You Are What You Digest: The Secret to Healing Eczema

Introduction: Digestion, Eczema, and the Episode Theme 0:00

If healthy food isn't fixing the flares, then you, my friend, have a digestion problem, not a discipline problem. You're doing all the work. I know you're already buying the organic groceries and you're cooking the meals and you're reading the labels, and still your child's skin is red and itchy and uncomfortable. And it's not because you're missing some secret superfood. It's because their body might not be digesting and absorbing what they're giving them. And that's why I'm excited about today's episode.

I'm joined by Sylvia and James Boblack. They're from A Teaspoon of Wisdom, and together we're diving into how warm, simple, unprocessed foods can calm fiery skin fast, and why less packaging means more healing, and how to make meals work with your child's body, not against it. If you are ready to go deeper, to get the exact framework I use with families to restore gut balance and reverse eczema from the inside out, join the eczema elimination friends. It's at eczemakids.com. It's your step-by-step plan to finally see clear lasting results.

You get one-on-one support the whole way through. I can't wait to see you in there. 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 child's eczema without steroids, without the overwhelm, and finally see calm, healthy skin again. Let's get into it. I am so excited to welcome Sylvia and James Boblack from A Teaspoon of Wisdom. They help parents uncover the real foundations of health from digestion to nutrient absorption and how that connects to everything from pregnancy to childhood wellness.

So if you've ever felt frustrated by conflicting advice about your child's eczema, this conversation is gonna be full of clarity and actionable insights. So Sylvia and James, thanks so much for being here. Thank you. So one idea that you talk about a lot is you're not what you eat, you are what you digest. And that's really at the heart of what we talk about here on this podcast, because you could be eating the healthiest diet in the world. And a lot of the people that are listening are feeding their child the healthiest diet in the world.

And their bodies, their child's bodies aren't properly digesting and absorbing those nutrients. And so it's not doing its job. And for parents that are unaware of the role that digestion has in their eczema issue, this is so huge because it's not about just giving your kids healthy food.

Why Digestion Matters More Than Healthy Labels 2:30

It's about making sure their bodies can actually use it. Can you go into why digestion is so central and what parents can do to help support it for their children? Yeah, we don't talk about this enough in Western healthcare for sure. I like to always compare it to like, this might sound silly, but like a cow. You wouldn't give a cow like a nice, delicious, like chicken breast, right? Like a pasture raised chicken breast, even though you're like, oh, well, this is really healthy. This is like a really high quality chicken breast.

You wouldn't do that because we know just from when we're kids, like cows wouldn't digest that. They, right, even though it's like a really healthy food, they would only be able to digest plant matter because that's what works, right? That's their main kind of fuel that their body recognizes and digests. So it's really kind of the same thing for us, right? We have to kind of take a step back and be like, well, who are we as human beings? What is ideal for us to be able to digest and extract the nutrients out of?

And then there's the fact that our bodies, well, I guess to comment on that, of course, the answer to that is whole foods, right? Whole foods that come from plants, animals, things that were once living, fresh foods, not packaged, not processed foods, not filled with extra ingredients that our body literally does not recognize, right? So that's kind of where we're at with like what is ideal for our bodies, basically organic matter. And then there's the part of like, well, our digestions can kind of go south, you know, through bad practices, stress, right, different medications that are given.

Of course, eating the processed foods that have become so huge in our culture since basically like what, like the 50s at this point, they kind of were on the rise. There's so much you can do, right? So I know you said you have an Ayurvedic lean as well, right? So a lot of, yeah, a lot of what my philosophy is is really coming from the Eastern philosophies that are very much associated with like Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, ancient Indian medicine, and that is that you basically have to nourish your digestion.

Every choice that you make to eat has to be something that's conducive to your digestion because if your body literally cannot, like you could be eating broccoli, but if that's not what works for your digestion, I guess going off the broccoli, we know that that's like a food that causes a lot of flatulence to some people, right? We know it's a cruciferous vegetable associated with gas, right? But why is that the case, right? It's because it has a lot of that airy property in it, right? The astringent taste of green vegetables.

