Eczema.

[Sam_Ben]

First area of consideration would be what is she allergic to? I have had eczema sine age 2 (very long ago) anywhere from mild to life threatening Severe. Yes eczema can certainly be life threatening. If she is allergic to bees please do not add in honey or beeswax. Pine Tar can be a severe allergin, so be careful with it. Shea can be very bad for people with latex allergies. Best suggestion would be to keep it simple. If not opposed to using lard, it makes a wonderful soap mixed with very light pure olive oil, some castor and 18% coconut oil. Again please weed out what causes her eczema, including eo's, or if she just has dry skin, make a very mild bar using emollient oils such as sunflower, avocado, or rice bran. Other than the avocado, the other oils should be used in the 10-15% range. Canola is also a favorite of mine.
Personally my skin loves loves salt bars and all things salt. It helps keep the itching at bay. Lavender & peppermint is a very nice eo combination for eczema. Oatmeal depends on whether oatmeal bothers her. Neem oil also works for some, but start with a small test batch of neem soap with a low percentage of neem to start. Trust me try salt bars! I even make myself a salt scrub in a cream soap base with jojoba lavender oil that has kept me off predisone for 1 yrs now. (stops the itch). Avocado oil contains a plant steroid which can also help. Flax Seed oil can also be a high allergin. Keep it simple with no exotic oils until you are sure what can be used. The same goes for any leave on products and they should always be tested in a small area, inside elbow is the best. LOL, you will see I am very passionate about "eczema". Many will say she just has eczema, well I have almost died more than once from "just eczema".

Thank you sooo much, i really need a one to one start from zero, my son 5 years now has been allergic to so many ingredients and been on rx ointments since he was born, I'm trying to home make his soaps, creams, shampoos, and there are sooo many options and advise out there I dont know where to start honestly or how to combine different ingredients that might all be good! Honey, oat, avocado seems all good and he is not allergic to it. Should I just start with 2 ingredients and build on it? can you advise me please step by step. I'm using melt and pour base.

 

[Relle]

Thank you sooo much, i really need a one to one start from zero, my son 5 years now has been allergic to so many ingredients and been on rx ointments since he was born, I'm trying to home make his soaps, creams, shampoos, and there are sooo many options and advise out there I dont know where to start honestly or how to combine different ingredients that might all be good! Honey, oat, avocado seems all good and he is not allergic to it. Should I just start with 2 ingredients and build on it? can you advise me please step by step. I'm using melt and pour base.

I moved your post as it was in a thread that was 11 yrs old. Cmzaha, is still here but not in every day. I don't know about eczema to help, but going on the above info you will have to make your soap from scratch and not use a premade base like melt and pour.

 

[artemis]

Ya. A premade base will only hold a tiny amount of the beneficial additives. Not enough to do anything. Be careful of the mommy bloggers online who advise you to just add stuff into melt and pour or Dr. Bronners. Those soaps can be harsher than you'd expect and their recipes are often not well thought out.

 

[squidstings]

My trigger was in our water. I had stopped drinking our city's tap water years ago, but still bathe in it and wash my clothes in it. Then I found that ingredients were changing, but labels no longer did. Even my commercially purchased "distilled water" was no longer trustworthy.

Be sure of the cause. A number of skin conditions are extremely similar, but treatment for the wrong condition/organ will just keep you chasing. My experience with no healthcare to speak of.

The more you know about what's going in...

All the best

 

[Zing]

Best wishes to you and your little guy. I mean absolutely no disrespect to those who do melt and pour -- which I did for years -- but I found the soap to be drying. My skin health did a dramatic turnaround when I made cold process soap. You have a little one so I'd keep it simple. Do a search for the holy trinity but decrease the coconut oil and add castor oil at 5%.

Also do a search for 'eczema' and member @AliOop because her @HubbyOop has skin issues.

I'm not a medical professional but I do truly believe that homemade products leave out a lot of unhealthy store-bought chemicals. I have tried dozens of prescription and OTC creams but none can compare to my homemade products. Just my personal experience.

As for oats, if you make cold process soap, I'd use colloidal oats. Oat meal alone is very abrasive. Personally, I think honey is an advanced technique. I have no experience with avocado.

If you want to start with something simple, lotion bars are cheap and easy. I do 1/3 each of beeswax, a butter, and oil. There are many good butters, mango butter absorbs quickly. -- shea and cocoa butters are awesome too Lightweight oils include jojoba oil, rice bran oil, sweet almond oil, fractionated coconut oil. It's melt and pour! And easily tweaked.

I recently made shampoo bars and my scalp health is dramatically improved.

Keep us posted and let us know how to help you and li'l man.

