A NEILSTON mum has told of her relief after stumbling across a simple cure for her son’s severe eczema.
Samantha Montgomery’s toddler Ollie was just two months old when the skin on the back of his legs began to be affected.
The condition then spread to his arms, face and creased parts of his body, causing weeping, red sores which itched and left the youngster struggling to sleep.
Samantha made repeated trips to the GP with Ollie and was on the verge of paying to see a consultant dermatologist privately when she spotted a handy tip online from a local businessman who repairs washing machines.
The post advised that super-speed washes are “only suitable for outer garments and nothing that touches the skin.”
Mum-of-three Samantha told the Barrhead News: “Ollie was scratching all of the time, to the point where he was bleeding.
“The man who owns Fern Domestics, in Neilston, commented on a mutual friend’s post on Facebook that you are not meant to do fast washes on inner garments.
“Fast washes don’t rinse the detergent properly and they basically leave residue and it can aggravate the skin.
“At that point, a light bulb went on. I didn’t always do a fast wash but I was probably doing them a couple of times a week. I noticed the anti-allergy and the baby setting have an extra rinse.
“Within two weeks, my son’s eczema began to disappear.
“I waited two months to make sure it wasn’t a coincidence but, after two years of having horrible eczema, there is not a mark on his skin.”
Before finding the simple fix, Ollie, who turned two in March, had been prescribed umpteen lotions, including an increasingly stronger set of steroid creams.
Samantha, who is also mum to Kyle, 12, and seven-year-old Cameron, had changed her soap powder and kept food diaries in case the problem was caused by an allergy but it was to no avail.
Now the 31-year-old hopes that, by spreading the word about her family’s experience, she can help other parents facing a similar ordeal.
She said: “It’s not going to work for everyone, because some people have food allergies and different things, but hopefully it will work for a lot of people.”
