. and that is not somebody who is failing. That is a parent who loves their child more than they love being comfortable. And that exact energy pointed at the right information, at right support is what creates sincere healing.

I've seen it happen again and again, and I started doing this work because nobody gave me the full picture when my kids needed it the most, when I needed the it most and lost time because of that. I lost days worth of sleep so much. I'll never get that back. But that's okay, I've lost so many times. We increased my cortisol through the roof. There's things that I won't get back, but I got the outcome that my kids required to live a healthy, happy, pharmaceutical-free, food- free life. That's what I want for my kids and that's I what for your kids.

And I know exactly what it takes to get there. I walk families through it every single day.

Call to Action and Closing Encouragement 14:05

If something in this episode is stirring something I think I'm ready to actually do this differently. I want to invite you to book a free alignment call with me. It's a real conversation about where your child is, what you've already tried, and whether working together through the eczema elimination method actually makes sense for your family. If you, through this vehicle, can get the outcome that you are so desiring and so deserve. And that link is in the show notes or you can find it at eczemakids.com.

One more thing before I let you go, the summer is just starting. You have all of it ahead of you and the question isn't whether healing is possible for your child. It is. The question is whether this is the Summer that you actually go after it. Because what if it is? And what if you look back on this in September and thought that was when everything started to change. I think it can be. And I will see you next week, friends. Take care. 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.