Update on Burt's Bees for Eczema

Not too long ago, I posted about how I have started using Burt's Bees Apricot oil for Gus's eczema. Now that I've been able to observe the results for a couple of weeks, I wanted to point out a couple of things.

It seems to work really well for mild to moderate cases of eczema. For more severe cases, it does help and has greatly lessened the latest flareup, but there is still a little bit of a rash trying to take hold. So my guess is that I'll be using the steroid cream, but much less than I normally would.

Another interesting thing I'm noticing is that the parts of Gus that have been covered at night (i.e. his legs since he's been wearing long pajamas with short-sleeved pj shirts) are doing better than the uncovered parts - arms and hands in MM's case. For Gus at least, this presents a slight problem, because the hotter he gets, the worse the rashes get, so I can't cover his arms as it gets warmer. Pretty soon, he'll be wearing shorts as well, so I'm curious to see how the backs of his legs do then.

I still stand by my opinion that the apricot oil is working better than anything else we've tried, but it does have its limitations.

Burt's Bees for Eczema?

I may have mentioned in the past that Gus suffers from terrible eczema all summer long. Our recent brief heat wave caused a lovely, bumpy red flareup and he has been itchy ever since. I think I have tried about everything possible over the years: steroid creams and ointments, petroleum jelly, pure aloe vera gel, sesame oil, diet, oatmeal baths... You name it; we've tried it. We've typically had the best results with a combination of Aveeno lotion and petroleum jelly over it, but for a number of reasons I've kept searching for something to relieve the eczema that isn't petroleum based. I believe I may have found just the thing.

At one of the natural markets in our area, I had a conversation with a couple of the clerks about the situation. Initially I went in looking for Vitamin E oil. The problem we usually have with oil formulations is that many of them contain some sort of almond or other nut oils, which Gus's skin reacts to (he can eat nuts, just can't wear them). So I was leery about the Vitamin E (with almond oil). The clerk suggested Burt's Bees Apricot Oil and said that it worked wonders for her grandchild's eczema. It was pricey, but I thought it worth a shot.

I've used it only a couple of times on Gus - right after his bath at night and I've been amazed. Both times his skin was almost completely clear by the next morning. But since the weather also cooled off, I didn't want to get too excited. Then I tried it on MM last night. Because it cooled down, her rashes suddenly flared to the point that she had broken the skin on her wrist from scratching at school yesterday (yeah - the flareups come that fast). I rubbed her down with the apricot oil last night and the spot she'd scratched raw was not completely healed, but it was much, much better. The rash on the backs of her hands - almost completely gone. I'm convinced!

The only minor downside, and this is only for Gus, is that the oil is quite sweet smelling. Pretty is an appropriate description. The smell isn't bothering him; he just smells...pretty. But I'm confident that my 8 year old is secure enough in his boyhood to handle it, especially if it stops that darned itching without the greasy feeling of the other stuff!

Have you tried this oil for eczema? How has it worked for you?



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