Stephanie Smith, 35, has a little son named Isaiah.
When the little boy was born, she couldn’t be happier.
When she noticed something strange on her baby’s skin, the tiny baby’s life transforms into a nightmare.
However, relief finally came when Stephanie followed her instincts.
Isaiah first started having flare-ups at three months of age when he developed a rash that became red and raw when he was exposed to perfume or other heavy scents, like fabric softener.
Stephanie Smith took her son, Isaiah, to dozens of doctors in the effort to find a cure for a skin condition that left him in constant pain.
A doctor told Stephanie that Isaiah was suffering from eczema and prescribed a topical steroid. Though the rash went away briefly, it soon returned, requiring the use of more steroids to treat it.
The rashes continued. Isaiah’s hair fell out and he became lethargic.
- “But all the doctors I took him to just said it was eczema,” Stephanie said. “They told me to stop breastfeeding him as the milk protein could make it worse.”
After five months, a particularly bad episode resulted in raw, red lesions that sent Isaiah to the hospital. He was treated more and stronger steroids. His skin cleared up briefly, but 48 hours later, the sores had returned and Isaiah wouldn’t stop screaming.
In the effort to provide some relief for Isaiah, Stephanie began to shut out the world. She avoided anyone or anything that could cause infection; she covered his face in surgical gauze and tried to wrap his hands to keep him from scratching in his sleep. The only time he seemed comfortable was when he was in a bath, so his mother would spend hours with him in the sink, letting the water run over his skin.
- “Every time our skin touched his, it would blister and ooze like crazy. I couldn’t even touch my cheek to his,” said Stephanie, describing how she couldn’t even hold her son without aggravating his rash. “He was most comfortable in his bathtub, the water pouring over him in the sink. But he was still in pain. He would wail, and I would cry along.”
- “It was like he had no skin,” said Stephanie. “He was in agony. At one point it was so bad I thought, ‘if this is going to be his life, please take him.’”
In the throes of desperation for answers, Stephanie turned to the internet. On a forum about topical steroid withdrawal, Stephanie found pictures of other children with raw, red skin like her son.
- “There they were talking about the side-effects of the steroids and how it could make skin problems worse when you stop taking them.”
Stephanie followed her instinct and stopped using steroids to treat Isaiah’s rashes. Instead, she started making her own homeopathic balms, experimenting with different formulations in the effort to find the most effective treatment.
A combination of lemon grass and zinc worked the best. Soon, Isaiah’s skin began to develop spots completely free of inflammation
- “Isaiah would walk to the kitchen island, where I kept the balm, point at the jar and point to his face. It clearly soothed him,” Stephanie told the Mirror.
After 10 months of steroidal “withdrawal,” Isaiah’s skin had returned to normal. He is a completely normal 1-year-old.
- “We saw 35 doctors. They all said that it was eczema. I want to show them the pictures where you can see how Isaiah’s skin has recovered.”
The best is: the boy, that no one could touch, is now cheerful and can run around and play outside. “We lost the first year of his life. I couldn’t kiss him or hold him,” says Stephanie saddened by the memories. But: “Now we can hold him all the time. He’s a great hugger!”
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