The story of Eli's skin

It's been 2 1/2 years since all of this happened. But, honestly anytime I tell the story it stirs up the emotions all over again.

Eli was 3 1/2 months old when he started to develop a rash on his elbows. At first it was just red, irritated skin on his elbows. It was the beginning of June and I just figured he was having trouble with the heat. It was a HOT summer.

I was serving in our church VBS program and several other moms seemed concerned about how bad his skin was looking. It had started to weep and ooze. So, I took him to the pediatrician. They diagnosed him with eczema. In my gut I knew it wasn't eczema, but I didn't have any other ideas. I slathered his skin in Aquaphor and continued to use only scent free and dye free soaps and detergents.

Fast forward a few weeks to Eli's 4 month well visit. His skin is still not looking good, but the pediatrician still says its eczema and to give it some time. Again, I didn't think this was eczema, but I'm clueless and I am trying anything I can to get his skin to look better.

I vented my concerns on Facebook about his eczema and so many friends offered advice and home remedies. We tried countless options. Coconut oil, tea tree oil, some Arbonne product, oatmeal baths, bathing more often, bathing less frequently...NOTHING worked. My poor baby and I were stuck inside because the heat would make it worse. I would have to peel Eli's pajamas from his skin each morning.

I was getting desperate.

This is what his poor skin looked like. That's his skin weeping. Both elbows, and his calves. I know it's a graphic photo, but this was our reality for nearly 2 months.

 

Later in the summer we made an evening trip to the Children's Mercy ER in Kansas City. We had been to the pediatrician earlier in the week and Eli had developed a staph infection on his elbows. After a few days his skin was not looking any better, so our pediatric nurse urged me to take him to Children's Mercy. 2 doctors looked and him and said, this is just a really bad case of eczema. SERIOUSLY???? My sister in law was with me that night and I just started crying after the first doctor said the "E" word. She and I both knew that's not what we were dealing with. I insisted another Doctor look at him. I felt almost disrespectful to the first doctor, but I just knew he was wrong.

I left that hospital defeated and with a prescription for a high powered steroid cream. I went to the local compounding pharmacy to have this special concoction mixed. When I picked it up, the pharmacist asked again if this was for my infant. I said, "yes". He looked me directly in the eye and said,  "Please be careful with this medication. It's a very potent steroid."

We only tried it for a few days before I decided there was no way I was gonna keep putting this on my child's skin. I couldn't shake the serious tone in the pharmacists voice.








I had no idea that this post on Facebook would finally help us find the answer to why his skin was in such bad shape. I've already made this a long story, so why stop now. A friend commented that a girl I went to college with had the same issue with her child's skin, and it was his car seat that was causing the trouble. Within 30 minutes I had "friended" her on Facebook, and she sent me pics of her child's skin and told me which car seat they had. WE HAD THE EXACT SAME CAR SEAT! I immediately started crying. She called me and shared her story of how they discovered what was causing his horrible rash. It was crazy how similar our stories were. She said that they switched car seat and within 10 days her son's skin cleared up.

We did the same. We put Eli in a different car seat and his skin started improving drastically within days.

This is his skin 10 days after switching car seats. We believe his skin was having a chemical reaction to toxic chemicals in the fabric of his car seat.

Just a few weeks later the local news station did a report on toxic chemicals found in car seats. I contacted the investigative reporter with our story and he they did a story on us. I wanted to share our journey, because maybe...just maybe we could help someone else.

We did. Since our story aired, I've been contacted by 5 different moms who found our story online and their child had the same rash, from the same car seat. (My name is pretty unique, so it's easy to find me on Facebook.)

Here is a link to our story. You can watch the video or read the story. NBC Action News Story

This has been a much longer post than I anticipated, but I want to remember the details. It was an extraordinarily difficult time for me as a mom, and I'm forever grateful to my family and friends who believed me that this wasn't eczema. It was so scary. I'm so thankful God placed the right people in my path at the right time so we could figure it out.