kimowan means rain – only with rain can we be renewed

Eczema, Steroids, Topical Steroid Withdrawal & Eczema AGAIN! There is no quick solution or magic one time cream but there is a way.

Both my sons got “eczema”

Our story below how we got through eczema & steroids and I know nobody got time to read all of that so click the other links in the top menu bar to see what methods/resources I used without steroids.

Pictures below. Didn’t think to document this journey so tried to organize photos in a timeline.

First of all, I’m sorry for what you’re going through. It’s painful, tough, exhausting, mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. There seems to be no hope in sight. Everything you try works or stops working or doesn’t even work. You’re just wanting so bad that this next cream is gonna solve everything. You are a new parents and ‘new’ to eczema. You don’t know how to manage it or what it even means or what happens. You don’t know how long it’s going to last. You’re just in survival mode. Your baby is supposed to have nice beautiful soft baby butt skin. You feel self-conscious about it. You don’t know when it’s gonna end and go back to normal… you’re barely getting any sleep. There’s so many things you want to do but you gotta watch your baby and his/her scratching. Everything’s difficult and no one has a solution for you.

Doctors/dermatologists only prescribe steroids/antibiotic creams which are all bandaid solutions because the eczema keeps coming back. Oral doses of antibiotics won’t get rid of the eczema because it keeps coming back even after the third round and you’re just destroying your baby’s gut bacteria. These medical professionals never dealt with it and are not experts in it. They don’t understand. Stop putting all your hope into what the doctor/dermatologists, they’re just people who make mistakes and don’t genuinely know how to help you. I say all of this and may sound harsh but only because I lived through it. I took the doctors word and used the cream and used more creams and stronger creams. It only made it worse. It’s not a solution or cure, just a cream that makes you feel better about how your baby looks. The cream opens up pandoras box and creates more problems later. Take it from me. It was just a patch on his cheek that turned into everywhere into his body.

