Dermatologist said natural products are probably make my skin worse... really?

[thewhiteroutine]

After a  nearly three-year battle with a mysterious rash around my eyes (initially diagnosed as eczema), I was told that I actually have periorificial dermatitis. Turns out the prescription steroid cream they gave me for "eczema" can actually make periorificial dermatitis worse

Comments

[dizziedumb]

Two words: lactobacillus acidophilus. Get the refrigerated kind. :)

[thewhiteroutine]

Thanks for the recommendation. Where do you typically find it? I'm pretty sure my neighborhood CVS doesn't have a refrigerated supplement section, and I'm not sure if the Whole Foods does either ...

[yesididit]

steroid cream is commonly prescribed for eczema. but it comes with a whole bunch of warnings. mainly that extended use (beyond two weeks) thins the skin. steroid creams can be very helpful, but must be used carefully. my experience with it left my skin so thinned that just lightly scratching the itchy skin broke open the skin, making my scalp eczema worse. it turned out all the open wounds had developed a fungal infection. once i got the right medicated shampoo to clear that up, things finally started healing. hope you can find out whats irritating you and get this fixed!

[thewhiteroutine]

Yeah, I'm pretty paranoid that I did some kind of irreparable damage to my skin from the steroid cream, though so far I haven't noticed anything unusual. Thanks for the well-wishes, I'm hoping for the best!

[yesididit]

if its any consolation, the thinned skin is only temporary. when i stopped using the cream, the skin on my scalp returned to normal after a month or so and no longer broke open at the slightest scratch.

[hawaiianrose]

Coconut oil turns my seborrheic dermatitis and eczema into red oozing patches and causes my rosacea to flare like nothing else. It's really good in oatmeal cookies though. I switched over to skincare products made by garden of wisdom (http://www.gardenofwisdom.com/finishedproducts.html) and many of my facial skin problems have cleared up. I use castille soap to cleanse with and then a mixture of hylauronic acid and argan, kukui or marula oil to moisturize.

[thewhiteroutine]

Interesting! I've never had coconut oil make me break out with acne, and I'm fairly acne-prone, so I'm surprised to hear so many stories of it making people's skin go crazy.

I'm definitely going to explore the Garden of Wisdom site, thank you!

[quiet_seeds]

i have had bouts of perioraficial dermatitis. my most recent and most awful one. directly before it started i switched from natural cleanser and lotion to washing with water only and using jojoba oil to moisturize. i thought maybe i was allergic to the jojoba at first, so i switched to coconut oil. thinking i couldn't get more pure than that, i kept using it even though it was getting worse. a combo of aloe and coconut oil really soothed it when i put it on, but it got worse and worse. i was also putting tea tree oil on it, which i think was a bad idea. i stupidly washed with diluted dr bronners because i thought it was less likely to upset my skin because it was so simple. ouch

[neonpuddles]

I'm not OP, but I've be having issues with "angry skin" no matter if I use regular products, "natural" products, or the ones like cetalphile or CeraVe.

I'm going to give both of the things you mentioned a shot. This is an advance thank you in case they work well for me, too!

[quiet_seeds]

the calendula cream is especially awesome! it's so much cheaper than the other weleda products for grownups, too, which is awesome because weleda is not cheap. i pay about $11 for a 2.6oz tube.

[thewhiteroutine]

Thanks for the information! My skin problems started before I'd switched over to natural products, so I have no idea what started it, but I'm sure there are a million things I've done that have just exacerbated the whole thing.

I'm definitely going to check out that Weleda cream, I've bought a couple of their products from Whole Foods before but I never thought to look in the baby section. Thanks!

[unkempt]

I use coconut oil as a moisturizer and while I don't have perfect skin, it's about the same as it was when I used commercial moisturizers. Works fine for me. I was using dial soap on my face (per an old recommendation from a dermatologist) but got eczema in the winter and decided to use up whatever old stuff I had around like St. Ives. When that's gone I think I will use Dr. Bronner's castile soap, though.

My theory is that while a chemical free lifestyle is my goal, not everyone in the modern world dies of cancer at age 30, and there are lots of things to be paranoid about so I can't be paranoid about everything. And that while I think it's smart to question doctors, they are also more experienced than us with this stuff. So my suggestion would be to maybe give the prescribed stuff a try and see what you think. Maybe it will get you to a reset point and then you can figure out what natural product you want to use once you are all cleared up.

[thewhiteroutine]

Yeah, I try to be reasonable about the chemical-free thing, but I do have a particularly hard time with personal care products. I'm giving the doctor's recommended products a shot for the time being because I just want my skin thing to resolve, but I know I'm going to switch to natural stuff once it's over, though maybe I'll try some new products. :)