The Soap Test

I have been reading and re-reading the solve eczema website for several days, trying to absorb everything.  I just really feel like this might take us there.  There being a real solution.

One of the first things she suggests to see if more work is warranted, is this Soap Test which you can read about by clicking on the link.

First I had to purchase some pure soap. I got the only product I know of available to me without ordering online which is Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile Peppermint Liquid Soap at our local Trader Joe's.  Do not purchase from that link by the way, it was seven dollars cheaper at TJs for the 32 oz bottle!  The stuff is super concentrated, you only need a few drops per spray bottle for cleaning, a little more for personal washing so its actually not more expensive than buying your regular products.

I also bought some regular paper towels which I also needed for this test.

Once home, I stood Sam up in the tub and washed the fronts of his legs really well with the pure soap, followed by a good rinse with water from the tap.  I had to be careful not to let his legs touch the tub or my clothing or a towel or anything that had detergent residue.  I just picked him straight up, dried the area well with a clean paper towel straight off the roll (not one that had been laid on a countertop- ahh, detergent everywhere!)  and then immediately applied a barrier moisturizer- in this case Aquaphor.

Then I jammied him up and put him to bed.

First thing I noticed, he didn't itch while falling asleep. That's pretty amazing in itself.  But at this point I still did not notice any difference in the physical appearance of the skin. I had to check the website again, to see how soon I should be noticing a change.  The website said:  If your child’s eczema in the test area looks markedly different after a few hours, then there is a good possibility that a contact reaction to detergents is involved; it’s a virtual certainty that a contact reaction of some sort is involved. 

So I waited a few hours, then checked him again. Much better, I thought! Not healed by any means, but definitely less red. Maybe it was my imagination, maybe its because the lighting was poor, but I thought the area did in fact look noticeably improved. So I'm going to go with that.  The idea  (I think) is that soaps remove detergents (water alone does not!) and so removing the detergent from the skin then placing the barrier on top allows the skin to start the healing process.  And maybe the fact the he didn't itch, was the start of healing. 


By morning, he was definitely a mess again. The Aquaphor wore off, he rolled around in his detergent-washed pajamas and ended up pulling up his pant legs and pulling his socks off about 4am, leaving them exposed to the detergent-washed bed sheets.  But the soap test gave me hope and I still feel in my gut this is the way to go. Looking forward to more progress!