herbs for eczema

[mayqueen]

Hi I'm looking for recommendations for a Herbalist in the SE London area . My little girl has eczema and a friend of mine up north recommended seeing a herbalist, she had good results when her child had hay fever. Anyone out there in SE used one? Were they good with kids?

Hi its me again I forgot to add I'd be interested if anyone else has tried seeing a herbalist with their children or even themselves I'm really interested in it but have never tried it yet.

Hi mayqueen

I took ds1 to a herbalist when he was 9 months old because of his eczema. We were given tinctures which were added to his milk or ready brek. Minuit doses but I thik it really helped clean out his system as we saw a great improvement. I wish I could remember what herbal tinctures he had.....i'd have to think about it to remember.... but there was one to basically, gently cleanse his liver. He also took a quarter of a teaspoon of cold pressed evening primrose oil every day.
Sorry not in your area so can't recommend anyone.

We took DS1 to a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine for his eczema when he was one year old. The treatment used Chinese herbs. However that is a few years ago now and I understnad that people have become worried about using TCM for children's eczema. Have to say it was a godsend for us though - cleared DS1 eczema beautifully, and he liked the treatment.

There are some issues about herbal medicine that you should be aware of - for example some ointments (now banned I believe) have been shown to contain high strength steroids.

You might be interested to know that a highly respected figure in the field, Michael McIntyre, head of the European Herbal Practitioners Association will be giving a free seminar on Chinese herbal medicine and eczema at The Allergy Show at London Olympia in June. See www.allergyshow.co.uk for details

Thanks jonathan. I knew there were some issues out there.

DS1 did not actually have any ointment - we just got bags of herbs that we had to boil up and then strain and bathe him with the cooled liquid.

Hi Mayqueen

I took my 6 yr old to see a herbalist last year with a recurrent rash that my GP thought may be eczema or may be not , he wasn't sure but wanted to give me steriod creams anyway . He assured me they were very mild but I just didn't want to use them. Anyway after consulting a local herbalist who gave us some dried herbs to make a tea with and a cream which was basically aqueous cream with herbs added, very gentle, it started to improve after about 2 weeks and by the end of the month had gone. they also discussed lifestyle and food and so on and recommended he drink more water and reduce dairy products a bit obvious maybe but it worked. the rash pretty much stayed away and If it comes back its only very slight. I've since been for a visit for myself and would recommend it unlike going to the doctor's where you get 10 mins I was there for 1 1/2 hours and I felt that all aspects of what could be causing my problem wre looked at and its really helped me manage. Anyway sorry this is really long! To find a local herbalist phone the National Institute of Medical Herbalists who are their governing body, which is what I did and they gave me the names and addresses of those practicing locally. Good luck

Hi Mayqueen,
We were very tempted to see a herbalist for DS severe eczema but there were several points to consider: it is very important that you find a very good responsible doctor with access to good quality herbs as the eczema treatment, if badly administered, can cause permanent kidney damage.

There is a very well known doctor in Soho (Dr Luo), the results that she has got are so impressive thet her work became the subject of a scientific research study back in 1992, when doctors at the Great Ormond Street hospital realised that many children with chronic severe eczema who had not responded well to conventional treatments got dramatically better. If we had been in London we would have go to seen her but as in the area where we live we don't know anybody who could provide a really reliable recomendation we decided not to take the risk of kidney damage and decided to use homeopathy instead, and it worked wonders

Good luck! if you find her please let us know how your DD is doing

message withdrawn

Hi Mayqueen
My DS suffered with eczema for a while from the age of 18months. We visited Holland & Barret who recomended porridge oats.
Fill a sock with a cup of porridge oats and fit it over the hot water tap in the bath. Run the water through the sock, squeezing it occasionally. When the bath has run, tie a knot in the end of the sock and gently squeeze & rub the sock over your daughter eczema, whilst she bathes in the water. It eased DS suffering and it cleared up as he turned 2.
We recently used it on my 12yr old step daughter who had an unexplained skin complaint. she was amazed at the effect and took to having a porridge bath every evening for a week!
I realise it wasn't the help & advise you were looking for, but it has helped our family so much, I wanted to pass it on.
Good luck.

Hi thanks for all the replies + thanks to you junemoon I did find the number of the nationalherbal institute and they put me in touch with a practice quite close to me which is good as there aren't that many around. I mentioned some of the points raised in other messages and they seem to think those may be referring to chinese medicine. I have made a preliminary call and they sounded very nice so I'll give it a whirl. Still interested in hearing from others, and have tried the oat thing which made the water feel nice according to my DD. Will continue and post how I get on. Thanks again y'all. MQ