I am writing this almost 7 years later his since my first sons eczema began. My first son got eczema at 3 months old. This happened after we got him his first routine check up (jab) as first time parents we just went with the flow (we never got anymore after that). Just a little patch on his cheek but as a first time mother I was concerned and got him checked. They prescribed steroid creams and said he has eczema and you know how it goes from there. The eczema went away but then it came back. I used the cream again and it worked until the eczema came back. Then it seemed that cream didn’t work anymore so wanted to try something else. Nurses told me to stop breastfeeding because my baby is allergic to my milk. I was heartbroken and I tried for that day. We bought formula that was allergy free or whatever and my son wouldn’t take it. He cried for 4 hours without eating it and I cried with him. Then I just let him eat from me. I was determined to figure out what is going on in his body and mine. The doctors said it was genetic somewhere in our families. I never saw eczema growing up in my family (I never had it and nor did my husband). I needed to know what we’re dealing with. I started reading everything I could about eczema. I avoided all eczema trigger foods and reached out to some youtubers who healed their eczema through diet but they didn’t want to work with a baby basically. So I just avoided milk/dairy products, citrus, peanuts, nuts, seed oils, tomatoes (just search up eczema trigger foods and it’ll all come up) I can’t remember now it’s been a while. Eventually it came down to me only eating boiled beef and potatoes, broccoli (and cut it out too) with extra virgin olive oil with salt and still drank coffee. I excluded all allergens and zero perfume products like laundry detergent (zero perfume) for sensitive skin, my personal products had zero perfumes, I stopped wearing perfume and my husband also. We only used 100% cotton clothing for him and our blankets and pillows (no fleece). We didn’t have much carpet in our house so I think that was ok if it could be a trigger). My dish soap was for sensitive skin. I got a air purifier for our room to try eliminate any dust that could be flaring him up. Even now I was reading ingredients in cream and trying to make sure there was no parabens or any allergy inducing ingredients. There was just so many variables I had no idea what it was. On top of all of this, I was trying different creams on top of the steroid creams as well. I tried the oatmeal baths but never saw any improvements. I did bleach baths but still nothing really. Also one thing I kept doing was trying too many things and not waiting enough to see what actually worked. There was too many variables again with diet, creams, baths, outside triggers, etc. because then when something worked (his skin seemed ok) I wouldn’t know what exactly helped it and only attributed it to the cream for example and when I would try the cream again, it didn’t help as much. I was on etsy searching up eczema creams and even got a lady to formulate a special cream with herbs to help with eczema and nothing ever really worked. And not to mention that during this whole time, we barely slept because baby was itchy or waking all the time. I let him soothe on me majority of the time because it was the only thing to help. I put socks on his hands so he wouldn’t scratch. I was so upset when family members would want to hold him and were wearing perfume and hug him up and it would be all over him (I didn’t have the courage to say no sorry you’re wearing perfume and it’ll upset his skin). My husband and I watched him like a hawk to make sure he didn’t scratch. He could never be left alone just playing because he would have an itch attack. We would work so hard to heal up his skin and then one scratch got it all bloody and back to square one. Family members would hold him and not know or understand that you have to watch him so he doesn’t scratch and of course, he would get a scratch in and I would be so pissed because I’m the one dealing with his recovery. I was reading one of the prescribed steroid creams I had and it said only use for 2-4 weeks and nothing more. I read more about the steroids and dependency it creates and knew deep down this is not something I wanted for my son to be dependent his whole life. I knew we had to stop. I started reading about topical steroid withdrawal (TSW) and oh my the horrors of it. I read a story will try to find the link again of a mother and her son who had eczema (all of our same story just a patch and then onto the next cream and next cream) and it got to the point they injected steroids into him. He was only like 6 months old and he got this injection and his whole body reacted and was inflamed. It was so heartbreaking. He was in really bad shape and she stopped the steroids too and he went through TSW. His case was 10x worse than my son’s so it inspired me if these guys can get through it then we can too. She had an etsy page eventually because she formulated her own cream to help her son which I ordered from her too. If I remember it took over a year for his skin to start being normal again. So I accepted this time frame that we’re gonna go through this for at least a year, whatever this was. It was his one year birthday coming up and I said after his birthday we will stop (because I just wanted him to have nice skin for his first birthday). So for 9 months we used the steroid cream and after his first birthday, we stopped and went cold turkey. Was it the right thing to do? I don’t know. Should I have tapered off? I don’t know because I don’t even know what that looks like with a steroid because his body needed it everyday. We went cold turkey. I said we’re not using these again. His skin turned red and inflamed all over his face and his body. He cried he was so uncomfortable. I just soothed him, hugged him, held him and let him soothe on me. The same time I was still researching about TSW. I saw it was developing in Japan something called “NMT” no moisture therapy and read that people going through this could recover in 9 months to 13 months. I found some zinc creams that helped with skin and not that sudocream that has so much crap in it. There was another cream will try to remember the brand for it, I used it for all open skin he had. I also had saline solution whenever he opened up skin or if it was yellow or oozing, I would use a cotton cloth and put saline on it and clean it like that and put the zinc cream on it. I would blow on his cheeks when I saw he was itchy which I don’t know if that would help. I would pat his body down where he was itchy and I saw he was trying to scratch.

