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A Mom’s Search for Childhood Eczema Relief · Skinquiries

0:01
Speaker 1: It destroys your heart to see your child constantly non
0:05
Speaker 1: stop rubbing, itching, scratching. And we did these things called
0:08
Speaker 1: wet wrapping, where you take a bath in lukewarm water
0:10
Speaker 1: and then you wear like slightly damp clothes on the
0:13
Speaker 1: skin and then a dry layer with moisture underneath. It
0:15
Speaker 1: can help with itching and the moisture. It's amazing. But
0:18
Speaker 1: trying to do that with like a two two and
0:20
Speaker 1: a half year old, like, it's not.
0:22
Speaker 2: Comfortable, it stinks, it's not fun.
0:25
Speaker 1: So I'd put on TV and he'd be like a
0:27
Speaker 1: little zombie and his little wraps staring at the TV,
0:30
Speaker 1: and like I was, like, what is happening.
0:32
Speaker 3: If you're a parent, you want to believe that when
0:35
Speaker 3: your child is going through something difficult, you'll know what
0:38
Speaker 3: to do. But when your child is living with an
0:41
Speaker 3: uncomfortable skin condition, there may not be one clear answer.
0:46
Speaker 3: Care can become many things. It can become this constant
0:50
Speaker 3: process of watching, of researching, adjusting, and then wondering whether
0:55
Speaker 3: you're making the right decision for someone who may not
0:58
Speaker 3: even have the words to tell you what they're feeling. Hello, friends,
1:05
Speaker 3: and welcome or welcome back to skin querries. This is
1:10
Speaker 3: a show about skin, but it's really a show about people.
1:14
Speaker 3: Because skin health, as we know, doesn't exist in a vacuum.
1:18
Speaker 3: It shapes how we're seeing. It shapes how we see
1:21
Speaker 3: ourselves and our experiences of confidence, identity, community, and care.
1:27
Speaker 3: I'm your host, Dylan Maren. Today we're looking at ezema
1:36
Speaker 3: through the eyes of a caregiver, because ezema's impact can
1:40
Speaker 3: extend far beyond the person who is living with it,
1:44
Speaker 3: and when that person is your child, care can become
1:48
Speaker 3: all consuming. You're trying to protect their confidence. You're trying
1:52
Speaker 3: to make the right decisions. You want to help them
1:54
Speaker 3: feel safe in a body that may not always feel comfortable.
1:58
Speaker 3: In short, hard My guest today is Jennifer Robert, founder
2:04
Speaker 3: of the Exema Company and mom to Tristan and Chloe.
2:09
Speaker 3: Jennifer's son Tristan began experiencing ezema before he was old
2:13
Speaker 3: enough to explain what he was feeling, which meant Jennifer
2:16
Speaker 3: was often left trying to interpret it for him. Unlike
2:20
Speaker 3: so many parents, she was expected to keep making decisions
2:24
Speaker 3: even when the answers were unclear and nothing seemed to
2:27
Speaker 3: bring lasting relief. Caring for Tristan became a constant balancing act.
2:33
Speaker 3: She was trying to keep him comfortable while still letting
2:36
Speaker 3: him be a kid, making the right decisions for someone
2:39
Speaker 3: she loved more than anything, and living with the helplessness
2:44
Speaker 3: of not being able to just take away his discomfort.
2:48
Speaker 3: But Jennifer met that uncertainty head on. Whenever she could,
2:52
Speaker 3: she looked for a way forward and eventually created the
2:55
Speaker 3: kind of resource she wished her own family had when
2:59
Speaker 3: they were struggling to find answers themselves. Before we really
3:03
Speaker 3: get into it, let's go back to the start. When
3:05
Speaker 3: Jennifer first noticed Tristan's skin a few days after he was.
3:09
Speaker 1: Born, his skin just wasn't that soft, baby smooth skin
3:15
Speaker 1: that you imagine.
3:16
Speaker 2: I was a little bit bumpy, it was a little
3:18
Speaker 2: bit rough in places.
3:19
Speaker 1: He had definitely had some baby acne, and it was
3:22
Speaker 1: just rougher than I thought. And it started to spread
3:25
Speaker 1: across his body a little bit, like in the creases
3:27
Speaker 1: the folds of his skin. This is like a common
3:29
Speaker 1: area to get eggzema, especially in babies. And you just
3:32
Speaker 1: started to get more rashy, and it seemed a little
3:34
Speaker 1: bit uncomfortable, a little bit of like a round, kind
3:37
Speaker 1: of discoyed coin looking egzema on his creases, and the
3:41
Speaker 1: next baby checkup we went to with the pediatrician, I
3:44
Speaker 1: asked what it was and she told me it was ezema.
