"Cure" for dry skin

Iristxo

Remedies, or nutritional recommendations? My two little ones suffer badly from it . Any solution short of spending the rest of my/their lives applying E45 or whatever other cream? Also, what cream is the best in that case?

Forgot to mention, it's Atopic eczema and they get it from their dad who also has it. They arr 2 and 4.

rubadub

I use sudocreme on eczema, I use it on cuts & sunburn too. Lads in work laugh since everybody associates it with babys bums, but it is a very good healer of cuts. I have also found olive oil stays on the skin well, but would get on clothes etc.

Iristxo

Well it is the 2 year old that suffers the worst (well 1.5) so sudocream seems appropriate. Thanks

El_Dangeroso

I think there's a prescription vitamin D cream that you can get from the doctor that's quite effective I hear.

Eczema is auto-immune disease and vitamin d does a great job at modulating the response of the immune system as a whole. Never supplement children in capsule form without expressed consent from a doctor.

Other than that allergies to gluten and dairy do seem to be implicated in exacerbating various auto-immune conditions.

My favourite moisturiser is coconut oil, completely hypoallergenic and mildly antibacterial, it also stays on the surface of the skin for a long time.

Iristxo

Temple_Grandin wrote: »

I think there's a prescription vitamin D cream that you can get from the doctor that's quite effective I hear.

Eczema is auto-immune disease and vitamin d does a great job at modulating the response of the immune system as a whole. Never supplement children in capsule form without expressed consent from a doctor.

Other than that allergies to gluten and dairy do seem to be implicated in exacerbating various auto-immune conditions.

My favourite moisturiser is coconut oil, completely hypoallergenic and mildly antibacterial, it also stays on the surface of the skin for a long time.

That was actually my net question, I was going to ask what do people use as a face moisturizer. After using for ages and ages your typical L'oreal and such products for my skin I have recently started using Bio-oil and I think my face is better. I am net to 40 and my skin is quite wrinkly! So I know drinking water and all that but aside from that, what is people's favourite face moisturizer? If I don't get enough of a response here I might start a new thread.

Why is it that kids are not to take vit D in tablet form without consent from a doctor? Mine take it in drops it's only 100iu per drop but I might see to consult a doctor to up the dose.

El_Dangeroso

Iristxo wrote: »

That was actually my net question, I was going to ask what do people use as a face moisturizer. After using for ages and ages your typical L'oreal and such products for my skin I have recently started using Bio-oil and I think my face is better. I am net to 40 and my skin is quite wrinkly! So I know drinking water and all that but aside from that, what is people's favourite face moisturizer? If I don't get enough of a response here I might start a new thread.

Why is it that kids are not to take vit D in tablet form without consent from a doctor? Mine take it in drops it's only 100iu per drop but I might see to consult a doctor to up the dose.

100iu is completely harmless, anything up to 800IU can be gotten direct from food, I'd be talking about doses 2,000IU and above. The only reason I think caution is required with children, especially infants is that their immune system is still developing. Just an opinion, but there's just no long-term studies on kids yet, hence my reservations. But give them about 30 mins direct exposure to direct midday sunlight without sunscreen whenever possible, always avoiding burning the skin of course.

Re: Skin, a good K2-MK4 (Has to be the MK4 one) supplement works wonders on the skin, I noticed a difference in two weeks. 'Tis pricey, but lasts 3 months and works out much cheaper than those creams.

rubadub

Temple_Grandin wrote: »

My favourite moisturiser is coconut oil, completely hypoallergenic and mildly antibacterial, it also stays on the surface of the skin for a long time.

Yes, I use coconut oil too, nice smell, the olive oil is the extra light one, light as in taste/colour so it has no smell. Also these oils are pure, while many products can have chemicals which could aggravate the condition, it is crazy that some strong anti-dandruff/psoriasis shampoos like nizoral still are using sodium laurel ether sulfate as a foaming agent, this chemical is known to be bad for it.

I had contact dermatitis on my feet when I was younger, when my mother changed to non-bio washing powder it was FAR better. It is clear now but the odd time I have washed socks in regular powder when stuck and it did begin to come back. So certainly worth trying changing powders too.

