Soothing the Eczema Itch – Try Green Tea Powder
I found a recent blog post by Green and Bitchy to be super interesting. The itching with eczema can be so intense and so horrific, it’s just not possible or humane to sit there and let our little ones suffer through a round of it. We’ve tried all the anti-itch creams you can imagine and have tried plenty of natural options as well, but nothing will sooth the itch for us except for oral anti-histamines. We give them to Tristan when he has his itch trances and fits. Thankfully, lately we haven’t needed anything.
Green and Bitchy posts about mixing green tea powder and water to form a spray for the skin. She sprayed it on her child’s skin, which was inflamed and irritated from allergies, and the skin reacted as if a steroid had been applied. Her child, like mine, seems to usually be very sensitive and cannot tolerate most creams and oils, but he actually liked the spray and said it felt good. Wow! Next time Tristan has a flair-up, I’m all over this remedy.
My son would scream anytime we would try to put creams, lotions or any medication on his skin…I ended up only using coconut oil and olive oil because it wouldn’t burn him!! Eventually, we found the cause of what actually makes his eczema flare up and now we treat it from the source! GLUTEN! If my son eats too much wheat he is in a full on flare!! If I keep gluten to a minimum he does great!!!
Hi Samantha –
It’s funny, gluten is one of my son’s biggest triggers as well. Soy and dairy and some others are big culprits too. Tristan was in the same boat as your son – all the creams would burn him like crazy! Sadly, even plain coconut oil and olive oil, as well as any natural pre-made products, make him really itchy now. It’s great your son can use the natural oils – I much prefer them as well.
Jennifer
I wonder how he would do with this peppermint cream we get from our TCM doctor (here’s their website: http://www.tcmhealingcenter.com) it’s a very small container for $10, but it actually goes a really long way because you just put a very thin layer on the flare-up. I try to put it on when Ry’s asleep because he screams & says it hurts, but he doesn’t even flinch when he’s asleep, so he may be slightly dramatizing it 😉 but you can order it from them, I know they recommend actually seeing her & because he’s not on the herbs, too, it may not be as effective, but they’ll still sell it to you (we’ve gone without herbs, just cream, & still worked great!). I am slighting embarrassed to say I don’t know all the ingredients. While I am usually diligent about ingredients, in Chinese medicine, they literally don’t always know, but it works like magic on eczema- I can put it on at night & he’s flare-up is gone by morning. It’s the only thing that we’ve had this kind of success with…we used to try steroids when it was really bad, but even those often didn’t knock it down, it’s crazy how powerful some of this stuff can be & still not make a big impact!
Really interesting tip. I may give that a try if we start having more flair-ups. Right now it’s mostly under control – thank goodness. I’ve heard good things about chinese medicine, but I’ve been nervous to try it as I heard the herbs are really nasty tasting and it’s difficult to get kids to drink the teas. We tried accupuncture with kid friendly stickers/needles and Tristan flipped. It’s wonderful that you found something that works so well for you guys.