February 19, 2013

Treating Psoriasis

You wouldn't know it to look at this sweet face, but Boy #2 has psoriasis.  Thankfully, it is only a minor case. However, after looking at some pictures of some children and adults with severe psoriasis, I decided to look into treatments.
We've taken Boy #2 to two different dermatologists in our town.  The first one, after three expensive visits and 3 different topical prescriptions, could never diagnose the problem. The second one took a quick look at him and said, "This is psoriasis."  Once I had a name to go with the problem, I looked it up, and that seems to me to be exactly what we're dealing with.  She also wrote at least two prescriptions and also recommended Vanicream.  It says on the container that it is "formulated without dyes, lanolin, fragrance, masking fragrance, parabens, formaldehyde."
Although, the prescriptions the second doctor gave us eliminated most of the redness and irritability of the affected skin patches, most of them have not gone away after almost a year of usage.  
With Spring quickly approaching, Boy #2 will be outside with more skin showing. Many people say that sunlight helps the condition. He says he will be "suntanning naked" as soon as it is warm enough.  Of course, I'll monitor the time he is out to make sure he doesn't get too much sun. And, we have no neighbors nearby, so no indecent exposure citations should be in our future.
Yesterday, during my internet-surfing, I read that many people used oats to help their psoriasis. Some even said that it went away...  When I mentioned this to Boy #2, he said he wanted to take a bath. So, I put a cup of oats into a piece of cheesecloth and tied off the top.  I held it under the running warm (not too hot) water. He soaked for about 20 minutes and even rubbed the oats (in the cheesecloth) over his dry patches.  We then coated him with Vanicream. We're going to do this two or three times a week and see if anything happens. BTW, after I read the ingredients in the Vanicream, I realized that this is not something I want to continue to use on our skin. But, until I can replace it with an all-natural product, we'll keep using it.  
I'll post soon about any results that we see.

2 comments:

  1. Boy #2 has soaked three time in his simple oat bath. We are definitely seeing results. There is no redness, although the dry patches are still there. One spot on his leg, about the size of a quarter, has been particularly bad for several months. We took a look at it yesterday and he said, "that spot hasn't looked like that in SO long." :-)

    ReplyDelete

I would love to know what you think about this. My policy: Keep it family-friendly.