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CHILDREN WITH ECZEMA
Atopic eczema can show in infants as young as only a few months old. It sometimes appears for the first time when a baby is weaned off breast milk.
Recent research done in Italy and Sweden shows that most children with eczema can improve considerably on evening primrose oil. Only a few years ago, it was thought that children with eczema did not respond as well as adults, but this may have been because they were not given a high enough dose. It is known that growing animals have far higher essential fatty acid requirements than fully grown adults and the same probably applies to humans. Now we know that children do in fact respond very well indeed.
In Bologna, Italy, Dr Alessandra Bordoni studied 24 children with atopic eczema. Twelve of them were treated with evening primrose oil and 12 with a placebo. The group treated with evening primrose oil (Efamol) significantly improved compared with the placebo group. 65% of the group taking evening primrose oil showed significant improvement after just four weeks of therapy. The dose was 3g a day (i.e. six capsules of 500mg). It is not yet understood why some children did not respond. There is also a small percentage of adults with atopic eczema who do not respond to evening primrose oil treatment. Perhaps this is because there is no essential fatty acid abnormality in these cases.
Evening primrose oil can safely be given to babies and very young children. If they are too young to take the capsules by mouth the oil can be taken out of the capsules by pricking the gelatin shell. The oil can then be rubbed into the soft parts of the skin, like inside the thighs and on the tummy. The oil penetrates the skin very quickly. Contrary to what you might expect, you should rub the oil into the healthy skin and not the areas affected by eczema. However, for children old enough, it is better to take the evening primrose oil by mouth as the conversion process is more efficient. The oil is available in bottles so it can be spoon-fed. Epogam Pediatric is capsules in which one end can be snipped off and the oil put in a spoon or over food. It is available on prescription.
Breastfeeding is able to protect against the development of atopic conditions, including atopic eczema. Human breast milk, unlike cow\'s milk, is rich in gammalinolenic acid, dihomogammalinolenic acid, and arachidonic acid. As a matter of interest, a six-month-old, fully breast-fed baby is getting the equivalent amount of GLA to about three 500mg capsules of evening primrose oil a day.
*14/60/5*
GENERAL HEALTH
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