And so for somebody that doesn't have a strong digestion, that will not be digested very well by their butt. Going to be able to extract those nutrients from that broccoli and it's going to be causing more of an imbalance and hurting their gut, right? Did I answer that question kind of there? Put a hat on top of it. I know like probably like 50, 60 years ago, that's when packaged and processed foods actually surpassed people eating fresh food. So that's kind of where things started tilting the other way where people were having much more digestive problems because the majority of our food started coming from packaged and processed foods.

Yeah, I agree. I think ultimately why the rates of eczema and autoimmune conditions are just skyrocketing in that pediatric population and it's so sad. I mean, I'm an 80s child and I ate a diet exclusively of like Kraft macaroni and cheese with the powdered cheese. get milk on a plastic plate and like you know a serving of antibiotics like on the regular you know just because of the sickness and things like that and of course like my parents I love my parents and they did the very best that they could do but you know like there just wasn't a lot of nutrients coming in and Since I've become an adult, we focused on really healthy foods, because otherwise I just don't feel very well.

My digestion is not that strong. Versus my husband, he growing up, he ate real food the whole time. They didn't have a lot of money. They just ate real whole food, like meat and corn and butter and so on. Yeah. Andrew, can I say, I love that you actually just mentioned they didn't have a lot of money because a lot of people say it's too expensive to eat healthy.

Warm, Moist Foods That Support Healing 7:00

And like I have always said, no, no, it's not about the money. It may be a little bit about the time because you will have to take some time to restructure your mindset and to take the time to read all the labels at the grocery store, ultimately to realize that maybe anything with a label shouldn't be the answer. No, really, somewhere down the line. But it's not about the money, because it's almost like the less money you have and the more limited you are to those kind of basic ingredients, the better off your gut is, right?

Oh, 100%. The convenience foods are more expensive. Exactly. And that's a selling point. ounce by ounce and yes like you said it's just it's a time commitment and that's ultimately like what every decision comes down to right it's like money or time but in this case priority is both like i feel like oh my goodness i would rather spend 20 minutes like making a meal versus 20 minutes per diaper change because I have to lotion my child all the time and you know like half an hour each time I have to go into my child's room overnight or you know like the bath time sequence and all that is just like extended out.

We talk about that a lot too. It's like where do you ultimately want to spend your time? And I also, since you do have that Ayurvedic background, I try and frame it to parents as like, eczema specifically is what really, really helped me get a grasp on it as a parent and what steer my kids towards what foods would help them get over this specific problem. Eczema is such a hot, fiery, mobile type I love hearing somebody talk this way. There are very few people in my life right now that get that. I love it.

This is great. I know. I'm so excited. But if you can understand it in that way, that makes a lot of sense. Can you speak to a little bit the foods that would then balance? It's essentially like increases like and then opposites balance. And can you speak to specific foods that people with this condition can lean into? Yeah, so I'm gonna just always start off with minimal processed foods, right? Those are hot in nature. The more you process something, the more heat it has, the more inflammation it causes, the more eczema can result from it, plus a ton of other things, of course.

But if we're doing it from scratch, of course you wanna have moist foods. That's a really beautiful thing to always incorporate, not only for the actual eczema condition, but for nourishing your gut and sustaining that health and rebalancing it. So that goes anything from your water, for the water to be warm, for there to be a lot of teas. By the way, we were looking at your website a little bit before this and love your products. I want to talk to you more about that, like how amazing and how rare to find something that's so clean, but your tea, your tea is really awesome too.

So yeah, like just lots of teas, warm, not drying things, right? So you want kind of sweet herbs, like you wouldn't want a stringent, right? Or any kind of like, you wouldn't be putting like a lot of like spicy, or bitter herbs, you'd be putting more like sweet, fennel, marshmallow roux, licorice, like those kinds of things in there. So lots of soups, kind of focusing on just those warm things, warm stews, those are always so beneficial and that's for children and adults, like we could all use way more stews in our life.

