You’re Not Doing It Wrong… But This Is Why You’re Still Stuck

Welcome and encouragement for overwhelmed parents 0:00

Hey friends, welcome back to the Excellent Kids podcast. If you feel like you've been doing everything that you're supposed to do, and you cleaned up everything you can think to clean up, you changed all the foods, trying different things every day, your child's skin is still flaring, still not sleeping at night, days are still unpredictable, not where you want to be. where you want your child's help to be, you're not where your family to. I want you to listen to this episode because this is the point where most families start to feel a little frustrated and honestly defeated.

You're putting in the effort and you care so deeply. Nobody could care more than you. already do and you're paying such close attention. You're writing down notes at the end of the day and it's still not working the way that you thought it would that, you hoped it, would and before we get into it I want to give you something that will actually help you start seeing a change in the right direction and that's the seven days to calm skin LAN. For seven, days I walk you through exactly what to focus on each day to call your child system and start stabilizing their skin.

And when you sign up, you get access to the Skin Comfort Trio at 20% off for a limited window. And that's what I used for my own kids, is what a lot of families use during this stabilization phase because it's organic, all ingredients are organic. They're all non-toxic. they all help with cellular turnover and every ingredient in all three formulas are there for very specific eczema healing reason. You can find that in the show notes or on the homepage at eximakids.com. Alright friends, let's talk about why things aren't working even though you're doing everything right.

Let's get into it. Is your child struggling with itchy nights and endless flare-ups? I'm Andrea McHugh, mom of four and host of Eczema Kids. Here, you'll find natural solutions that actually work so you can heal your children's eczemat without steroids, without the overwhelm, and finally see calm, healthy skin again. So at this point, you've probably heard it all, that you are doing everything right or there's just one piece that your missing that,

Why effort alone isn't fixing eczema 2:00

your not quite grasping and that's what your staying up all night researching and your still sitting there thinking, okay, what actually works cause I've literally tried it at all and I am gonna tell you, it's not another list and it not one more thing to try. but what actually moves us forward. And I know you're over there thinking just, okay, what, actually works then? Please tell us. No, it's not another thing to try, but here's what I see over and over again. It's families putting in so much effort.

This is what was living too. You could not put in more effort than I was already giving and the results didn't match the effort and I looking at friends, at the park and at The Pool and in everyday life and their kids can look great and they were sleeping at night and I was in a state of such exhaustion that it was literally painful and then I Was making everything from scratch and doing the very very best that I could And that gap, it clearly it's not a motivation problem. Nobody's here because they aren't motivated.

It's a structure problem, friends. And there was a moment where everything literally shifted for me. Because I was doing the same thing and I trying things and cleaning things up and looking for answers and constantly asking what should I try next. That's all I could think about was my kids get. and their misery, and what else could I possibly try? What could take out? what should I do? And that question keeps you stuck. Because the question that actually moves things forward is very different. The question you actually need to ask is, what will actually move the needle?

Because healing isn't about how many things can you try. It's about whether you're doing something that the body can actually respond to. That's actually bioavailable that their systems can recognize. And what actually works, it's not more effort. It's no more research. it is not a more restriction. Good news. Not adding five new things this week. Having these core pieces in place that actually work together consistently enough for your child's body to respond. This isn't a weekend thing. Because what's happening for a lot of families is you're doing some of the right things.

And you're working really hard, but not all of the right things. And then your child's body has to adapt to those few things that aren't conducive for eczema healing. In the things you are doing, the effort that you put in, it's just not put into a place where the body can actually respond. You're not doing it wrong. It's not structured in a way that your children's bodies can heal from it. So, I want to show you what actually works. Not steps or checklists, but the things that can actually help you move forward.

And first and foremost, you hear me say this, we start in the kitchen, and that's internal support that your child's body can use.

The three pillars: gut, skin, and environment 5:00

and what works is supporting the gut in a way that your child can actually digest and absorb the nutrients that are coming in. So we're not constantly removing foods, we are not jumping from one diet to another, and we aren't reacting every time there's a flare. What works are simple, digestible, ideally seasonal meals. Properly prepared foods. Consistency over time, first and foremost. Because we don't want to remove everything. We don' want meal time to be stressful. There's enough for us to stress about.

