Mother's Determination Heals Her Son's Eczema

A British mother successfully helped her son fully recover from horrendous eczema that developed on his face, thanks to her resourcefulness and out-of-the-box thinking when doctors had run out of options. Marshall, the two-year-old son of 33-year-old Louise Dodds, a veterinarian by profession, developed eczema following a flu that left his skin red and rough.

"I tried treating it with antibiotics and creams, but nothing worked. The doctors simply didn't know how to help me," Louise explains. "It started on his cheeks and then spread to his back and knees, I was desperate."

She says, "It's such a heartbreaking situation to see your child scratching their skin helplessly, and there's nothing you can do to help. His cheeks were so red that people would stop me on the street to ask if he'd drawn on his face. As a parent, you don't want people thinking that about your kids. Children would point at him, laugh. Luckily, he was too young to understand, but had he been older, I'm sure it would've affected him."

When she saw that no treatment was working and change was slow to come, Louise decided to eliminate certain foods from Marshall's regular diet to see if they were contributing to his eczema - and to her surprise: "We removed various things, but the first ones we felt needed to go were wheat products and anything containing gluten, as well as cow's milk products," she explains.

Louise reached this conclusion after reading articles stating that common symptoms of sensitivity to these products are bloating, fatigue, and in Marshall's case – skin issues. "We had nothing to lose. Marshall was suffering immensely, and we knew we had to try everything."

A blood test Louise carried out later confirmed that Marshall was indeed sensitive to various components – including lemon. As a result of the findings from Marshall's blood tests, the family's entire diet turned over a new leaf. "We're eating a lot less meat, and all our milk is now plant-based. We mix oat milk and almond milk, and we don't stop checking labels on products we bring home. Everything that comes in is free of the components Marshall is sensitive to – even if it's just trace amounts," she concludes.