3:46
Speaker 1: And I had never dealt with ezema, so it was
3:48
Speaker 1: a bit surprising to me. She just was like, well,
3:52
Speaker 1: it's really easy to do with You can take topical
3:54
Speaker 1: cordzone if you want. And I think at that point
3:56
Speaker 1: we didn't bother because it was pretty mild, but it
3:59
Speaker 1: was a proper digno. So then we knew what it was.
4:01
Speaker 3: Did that give peace a little to at least like
4:04
Speaker 3: know what it was?
4:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit. We started using skincare on him.
4:08
Speaker 1: I mean a baby, you don't necessarily need to use
4:10
Speaker 1: much or anything in most cases, but in that situation,
4:13
Speaker 1: we started using some cream that we bought in the store.
4:16
Speaker 2: We tried natural.
4:17
Speaker 1: Bombs and it helped a little bit. That was probably
4:20
Speaker 1: around he was three months old. I would say around
4:22
Speaker 1: eighteen months is when things really flared up. And at
4:25
Speaker 1: that time, the creams and everything just weren't working for him.
4:30
Speaker 3: Would you mind telling me about that flare up? What
4:33
Speaker 3: that looked like.
4:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, when when he was about eighteen months old,
4:37
Speaker 1: it started to spread and it got really really red
4:39
Speaker 1: and rashy.
4:40
Speaker 2: He would get it really bad around his wrists.
4:42
Speaker 1: And he would just like scratch and rub and you
4:46
Speaker 1: could just tell he was really uncomfortable, and it was
4:49
Speaker 1: what do we do?
4:50
Speaker 2: You know, like, I guess it's time.
4:52
Speaker 1: At that point, we decided to try the steroids because
4:54
Speaker 1: it was recommended by the doctors. So we tried the
4:57
Speaker 1: topple of steroids and it helps for a few and
5:00
Speaker 1: then you have to, of course come off them for
5:02
Speaker 1: a time period to give your skin a break from
5:04
Speaker 1: the medication, and it would come back and it would
5:08
Speaker 1: be worse every time. At some point, I think it
5:12
Speaker 1: was around when he was three, we were on a
5:14
Speaker 1: very strong dose and he had scratched himself really bad
5:19
Speaker 1: when he was out on the playground and he gave
5:21
Speaker 1: himself an infection and he just like flew up. It
5:25
Speaker 1: was just like red, rashy skin everywhere, and he looked
5:29
Speaker 1: so terrible. You know. You take him out to the
5:32
Speaker 1: parks and people stare and they look at you and
5:36
Speaker 1: they all try to like they either avoid you because
5:38
Speaker 1: they're scared they're going to catch whatever it is, or
5:41
Speaker 1: they come up to you with a million different ways
5:43
Speaker 1: to provide advice on different things, to try to help,
5:46
Speaker 1: you know, and they're doing it out of love and help.
5:48
Speaker 1: But it's horrible. Yea. You know, you feel like the
5:52
Speaker 1: worst parent in the world, not being able to help
5:55
Speaker 1: your child and to have them be in this really
5:57
Speaker 1: uncomfortable situation and then to have everyone and you feel
6:01
Speaker 1: very judged.
6:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, very judged, of course. Of course. So Tristan is
6:06
Speaker 3: like a baby when this is first happening. Babies famously
6:10
Speaker 3: don't speak, can't speak. So how did it feel to
6:15
Speaker 3: be caring for this person who couldn't really articulate what
6:20
Speaker 3: they were going through? What did that feel like as
6:22
Speaker 3: a parent? How are you doing emotionally as a parent?
6:27
Speaker 2: Oh? I totally ignored myself? Are you kidding? That's the
6:30
Speaker 2: worst possible thing.
6:31
Speaker 3: You do, which everyone says the smart thing to do
6:34
Speaker 3: is just fullygnore yourself. Don't put your oxygen mask on
6:38
Speaker 3: at all. Oh I know, tell me how you were
6:40
Speaker 3: not putting on your oxygen mask.
6:43
Speaker 2: Well, I was, you know, beside myself with worry.
6:46
Speaker 1: It was really really hard to feel like, how do
6:49
Speaker 1: we help this little person that I am responsible for
6:51
Speaker 1: and that I love, and like I just can't bear
6:53
Speaker 1: to see them suffer. I was like staying up till
6:56
Speaker 1: two and three in the morning researching products to help him,
6:59
Speaker 1: and like contacting people and like lifelines, just throwing them
7:03
Speaker 1: out and buying products from other countries. The other thing
7:07
Speaker 1: that really was hard is as his skin got worse
7:10
Speaker 1: and worse, and we were trying to figure out what
7:12
Speaker 1: to do.
7:13
Speaker 2: I have a husband.