And our goal is to create an internal environment where the body can actually function again. So it's creating the right amount of stomach acid. The junctions in their intestinal lining are healed and sealed up. And what we see with eczema, what know to be true is that if digestion is weak and if the gut is inflamed and the body is overwhelmed and exima condition is showing you that all those variables are true, it doesn't matter how clean the food is. If the body can't use it, it doesn't help. And the second piece is this external skin support.

What works is supporting the skin every single day, not just when it's flaring. This is where a lot of people get stuck. They either go all in on internal healing and ignore the or they focus only on creams and ignore what's happening inside. And you got to put them both together, right? There's no silver bullet for eczema, unfortunately. The skin needs constant hydration when you're in the healing base. Constant hydration. It needs barrier support. ingredients that it can digest because your skin is an organ.

And everything that you put on it, you have to digest and you had to detoxify from it the same as you would anything that your put in your mouth. So it's important that we're doing these things that were supporting this organ every day, not just when things get bad every single day. Then when the skin through various herbs, and that creates stability. That's what the skin microbiome needs. And that stability and getting the nourishment that the scan actually needs, because if you're experiencing eczema, you undoubtedly have a dysbiosis on the skins.

The staph bacteria are winning the war. And it's not a hygiene thing, but we need to tip the scales in the other way so that a clear, calm skin barrier can be unveiled. And then the skin barrier can do its job. It can keep what needs to stay out out and what it needs stay in in. That's our skin barrier's job. And if you have eczema, then that layer is very thin, if they're at all. My kids, it wasn't even there. The skin barriers didn't exist. It was just a shiny, red, bleedy mess. Just so bad. I know so many of you are there right now.

So the third piece is environment. These are all equally important because what works is reducing the constant load on your child's body. We're just reducing continuous assaults going on for your child's immune system that can. And you'll never eliminate all of them, but you can sure eliminate a lot in your home because you're the CEO of your own. You are in charge. And there's a lot of hours, especially when you're including the sleeping hours. There's lot hours spent at home because every single day your child is interacting with the laundry and the water and air and products and services.

And if those things are constantly, constantly triggering the body, the the never gets a chance to recover. It never get to calm. And if you've been following me for a while, this is why I don't recommend testing right off the bat. It's because you have to give your child's body this time to calm down. Getting these pieces in place and then start to. Calm down the system so that you can extract real helpful data from testing if that's what's required. If your Child's Body doesn't respond significantly enough to the changes that.

You're already making because in a lot of cases they do friends, but in some they don' and that' fine. But if we're going to spend the money on testing, then we better make sure it's worth it, right? And so what is also true is you cannot out supplement a triggering environment. And this is another really big missing piece for families because there's so many supplements, there are so promises, so things out there. We need these things child sized or baby sized. It feels confusing and sometimes it feels unnecessary.

and it can also feel restrictive in a way. And when you're already putting in so much work internally, you need this extra bit, this layer to go from dis-ease this level of dis ease in the body back to health back, to vitality you'd need the supplements you have to have them in so that's what they do is they introduce this rhythm and predictability and What these bodies are calling for are vastly different. There is no one size fits all Unfortunately, there isn't but what does work across the board is consistency consistent meals consistent routines consistent support not constant change.

Not reacting every single day, not trying something new every day every week. The body heals in patterns. It's not linear and it's certainly not in chaos. And this is especially true for kids because they're 100% dependent on us, right?

Why structure and consistency matter 11:00

And they don't need perfection. They just need a rhythm, an identifiable, predictable rhythm. And I know you're thinking, I-I know. What is that rhythm? How can I do it? And that looks different. I have to say, it looks from family to family. It looks depending on the case. And what's that root cause going on with XML? What does your family look like? Those are the things that we go over. Those the day to day decisions that create routine stacks around that so you can start to offer that predictability and that rhythm and accelerate the healing.

And none of those things that we just went through come together on its own. All of them are very intentionally working together and they each require their own set a thought and intention. And this is why you can change the diet and still be stuck, or clean up the products and be still stuck. Or use great skin care and STILL be STUCK. Healing doesn't happen from one right thing. It happens when ALL of these things are finally working together and the systems within the body can start to communicate as they should.