Macha

Eucerin or Garnier have a nice new one with urea.

El_Dangeroso

taconnol wrote: »

Eucerin or Garnier have a nice new one with urea.

Urea? Did I read that correctly? Do you mean the stuff in pee?

rubadub

Temple_Grandin wrote: »

Urea? Did I read that correctly? Do you mean the stuff in pee?

Yep, I heard of it before.

Psoriasis is similar to eczema, so most nutritional advice would be the same. Here is a psoriasis forum discussing foods to eat & what to avoid. I have mild psoriasis which gets much worse after heavy drinking, hopefully not an issue with your kids yet!;)

http://talkpsoriasis.org/showthread.php?38409-Foods-to-Eat-and-Foods-to-Avoid

If you google psoriasis and food you will get loads more pages.

Iristxo

Temple_Grandin wrote: »

Re: Skin, a good K2-MK4 (Has to be the MK4 one) supplement works wonders on the skin, I noticed a difference in two weeks. 'Tis pricey, but lasts 3 months and works out much cheaper than those creams.

Where do you get this one?

El_Dangeroso

Iristxo wrote: »

Where do you get this one?

I myself use high vitamin butter oil from green pastures:

http://www.red23.co.uk/X-Factor-Gold-High-Vitamin-Butter-Oil_p_660.html

That's for three months supply. V. expensive but does the trick and is a wholefood so contains all the co-factors for it's correct utilisation.

This is expensive too but has 1200 doses in the bottle, that's over three years supply!

http://www.iherb.com/Thorne-Research-Vitamin-K2-1-fl-oz-30-ml/21592?at=0

As well as being very good for skin there are intervention studies showing K2-Mk4 reduces the risk of cancer and heart disease too, along with increasing bone density. Good food sources are liver and pastured butter and cheese.

metamorphosis

Temple_Grandin wrote: »

I myself use high vitamin butter oil from green pastures:

http://www.red23.co.uk/X-Factor-Gold-High-Vitamin-Butter-Oil_p_660.html

That's for three months supply. V. expensive but does the trick and is a wholefood so contains all the co-factors for it's correct utilisation.

This is expensive too but has 1200 doses in the bottle, that's four years supply!

http://www.iherb.com/Thorne-Research-Vitamin-K2-1-fl-oz-30-ml/21592?at=0

As well as being very good for skin there are intervention studies showing K2-Mk4 reduces the risk of cancer and heart disease too, along with increasing bone density. Good food sources are liver and pastured butter and cheese.

Temple - iv been reading up on the vit K ever since you put me onto it a few days ago. Iv been reading some savage things about it as a vitamin, especially k4 and k7 in regards calcium, bone health with Asian doctors using it sometimes as a pinnacle treatment and seeing success with osteoporosis and cardio vascular health. Would you place one sub set of K above the rest?

How Strange

Anything containing urea is very good for dry skin. I used to use Eucerin which you can buy in any pharmacy. Also La Roche Posay do a cream with urea for dry/extremely dry skin and you can buy a bigger bottle of it with a pump dispenser so works out a lot cheaper than Eucerin. La Roche Posay is an excellent brand and is recommended by dermatologists. Eucerin and LRP are emolients so they stay on your skin rather than absorb into it. Vichy also do a cream with a pump dispenser (I think it's a green label), it's quite hard to find in the larger bottle but it's excellent and slightly lighter in texture so you can put clothes on straight after applying it.

Silkcocks Base is another thing you can use. Cheap as chips, it comes in a huge tub which you can use as a shower gel/soap or after your shower as a cream. Again, recommended by dermatologists and stocked by every pharmacy. A doctor recommended it to me but I didn't like the texture and because it's non perfumed it had a kind of petrol smell. I think both Eucerin and LRP do shower washes etc with urea too. I use sanex which a doctor told me was the best of all the off the shelf supermarket ones but if it was particularly acute I should switch to LRP or similar.