7:14
Speaker 1: At one point I started questioning the topical steroids because
7:18
Speaker 1: at some point you're like, well, how long do I
7:21
Speaker 1: continue this? He's like two and we're like one of
7:24
Speaker 1: the maximum doses for topical you know. I started to
7:27
Speaker 1: get really worried about that. So my husband and I
7:29
Speaker 1: started to argue about his treatment and his care, which
7:32
Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of people can you know, also
7:34
Speaker 1: can relate to this when they have a child that's sick.
7:36
Speaker 1: In any way, you don't always agree with your spouse
7:39
Speaker 1: and like who decides? And I was like a bull
7:42
Speaker 1: with this. I went after it and I just was
7:44
Speaker 1: I told my husband I did not think it was
7:47
Speaker 1: the answer.
7:47
Speaker 2: My intuition was telling me it was just not right
7:50
Speaker 2: for him.
7:50
Speaker 1: I think it can help a lot of people, but
7:52
Speaker 1: for my son, something else was going on, and my
7:54
Speaker 1: husband was very upset, and so I.
7:57
Speaker 2: Kind of was like, well, let's try it my way
7:59
Speaker 2: for a little while.
8:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, your way is.
8:01
Speaker 2: Not working anymore, you know. And that was hard for him.
8:05
Speaker 1: And there was a time where I just didn't I
8:08
Speaker 1: didn't know if we were going to stay married. I
8:09
Speaker 1: was so like, couldn't believe he was on that side
8:12
Speaker 1: and I was on this side. And I was like,
8:14
Speaker 1: this would be easier if I left him and ran
8:15
Speaker 1: away with a child to like do this. Yeah, I
8:19
Speaker 1: don't need with all the stress going on, I need
8:22
Speaker 1: his support.
8:23
Speaker 2: And that was really hard. I felt like, who is
8:25
Speaker 2: this person that doesn't agree with me?
8:28
Speaker 3: Yeah. It's also one of those tricky moments where you're
8:31
Speaker 3: just like two parents and what you undeniably share in
8:35
Speaker 3: common is that you want what's best for your son. Yeah,
8:38
Speaker 3: And it is destabilizing when two people who only want
8:43
Speaker 3: the best for the same person can disagree about that.
8:45
Speaker 3: I totally get that. So I'm so aware that I'm
8:51
Speaker 3: asking you to relive some really really hard times, But
8:55
Speaker 3: can you share with me, like, what was like the
8:58
Speaker 3: lowest point?
9:00
Speaker 1: I would say it was when Tristram was probably two
9:03
Speaker 1: two and a half and I had just had a
9:05
Speaker 1: second baby, so you know, second babies don't sleep very well.
9:10
Speaker 1: Then I had my son that wasn't sleeping well, and
9:12
Speaker 1: my husband and I were taking turns sleeping with him
9:15
Speaker 1: because we had to hold his arms down so he
9:18
Speaker 1: didn't scratch himself to bleeding and stain his sheets and
9:21
Speaker 1: rip his skin open in the night. So we were
9:24
Speaker 1: taking turns, and I just wasn't, you know, I've been
9:27
Speaker 1: getting enough sleep. His skin was it had finally reached
9:30
Speaker 1: it was pretty much full body, and it was coming up.
9:33
Speaker 1: It was starting to show in his face and he
9:34
Speaker 1: was completely covered and he looked like a bird victim.
9:37
Speaker 2: And he was suffering. And so we're suffering because.
9:40
Speaker 1: You just it destroys your heart to see your child
9:43
Speaker 1: like constantly non stop rubbing, itching, scratching. And we did
9:47
Speaker 1: these things called wet wrapping, where you take a bath
9:50
Speaker 1: and lukewarm water and then you wear like slightly damp
9:52
Speaker 1: clothes on the skin and then a dry layer with
9:55
Speaker 1: moisture underneath, and trying to do that. It's like a
9:57
Speaker 1: great intense therapy when your skin is like horrific, right,
10:00
Speaker 1: it can help so much.
10:02
Speaker 2: It can help with itching and the moisture, it's amazing.
10:04
Speaker 1: But trying to do that with like a two two
10:06
Speaker 1: and a half year old, it's not comfortable.
10:09
Speaker 2: It stinks, like it's not fun.
10:11
Speaker 1: So I'd put on TV and he'd be like a
10:13
Speaker 1: little zombie in his little rap staring at the TV
10:16
Speaker 1: and like I was like, what is happening?
10:18
Speaker 2: How is this going on?
10:19
Speaker 1: And you have to do it every like two to
10:21
Speaker 1: four hours with a newborn, and like fighting with my
10:24
Speaker 1: husband and like late night trying to figure out what
10:27
Speaker 1: to do for your child. It was it was really hard.
10:30
Speaker 1: It was really, really, really hard. So that was my
10:33
Speaker 1: low point. I called remember calling this like nurse someone
10:36
Speaker 1: had recommended it some like exzema clinic.