So I know you've been trying and I've know been researching and you know, you have been making the changes and are not behind. Everything that you done is still for the betterment of your child. Like none of the things that have tried before are in vain. Even if it feels like it right now. And it's mainly because you're tired. I promise if you do get some sleep and even a nap is not in the cards right. but you will get there one day and things will not feel so urgent. And I can promise you, you're not missing something obvious.

It's not obvious, we weren't taught any of these things and you've never been given a structure that works. nobody you know has been living this structure. And you don't need to keep guessing that it wastes so much energy and brain power. Honestly, it just sucks the life out of you. I know that's what you're living. So what families do next makes complete sense. They try another food change, and they buy another supplement, that they're not getting enough of X, Y, and Z. So they try and put that in and they buy another product and then they pivot again.

And it feels like progress because you're always doing something, but you are actually moving forward. What actually works is much simpler than that. Fortunately, it's fewer variables. It's more structure. Its clear priorities and its consistency over intensity. It's not about doing everything, it's about what matters, day in and day out, in the right order, without losing your sanity along the way. And when you do that, things start to change, not overnight, but steadily. This morning, I'm still just beaming from it.

My mama heart is so full. We had homeschool day at the Capitol, and my oldest stood on the house floor and sang the national anthem as a solo. I just had this moment. where I had this out-of-body experience watching her. It was just like, oh my goodness, it's so worth it. This is what things look like when they actually work. And, you know, like those moments are so fleeting. Of course, that didn't last as soon as it was done. My other two daughters were sad because they missed something else because had to support their sister in a solo.

So, All the fair and snow, those winds are short and fleeting. But there was a time when all three of my girls were severely, severely struggling with their health too with eczema. That one that just sang at the Capitol, she had celiacs and was throwing up all the time and felt horrible all time.

Hope, family wins, and next steps 15:00

Her stomach hurt too bad to do something like she did today. And everything felt so heavy. Everything was soo heavy, like I literally remember friend saying something that actually made me laugh, just like a quick little laugh. And I felt guilty. I literally felt guilt, even though I hadn't laughed in months, because how could I experience joy in any form when my kids were suffering so greatly? And if that's where you are, I mean, even though you're still continuing out your other responsibilities, you just in your mind.

And most of your time is going toward managing skin and managing sleep and food all day. That's not it. It's freedom. Not what you were put here to do. So my hope for you, the reason that I do this is so that families can experience more of those moments that we had this morning. And I just want to reiterate, it's not from more effort or more late nights or less sleep for, you that's, not it. It's just having the bandwidth to be able to support moments like that, to show up for moments. That's what I want for you.

It's not just calmer skin, it's a life. it is a LIFE that actually opens back up again. Everyone that's been on this podcast, all the parents that have been in this Podcast, and I have some really good ones coming up guys, It is so exciting. That is the sentiment. I don't have to think about it anymore. We got our life back, I can experience my child as they are, as who they were meant to be and watch them learn and grow and walk alongside them. and then sleep at night so that I can have a good time doing it the next day.

And I know you'll really see yourself in their stories and I appreciate you sticking with me till the end friends and if you're listening and you are just thinking I need a plan, start with the seven days to calm skin. It will walk you through exactly where do we begin without overwhelm just one little thing every day in your inbox. for free. And if you're ready for the full support and a personalized plan and one-on-one meetings with me, and if your ready to show up for your family in a different way, in less exhausted way in fuller, more joy-filled way now, then that's what we do.

That's the Full Support and the personalized plans, the one on one calls and messages and the support and the resources and everything you need until your child is free and clear and you feel completely confident managing it. You feel like you don't even have to manage it, it's not something that you have manage anymore, then that's when our work is done. And that is what I help families build and do inside the eczema elimination method. Thank you again for listening, friends. If this episode helped you, please send it along to a friend.

And if you take a minute to leave a review inside of Apple podcasts or Spotify for eXima Kids, one, it really warms my heart and gives me the drive to keep going. I will also send you a 30% off coupon to use inside the exima shop at examakids.com. Thanks again, Friends. 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 exima kids and finally rest easy too.

Follow, share and let's help more kids heal. Take care.