And then of course like when the seasons change, we change with the seasons as well, right? So when there's a hot season, we're more prone to states of heat, right? Because heat is surrounding us, so doing more cooling things. You can still have like room temperature water so that it's not ice cold and shacking to your gut. But yeah, implementing some cooling herbs like some mint. For example, some mint water, some mint teas, and focusing kind of on cooler vegetables like cucumbers and greens, but cooked greens so that they're easy to digest, right?

So if you're doing spinach, not like a cold spinach salad, but like some nice lubed up with good oils, good fats like ghee, right, or butter, tallow with your spinach, cooking that and having that as like a nice side. and then it right in your body processes it completely different once you do that you mean like the oxalates all the things it's just i'm like just smiling because this is what i talk about all day long because it's really fun to speak to like my individual and it's new for me so like i'm really excited to head for Well, it's so important.

It's like you said, just like spinach, right? That's a healthy food. But if you eat just raw spinach or, you know, just raw kale with the with the rib inside, that's going to cause further problems rather than help you with the situation. And it's like ghee is, that's a staple here, you know, because, right, it helps to deteriorate. a short chain fatty acid, it's like 100% required as for good gut health. And there's just so many things you can do, but like to start there, like what you said, was moist, warm foods that is so nourishing to your child's digestion

Pregnancy, Preconception, and Building a Healthy Microbiome 12:00

and to their gut. And it will go a long way in helping them move past this condition. That unprocessed factor I think is just so important because I think it's still really difficult. And I understand because we've been so bombarded with processed foods that sometimes we think that what's healthy, it's still a processed food. You know, like when people have gone like gluten-free, but then they just started eating gluten-free packaged products. And it's kind of like, I appreciate the effort, but that's not quite still it because your gut is still suffering, right?

So it's It's a really difficult thing for people to actually understand what is processed. And I think that for the individuals that can actually at least, without even getting into all the different properties, right, that we're talking about and all that, if they could just remove anything that is pre-made, if they could just try to do it from scratch the most, I mean, like, that just speaks volumes, I think, and it would just completely revolutionize our children's health. Yeah, it really would because right the goldfish crackers, but even just like the avocado oil, you know Sweet potato chips, right?

They're still drying right like if you can just like look at it in that way Like I don't know really like looking at those properties helped me as a mom was just like, okay How would this like either benefit? You know my child in like balancing these symptoms these dry Itchy symptoms or with this exacerbate those symptoms and that helped me understand because right like those labels Can be so misleading and they think oh my goodness. I'm really doing myself a service by eating this and The exact opposite you're just eating more expensive disguised junk that's adding no nutritional value and So your guys' primary focus are pregnant women.

Because you've mentioned, you know, when we briefly spoke before we started, it's like that is when people are most motivated to change. And I love that it's such a good idea. And right, we talked about like how parents would literally turn themselves inside out, you know, if they thought it would benefit. their babies, and thankfully that's not even required. But a lot of the people I speak to, right, they're contending with eczema in their oldest child, and they're maybe pregnant right now, or they're planning future pregnancies, but they're afraid, you know, they're afraid that this condition might plague their second or third child, and they've already been put through the wringer.

so hard. What are some things that you could do to prepare your body for a healthy baby? And what are some things that you could do while you're pregnant to just give you the best chance of birthing a happy, healthy baby? And so I guess let's start at conception or preconception. That doesn't talk about much. We do have, we're really struggling with fertility issues in our country right now. And we always say the best way to get pregnant is to live like you already are. Because all that cleanliness that you imagine would be supportive for growing a healthy baby, you should definitely consider implementing prior to having a baby.

And I'm not saying we don't want to stress and be like, must have a baby now. That doesn't help either. But when you're thinking about wanting another baby or having your first baby, having a conversation with your partner, because that's another thing to mention. Fertility is not just a woman's issue. It is the man and the woman. You guys join forces to create this baby. And so both of your healths does partake in the fertility process and the conception process. really having some conversations around like, okay, how can we clean up our diets to really have this like, you know, pure kind of nourishing health go into our baby?

