Trialing Auto Immune Paleo for Eczema
My son’s skin is so, so, SO much better than before. His severe eczema really controlled our lives and we had a very hard time managing it. We finally found a host of natural remedies for eczema that worked for his particular skin and our lives have drastically changed.
However, he still battles little flares up here and there behind his knees and around his wrists and we were fairly sure it was related to his diet, which is very clean and unprocessed, but we do allow him to splurge here and there since his flares ups are much easier to control than before thankfully due to our beloved Organic Manuka Skin Soothing Cream. Read more about it in: Manuka Honey Benefits: Heals Eczema Naturally.
Since my son still experienced bouts of eczema and my daughter and I have our own little nagging health issues (she gets dyshidrotic eczema behind her knees), we decided to try (AIP) Auto Immune Paleo for eczema and digestive/gut health. It wasn’t easy to get my husband on board since the diet is quite extreme. Basically you’re allowed most vegetables, fruit in moderation and organic, pastured meat. Read more about the diet in: Healing with Auto Immune Paleo. I prepped my kids, 6 and 8 years old, and told them we were going to be eating differently, healthier for a short amount of time. Together, my husband and I decided to give the diet one month and then we’d evaluate what changes had occurred in our children’s and my health and we’d decide whether to continue or not.
A few weeks in we noticed my son’s aggression was starting to subside and then after one full month his eczema was completely gone! My daughter’s too! 100% gone. I was honestly quite shocked and thrilled, but also a little discouraged. Why? Well, to be honest, while I wanted to know what was triggering this remaining bit of eczema, I was hoping it wasn’t food. We had already eliminated so much from his diet. Read about it in: Our Eczema Trials: Elimination Diet (How You Can Do It Too!) So, it was a bummer but also a revelation, if that makes sense.
But yes, AIP worked for my children’s eczema! You should try it too!
Getting started on AIP is easy with The Best of AIP 2016. It’s a collection of 115 recipes from 22 bloggers from around the world, and it’s a simple way to try new recipes and find new favorites! Get your copy here.
If you’re looking for more AIP resources and recipes, then check out The Paleo Mom’s ebook, The Paleo Approach. This books explains how to adapt the Paleo lifestyle to heal auto-immune conditions, like eczema, psoriasis, and more.
I also highly recommend the Real Plans app for AIP meal planning. I organize and plan out all my meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner, for the entire week using this online app. The app comes with quite a few AIP recipes to start with, but I purchased the AIP add-on and it’s been really great. It then gives me a complete shopping list and honesty takes out all the brain work for meal planning and man does it make everything so much simpler. You can easily add recipes manually or via links if you find some gems online or want to load up some from Best of AIP.
Get started healing your eczema with Auto Immune Paleo today. Let me know which AIP recipes become your favorite! I’ll give you one of mine…..these Plantain Fritters are amazing and kids love them! Just be sure to omit the walnuts and nutmeg to ensure they’re AIP friendly.
FROM: Eczema, Recipes (Allergy Free)
The plantain fritters aren’t AIP.
Eek! You’re right – I forgot to mention omitting the walnuts and nutmeg – just did. Thank you for catching my error.
I’ve just started on AIP as I’m a Hashimoto/underactive thyroid sufferer who’s recently just discovered that I have the marker for the MTHFR gene mutation as well.
My daughter had bad eczema as well, we’ve been a healing journey since we’ve discovered that she has leaky gut syndrome due to numerous food intolerances. Since we’ve changed her diet + on a supplement regime her skin has completely cleared.
All the best of your journey.
That’s so wonderful to hear! Thank you for sharing your story with us Mel!
Hi Jennifer, I am trying to get my husband on board with this too. How long did it take for you to start seeing results? Are you still on the diet? Was it hard to provide enough snacks for your kids? Snacks are crucial at our house. 🙂
also… did you really cut out eggs? yikes!
Yes, and nuts were a hard one too. Such quick and easy proteins!
Hey – The kids did the diet for one month, I’m going on 2.5 months now personally. We saw changes right at month one for the kids and I’m happy to report that while the kids stopped the diet, they do eat AIP during the week and are given free range with food on the weekends. It was the way I was able to compromise with my husband. And it seems to be working well so far. Their skin is still great! So we’re going to continue on this way and see how it goes. Snacks, we did lots of fresh fruit and veggies. Dried fruit for a rare “dessert” and I did give them AIP pancakes as a splurge here and there. We had a few junk snacks for fun like plantain chips and sweet potato chips. If you have a dehydrator, you can make meat jerky too, which kids love. I made a salmon one that was amazing!
Thanks Jennifer, My son has been on the AIP diet for about a month now. I almost feel like his skin is worse! Ugh. Another battle lost? Or push on? Considering GAPS but am terrified of the Intro diet especially because he is just 2 years old. I know you tried GAPS. What are your thoughts?