10:39
Speaker 2: I'm in Montreal.
10:40
Speaker 1: This is in like San Francisco, And I was like
10:42
Speaker 1: crying to her. I was like what do I do?
10:45
Speaker 1: I can't see you, Like is there any way you
10:47
Speaker 1: can see us? Can we come see you? Like can
10:49
Speaker 1: you give me some advice? On the phone, Like I
10:50
Speaker 1: don't know what to do. Nothing's working. And I had
10:53
Speaker 1: a closet full of skincare that you've tried, and like
10:56
Speaker 1: half of them burn him because it's like a lot
10:59
Speaker 1: of the lotion and creams if you're dealing with like
11:01
Speaker 1: open skin, you know, if you have a cut and
11:04
Speaker 1: you put on anything like a lotion that's got any
11:06
Speaker 1: bit of alcohol of any kind, it would burn.
11:09
Speaker 2: So he's like running away.
11:10
Speaker 1: From me half the time and I'm like trying to
11:12
Speaker 1: put on cream.
11:13
Speaker 2: And this is on top of normal parenting. Yeah right,
11:16
Speaker 2: you know.
11:16
Speaker 3: Oh, this isn't even getting to all the challenges that. Yeah,
11:20
Speaker 3: come wow, okay, this is a lot. How were you
11:29
Speaker 3: managing his symptoms day to day?
11:32
Speaker 1: So when things got really severe, we had those mittens
11:34
Speaker 1: and those were really helpful. They're like sleeves, so they
11:36
Speaker 1: can't take them off easily. So we travel with those mittens.
11:40
Speaker 1: He would wear those at night, he would wear them
11:42
Speaker 1: in the day when he needed them. He gets this
11:44
Speaker 1: like he would zone out in his eyes. I called
11:46
Speaker 1: it like his itch trance, you know, And so it's like,
11:48
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, whip out the mittens, put them on,
11:51
Speaker 1: and then just like you know, he can't play super
11:53
Speaker 1: well with them. So it's a little weird and awkward,
11:55
Speaker 1: and like his fun time at the park starts to
11:57
Speaker 1: not be as fun. Yeah, we were doing wet wrapping
11:59
Speaker 1: on a cane as not too much, because it actually,
12:02
Speaker 1: weirdly enough, can dry out your skin if you do
12:04
Speaker 1: it too much, which is counterintuitive, but whatever, it is.
12:07
Speaker 2: What it is.
12:08
Speaker 3: You're holding all of these rules in your head at
12:10
Speaker 3: the same time.
12:11
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, yes, and we were definitely doing you know,
12:14
Speaker 1: morning skincare, afternoon skincare, evening skincare. Yeah, So chasing him
12:21
Speaker 1: around with skincare is like the main thing, and then
12:23
Speaker 1: just following him around all the time, watching him so
12:25
Speaker 1: it doesn't scratch.
12:26
Speaker 2: I can't tell you how many times I would say,
12:28
Speaker 2: don't scratch.
12:28
Speaker 3: Don't scratch like that, and then it's like also is
12:31
Speaker 3: like a kid developing normal like instincts, which is like
12:35
Speaker 3: you both listen to your parent and you also want
12:38
Speaker 3: to disobey your parent in all the normal ways. So
12:42
Speaker 3: it's like, if you're saying, don't scratch, you know, guess
12:44
Speaker 3: what I want to do, right, No, I want to scratch.
12:47
Speaker 1: Yeah. And it's a reminder too, you know, like oh yeah,
12:51
Speaker 1: like oh scratch, Oh I could scratch right right.
12:54
Speaker 3: It's in the way that a smoke and anti smoking
12:58
Speaker 3: commercial some say is a smoking commercial. Yeah, this is
13:02
Speaker 3: your no scratch PSA.
13:03
Speaker 2: There you go.
13:04
Speaker 3: This sounds like a very lonely position for you as
13:09
Speaker 3: a parent. How did you channel this into.
13:12
Speaker 1: Something Well, I didn't have a local group, so I
13:15
Speaker 1: reached out online. I started to see that there were
13:18
Speaker 1: other parents that were setting up some blogs around ezema
13:21
Speaker 1: and food allergies, and I was like, okay, well I
13:25
Speaker 1: can try and like tell my story and like that's
13:28
Speaker 1: when I started the blog.
13:29
Speaker 2: And it was amazing. So it was like journaling, right.
13:33
Speaker 1: We created this little like group of parents supporting each other,
13:36
Speaker 1: and it was amazing.
13:37
Speaker 2: I got so many comments about, oh my gosh, this is.
13:39
Speaker 1: The same story and I know what you're going through,
13:42
Speaker 1: and a lot of them were bloggers and some were
13:43
Speaker 1: just parents.
13:44
Speaker 3: Yeah.