So I would say kind of ditching alcohol around that time. Alcohol is big in our culture right now. I feel like after COVID hit, everyone's just like drinking a bottle a day. So maybe kind of taking ease with the alcohol, maybe trying to ditch it for, you know, a couple of months, whatever you feel capable of doing. Coffee, coffee, many people's vice. I did say previously, I get it. Coffee is so amazing. It's something that I love as well, but trying to kind of take it back a little bit with the caffeine.

Caffeine is definitely a very, right, like mobile, has very mobile properties that really can instill a lot of anxiety in us. Stress, we know, is not conducive to anything healthy, let alone trying to conceive a baby. It's also really drying and really you're trying to be all lubed up and, you know, like just, just very kind of like nourished, right, to create this new life. So she tried to like get away from that and then just kind of start ditching those processed foods as early as you can do it.

It's going to benefit your gut microbiome, which means that it's going to be setting the baby up with a healthy microbiome. And that means that we're going to be helping avoid eczema and then the slew of all the other conditions, right, that start with an imbalanced gut. So kind of ditching the process, prepackaged foods, incorporating more of those nourishing warm foods. Those are very supportive of conceiving a baby. Healthy fats. I can't emphasize enough how much we should do pasture raised. dairy, healthy, healthy fats.

We are big proponents of unpasteurized goods. Everything in every state is different in terms of the laws and legalities, unfortunately, but we are really, really big on unpasteurized and getting all of the real nutrients that are present in that. amazing, amazing milk that we get from cows. So, incorporating healthy fats. Low-fat diets are very bad for us. We want good cholesterol. We want good, good levels of healthy fats. Ghee, butters, you know, eat your animal fats. Coconut oil is wonderful as well.

So, those are kind of things we've yet to start with. And, like, during pregnancy, you will have different cravings and things like that that will also help lead you to what your body needs. So, Yeah, you know what? And that's another thing. If you can get your health to a place where you're balanced and you're not having these wild cravings, you're going to notice that when you go into pregnancy, yeah, your cravings won't be the wild ones where it's like, must have McDonald's now. They're going to be more like, I want meat right now.

Oh, that means that I need to go make a steak or chicken or fish or whatever it is that you're craving, right? They're going to be healthier cravings that are directing you rather than dominating your mind and making you go get Dairy Queen or McDonald's. 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 eXima Kids wherever you get your podcasts and head to eXimaKids.com for free recipes and resources to start your child's healing journey today. So what if you're pregnant now and your older child is experiencing eXima and now you're having the crazy cravings like, oh my goodness, like if I don't eat a whole pound of chocolate, I will like strangle my husband.

What should you do then? Well, there is ways of kind of slowly backing down on that, right? You should definitely indulge in what makes you feel good. So if you need a whole bar of chocolate, I would just kind of evaluate the source of where you're getting it from, right? You can make positive choices in that realm. You can do negative. You can go and get a Snickers bar or an actual Hershey's bar. Or you can actually just go eat some like dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is delicious and very healthy in small quantities, right?

You can also try to see, okay, well, I'm having a sweet craving. This would probably be the preferred version of this. I'm identifying this as a sweet craving because I want chocolate, right? So what can I eat instead? Maybe like a banana or maybe, you know, some kind of fruit that can satisfy that for me. So there are natural versions of sweet, salty, right? All those things. It's just that it takes a little bit of time to switch over and grace is really needed because if your taste buds are used to that, it's gonna take you some time to be satisfied by these choices, right?

But eventually that's what your body's gonna get used to and love it. That's really good advice. It's just if you can find the source, like sweet, salty, just do it in a broad category. And if you can take that extra 30 seconds to think, okay, if I want chips, what could be a salty equivalent that would help my growing baby's microbiome? Well, and then speaking about the microbiome, the medications that people take during pregnancy have a huge impact on the child as well. So it is something like 70% of pregnant women will take one prescription, 50% will take four or more.

