I haven’t posted for a while. Too much going on. But recently something happened to me that I feel is really important to share in the hope of preventing someone else falling into the same trap.
Let me start by making my excuses and a bit of background. I am very, very health conscious, particularly where my daughter is concerned. I didn’t used to be but a few years ago I was diagnosed with Crohn’s-colitis and I immediately overhauled my diet and haven’t touched processed food, most grains especially gluten, refined sugar or caffeine since. And I approach my daughter’s diet in as clean a way as possible, without giving her a weird obsession over food through complete denial. I also think very carefully about what I put on her skin. Which brings me to the point of this post. A few months ago my daughter developed on her pristine, pre-schooler skin, a red patch of what looked like eczema, which she has not previously had a problem with. I tried my usual chemical free, baby creams that have sorted out any minor skin irritations in the past. None of them worked. I bought others; they didn’t work. Her skin then started to break out in spots that looked just like adult pimples. When nothing worked I resorted to a 1% hydrocortisone cream from the GP. It sort of worked, but not completely. Back to the GP where I was given fucidin, an antibiotic cream, which worked well on the spots but not the original red patch. After 3 weeks, I stopped, the blemishes started to come back. I again began using all sorts of natural and organic creams and thought I’d started to see a difference with Child’s Farm’s very cheap moisturiser for babies with eczema.
So far so normal. At this stage a friend turned up with some ‘all natural’ cream she uses on her son’s eczema and ‘is the only thing that ever works! Now his skin is beautiful!’, she assured me. This is when my brain seems to have gone on strike. Grateful for her help, I started using it. It worked really well and I kept using it for about 2 months. I was a little worried because the cream contained petroleum jelly but I gave myself a talking to and told myself just for once to stop interrogating everything.
A week ago I stopped using it. Overnight my daughter’s skin flared up with three big spots. More appeared the next day. At this point I became suspicious and started researching the cream. To my horror, I found out quite a lot about it.
The cream is called Abido and is sold as an alternative, all natural cream from Ghana. A few years ago it was investigated – along with a load of other similar ‘natural’ creams – and was found to contain an undisclosed and potent blend of steroids, we’re talking adult-sized doses. It is being illegally marketed as perfectly safe and must appeal to people like me, who are trying to seek an alternative to steroids!! I cannot believe I fell into this trap and all because I took it unquestioningly from another mum who was trying to help.
I am very worried that it might have caused systemic damage via absorption through the skin. I am worried that I have damaged her skin and that her skin is now addicted to the potent steroids and nothing else will calm her sore looking spots and bumps. If you come across this stuff, please stay clear. This particular pot was bought in an alternative health shop in Brixton.
In hindsight, nothing could have fixed her skin as quickly as steroids and I should have become suspicious earlier. Now I am on a quest to get to the root of the problem and find another way to return her skin to baby-smooth.