13:44
Speaker 1: Like, I just poured my heart out. I did very
13:46
Speaker 1: little editing. It was really not well done, but I
13:49
Speaker 1: just like laid it out and people connected with it
13:51
Speaker 1: and it became kind of like this support group of
13:54
Speaker 1: other moms and it was amazing and we became friends
13:57
Speaker 1: and it was really really helpful just to get it
14:00
Speaker 1: off my chest and to have some other people that
14:02
Speaker 1: you were listening and that cared and got it. Yeah.
14:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're making me also very nostalgic for the early
14:08
Speaker 3: twenty tens vlogosphere. It was so sweet. There was so
14:12
Speaker 3: much we didn't know at the time, you know, and
14:15
Speaker 3: it was like, yeah, this is what the internet is.
14:17
Speaker 3: We write about our feelings and then we find community.
14:20
Speaker 3: It's really there's no butt here. It is just beautiful.
14:23
Speaker 3: That's really cool. So then you kind of took a
14:26
Speaker 3: pretty big shift and you decided to take a much
14:30
Speaker 3: more holistic approach. You wanted to see the whole person,
14:34
Speaker 3: the whole system, the whole child. Talk to me about
14:39
Speaker 3: what made you want to take that approach and what
14:42
Speaker 3: that led to.
14:43
Speaker 2: I didn't grow up that way, that's for sure. That
14:45
Speaker 2: was kind of a new idea to me. I grew
14:46
Speaker 2: up on the typical.
14:47
Speaker 1: American diet and like all the typical things so holistic,
14:53
Speaker 1: like homeopath nature path like what is that? Like you
14:57
Speaker 1: don't know what that is? And is that okay? And
14:59
Speaker 1: I discovered it because of my mother in law, and
15:02
Speaker 1: she was she had helped herself over the years with
15:04
Speaker 1: a lot of different like ailments, especially digestive and so
15:08
Speaker 1: she from the beginning was like handing me natural creams
15:11
Speaker 1: and stuff and we tried and like she would keep
15:13
Speaker 1: bringing things like certain bath products that were natural. You know,
15:16
Speaker 1: she knew things weren't going well, and she knew that
15:19
Speaker 1: we didn't really know where to go, and she encouraged
15:23
Speaker 1: me to go to this natural store near my house,
15:25
Speaker 1: and I happened to speak to a nature a path
15:28
Speaker 1: who was working at the store, so I explained what
15:32
Speaker 1: was going on, and she was like, there's some supplements
15:34
Speaker 1: you can use to like boost the immune system, because
15:37
Speaker 1: you know, with ekzema, it's you can have a lot
15:39
Speaker 1: of different things triggering it. But what a lot of
15:41
Speaker 1: people don't realize is that you know, food can damage
15:43
Speaker 1: you can have like a well, now we know leaky
15:45
Speaker 1: gut is a big contributor of a lot of different
15:47
Speaker 1: health issues, including egzima. And I just had hurt so
15:50
Speaker 1: many parents that had had really great results eliminating certain
15:54
Speaker 1: foods from the diet.
15:55
Speaker 2: So I've decided to do.
15:56
Speaker 1: The top common food allergens and so you eliminate all
16:00
Speaker 1: those and it's pretty hard, I mean, because you know
16:03
Speaker 1: they're common things, you know, like wheat, soy, dairy fish, shellfish,
16:08
Speaker 1: all the nuts, all the all the you know, you know,
16:11
Speaker 1: there's like and they're in everything, right.
16:12
Speaker 3: All the things that you feed kids. Yeah, right now.
16:15
Speaker 1: He was three, I think when we started doing the
16:17
Speaker 1: elimination diets, and it's like, oh, I can't do that
16:20
Speaker 1: to my child, like all the things he's going through.
16:24
Speaker 2: He loves his pasta and.
16:25
Speaker 1: His bread, Like how can I Like, what else is
16:28
Speaker 1: he gonna eat? You know, It's like after all the
16:30
Speaker 1: things are gone. There were a lot of fresh fruit
16:33
Speaker 1: and vegetables we cut out too, because I took out
16:35
Speaker 1: all the red stuff because a lot of people have
16:37
Speaker 1: trouble with red things.
16:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, this drags out, right.
16:40
Speaker 1: This is why it's dangerous to do it when you
16:41
Speaker 1: don't have a doctor or a nutrition is helping you.
16:45
Speaker 2: Right, But I did it.
16:46
Speaker 1: I pulled off the band aid and two days later
16:49
Speaker 1: he was like ninety eight percent better.
16:51
Speaker 3: Oh my god, it was really that quick. It was
16:54
Speaker 3: that wow.
16:55
Speaker 1: So we added the food back in slowly over a
16:58
Speaker 1: two week intro period, and several of the foods, probably
17:02
Speaker 1: like four out of the eight, triggered his skin to react.
