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My Perioral Dermatitis Journey
I can’t tell you how often I get messages and emails from women about skin issues. Lately, I have gotten so many about Perioral Dermatitis in particular. In the past, I have shared a lot about Perioral Dermatitis, but today I wanted to put my Perioral Dermatitis journey in one place for you.
One Change for Perioral Dermatitis
Make this one change for Perioral Dermatitis, and you could heal at an insanely rapid pace.
Stick with me for a second.
How I Healed My Perioral Dermatitis has been a very popular blog post. I wrote it around this time in 2014, and I still stand by everything I said.
It’s been three years since, and I do most things on that list consistently still. But not the GAPS Diet. I don’t do that. So when I started showing the Perioral Dermatitis signs around my nose again (I mentioned this in the September recap), I immediately thought, “It must be the diet.”
By no means did I go back to GAPS, but I did eliminate (or at least greatly reduce) various things that I thought could be causing any sort of inflammation.
Over a month later, and still no huge changes to the nose.
And then one day a few weeks back, I was brushing my teeth, and as I was doing so, I grabbed the toothpaste tube, and began reading the ingredients (it was this toothpaste):
Calcium carbonate, glycerin, water, xylitol, hydrated silica, natural flavor*, sodium lauryl sulfate, zinc citrate, carrageenan, sodium bicarbonate. *Peppermint oil
When I wrote How I Healed My Perioral Dermatitis, I specifically stated, “I stopped using all traditional toothpaste as well, and never buy toothpaste with SLS and/or fluoride.”
Somehow, over the years, grabbing Toms at Target was much easier than anything else. And besides, it isn’t truly a traditional toothpaste in the way that Crest is.
- Authentic natural ingredients and whitens with naturally sourced silica’s
- Fluoride free formula
- No artificial dyes, sweeteners or flavors
- Toms of Maine anti plaque and whitening fluoride free toothpaste is gluten free, cruelty free and halal and kosher certified
Good enough, yes?
One Change for Perioral Dermatitis
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Not so fast.
I don’t know why I assumed that Tom’s of Maine didn’t use SLS (maybe because it said fluoride free, so I thought I was in the clear?), but there written clearly on the label it was – sodium lauryl sulfate.
The EWG (Environmental Working Group) defines sodium laureth sulfate (same thing as sodium laurel sulfate) as an “ingredient derived from ethoxylated lauryl alcohol and used as a surfactant; may be contaminated with potentially toxic manufacturing impurities such as 1,4-dioxane.”
I immediately headed back to Amazon and ordered the Redmond Earthpaste 4 pack. The 4 pack includes flavors: Spearmint, Lemon Twist, Peppermint, and Cinnamon. Here is more information about the product:
- Simple Natural Ingredients
- No Glycerine
- No Flouride
- No SLS or Other Foaming Agents
- Only Five Ingredients – not all those flavors in one tube (Purified Water, Bentonite Clay, Xylitol, Spearmint, Lemon Twist, Peppermint, or Cinnamon Essential Oil, Sea Salt, Tea Tree Oil)
A couple days later, I swapped out the Tom’s for Earthpaste.
Two days later, my nose was 100% healed. 100%! (Top two pictures are before. Bottom two are after. Again, my nose wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it was in 2014, but it still showed me that something was not right.)
In fact, it hardly seemed real, and on the second day, I said to Ryan, “Look at my nose! Isn’t that unreal?”
If you have lingering Perioral Dermatitis issues, check your toothpaste. You may just need to make this one change for Perioral Dermatitis that could be your key, too. Turns out it wasn’t the diet, reminding me yet again that food is not always the enemy.
Order the Redmond’s HERE, seriously, do it now, and let me know if it works for you. (By the way, yes that is an Amazon affiliate link, but I promise that if you buy it, I make like 5 pennies. I also promise that this was my key.)
And p.s. Don’t just think SLS is in your toothpaste. It’s everywhere. My passion with it lies within toothpaste and cosmetics. “Did you know that, if you use conventional cosmetics on a daily basis, you can absorb almost five pounds of chemicals and toxins into your body each year? Daily use of ordinary, seemingly benign personal care products like shampoo, toothpaste and shower gel can easily result in exposure to thousands of chemicals, and many will make their way into your body and become “stuck” there, since you lack the means to break them down.” (source) Right around the time I swapped out Tom’s for Redmond’s, I also began swapping out every last skin and body care item for things I make at home (like my makeup remover wipes and body wash) and Beautycounter. And it’s changing my life.
Xox,
SKH
Favorite AIP Approved Foods
Today I’m sharing another favorite AIP approved foods list with y’all.
Listen, living with strict diets is not easy nor is it desirable, but for those of you out there who don’t really have any other options but to follow an AIP protocol, you’ll do what you need to do.
