10 Additional Home Remedies for Eczema

Eczema is an irritating skin condition that primarily affects children. Its usual signs include patches of dry and red skin on the face and limbs. This is an unsightly complaint and also extremely irritating because the itchiness drives a person to distraction. If they scratch infected skin areas, they end up with big rashes. In a good number of cases eczema disappears in later years but this in no way lessens the need to find an effective treatment to relieve the pain it causes. Modern medicine focuses on steroid creams and medicines, but these can have extremely worrying side effects. This helps explain the rising interest in possible alternative natural cures.

Become your very own Sherlock Holmes

Doctors find it very difficult to know for certain the causes of each case of eczema so it pays for their parents, to do what they can to discover if an allergy to a certain foodstuff might have triggered this problem. It is best to start by cutting out a food from your diet and see if an improvement in skin conditions soon follows. A variety of foodstuffs could set off an outbreak of eczema. Wheat products, sugar, and peanuts are some of the most common triggers, but the only way to find out is through trial and error.

Foodstuffs that help fight eczema

In addition to avoiding foods that could provoke or aggravate an eczema attack, foods that help reduce its symptoms should be included in your diet. There is no shortage of foods with curative properties to choose from, For example, bananas contain potassium and they are also rich in vitamin C and magnesium; these properties help reduce eczema symptoms. Green onions, eggs, salmon, cod, and oatmeal are just a few more examples of foods known to play a positive role in the fight against eczema.

Horsetail

Despite its unusual name, this product is not found in a stable but rather in herbalist’s or health food products stores. Horsetail gets its name from its resemblance to a horse’s tail, but that’s where the connection starts and ends. This herb is rich in silicon. Everyone associates silicon with computer chips, but this chemical element is actually vital to healthy skin tissue. An increased intake of silicon in the body helps remedy the itchiness and swelling that eczema causes, and it promotes the growth of healthy skin to replace the skin damaged by this condition.

A Chamomile tea bath

This is a favorite refreshing drink, but some believe that a chamomile tea bath also brings relief to eczema. Ideally, prepare four or five bags of chamomile tea and let them cool off for about a quarter of an hour. Dispose of the tea bags before pouring out the liquid into a tub of warm bath water. Make sure the tea circulates well around the water before entering the bath. Spend as much time as necessary to feel fully relaxed and refreshed. Those who take such a bath each day can expect to see an improvement in their skin condition.

Tea Tree Oil

Outside the health food fan fraternity tree, a mention of tea tree oil is likely to leave the listener mystified. This organic product should be better known as it possesses very useful antifungal and antibiotic qualities. It should help reduce the inflammation and infections that eczema so often causes. However, there is an important addendum – pregnant women must avoid all use of tea tree oil due to the risk that it could cause damage to the unborn child. All the same, since eczema is most common in pre-adult, this concern is not going to be relevant in the vast majority of cases.

Spraying salt onto a wound

The popular folk saying uses the expression “pouring salt on a wound” to describe someone who acts in a way likely to cause themselves or someone else additional pain. However, where eczema is concerned a good dose of salt really helps to relieve their itchiness. The best solution is to take a bath in the ocean – this also offers a nice excuse for a trip to the seaside. Someone unable to make the trip can achieve a similar effect if they make a spray composed of sea salt mixed with water and apply this to the damaged skin areas.

Take a mineral bath

Someone in the midst of a heavy bout of eczema is likely to find a dip in a mineral bath quite painful, but perhaps it is worth putting up with this short-term discomfort to get longer-term relief. Old-fashioned Epsom salts and the more exotic Himalayan salts are both good choices for mineral-rich, warm baths. Both of these minerals have properties known to improve skin health. And many people with eczema problems find the condition improves after a few such baths.

Apply a poultice

The discomfort people who experience eczema when they take a bath leads them to favor the use of poultices, or pastes made of natural ingredients and then applied to the skin via a piece of cloth. Both horsetail and chamomile are popular poultice ingredients, but sage, juniper berries, and even charcoal and certain clays can also be used. The poultice needs to be left in place for a few hours, and the whole procedure is repeated a couple of times each day with a freshly composed poultice.

Natural ointment for blisters caused by eczema

Skin infected with eczema easily blisters if scratched and if these blisters are not effectively treated they might leave lasting marks on the skin. It takes lots of self-control to avoid scratching, so it makes sound sense to have a natural ointment for the blisters ready at hand. Virgin olive oil, almond oil, and beeswax are some of the ingredients used to compound these ointments. A natural medicines specialist can advise on the exact amounts required and how they ought to be prepared.

Hempseed oil

Although hemp has its associations with illegal narcotics, the hempseed oil used in natural eczema treatments is free of all traces of such substances. It is particularly rich in fatty acids that help heal some skin conditions. It is safe to take this orally or smear it on the affected skin areas.