I also read about carnivore diet and saw peoples testimonials about going carnivore and their eczema went away or improved. So for 30 days, I can proudly say, I did strict carnivore. I ate only beef and salt and eventually pork. I needed more fat and was going crazy and once I ate the pork fat my whole body felt better. This was a whole journey itself. I cried a couple times because it was hard and I wanted to eat other food. We stopped the steroids middle of April and I began carnivore beginning of May until the end of May. It felt like there was some improvement with his skin a little. I ended up adding rice and potatoes back into my diet. I drank coffee with coconut milk as a creamer. I cut out sugars besides the carbs. I also did this for my son (like no more sweet purees which has lots of sugars like apple puree). Nights were horrible. It took him forever to sleep he was just so uncomfortable. My husband and I would be rocking him and back and forth in our arms. If he cried at night I just gave him the tit to eat/soothe because I was so tired too. The actual bed time routine to get him to sleep took forever though. I even forget these moments now. During all this time, I’m still reading and trying to find ways to help. Later I was deep in some forums and saw something somewhere a grandmother took her grand babies to the sea and their eczema was gone. So I’m open to anything. I bought some sea salt for baths and it had magnesium in it. I put like a cup into the bath and mixed it up. I bathed him in this mixture and washed his face (his face was the worst part, always open and sore, oozing or not, dry and flakey – all in between) and he would cry when I washed it and all the flakes off but after we got out – his skin looked together and better for once. And for the first time, while I was changing him he fell asleep (like without needing the boob or rocking or holding). I was scared and not sure what’s going on it’s not even nap time but as I understood it was the salts/minerals/magnesium his body absorbing and relaxed him (for once) and he just napped). Again, I didn’t put all of this together at the time and if I could do it all again, all we would do are salt/magnesium baths. Because also, doctors would say don’t do too many baths because it dries out the skin or whatever nonsense. You gotta do what is working. No doctor told me about the salt/magnesium bath or that zinc helps restore the skin because they aren’t trained to know this kind of stuff or never been through it. We still had a rough time sleeping because of the itch attacks. I was reading that because the body is calming down to sleep then for whatever crazy reason the itch comes. I still put socks on his hands for sleep and believe it or not, I still swaddled him after 1 years old (I had to use 2 blankets to keep him stuck in there so he wouldn’t break free to scratch). Eventually in the morning he would break free but it helped with the first few hours into the night. On top of all of this, I barely went out because I was self-conscious about us and his skin. I didn’t like people looking at him or making any comments. I was reading about gut bacteria and that people with eczema have basically like a leaky gut. So I gave some baby probiotic drops plus vitamin d3. In the end of September, I tried some cheese and was worried too but tried some and it didn’t seem to affect my breastmilk. So the next day I gave him the smallest like the size of a pinky nail even smaller piece of cheese. One hour later his whole body was red in hives and itchy. We went to the ER and they gave him an epinephrine shot. He ended up puking and had diarrhea everything in his body. We got a referral to an allergist and he was severely allergic to cows milk a1/a2 and goats milk (which I stayed away from because of eczema triggers from before). I say all this normally right now but it was a stressful time looking back. He was still going through TSW and had elephant wrinkly dry skin on his legs and body. One thing forgot to mention, when we stopped cold turkey (his trouble area was always his face) his “eczema” and itchiness spread everywhere else. It was all over his body, arms, chest, back, legs and face. I was trying no moisture therapy for a while but kept caving into trying a natural cream because his skin was just sooo dry and flakey. I even bought a hand vacuum to suck up all his skin flakes every day. I tried all the name brand creams and went to try another avene oatmeal one. I remember this one because we took our bath and after I applied the oatmeal cream on him and he just screamed! I had to throw him back into the tub to wash it all off. It was awful. So in between this time I was still trying to test out different creams without steroids to moisturize him. I was using tallow as well but it was just ok. I ordered so many things off etsy to try. I was desperate. I was using just coconut oil but it didn’t really help. I still had to watch him like a hawk for his scratching. I had saline solution still to clean up all the scratches/blood and use the zinc cream to repair it. In October we went swimming at a public pool because you know chlorine water should be good for their skin or could help clean it. It was my fault because we went with family and kids and I let him in the water a little and we didn’t wash after the pool (big mistake). His skin was already weak and vulnerable that a couple days later he developed some skin eating disease (I don’t even know what to call it) on his legs. It was one open wound and I cleaned it and used the zinc but the zinc wouldn’t really cover over. Then it kept spreading and got bigger. We went to emergency again and they wrapped it up with almost half of this antibiotic cream just used it maximum, wrapped it and taped it up. They gave prescription for oral antibiotic (deep down I still knew that antibiotic orally will mess up his gut even more and kill all good and bad bacteria) and plus to keep using this antibiotic cream and wrap it up the same way they did. I fulfilled the subscription oral antibiotic but didn’t give it to him yet. I saw his leg drastically improve from the topical antibiotic. So I bought more and kept cleaning, changing and wrapping his leg up. Slowly and surely all this bacteria was gone and his leg was good again.

By December his face was a lot better. He had some patches on his chin and a little redness on his cheeks but no open sores, wounds, oozing or anything. The problem areas were his body now. His back, arms and legs were still very dry and itchy. All baths were with salt and magnesium now, no questions asked. I would buy sea salts for baths and then started using just table salt (with iodine) 1kg or 2lbs into the tub (to make it salty and taste it like it was the sea) and magnesium flakes (some have extra minerals in them). This worked for us and I still used zinc cream for after bath. We were still on a diet for him (breastmilk, meat and rice, pickles and only apples for sweet – we can proudly say we did this in terms of sweets, he didn’t eat any candies until maybe after 3 years old).