Advocating During Pregnancy and Rebuilding After Antibiotics 21:00

So it's pretty significant. And one common one, not counting the maintenance medications, but like a common one somebody would take would be an antibiotic. And that antibiotic, I'm not sure if they always tell you the other side of taking an antibiotic and especially the later you take it in pregnancy this will also very very negatively impact the baby's microbiome as well and that could last potentially a year or longer and we all know that if your microbiome is is messed up or in balance you know that child is going to struggle with their immune system as well and will lead to more eczema so and so it is very important to not just take an antibiotic just willy-nilly you know whenever you have a cold or something like that like it has to be in a very much of a need at that point so I think we over prescribe antibiotics like crazy at this point.

Do you mind if I just add also because like a lot of people think antibiotics when they think of colds and kind of those kinds of infections but there's a lot of things in pregnancy now where women are being scared into thinking if I don't take an antibiotic me and my baby are going to be in danger. from different tests for example like the group B strep test that's done later on in the pregnancy right that ultimately a lot of women will test positive for and it's not an issue but they will be put on IV medication during labor.

Huge hit to the microbiome right for baby and mother and so there's a lot of that's something that we also wanted to address in our course because like there's just so many What do you call them? You call them mines? Oh, landmines. Boy, there's a lot of landmines to avoid through pregnancy that so many interventions that have been put into place over the last few decades that really caused so much damage. I wouldn't have taken this for a cold, but my doctor said I needed this because this would put my baby in danger.

It's like, hold on, take a step back. Is your baby actually going to be in danger or are these policies that are in place that actually make no sense whatsoever and you and your baby are safer not taking the antibiotic? So yeah, these are all things that need to be packed too with that. Yeah. It's really hard. I mean, as, you know, a mother to four, right, I got stronger with each subsequent pregnancy as far as my interactions with the doctors. But when you're sitting there, right, exposed and a white coat is saying, hey, you have strep B, you have to do this.

Hey, you need to have a cesarean, you have to do this. Like, when you do, when you say, like, okay, oh, strep B came positive, And dang it, then I took the antibiotics because I said, like, your baby will be in grave danger. Like, you have to do this. And then you went ahead and did this. What could you do? Well, you know, part of our education is to actually give a lot more transparency to this whole thing because it's not very transparent. That group B strep is naturally found in 25% of women, but in their colon, it doesn't live in the uterus because the pH is different.

So if you are healthy and fine, it actually won't be able to survive there and spread there. So for most people, they're going to be fine. Did I hear you just say that you said, what would you do if you had already taken the antibiotics? Do you do the antibiotics? Yeah, sorry. I'm going before that. Also, Hill Paul. Yeah, you know what? Because we would prefer people to not take it. But yes, OK. In both cases, like one, yeah, how do you advocate for yourself? Like how do you take a beat and maybe not directly challenge disrespectfully, but like what do you recommend in those types of situations?

And then two, if you've then now followed this advice, what can you do for a best outcome for yourself and your baby? Yeah. Okay. Well, I guess the thing is like, well, we had our child, we had a doula and I thought it was really great to have a doula because they will make sure all your wishes that you want along your journey will be followed. And so they're a good advocate for you, especially like when you're getting pressured in a situation like this or just having a partner like it. It may be Sylvia is like feeling overwhelmed by some doctor telling her that oh you need to do this and she's getting nervous and might want to do it and then your partner or husband or whatever may have to come in and be like hey we talked about this like we know we don't want to do this you know.

We want to talk about it before we make any decisions right or whatever it might be just really getting kind of. It's a board system I think. good team kind of play with you and your partner is really important. Men aren't there just to stand there and get sick at the grossness of labor. You know what I mean? Like how people used to always talk about it. There are such a big part of the pregnancy and the labor process. I shouldn't call it labor. It's the birthing process. But if a woman has already decided to go along with this advice, it is not the end of the world.