5 Skin and Body Care Items for Mama and Babies
I recently posted this video on Facebook and Instagram, and people started asking me all about the product. So I figured I’d put together a little post about it and four more items with 5 skin and body care items for mama and babies.
{Disclosure: This post was sponsored by The Eczema Company, but all information, opinions, and general thoughts are my own.}
Look, I’m frugal. I’m super frugal, and I rarely spend money frivolously. I can’t remember the last time I went shopping, and other than food, personal care items, and things for our home or babies, I couldn’t care less about spending money on random things.
I buy things that can serve multiple uses and/or that multiple people in the house can use. For example, gallons of coconut oil? Yes! Why? Because every single person in the house uses it to eat, I use it for coffee and an essential oil carrier, and during bath time, it gets slathered all over the babies hair.
No shame.
But coconut oil is not the only product that serves both mama and babies (daddy and Ceci, too!). There are hundreds. Today I have 5 for you.
By the way, in case you don’t remember, skin and body care are really important to me because I have a nasty Perioral Dermatitis condition that I keep at bay 100% naturally with diet, lifestyle, and by only using products like the ones below.
5 Skin and Body Care Items for Mama and Babies
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Organic Manuka Skin Soothing Cream
This is the product my very own “Doc McSamarah” is putting on her legs. It is a nourishing, versatile, creamy balm that works wonders on just about any skin woe and is gentle enough for babies, yet very effective for adults. In fact, I’ve been using it similar to how our resident doctor uses it!
And….it contains only six simple ingredients! The power in this cream comes from the Manuka honey and Manuka oil which are known for their healing and bacteria fighting powers and together they soothe away diaper rash, eczema, psoriasis, chapped or dry skin, sunburn, razor burn, bug bites, and cuts and scrapes. Children (and husbands!) like the lightly sweet scent the honey naturally provides.This cream will hydrate any skin type and will never burn or sting the skin, like so many creams sadly do in the case of eczema or open wounds. <– Did you know that?!
Dr. Bronner’s 18-in-1 Pure Castile
Quite honestly, there are many different scents of this that we use. These are my favorites:
I have done so many things with these products from making a natural window spray to naturally cleaning baby bins, hangers and more to general cleaning and using as a natural hair product.
Emily’s Baby & Adult Skin Skin Soother
I mentioned it in my post yesterday, but our newest little angel has eczema pretty badly. I definitely have my work cut out for me again, and I know this is going to be a perfect accompaniment for her.
We have currently been using it for Isaiah’s cradle cap, which he at one point had horribly. It is much better, but definitely not gone, so I started using this to help heal his head.
Emily’s Baby & Adult Skin Soother is a Chinese herbal ointment made by a Boston acupuncturist to calm and heal his daughter’s eczema. The results were so incredible, that he now makes it available for other families as well! Feedback from their fans revealed that this treatment wasn’t just great for eczema, but also worked for cradle cap and itchy skin. Hence, why I’ll dually use for both Isaiah and new baby girl.
Emily’s also makes a bar soap and body wash with the same healing herbs that treat the skin in the bath or shower – these work especially well for cradle cap or seborrheic dermatitis.
Earth Mama Angel Baby Body Wash and Shampoo
I have used this product since we first got Samarah. In fact, you can check out a past post on it via 10 resources for alternative uses for the product. The lavender and orange ones are my favorites. I don’t use it much as a shampoo because, quite honestly, we don’t really shampoo the babies’ hair very often, and it’s not a shampoo that would work for me. That said, we all use it as a body wash, since most body wash products contain any amount of these 20 toxic ingredients.
And also, the lavender is calming before bedtime, and the orange is just delicious.
Organic Calendula Oil
I really love this one. It’s so beautiful!
What I love most about it is that it’s great for all skin types and ages. Apply it directly to the skin, add it to the bath or use it liberally to soothingly massage your baby (by the way, all of which I’m ready to do with the baby once she arrives — tomorrow!!!).
So many baby oils contain a long list of less than ideal ingredients, but I’m loving how this one only contains 3 super pure ingredients: Olive oil (Organic, Extra-virgin, Unrefined, First Cold-Pressed), Whole Golden Calendula Flowers (Organic), and tocopherol Vitamin E (GMO-Free). I’m not sure you’ll find something purer to soothe your little one’s skin. If you’re looking for something similar in a more solid form, try their Organic Calendula Salve.
What are your favorite body and skin care items that serve a dual purpose for mama and baby? Or mama and toddler, child, teenager, daddy, grandma, grandpa….?!
p.s.s. Interested in seeing other body and personal care items I recommended? My list is HERE.
Updated in 2017: 90% of what we use now is Beautycounter…..skin, body, baby, family. All of it.
Xox,
SKH
How I Healed My Perioral Dermatitis Naturally
Today I am sharing how I healed my Perioral Dermatitis naturally.
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