I don't have ezcema but I do have extremely dry skin and I've been using palmers cocoa butter over the last few months and found it really good. Having said that it's probably perfumed to some degree so might not be suitable for ezcema.

I avoid the l'oreal, nivea etc brands as they are too perfumed for me and I find they aren't hydrating enough so they cause more irritation.

Also just to add, drinking water, avoiding alcohol (not an issue for your kids), getting a little sunshine whenever possible and a healthy diet avoiding processed foods and sugar really help me.

Having said all that, I think I'm resigned to a lifetime of applying cream every other day as there is a noticeable difference in my skin if I do this religously.

rubadub

rubadub wrote: »

I had contact dermatitis on my feet when I was younger, when my mother changed to non-bio washing powder it was FAR better.

The other thing I forgot to mention was changing to 100% cotton socks, it made even more of a difference. But I would try changing to 100% cotton clothes on any area in contact with effected areas. 100% cotton socks are very hard to find, debenhams have them but other cotton clothes are easy to find.

How Strange wrote: »

A doctor recommended it to me but I didn't like the texture and because it's non perfumed it had a kind of petrol smell.

These type of things could be applied at night. Sudocreme is white so can look odd, though it might not matter to small kids.

The sunshine is important as mentioned, UVB rays are a recognised treatment for psoriasis, they have sort of UVB standup sunbeds with special bulbs in hospitals to treat patients, about 30 seconds is like an hour in the sun.

Iristxo

Thanks How Strange for a very comprehensive response. I will look into the brands you mention.

Also thanks everyone else that took the time to reply and thanks Temple for your good advice, like always.

WildBoots

Iristxo wrote: »

Remedies, or nutritional recommendations? My two little ones suffer badly from it . Any solution short of spending the rest of my/their lives applying E45 or whatever other cream? Also, what cream is the best in that case?

Forgot to mention, it's Atopic eczema and they get it from their dad who also has it. They arr 2 and 4.

Go see a naturopath and make sure they know about Vit D3, not all of them are up to scratch yet. The internet is great for advice but you can't beat hands on practical experience!

Wolff

havent seen anyone else mention it - my two have similar problems with dry skin - we tried everything most of the products mentioned above - one product that does make a difference is Aveeno Daily moisturising lotion - the green one - really good available everywhere - Dunnes etc

rantyface

Be careful with naturopaths! We went to one with my excema when I was very young and she gave me a cream that completely cured it. Mam asked what was in it, and the naturopath mentioned that she puts 5% hydrocortisone in every preparation!

Aveeno is great. All you can do is manage excema there's no cure. You have to try a few things and stick with what works.

rubadub

rantyface wrote: »

5% hydrocortisone in every preparation!

I have heard lots of warning against steroid creams like this -though it did cure my dermatitis pretty much overnight. Some say you end up having to keep using it.

I ordered a book on curing psoriasis with diet, it has a chapter on eczema too.

it gets rave reviews on amazon and other sites.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Healing-Psoriasis-Alternative-John-Pagano/dp/0470267267/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274554794&sr=8-1

cheapest I found was here
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780470267264/Healing-Psoriasis

It basically is saying you should eat foods which cause alkalinity in your body, these are not necessarily alkaline foods, as highly acidic stuff like lemons, oranges and apple cider vinegar are supposed to be cause strong alkalinity in your body.

From what I read I am eating a diet VERY high in foods which will cause body acidity. Some sites say all you need to do is counter it by drinking apple cider vinegar, which I started doing a few days ago.

http://www.psoriasis-aid.com/psoriasis/apple_cider_vinegar_psoriasis_treatment.html

http://www.angelfire.com/az/sthurston/acid_alkaline_foods_list.html

rantyface

rubadub wrote: »

I have heard lots of warning against steroid creams like this -though it did cure my dermatitis pretty much overnight. Some say you end up having to keep using it.

Oh it does work, but it thins the skin and isn't suitable for children. She also said it was a herbal preparation initially.

ApeXaviour

The mother put me on cod-liver-oil when I was a wee thing, cleared my dry-skin (though not eczema) right up. 2-3 capsules a day.