17:05
Speaker 1: So then you have to kind of go back a
17:07
Speaker 1: few days and wait, take it out again, wait a
17:09
Speaker 1: few days, and then try the other one. So it's
17:12
Speaker 1: really long, and that's why it's so hard for a
17:14
Speaker 1: lot of people. It can be several different foods, it
17:16
Speaker 1: can be like detergent, it can be like one hundred
17:19
Speaker 1: different things.
17:19
Speaker 2: And so you just don't always find them all.
17:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we got lucky figuring that out because it
17:24
Speaker 1: was like night and day.
17:29
Speaker 3: Okay, we have finally come to the big moment of
17:34
Speaker 3: the triggers. I feel like we should add a sound
17:37
Speaker 3: effect there.
17:39
Speaker 2: Yeah. Dr oh that was terrible.
17:42
Speaker 3: No, no, no, I want the drum roll, I want
17:44
Speaker 3: the trumpets, I want I don't know, a big fanfare. Okay,
17:50
Speaker 3: so we have reached it. It is the triggers, Jennifer,
17:54
Speaker 3: What are Tristan's exema triggers?
17:57
Speaker 1: So we figured out birch so birch pollen, which is
18:00
Speaker 1: just something most people don't think about, pollen being related
18:03
Speaker 1: to egzema so birch. Then he had wheat, dairy, soy corn,
18:10
Speaker 1: the red stuff.
18:11
Speaker 2: That's why I remember them.
18:12
Speaker 1: He didn't really react to nuts that we knew of
18:16
Speaker 1: at the time. But then because he wasn't I mean dairy,
18:19
Speaker 1: he started having almond milk and he still was itchy
18:21
Speaker 1: a little bit, and my mom.
18:23
Speaker 2: Was like, what's the milk you're giving him now? And
18:25
Speaker 2: I was like, almond and.
18:26
Speaker 1: It was that, so we took that out.
18:28
Speaker 2: Whoa.
18:28
Speaker 1: So it was just like, oh my gosh, what can
18:30
Speaker 1: this kid eat? So that was mostly it.
18:32
Speaker 3: Wheat, dairy, soy corn, Jennifer, that is no joke. That's
18:37
Speaker 3: like a holy quad yeah of food.
18:40
Speaker 2: There's a lot of kids that they're like mortified of
18:42
Speaker 2: their allergies.
18:43
Speaker 1: He would be so scared to like eat his allergy
18:47
Speaker 1: free cupcake that didn't make his skin flare and they
18:49
Speaker 1: wouldn't have a reaction. He would literally hide in the
18:52
Speaker 1: corner at a party and like hide himself and eat it.
18:56
Speaker 1: And I caught him so many times it just killed me.
18:58
Speaker 1: I was just like, are you kidding what? This poor child?
19:00
Speaker 1: Like just breaks your heart to see them like hiding,
19:03
Speaker 1: They're hiding from everybody.
19:05
Speaker 3: It was awful what this is now, I'm I'm just curious.
19:09
Speaker 3: What were you feeding him?
19:11
Speaker 2: Oh boy?
19:12
Speaker 1: Oh, we did things like the Gaps diet and the
19:15
Speaker 1: Paleo diet and all that stuff. So it was like
19:16
Speaker 1: heavy on like meats and organ meats and bros and
19:20
Speaker 1: all the things at it too. And well four year
19:22
Speaker 1: old at the time loves let me tell you, like
19:25
Speaker 1: broth drinking broth.
19:26
Speaker 3: She was so ahead of his time. Like now I
19:30
Speaker 3: feel like there are communities that that's what they live by.
19:33
Speaker 3: You know, he was he was really cutting a new
19:35
Speaker 3: path for everyone with that.
19:37
Speaker 2: But imagine going to a birthday party with like a and.
19:40
Speaker 3: You're like, I'm eating broth.
19:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, like yeah, and like your cupcake is not really
19:45
Speaker 1: a cup this is my broth cakes.
19:47
Speaker 2: It's terrible. That's why in the corner.
19:50
Speaker 3: All cupcakes are cupcakes. No, we support all cupcakes. That
19:56
Speaker 3: sounds really complicated, but I can also imagine. I can
20:00
Speaker 3: imagine that you started feeling relief when you had this
20:03
Speaker 3: list of triggers that you knew.
20:05
Speaker 1: And justified because my husband hadn't been supporting me and
20:08
Speaker 1: now he thanks me. I we'll say, like we he
20:10
Speaker 1: was very fair and he said, yep, that was that worked.
20:14
Speaker 2: Like he was skeptical and he had.
20:15
Speaker 1: To do it too, so he was not Yeah, he
20:17
Speaker 1: wanted to support my son, so he didn't want to
20:19
Speaker 1: do it, but he did and it came out great.
