Welcome back to our eighth installment of SKIN Journeys: a series where we spotlight members of our community for their incredible eczema success stories. Here, in their own words, they get real about their personal experiences with eczema and the impact it’s had on their lives — as well as how Gladskin ultimately changed the game for them.
Meet Nicole, a loving first-time mother and inspiring member of the Gladskin community. Below, Nicole shares her journey of finding treatment for her son’s eczema — and how Gladskin Eczema Cream became a miracle on their eczema journey.
Food Allergies and Hives… Or Eczema?
“When Michael was born, everything seemed clear. When he was about four months old, I started him on First Foods and found out that he was severely allergic to rice flour... It’s a condition called FPIES. It’s an allergic reaction that happens after they ingest something, so it takes a couple of hours, but it’s really bad vomiting.”
“The eczema actually came after that. So, I think his immune system was in just such a bad place that kind of started his eczema. When it first came, it was just a little spot here and there, and then it progressively got really bad, really fast.”
“We actually had taken him, when he was just about six months old, to get an allergy test. Some of our doctors thought it could even be hives, an allergic reaction. His eczema was so bad; really angry, red color, it was raised, it felt bumpy, his skin just felt horrible, and it looked so bad. It was horrifying. It covered his entire torso. He had it all over from his hips up to his collarbone on both front and back of his body. We thought he must be allergic to something else.”
“They poked him about 20 times on the back. It was really stressful for him to go through, and then me, as a first-time parent. It was just really hard. Then everything came back negative. After the allergy test came back negative, we were pretty convinced that it was just severe eczema that was almost mimicking a hive because it was so red and raised.”
The Emotional Toll of Eczema on Parents
“It was just absolutely devastating as a mom, and even for my husband as a father, to be a parent and see your child suffering, and not being able to fix it 100% and just take it away from them, and just fix it. It’s just heartbreaking. It makes you feel…you get to such a low point, just really desperate and trying everything. I was trying everything online that I could find about eczema, different types of baths, different temperatures of baths, different lotions, different ointments. I had even cut out – he was breastfeeding at the time, and so I had even cut out wheat and soy, I mean, I was cutting stuff out of my diet, hoping that would help, just absolutely trying everything you can, because I hit such a point of desperation trying to find anything that would relieve it for him, it was terrible.”
Experimenting with Topical Steroids
“Some of the doctors had said we should use steroids on him, and so I was using that right before I actually found Gladskin. I was using some steroids on him, and with his eczema being so severe, it was steroids on his body every day. I’d put it on the worst spots. I wouldn’t obviously cover him with it, but it was an everyday thing that I was having to use steroids on him, which I’m sure you know, comes with some side effects and some worries for long-term use. But it was so severe, I felt like I didn’t have any other choice but to use steroids on his most severe parts, which again, as a mom too, that didn’t make me feel much better. It helped to relieve the spots a little bit, but it was just a short-term relief, the next morning they would be back, or that afternoon they would be back just as bad.”
Finding Gladskin Eczema Relief Cream
“So, my mother saw Gladskin on Facebook, because she was also helping me – my whole family, my sister, my mom, my husband, all of us, if we saw anything, we would try it.”
“It took my mom about a week to tell me about Gladskin because she usually doesn’t buy things off of Facebook, but it had popped up again, she’d seen it a couple of times, and at that point, like I said, we were really trying anything that said it would help with eczema.”
“We did some reading, and just the way that the Gladskin website explains the science behind Gladskin, that it’s not just about dry skin. The fact that it’s a little more scientific caught our eye, and we gave it a try right away.”
Finding a Miracle
“The Gladskin Eczema Cream was an absolute miracle. I put it on him as soon as we got it, later in the afternoon, and I swear, I mean, people might say I’m crazy, but I swear I saw it working within minutes, and then definitely within an hour, the redness on his back and chest had started to kind of go down and disappear, and then that next morning, he was clear. It was gone. The bumps were gone; the redness was gone. It was gone. I mean, I can’t even express. Honestly, I cried that next morning, cried and cried and cried, happy tears, of course, but I just could not believe how fast it worked… It just was astonishing. I honestly could not believe my eyes. I watched it disappear and fade away right before my eyes.”
Note: Nicole is absolutely not crazy! The Micreobalance® (our patented smart protein) in Gladskin works within the first 90 seconds, often, to start rebalancing the skin for most people. When your skin is severely suffering and you have a drastic imbalance in the microbiome, these instant results may be more noticeable.
Freedom from Eczema
“Even to this day, Michael’s skin is perfectly soft. It’s so wonderful. In my opinion, I feel like Gladskin has cleared his eczema, because he’s never had another flare-up since. It’s only ever improved his skin; I’ve never seen a single spot on his body since I’ve used Gladskin. I cannot say enough about it.”
“It’s just wonderful, and just because of the safety of the product, not being a steroid or anything like that, it is safe to use daily just as a precaution to make sure that his skin stays in balance so he doesn’t have more flare-ups. It’s great to find a product that you can feel safe using every day, like a normal lotion that you know is not full of a bunch of crap that he doesn’t need.”