Herbmentor.com is a wonderful resource. There are many garden weeds that you can use as medicine and nutritious food that include dandelion, purslane, lambs quarters, nettles, plantain, mullein, and chickweed. Some great herbs to have on hand include aloe, sage, thyme, mint, and lemon balm.

Herbmentor.com is a wonderful resource. There are many garden weeds that you can use as medicine and nutritious food that include dandelion, purslane, lambs quarters, nettles, plantain, mullein, and chickweed. Some great herbs to have on hand include aloe, sage, thyme, mint, and lemon balm.

Hopefully before (or in addition to) prescribing a steroid cream, the physician asked about lifestyle factors (including possible allergic triggers) that could be causing the rash. Sometimes making a few simple changes can alleviate the problem without a need to resort to prescription or herbal drugs.

There are potential allergies to herbs (for instance those in the composite family) that could worsen the situation instead of making it better, so caution is advisable.

Here is a link that might be useful: Eczema

I would recommend looking into the Herbal Academy of New England. They have online programs that cover the conditions you are wondering about... also have many articles that may cover them. http://herbalacademyofne.com

Good luck!!

The Herbal Academy of New England is a western academy on herbology. I was involved in western herbology for many years before discovering that the classifications and applications of western herbs is not as precise of a working system as is Chinese herbology. Western herbology is based more on hit-and-miss use, empirical observations without a system of anatomy and physiology with which western herbs can be integrated.

The most workable system developed over 2,000 + years with a written record is Chinese herbology. Unfortunately for western herbology, there was no written accounts of western accomplishments with herbs. There's much folklore which is ok to some extent. But it doesn't leave succeeding generations with a writings on which to build.

I don't mean to lecture or seem pessimistic, but the best schooling I've found so far is the Institute of Chinese Herbology. It's an online school out of Oakland, CA. You'll learn to apply the different classifications of herbs correctly instead of having to guess. (By comparison, western herbology often times tells you to take this or that herb for this or that symptom. Though that's ok for the short-term relief, that's totally allopathic and doesn't allow for furthering a healing into the deeper tissues and systems of the body in chronic, deep-seated illnesses.) Also, consider that the one man of science in their school is an M.D.!! He's schooled in allopathic, symptomatic treatment of illness rather than the approach that you can feed the body with herbs and the body will heal itself if its herbal nutritional needs are met.

Yes, the Chinese system has knowledge to integrate a system of herbology with the understanding of the body's function much better than the western approach.

Just my opinion.

HerbDoctor

This post was edited by HerbDoctor on Fri, Aug 2, 13 at 19:40

you may choose to avoid steroid creams, they help clear superficial symptoms but in doing so drive the disharmony deeper into the body...later when it resurfaces it will do so with a vengence. seen this many many times. better to heal the root cause.

eczema and psoriasis are both common symptoms of food allergies so that would be something to check. also wonder if either of you have a history of lung/respiratory issues or gut disorders?

The advantage to using the recommended steroid cream on a temporary basis is that it's likely to alleviate distressing symptoms and make the child a lot more comfortable while possible causes of the rash are checked out.

Having a wailing, unhappy toddler will cause a lot more "disharmony" than using an effective medication :)

Eric and Kaliaman both gave a good answer.

HerbDoctor

as eric demonstrates above its typical of the modern medical establishment to endorse impairing immunity for life rather than let a child cry for a few minutes. utter nonsense!

A child with an inflamed, itchy and sometimes painful skin rash due to eczema does not just cry "for a few minutes", as many parents could tell us.
Proper use of steroid creams to relieve these miserable symptoms does not have lasting effects on immune function.

"Topical corticosteroids have been used extensively for over 50 years to treat various inflammatory skin conditions. Without a doubt, they remain one of the most valuable currently available treatments, and if used properly, can control symptoms and restore patientsâ quality of life."

Making your child more comfortable with effective medication while looking into possible allergic triggers that can then be avoided without further need for treatment, makes perfect sense.