Everything is going to be great. You can rebuild your microbiome. You can rebuild your baby's microbiome. The biggest thing I would say just right there and then when the baby is born do skin-to-skin contact. That is so huge for like a thousand different reasons but it is going to help transfer the different microbes that we want to transfer over to the baby and they're kind of our priority in that moment because they're freshly born, right? And then initially breastfeeding. So the milk does get slightly altered, right?

With antibiotics, the microbiome does get altered in the breast milk as well, but you can rebuild that throughout the days and weeks and months following up by taking a probiotic, by just having a really delicious, wonderful, fresh food diet, right? Where there's plenty of prebiotics in there, lots of fiber, all that good stuff, that good bacteria thrive off of. And then just remaining kind of skin to skin with your baby. The baby can also take probiotics as well, right? So getting a good probiotic for the baby and just keeping that breastfeeding going and keeping a peaceful, happy state.

There's not enough you can say about peace, bringing in a healthy microbiome as well, right? Peace of mind. So just kind of doing everything you can to just find that peace and having a great time with your new family. And all of that will rebuild your microbiome. Yeah. Do you have a baby appropriate probiotic that you recommend? So we actually have our own probiotic. Before we started our education, what we focused on for several years was a probiotic. And that one is actually, it's good for adults, it's good for babies.

It comes with 25 billion bacteria in there. And so by no means is that necessary for the baby. I think maybe it's just easy that you can take that and the baby can take the same one so you don't have multiple products. Our parent company is called Health Made in America. And you can get the probiotic on our website, healthmadeinamerica.com. But what you can always do is you can open up the capsule. The one thing is that if you're somebody that, you know, you don't want to mess with capsules, that's understandable.

But with ours, you can open up the capsule and you can put some a little bit on your breast. If you're breastfeeding, you can put into the bottle if you're doing bottle feeding.

Stress, Generational Health, and Reversing Imbalances 28:00

So just a little sprinkle would be good, you know, for the baby there. And yeah, that'd be great. Yeah. There's half of the people listening had an unmedicated birth at home and they even live like on an organic farm. And they're still listening because their child is experiencing eczema. What is happening in those cases? Oh my goodness. There's so many factors. Like we briefly mentioned, stress. I think that's one thing we can evaluate. We all have it. You know, if there is stress in your family, some stress and good, but we live in a really fast paced world where sometimes we need to take a step back and kind of relax our minds, relax our bodies.

When we have stress, mentally, our bodies are stressed, right? So our gut cannot function properly, cannot be there to protect us and to really boost our microbiome and our immune system as much as it can. So I would say I think it's so important for everybody, especially people with children, to kind of take a step back and slow down in life. Just find little sources of peace, whatever that is that it means to you, you know? Unfortunately, factors that are really difficult to control, kind of like what's in our air, what's in our water, you know, all those kind of factors.

And we can get filters for our water, of course, and try our best with that. But there's also going to be that. You know, I do also want to say that the state of your microbiome goes back a few generations. You can do so much to fix it, but there's some leftover that can be happening from previous generations. And so I guess what I would also want to say to mothers is to not beat yourself up because you are trying. You're trying to do everything you can. And sometimes there is residual imbalances from when you were a little girl or from your mother and what she passed on to you and so on and so forth, you know, or your father when he passed on to you.

So that's another thing to keep in mind. Yeah. Yeah, like we talked. I mean, like we spoke to earlier, you know, it's like, even though I was eating really healthy when I was pregnant and, you know, I was giving my babies healthy food, but like, yeah, growing up, you know, it wasn't that way. And when you make a copy of a copy, right? Like you're doing the best that you can do and absolutely. And I'm thankful that you mentioned that it's reversible, right? That you can rebuild. And that's what we're here to do.

Cause everyone here that's listening is like, well, now we're in the problem. And we have to do something about it. So it's a good reminder and yeah, we have the tools to do it. Yeah, you can always go forward, you can always rebuild. Are you familiar with epigenetics? Yeah, it's such a strong, powerful ability for us to not be held back by the bad genes that we think have been passed on from previous generations, right? Like we have the power and it's never too late. I don't care how old you are, it is never too late to make positive choices and you will see those results no matter what.