20:21
Speaker 3: So Jennifer's redemption is another ault for this episode. And listen,
20:26
Speaker 3: that's the that's the tale we can write together.
20:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
20:30
Speaker 3: When did you kind of like start to finally breathe easier.
20:34
Speaker 3: When did things start to feel manageable?
20:37
Speaker 1: I mean, I would say as soon as he was
20:40
Speaker 1: like his skins started healing, like within two days, it
20:43
Speaker 1: was like, oh my goodness, you feel justified and the
20:46
Speaker 1: crazy kind of crazy things you feel like you went
20:48
Speaker 1: through and did and it's like, okay, Like he starts
20:52
Speaker 1: to skins better, he's itching like not much anymore. I
20:57
Speaker 1: think part of it becomes habitual, right, So I noticed
20:59
Speaker 1: it for a while, still kind of like going into
21:02
Speaker 1: an itch when he wasn't really itchy.
21:04
Speaker 2: So that was really interesting. I would catch him and
21:06
Speaker 2: be like, are you actually itchy?
21:08
Speaker 1: You know?
21:08
Speaker 2: And most of the time.
21:09
Speaker 3: No, yeh, that's hard, but it's all he knew.
21:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, it becomes a habit. It's they call it the
21:15
Speaker 2: it's scratch cycle.
21:16
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've heard that before, but it's
21:18
Speaker 1: like you you get itchy, so you scratch, and then
21:21
Speaker 1: you when you scratch, it makes you itchy. So it's
21:24
Speaker 1: like it's like because you're ecertating your skin. So it's
21:26
Speaker 1: like a non stop thing. And if that's all he's known.
21:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, So where is Tristan's ezema today?
21:34
Speaker 2: He gets flare ups in the spring with birch.
21:37
Speaker 1: So like if he goes outside for a run and
21:39
Speaker 1: he's not wearing pants and his skin is exposed, he
21:42
Speaker 1: will get super itchy. And then he also still reacts
21:46
Speaker 1: from the ocean. He would get the same place again
21:49
Speaker 1: behind the knees and sometimes in the creases here and
21:52
Speaker 1: he would get really itchy. And what we discovered helps
21:55
Speaker 1: is creams or like bombs with zinc in it.
21:58
Speaker 2: It created like a barrier he could go.
21:59
Speaker 1: In the ocean. It also kind of helped with inflammation.
22:03
Speaker 1: And usually if we did it every time before he
22:05
Speaker 1: went in the ocean, he was fine.
22:07
Speaker 3: Wow.
22:07
Speaker 1: But those are the two that still to this day
22:09
Speaker 1: bother him. But I would say on the day to
22:11
Speaker 1: day basis, he does not have egzema. His skin is
22:13
Speaker 1: smooth and his skin is beautiful.
22:15
Speaker 3: Oh wow, this is such a turnaround. So looking back,
22:21
Speaker 3: how has this experience changed your family?
22:25
Speaker 1: So one of the things I like to say about
22:28
Speaker 1: our experience with egzema is that it was a bit
22:30
Speaker 1: of a blessing in disguise because it created a healthy
22:33
Speaker 1: opportunity for our family.
22:35
Speaker 2: We eat whole foods with simple.
22:37
Speaker 1: Ingredients and like clean eating, and I think that's been
22:40
Speaker 1: a huge part of what's helped Tristan with this when
22:44
Speaker 1: his skin improved all the way up to now right,
22:46
Speaker 1: like and he's very conscious now of like how he eats,
22:49
Speaker 1: Like he knows we have fun and we eat JOHNK
22:51
Speaker 1: everybody does, but like we try as much as possible
22:54
Speaker 1: to stay.
22:54
Speaker 2: On this clean diet.
22:55
Speaker 1: And I think that's really really helped him and his
22:57
Speaker 1: body in his immune system fight all of this off
22:59
Speaker 1: and like recover and be Okay.
23:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's so cool. And now I now is really
23:05
Speaker 3: when the sound effects come in. You started the Ezema
23:11
Speaker 3: Company to help other families. Obviously the catalyst is what
23:16
Speaker 3: you went through with Tristan, But was there something that
23:19
Speaker 3: happened that you were like, I need to make something
23:22
Speaker 3: for families who are dealing with this.
23:24
Speaker 1: I just remember being like, you know, during my darkest
23:27
Speaker 1: point when I called that nurse and I was up
23:29
Speaker 1: to like two four in the morning buying these crazy products.
23:32
Speaker 1: I think somebody cheer to link with me in one
23:33
Speaker 1: of these like deep dark forums you're like finding in
23:36
Speaker 1: the middle of the night, and you know, one person
23:39
Speaker 1: had said it worked, it was like worked for them overnight, and.
23:42
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my gosh, oh whoa.