During this time, as usual I’m still reading about how to help eczema and help his gut. I stumbled upon a website by a doctor who has now passed away his name is Dr. Arturo M. Volpe who used something called “enterosgel” on his patients for kids with autism and allergies/eczema because it helped close up the gut lining. This enterosgel was made during Soviet Union time in Russia and scientists at the time were very low budgeted and had to make the cheapest effective natural solutions. This is his website (https://doctorvolpe.com/allergies-asthma/enterosgel/) you can read more about natural remedies he talks about. His wife keeps his website going, I reached out to her desperate for more info about eczema. So I read more about this enterosgel and saw that it helps close the gut lining you can read about it in different studies. So I gave my son this daily for 3 weeks and continued for almost a year. It helps also with tummy aches, diarrhea and more. I still keep some now and give to my kids if their stomach hurts. You can order this stuff on amazon or do a google search for it. It can be expensive. I used everyday for 3 weeks solid and then just minimally afterwards but for a long time.

Now we’re getting close to the one year mark and he would still flare up and his cheeks would get red (the same we as it began and as first time parents, we need to fix it right away hence steroid creams) and now I would just leave it and let it be and let it calm down. We went to the sauna a couple times and nothing too long for him but just read that it’s good to sweat out toxins and what have you. I remember helping my niece take a nap and I was just stroking her back and was like wow, this is what soft baby skin feels like? One day my son will have this too! Because his skin was still rough, dry, bumpy and itchy. Well before his second birthday in April his skin looked clear and ‘normal’ that you would never guess he had eczema or TSW. He still had some itchy patches on his legs but we were absolutely on the mend. We kept to our diet for him. Sleep got better. Things got better. This whole nightmare because a thing of the past. We still continue to this day salt/magnesium baths with additions.

We had our second baby (zero eczema, zero! none!) and we could kiss her cheeks without worrying. We could let her sit and play without watching her like a hawk incase she scratched. It was such a breath of fresh air. She had soft and smooth baby skin! No allergies to anything. She didn’t get any routine check ups/jabs.

Now we had our second son and no routine checkups/jabs either (my first would be 5 years old now and eczema free just sometimes some outside allergens that would make him itchy and we would have to give him an antihistamine – plus did allergy testing that he’s allergic to dairy, peanuts, nuts, sesame seeds, seeds, potatoes, gluten, flour) and at 3 months he started developing eczema. I thought ok I know how to handle this, I’ve been here before, it’s not my first rodeo. So I did the same bathing routines and got some creams. I found this cream again from this mother who went through TSW on etsy again. I started making my own creams with tallow and formulating herbs into it. I got saline spray again to clean skin. I had zinc creams ready. It was only on his face.

From 3 months until he was 9 months, things only seemed to get worse. Sometimes the creams I used worked but just relapsed. I thought I had everything figured out. I thought I was seasoned in this arena already but nope. For 6 months we were back into this nightmare again. I had to watch him like a hawk so he wouldn’t scratch. It was in late December he was already 9 months and I felt broken, exhausted, burnt out, hopeless and was thinking of how long it took my first son to get through this. I felt and said that I don’t think I can do these sleepless nights, itchy battles for another 1.5-2 years. I don’t got it in me. I don’t know what to do. Usually I can figure things out and stay positive. On Dec 23, 2024, I was so tired, I’m crying at this point. I went onto chat gpt or some chat with AI and asked what does someone do who is drained, burnt out, tired, emotionally, mentally, physically exhausted and just doesn’t know what to do anymore – what can they do? pray? and I got a list of prayers. It felt weird because I never thought to pray like this or go to God about this. But given the circumstances I was open to it and what could I lose anyway?

I could barely speak and recite these words but I said them. I was crying, weeping, balling my eyes out trying to say all these words. I can’t emphasis this enough how I cried my eyes out reciting all of this, I could barely speak them. Little did I know what I was doing, calling out to God, our Father in Heaven.

