How it all began

My seven-month-old Micah has a nasty case that began about a month and a half after I started supplementing with a cow's milk formula. Unfortunately I don't make enough milk for my very hungry boy!

We tried a goat's milk formula and that seemed to make the eczema worse. We started supplementing with donor mom's milk...no change. In fact it was growing worse little by little.

We visited three doctors. One of my frustrations through this process was how little the doctors seemed to care. Each time I had to introduce myself and Micah and ask their name. They were nice but not very warm.

GP (January 25, 2010):
Said he'd only seen one case worse than Micah. At the time Micah's face was weeping and bloody all over. He said that another day or two of this type of weeping he would recommend IV antibiotics (yikes!). Put me on an elimination diet (veggies and meat only) for 3 days. No change so he recommended that I see a dermatologist.

Dermatologist (January 28, 2010):
Spent 5 minutes with us (so frustrating!), said it was impetigo (a staph infection that occurs in bad eczema cases) and prescribed antibiotic cream and cortisone cream. We started him on both and saw improvement but after 5 days improvement stopped and we stopped using cream. I elt hated using such a strong cortisone cream (2%) on my little guy but I felt that if it got the bleeding/weeping eczema under control then it was worth it.

By this point I decided to put myself on a no allergen diet... no dairy, wheat, PB, gluten, citrus.

Naturopath (February 8, 2010):
Recommended only breast milk for his first year and also being SUPER careful with solids, as in waiting until 3 years to give him wheat and dairy (yikes!). Also recommended that I stay on my no allergen diet. We tried a homeopathic remedy called Graphites for a week, no result. Visited her a second time and tried another remedy, Sulphur, with no result.


Meanwhile as we were visiting these physicians I was studying up on eczema. I discovered that my options were very limited:

Conventional Treatment: Prescription skin creams, cortisone every day until he eventually outgrows his eczema, drugs like Zyrtec or Benadryl every night to help alleviate itching and help him sleep.

Alternative Treatment: many different homeopathic remedies (keep trying until we find the exact right one), various creams, continue taking evening primrose oil. cod liver oil and probiotics

In all my reading I came across NAET. I was familiar with the name but not the concept. Sage's wonderful orthodontist recommended NAET for her and we also have friends who tried it.

I knew almost nothing about it but i loved the concept...eliminate allergies forever. If it worked it would mean no limited diets for Micah or me, no more creams or medications...no more eczema!

After perusing the NAET website I found that there are a dozen or so practitioners in the Boulder area. For a week i emailed back and forth with my chosen practitioner's office. I discovered that she was only in Boulder every other month or so (she practices in 2 other states as well) and wouldn't be returning to CO until the end of March. I didn't feel like we could wait that long as Micah was getting worse. Also I didn't think I could hold out much longer. By this point it had been 2 months of sleepless nights with Micah, my house was a pigsty because I held Micah all day, Sage and Shane were being neglected...I was a mess.

When I mentioned it to my mom she told me about a practicioner that her good friend Dorothy visits. In fact, she's been seeing him for almost 4 years! He lives 1.5 hours from my parents so I decided to call him. I instantly loved him. Dr. Stevenson is almost 70 years old. He lives in the country and has a twangy Virginia accent. He told me that he would see me 7 days a week and told me that he would bend over backwards to help Micah. He explained that he became an NAET practitioner when his wife Margaret was stricken by mercury poisoning over 10 years ago. He was able to get her better with NAET and he's been helping people ever since. He told me that 4 years he retired for a wek but he had to come back because there were just too many people he can help. Needless to say I was impressed by his willingness to help and by his claim that he worked because he loved it.

I decided that it would be best to go to VA, stay with my parents (blessed relief!!) and get Micah treated by Dr. Stevenson. So my wonderful mom flew to CO, spent a day cleaning up my house, doing my laundry and then turned around and flew back to VA with us.

I began this blog because no mama should have to watch her baby suffer with eczema. I am documenting our NAET experience so that other moms can read it and know their options and know that there is hope.