23:43
Speaker 1: I got to try this product and I go to
23:45
Speaker 1: the website and you can't read anything. It's just gibberish
23:47
Speaker 1: because it's all in check and I don't speak check.
23:51
Speaker 1: And I was like impossible trying to even navigate, Like
23:54
Speaker 1: to try to get to the product page was even tough,
23:57
Speaker 1: you know, because like.
23:57
Speaker 2: What do you click?
23:58
Speaker 1: God, this is before like right click Google Translate, you know.
24:02
Speaker 2: So somehow I did it, I don't know how.
24:05
Speaker 1: And it arrived and it was just not want want product,
24:08
Speaker 1: Like nothing exciting. So why is it so hard? Why
24:12
Speaker 1: is it so hard to find these things? And I
24:14
Speaker 1: was really overwhelmed, and I had spent thousands of dollars
24:17
Speaker 1: on skincare. Like you ask anybody with exzema to open
24:20
Speaker 1: up their like cupboard and their bathrooms. It's full, it's full,
24:25
Speaker 1: and it's like, we waste so much money. And like
24:27
Speaker 1: what I've learned with my son and everyone that I've
24:30
Speaker 1: ever talked to you is like the one thing that
24:32
Speaker 1: works for you, it is not necessarily going to work
24:35
Speaker 1: for me. Like everybody's triggers are different, everybody's skin likes
24:38
Speaker 1: different things, so it's like, well, let's make it easier.
24:41
Speaker 1: Let's make it easier for parents, because like they shouldn't
24:44
Speaker 1: have to go through what I went through. Like it
24:45
Speaker 1: was crazy, it was awful, it was the hardest thing,
24:48
Speaker 1: and I just I didn't want anybody to have to
24:49
Speaker 1: go through that. And originally it was for parents, like
24:51
Speaker 1: it was really heavily built geared towards parents. But funny enough,
24:55
Speaker 1: like I have, I think the majority of my shoppers
24:57
Speaker 1: are like adults for their own skin now, so that's great.
25:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, So it's a centralized location for people to find care.
25:05
Speaker 3: What do you wish people understood about childhood eczema and
25:09
Speaker 3: also what goes on behind the scenes for the families
25:12
Speaker 3: dealing with it.
25:13
Speaker 1: I would definitely say, you know, back to that question
25:14
Speaker 1: about how did you care for yourself?
25:16
Speaker 2: And I was like, I didn't that. Let's talk about
25:18
Speaker 2: that because I don't.
25:19
Speaker 1: That's something that's always been really important to me looking back,
25:22
Speaker 1: and like how I did not treat myself with kindness
25:25
Speaker 1: and how I did not get the support and so
25:26
Speaker 1: I needed it. And then it was just it was
25:28
Speaker 1: tough and it's dark times. You may not be getting
25:31
Speaker 1: along with your husband, you know, it could be a
25:33
Speaker 1: lot of fighting nobody's sleeping, and it's like really taking
25:36
Speaker 1: care of yourself, and I didn't. It was like all
25:38
Speaker 1: about my son, and I just was like all worried
25:41
Speaker 1: all the time, making myself sick.
25:43
Speaker 2: Like that's not the way you can't You can't.
25:46
Speaker 1: Provide enough support for your child if you don't take
25:49
Speaker 1: care of yourself. So I eventually did, but also hit
25:52
Speaker 1: a really dark, dark place, a rock bottom. And I
25:56
Speaker 1: think that nobody has to go through that. So take
25:58
Speaker 1: care of yourself and reach out from your physicians, from
26:02
Speaker 1: friend's family and all of that, because it's really depressing. Yeah,
26:06
Speaker 1: it's really depressing not be able to help your child
26:08
Speaker 1: and seeing.
26:08
Speaker 3: The court shopper of course. Well, Jennifer, thank you so
26:11
Speaker 3: much for talking to me today. It was such a
26:13
Speaker 3: pleasure to get to know you and hear more about
26:15
Speaker 3: your story.
26:16
Speaker 2: Thank you. Yeah, I enjoyed the time we had together
26:19
Speaker 2: and me too. I hope that it helps. I hope
26:21
Speaker 2: that it helps some people going through this.
26:23
Speaker 3: I'm sure it will. Thank you so much for joining
26:29
Speaker 3: us for Jennifer's story. There is still so much more
26:33
Speaker 3: to come this season, but until then, may we care
26:36
Speaker 3: for ourselves with the same tenderness we give the people
26:40
Speaker 3: we love. Skin Quarries is a production of Ruby's Studio
26:45
Speaker 3: from iHeartMedia. Our producer is reem Al mcgrabi, project lead
26:49
Speaker 3: as Maria Saint Alban and sound designer is Sam Seget.
26:53
Speaker 3: I'm Dylan Maren. We will see you next time
27:00
Speaker 1: You