• Father, I feel drained and exhausted. Renew my spirit, Lord. Let your living water refresh my soul, and may your Holy Spirit rejuvenate my body and mind. Thank you for your promise of strength to the weary. Amen.
• God, when I am weak, you are strong. Grant me the endurance I need to continue, and remind me that through you, I can do all things. Let me rest in you, knowing you will sustain me. Amen.
• Father, I am tired and lost, feeling like I’ve exhausted all my efforts. Please guide my steps, light my path, and show me the way forward. I trust in your wisdom to lead me where I need to go. Amen.
• Father, I feel I’ve tried everything in my power. I need your guidance for a fresh start. Open my eyes to new possibilities and lead me in a direction I haven’t considered. Help me to see through your eyes. Amen.
• God, grant me the wisdom to see what I’ve been missing. I’ve tried every avenue I know, but I need your insight to understand where to go from here. Please reveal your plan for me. Amen.
• Lord, I’ve leaned on my own understanding for too long. Help me to trust in you with all my heart. Make my paths straight, even when I can’t see the way. I surrender my weariness to you. Amen. 

The last one hit hard because I have absolutely relied on myself for everything with the “I’ll figure it out” mentality. After this prayer the first night, I cried like crazy and felt a little lighter after. I did these prayers for several nights and felt lighter and lighter. During all this time, I was still researching what I can do for my baby’s skin. I found out about ivermectin paste and tried some of that on his skin and it helped for some time. It seemed to calm his face down. Then I stumbled upon Hypochlorous Acid Spray (good to use on open skin, wounds) and I started using this on him and it was helping a lot! I was shocked. I stopped with the saline for his open skin and just now only use this Hypochlorous Acid Spray (you can get off amazon will show all pictures and I’m not affiliated with no one and don’t let the acid part scare you).

We are already into 2025 and I’m praying for rest and a way to help my son, reading the bible and was figuring out who Jesus is. At night while my babies were asleep, I was reading into forums still and I’m deep into reddit. I read about someone using athletes foot cream for ringworm, itching and jock itch and how he assumes his skin was a fungal eczema and not just eczema and after using the cream it was gone. He suggested to use it for one year because fungus can linger and stay around. It blew my mind. I checked on doordash it was still open thank God and ordered anti-fungal cream (Canesten cream (clotrimazole) and Micatin (Miconazole Nitrate)). I switched from these two creams. I used the hypochlorous acid spray first and then applied the anti-fungal cream started with the clotrimazole one. We started seeing improvements slowly by slowly. Later read about adding baking soda to the bath! I can’t explain the reasoning but it helps with pH balances. So I did salt and sometimes just baking soda baths or combined the two (and still do them now) to keep all my kids skin clear. Also I used an anti-fungal soap bar and still use it now.

On top of all of this, I was giving vitamin D3+k2 drops, cell salts 12 in 1, zinc and cod liver oil and if possible get them to start eating liver. It’s loaded with vitamins the body can absorb. And now my oldest son doesn’t have any crazy eczema patches, redness or problem areas. There are some minor itches he gets but probably from food since we’re exposing him to more foods. As of 2026, we take salt/baking soda baths (add magnesium from time to time) and wash them with anti-fungal soap and currently using the ringworm cream in green packaging.

The reason I’m making this is for any parents looking for another way besides steroids, oral antibiotics, steroid injections, all of the above and know there is a natural way to do it. If I could do things differently, looking back now with my first son, I would pray to God for help faster. Pictures below are with my first son and eczema, following the modern route with doctors and using steroids. Next will be my second son in which I relied on my own understanding to figure it all out. After absolute exhaustion, I reached out to God for help and He answered. A weight lifted off me. Slowly, things were showing up for me to try like the spray and then anti-fungal (because I still wouldn’t even think about this route). Now, I’ve been praying everyday, giving thanks to our Creator for opening my eyes. Psalm 68-9: You gave abundant showers, O God; you refreshed your weary inheritance. God has refreshed my spirit with his rain. I also met the most incredible person along the way in this journey who I now call my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Praise be to God for all of the trials and tribulations. Praise be to God for delivering us. This journey has been crazy and wild. We still didn’t sleep much before but because I prayed for rest, the sleepless nights with my second son, waking up the next day was manageable. I didn’t feel as drained as before like I needed a nap or felt more irritated. God truly lets me rest in Him. Try the prayers I said above. Our God is a Man of His Word!