Yeah, yeah, agreed. So if parents walked away from this conversation with just three things that they could do tomorrow to help support their children, digestion and nutrient absorption, what would they be? Well, I guess I'll start off with one. I think always the best thing you can do if you're not sure what to do is to follow nature in some fashion because if you're not sure if you should take a medicine or even the type of food you're getting, the closer you follow to nature, your body will agree with that much more than anything else.

So if you're not sure what to do, just think of what would happen in nature and follow that sort of way of thinking and you're likely to follow a good path. I like that, yeah. If you're not somebody that likes to cook your meals, just dabble with it. Start dabbling slowly with it. There's such a beauty on the other end of cooking your meals. It is time consuming. Let's just get that out there. It is a time consuming endeavor. I know that that's been the allure, of course, of prepackaged fast foods, but it's a very rewarding one.

It's one where you will be giving the ultimate nourishment to your family. The love that gets poured into the food that you make Not to mention, it feels good. It feels good to make your own meals. I mean, it's a very rewarding process just in that sense where you're like, oh, wow, I made this and it was delicious and it was nourishing, you know? So eventually it'll be something that you kind of just push yourself more and more and more into. It's not something that just happens overnight. So if you're somebody that kind of stays away from cooking, I would say just try start dabbling into making food from scratch.

And it can be such simple little things, but cooking your food. And with cooking your food, to not be really eating a lot of raw vegetables and raw foods, you want to cook them a little bit to lighten up that load on your digestion so that you can help it work better, help it work more efficiently, and ease up that load so that it can start fueling your body and your insides, your outsides, everything as best as it can, and life is easy for it. 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. What's in your practice?

What's the most encouraging thing that you've seen happen when parents start to focus on those principles that you just mentioned? I'm like trying to think of different changes, but I'm thinking more of like my pharmacy experience because, you know, I don't know if we mentioned,

Practical Steps: Cooking More, Eating Less Processed Food 34:00

we're both pharmacists. So from there, I've had so many people that basically the less they did interventions, the better they ended up being. medications or certain processed foods. Basically, once people started taking things away like that, they always started healing. And that was always the key. Less often is more. So anything you could think of that's some sort of unnatural intervention that we put in, and maybe in the short term people felt something good from it and so they thought it was it was helping them but always in the long term it ends up causing more damage and just it always seems that taking away those things always ended up healing way more people that way.

You know, yeah, thank you for mentioning that because I know you speak about topical medications and topical kind of solutions that are often given in modern day world. And so, yeah, the countless times actually in the pharmacy where moms would bring in their little babies and they would have eczema and it was just instant steroids that are being prescribed, instant steroids. And people really believed that that was the answer, you know, so it was kind of a tough sell to have, you know, give them this list of things they could try on the other end.

And there were so many times where, you know, we would implement the probiotic and then we would kind of stick with the steroids, you know, we can do oatmeal baths and then we kind of instilled some good practices at home. And I had so many moms coming back just saying, you know, thank you, and that they did not need the steroids. Sometimes I just I want to say it's okay to not throw the kitchen sink at it and to take a few steps back and think about what can I do in our everyday life first and then maybe you'll consider other factors later.

That's a great mindset shift. It's like, less is more, right? And it feels overwhelming in the moment. It's like, oh my goodness, my child is dealing with this issue. I guess, would there be another mindset shift that could help the parents that are listening today? And they're in the thick of it, and they're not sleeping. And their child is miserable. What would be one more mindset shift? Because you talk a lot about how you can, in decreasing your stress, how much that helps your microbiome and your baby's microbiome and all the things with something else that they could do to just help their thoughts be a little bit more positive.