I think it’s really hard to know what’s best for everyone. GAPS was not good for my son or I – it made things worse. Sounds like maybe that’s the case with AIP. The question is why is he reacting? What foods have you increased or introduced that are new? Do you think maybe it’s just too much fat and maybe he cannot process it? Or perhaps it’s a specific food or two. Or a new supplement could be causing a reaction. But in the end, it could be the diet. You can certainly try GAPS. But first, have you tried a standard elimination diet of the top most common allergens?
Thanks! We have done an elimination diet. I’ve tried just about everything BUT the GAPS diet. Ugh. So frustrating. I don’t want to believe what the doctors say that his eczema is just something we have to deal with and there is no magic answer but I really don’t know what else to do. I may try cutting out coconut again and see if results are better this time. I’m not ready to take on GAPS.
I think a lot of people have problems with GAPS because of the high amounts of histamine foods, like fermented vegetables, bone broth, almond flour etc. The diet recommends honey as a sweetener, but this contains a lot of fodmaps. I’ve been doing GAPS adapted to histamine intolerance for three weeks and some of my symptoms got worse. Apparently I had problems with coconut oil as this contains a lot of salicylates. It made my whole body itch. I also reacted to the supplements I had to take. That’s why I reintroduced glutenfree oats, brown rice and quinoa as there was not a lot of safe food left to eat and I kept loosing weight. I feel I’m getting slightly better, although I’ve sinned a lot today (pms syndrome?). I keep eating meat bouillons as the gelatine heals the gut and nearly every diet recommends this. But I have it simmer for only 2 hours because of my histamine problems and I freeze everything as soon as possible so that I always have fresh portions. The book that helped me best so far is Karen Fisher’s book “The eczema diet”. She lists which chemicals can cause problems and in which foods you can find them. Still you have to watch your body’s reactions very closely! She recommends bananas e.g. but I feel these contain too much sugar for me. So I really have to create my own diet and recipes. What’s important as well is stress relief. You can find very interesting info about this related to food on Yasmina Ykelenstam’s website Healing Histamine. I know there are some mindfulness courses for kids as well. Good luck for everyone dealing with food intolerances!
Curious if you have been able to pinpoint which eliminated food or foods were the trigger for the eczema, and if you’ve been able to successfully reintroduce any foods?
Hi Casie – Yes, with my son we found some clear eczema triggers which I discuss in this post about elimination diets. But specifically for AIP, no we weren’t able to identify why it helped his eczema specifically – was it the removal of nightshades or grains or both? We aren’t sure and probably should test it out.
After trying EVERYTHING from TCM to medicinal herbs, Karen Fisher, food elimination Diet, meditation I started LDN. Has disappeared on my body still left on right foot but improving.
Couldn’t afford crazy cost of imhectable so Duplixent… so found another low cost take by mouth option’. AUTOIMMUNE disease is the culprit and now MDs must call it what it is
Hello! Your website has been so helpful for me the past few months. My son’s eczema started when he was 3 months and he is now 8 months. He exclusively nursed until 6 months and is still nursing in addition to some solid foods. In addition to dairy (which he is allergic to) I’ve eliminated corn, soy, eggs, gluten, citrus, chocolate, almonds, shellfish, nightshades, and recently added beef to the list. I see the clouds part every now and then when his eczema looks like its healing (yay!) but then it gets bad again. I’ve even tried hydrocortisone Rx at my ped’s urging and it was back within a week. The YoRo manuka honey cream is amazing and helps a lot but I’m looking for more guidance with my diet. Would you recommend trying the Eczema Diet (I’ve been trying to avoid the high salicylate foods anyway) or AIP from here? I’m scared to eliminate nuts and beef with AIP but I really want to figure this out, too. Peanuts have to be in our diet since he is borderline allergic and the allergist said if I want to avoid a true anaphylactic peanut allergy that he eats PB 3 times a week. Thank you so much for your website!
Hi Kathryn –
Oh poor little guy! I get it, all we want is or our babies to feel well. Honestly, not every diet is right for everyone. I’ve found that out personally after doing many healing diets and not finding relief for various ailments. My recommendation is to work closely with your physician and maybe a holistic nutritionist as well as they can suggest which diet is best to try next as it sounds you’ve eliminated most potentially sensitive foods. I wonder too if you’ve tried any probiotics, if so, which one as well as any other supplements?
I just received the results of an extensive food sensitivities test.
I have over 50 foods that I must avoid. I have not been able to
find a website that would allow me to list those foods that I need
to avoid and then look at recipes that do not contain those foods.
Do you know of any website for recipes like that?