 

[Sam_Ben]

Thank you all for all your detailed advise, I'm intimidated from using Lye honestly, how much of difference is the melt and pour from trusted resource? Im going to attempt mango butter and castro for soap and a lotion. There are so many similar recipes with a little different tweaks, I guess I have to attempt something simple and alternate it from there. I feeI might need to research the science of oils and fat a little bit more to understand how to tweak my recipe and alternate ingredients. Is there a resource to buy ingredients you recommend with the best prices? Im researching wholesalessuppliesplus.

 

[squidstings]

Thank you all for all your detailed advise, I'm intimidated from using Lye honestly, how much of difference is the melt and pour from trusted resource? Im going to attempt mango butter and castro for soap and a lotion. There are so many similar recipes with a little different tweaks, I guess I have to attempt something simple and alternate it from there. I feeI might need to research the science of oils and fat a little bit more to understand how to tweak my recipe and alternate ingredients. Is there a resource to buy ingredients you recommend with the best prices? Im researching wholesalessuppliesplus.

Are you sourcing for a business? or personal to treat your son? For your son, you'd do fine at the grocery store. I ordered a few specialties, like Borage oil, from amazon.
Wholesale is more bulk oriented if you're looking to market something.

 

[paradisi]

Thank you all for all your detailed advise, I'm intimidated from using Lye honestly, how much of difference is the melt and pour from trusted resource? Im going to attempt mango butter and castro for soap and a lotion. There are so many similar recipes with a little different tweaks, I guess I have to attempt something simple and alternate it from there. I feeI might need to research the science of oils and fat a little bit more to understand how to tweak my recipe and alternate ingredients. Is there a resource to buy ingredients you recommend with the best prices? Im researching wholesalessuppliesplus.

The two products are completely different.

I have eczema, rosacea and other skin issues, but I would never suggest I had the product to use, as we are all different .

I especially would not suggest a non soaper whip up something for a child's skin.

Soaps are not medicine, and soapers, even longtime ones like myself (decades) are not doctors. We should not presume to treat diseases with our products. There's simply far too much that can go wrong.

If your child's medical professional has prescribed something to use, be assured they don't contain unhealthy chemicals.

Will specific commercial products cure eczema? Probably not, as it's a lifelong problem.
Will homemade ones cure it? Probably not, as it's a lifelong problem.

I do urge you not to experiment on a child's skin.

 

[Zing]

Thank you all for all your detailed advise, I'm intimidated from using Lye honestly, how much of difference is the melt and pour from trusted resource? Im going to attempt mango butter and castro for soap and a lotion. There are so many similar recipes with a little different tweaks, I guess I have to attempt something simple and alternate it from there. I feeI might need to research the science of oils and fat a little bit more to understand how to tweak my recipe and alternate ingredients. Is there a resource to buy ingredients you recommend with the best prices? Im researching wholesalessuppliesplus.

I am a hobbyist here and like the prices at Wholesalesuppliesplus. I also order from Bramble Berry. And shop at the grocery store.

Here's what I tell people about lye: Respect it but don't be afraid, think of it like bleach. You've lived through the pandemic so you already may have experience wearing gloves and goggles. You can wear a mask while mixing lye solution.

I always got melt-and-pour bases from reputable local craft stores but still found it drying.

Here's info on oils and butters. Note that characteristics change dramatically when you add lye. https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-...s-guide-to-soapmaking-common-soapmaking-oils/ .

There are a lot of recipes online so careful. This forum has great resources and recipes. I also trust Soap Queen and she ranks her tutorials by beginner, advanced, etc. Also Modern Soapmaking. Lots of folks here follow Humblebee -- I've done a couple of hers but recipes can get complex.

Also if you do go the lye route, you have to run all recipes -- even from trusted sources -- through a lye calculator. That is important to make sure every lye particle "marries" an oil particle. Married lye particles good. Single lye particles bad.

 

[Saponificarian]

@Sam_Ben I started making soap, bath, and body products because my daughter had eczema. She was born in the US, and we tried everything the doctors gave us, but it only got worse. She was breastfed exclusively, and I was watching what I ate, but the condition wasn't improving. I went back home to Nigeria, and it got worse because of the humidity. It is heartbreaking not to be able to hold your crying child because holding them hurts them more because of the weeping rash.

I gave you the background to let you know I understand how you feel, and I was where you were about 8 years ago. You can do it. It looks and sounds complicated until you start. Ask for help here.

I know you have been told not to experiment. Unfortunately, that is what I had to do. Keep it extremely simple. I did a ton of research, and my first bar of soap for her was Tallow 50% and Canola 50%. I made a body oil with jojoba oil and used essential oils of German Chamomile and another essential oil, which I don't remember now. I can check my notes if you want. In the first 2 weeks, I saw tremendous improvements with just those simple ingredients. One other thing that helped was handwashing her clothes with hypoallergenic soap.

She no longer has flare-ups, and you would never believe she ever struggled with eczema. It takes time and a lot of experimenting, as you shouldn't change more than one thing at a time for conscientious tracking, but making her products myself was the biggest thing that helped.