homeopathy... aibu to say i think of it's a crock of crap?

[ILetHimKeep20Quid]

Was at my brothers for dinner yesterday. My baby has a touch of eczema. As a chronic sufferer myself I roll my eyes whenever people start on the 'oh have you tried this' thing but smile and nod. I have used steroid creams in the past, of various strengths, to deal with outbreaks. I'm well versed in the treatment.

So, the wee touch my ds has isn't concerning me and I'm moisturizing him regularly.

Cue my sil practically gushing over her homeopath (not just a normal one. He's a gp but does this on the side it seems).

I smiled and nodded. Not wanting to get into the whole thing. But she would not give up. So I asked 'what is homeopathy?'

Apparently, get this, water has a memory. What the actual fuck? How can water have a memory?

And my friend was given loads of suggestions about her baby's eczema, including changing washing powders and avoiding synthetics. like most babies, she grew out of it.

Topical steroids are very effective in treating inflamed eczema.
They are not blindly prescribed. They are prescribed. They work.
And are safe in the concentrations given.

Yes, I used them, sparingly but early and DS was fine.

I also hardly bathed him, not to mess up with natural oils and skin bacteria.

We were very lucky with DS (now luck I do believe in ) as his eczema was never very severe. Although it wasn't nice obviously.
I know some tots really suffer. I feel for them. Poor little mites. It must be very hard to go through that as a parent.

Oooh. So that is what the little baby's bottle on my washing machine means.

Thanks lweji!

Also, GP's don't know every last thing about conventional medicine. (How could they?) I wouldn't use them as a litmus test for science.

Llweji - the problems with the guidelines is that it's any conventional washing powder that can be a trigger for those with contact eczema. For anyone reading this struggling with the same thing, you can buy soap nuts online should you not manage to locate the natural coconut based stuff anywhere.

The problem with the steroid creams is they generally contain paraffin based emollients (cheap!) which, for some contact eczema, is like putting gas on a fire. My DD's back and tummy ended up resembling a burn area. It was horrendous....

What I have noticed is that once flared, the eczema will react to lots of things whereas if the skin is intact, I can get away with things eg sun cream that would cause a reaction otherwise.

Salt water and sun definitely clears my child's eczema. Maybe yours is initially reacting to sunscreen and then it clears to the extent the sunscreen can be tolerated?

In case it helps anyone, after trying 5 or so prescribed creams and many many emollients, natural or otherwise, the only creams that work for us are the body shop hemp body butter and napiers baby moisturiser (you can get it online)

Hope this helps someone as it took me a year to get to all this! I'm hoping DD outgrows hers but no sign yet.

Of course I don't expect GPs to know all this. I'm a reasonably intelligent person and it took me 12 months of head scratching to figure it out.

But for eczema alone there is a lot we don't know and so I think GPs - or the majority I have met - need to understand that patients are different, steroids don't always work and anecdotal stories (which is how I worked out about the washing powder) can literally be a miracle cure for someone.

Excema is the type of thing that drives you to frustration and willing to part with considerate sums of money to find some relief. I've tried a huge, range of creams, miracle cures, alternatives and prescribed things. Some things worn for a while. Sometimes my skin is so good I can use fabric conditioner. Things like that don't cause my excema, but will make it worse during a flare up.

I dresses all in white and smoked cocktail soubranies for about 6'months when I was 19. I was such a prat.

I have no idea how that post appeared on this thread. Sorry!

I dresses all in white and smoked cocktail soubranies for about 6'months when I was 19. Much more effective than homeopathy and much more fun.

For those who think that homeopathy does no harm I give you Homeopathy Without Borders - aka Médecins Sans Medicine

Bore I would just like to say wankbadger cuntpuffins. I am a pacifist who can empatise with serial killers but those people should be strung up by their thumbs.

I join you in saying wankbadger cuntpuffins. Loudly.

Here is some more reading about wankbadger cuntpuffins

oohdaddypig

One problem with eczema is that it varies from child to child.
The extent, the causes and triggers too.
So treatments will be different as well.

A good doctor will suggest different things to try but won't be aware of all possibilities.
A good doctor will be open to alternatives to try too.
There's no right way. Only trial and error. So, yes, in that sense, it pays to follow anecdotal evidence.

Same as nappy rashes. Some creams are great for some children, others aren't.
Or nappies themselves, or formula, etc.

DS's eczema was never too bad, but got better with fewer baths and emolient creams.

On DS and the beach, the sunscreen itself is not the problem. I've tried little bits (fine) and different brands (same problem, but after the initial period, if I switch brand is fine too).
He always gets it on the top of the back and chest and his face.
My best guess is that it alters the usual bacteria on his skin, his skin reacts and it takes a while to get back in control or get used to it.

Llweji - I appreciate that and I only wrote my essay in the hope it would help someone. It was partly from reading many serious stories on the Internet that I found my own solution.

Do you use titanium dioxide type creams? Although they are trying they seem to be less irritating.

I guess I have a vision of some kind of database where folk can input their success rates, or otherwise, of various treatments for all these chronic ailments. It would be totally unscientific and anecdotal and uncontrolled but at least be a starting point to share experiences in a more structured way.

I'm getting really boring now so signing off now (before downing some homeopathic valerian to help me sleep....)

You need homeopathic caffeine, actually.

I'm not in the UK

Who bloody cares how it works if it does. Or if it works as a placebo then great for those people. It's THEIR business.

You lot are really digging the knife I for something that really helps some people. What do you really care ?

I care.
Because it doesn't work.
And ppl are selling something that doesn't work claiming that it does.
To sell someone a disproven treatment for their child's condition is unethical IMO.

Homeopathy absolutely did not work for my excema. It was suggested, I was sceptical but gave it a try, but no effect whatsoever. Of course I got the usual spiel bout having to get worse before it got better. But it did get worse (because it was untreated) and did not get better.

What people are talking about in the latter part of the thread are not cures but suggestions for preventing a flare up in the first place. My experience was that GPs would also suggest things like that as well. Though it is not the same things that cause a flare up in everyone, so different things help different people. Like salt water and sun definitely clears oohdaddypig's child's eczema, whereas salt water would definitely cause a flare up with me, but was a risk I would take because I love swimming in the sea so much. (Did find it cleared some warts one summer!)

I think that anyone who calls anything that someone else believes in " a crock of crap", is doing it to get a reaction. You anbu to believe anything you want, and neither is anyone else. It's the acting on, and the belittling of those beliefs that causes problems.

Or perhaps it's an observation that the belief under discussion is, in fact, a crock of crap.

"I think that anyone who calls anything that someone else believes in " a crock of crap", is doing it to get a reaction. You anbu to believe anything you want, and neither is anyone else. It's the acting on, and the belittling of those beliefs that causes problems"

Everybody is entitled, obviously, to their own beliefs. However, they are not entitled to their own facts.