Well, one thing I could think of is that, and they just have to get comfortable with the fact that it will take time. It's not going to be like, I know she mentioned like taking steroids. I mean, that's that is putting like a quick bandaid on something. And maybe that may ease the mind of a parent momentarily. But they're as they see that things getting worse down the line, they're like, oh, crap, this is not the right idea. But like, you just have to be a little bit patient because it is going to take some time if you're rebuilding your microbiome.

you know, strengthening your immune system. Those things do take some time. It's not going to happen just overnight. So you just have to have some patience and just trust in the process of healing. I always say that even during pregnancy is a great time to start practicing this. And if you haven't done that then, it's always now. Like if that's no problem, you can always start now. But implementing little family mindfulness kind of times or kind of peace times together, where you also as a family, and you just kind of find different ways, whether you do breathing techniques together, right?

Deep breathing, there's so many different practices that you can implement to kind of Actually, deep breathing is probably my favorite. That's easy enough where it's like we can do this with the kids and the husband and the wife, we can all do it together. And I mean, deep breathing just, it changes things so much, right? It really does help oxygenate your brain, right? Your body, everything. And so you do function at a higher level and you do function at a more optimal, I would say positive level when you implement these kind of practices regularly.

Yeah, why don't I stick with that? Deep breathing.

Mindset Shifts, Patience, and Where to Find Their Work 38:00

Ultimately, it will help kind of shift your mindset because I get that it's so hard to do when you are stressed for your child. I relate. I'm a mom. And even though I know all these things, I would be lying if I said that I sometimes I'm like, Jim, I'm like losing it because I forget everything I know because my baby's hurting, right? So I get it. I come with compassion. Just with time, with practice, with deep breathing, we can kind of slowly shift our kind of mindsets in a more like, it's gonna be okay, things take time direction, but it will take time to get that mindset shift as well, right?

Thank you so much for your time today. This was so great, and I appreciate learning from the both of you. You guys have such multifaceted backgrounds, so thank you. I just appreciate you pouring in today for our listeners. Where can our listeners find you, find your work? So our website, like I said, I already mentioned the probiotic, but we're really focusing on our education right now through different courses that we offer. Ateaspoonofwisdom.com is the name of our educational sector. Ateaspoonofwisdom.com.

And there is a contact us section on there. If anybody wants to get in touch, has any questions, needs insight on anything, all of that goes directly to us. My email is also sylvia, s-y-l-v-i-a at a teaspoon of wisdom dot com. And I'm always excited and ready to to hear from anybody that has any questions or or needs anything from me. So I welcome everybody. Yeah. Yeah, and just specifically, we did start off with our course called Wholesome Pregnancy. So this would be for someone trying to conceive or somebody that is pregnant.

Basically, it goes through all the nourishment. It goes through every single intervention that you will be asked about during pregnancy if it's different testing, different supplements they want you to take, like the Strep Group B Strep that we mentioned earlier, like every possible intervention, all the transparency behind it I think most people don't know about. And that's what we started with. And then currently, I've been creating a course on iron because that has a huge impact as well, especially for pregnant women.

And I think that's completely misunderstood. And I have that course coming out in the next three to four weeks, probably. Yeah, perfect. We'll put all those links in the show notes. Thank you again. Thank you so much, Andra. Thank you very much. I love how Sylvia and James break it down. Healing isn't about doing more, it's about doing less, but better. And fewer packaged foods and more warm, simple meals, less panic and more patience. And just realizing your child's body isn't broken, it just needs a little help digesting what you're already giving it.

If this conversation gave you a spark of clarity or sense of calm, follow that. The truth is eczema reverses when you stop fighting symptoms and start supporting the whole system. And if you're ready for the full roadmap, the exact step-by-step plan to help rebuild the calm inflammation and heal your child's skin naturally, join the eczema elimination method at eczemakids.com. It's all waiting for you. We get a one-on-one call as soon as you jump on. It's 90 minutes that we go through everything that is going in and out of your child's body and environment and you get a plan as to how to optimize that immediately and you get support the whole way through until your child is running around in the grass eating tomatoes and nuts and chocolate.

So it's all waiting for you at ximekids.com. Take care friends. I will 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.