Bleach Prescribed to Relieve Eczema Itching: Talk About a Toxic Bath!
Editor’s note: The following post was originally published on Green and Clean Mom. “Green & Clean Mom can inspire you to try a little harder, be a catalyst for change and to offer you some new tips and news on how to be the green, sexy and sassy mom…I know you are!”
The New York Times recently reported that a study was just published in the Journal of Pediatrics showing the children who took a bath in a half a cup of bleach per full standard tub were relieved of their eczema related itching. The bleach apparently had very little odor and the children were relieved of the itching. One article totes the solution of using bleach in the bath with children as “safe, simple and inexpensive…” and I’m trying to figure out how the hell this is safe. Something is seriously messed up about this and I’m feeling very sick over the idea of a child breathing the toxic fumes, having their body exposed to the toxic substance when bath time should be a safe place to play. Do the children drink the water? How does it not get in their eyes? How is this legal and okay? Time Magazine explains that using the bleach bath might sound harsh but it’s safer than exposing children to the antibiotics…
“The bottom line is that the more antibiotics we use, the higher the risk for something becoming resistant to them,” says Dr. Amy Paller, a study author, specialist in pediatric dermatology and chair of the dermatology department at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “The beauty of something like dilute bleach is that one doesn’t get resistance to it.”
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Eczema and Your Child
So what is eczema and why is that you would want to put bleach patches on your child’s skin or have them soak in a bath of bleach? The online eczema center compares a bleach bath at home to swimming in a pool but will parents correctly mix the solution and aren’t may pools trying to switch from bleach to safer alternatives? Besides not all bleach is the same and companies like Clorox have ultra bleach with high concentrates. Seems like a dangerous prescription for a doctor to give and easy mistake for concerned parents to make.
Both my daughter and my niece suffer from eczema so I understand the frustration and wanting to help your child. According to Keep Kids Healthy eczema is:
Atopic dermatitis, or eczema, is a common problem in infants and children. It usually begins between two and six months of age with very dry and sensitive skin that will then become red and extremely itchy. It often starts on the forehead, cheeks and scalp and spreads to the trunk, creases of the elbows, knees, and wrists. With scratching the rash may become raw, crusted and weepy.
Kids Health offers many solutions and helpful tips, none of which include bleach. Avoiding harsh detergents, clothing and lotions instead are suggested. I’m not sure I would call bleach a mild detergent or soap. A March 2009 study claims that food allergies are not to blame for eczema but instead says environmental and seasonal allergies might be playing a role in the increased number of children being diagnosed and suffering from eczema.
Eczema can be made worse by allergens like pollen, as well as irritants like soap or woolen clothing, according to the Institute.
“Research knowledge on eczema and allergies is growing quickly, so parents need to make sure that the information they are relying on is based on up-to-date evidence,” commented Professor Sawicki.
I’m not sure I agree with the study totally ruling out food allergies. Have you read Monica from Healthy Green Mom and her experience with eczema and food allergies?
Must Know Information on Bleach
If you decide to use this so called “safe” remedy I would really like to point out some information about bleach and poisoning - the dangers associated with bleach. From Right Health:
Airways and lungs
Breathing difficulty (from inhalation)
Throat swelling (may also cause breathing difficulty)
Pulmonary edema (water filling the lungs)
Eyes, ears, nose, and throat
Severe pain in the throat
Severe pain or burning in the nose, eyes, ears, lips, or tongue
Loss of vision
Gastrointestinal
Severe abdominal pain
Vomiting
Burns of the esophagus (food pipe)
Vomiting blood
Blood in the stool
Heart and blood vessels
Hypotension (low blood pressure) develops rapidly
Collapse
Skin
Irritation
Burns
Necrosis (holes) in the skin or underlying tissues
Blood
Severe change in acid levels of the blood (pH balance) which leads to damage in all of the body organs)
Many children I personally know with eczema also suffer from asthma and allergies (my daughter) and if I used this bleach remedy it would likely throw her into a horrible asthma attack. Chlorine bleach has even been linked to childhood asthma but a year after this study was released another study comes out telling parents that it is okay to put their child in a bath with chlorine bleach - what? The American Academy of Allergies and Asthma even lists Chlorine Bleach as causing dermitis and irritating the skin. Personally, we opted out of taking my daughter to swimming lessons due to the high chlorine odor and what we felt it would do for her lungs; why would I put her in a bath of it and let her breath it?
Natural Alternatives and Solutions for Eczema
There are a number of other alternatives that I would personally consider but everyone should contact their doctor and feel comfortable with their choice for treatment. Personally, using probiotics and other natural alternatives and food changes to help “heal the gut” as well as avoiding all thing harsh on babies skin, using botanical solutions for pain relief and even seeking alternative medicine. I like how Dr. Amy Well’s explains eczema and that creams and medicine doesn’t get to the root of the problem. Dr. Amy Well’s offers some great suggestsions for helping naturally cure and deal with eczema.
Read more at Green and Clean Mom!
WOW. Just WOW. People who’ve never had eczema spewing the danger of toxic chlorine bleach (diluted, mind you) in a bath to kill the staph germs on someone’s skin will be the same people putting diluted chlorine bleach in water to purify it when their water supply goes wrong. Harumppf.
My 25 year old daughter who has suffered SO BADLY for her entire life has just found out about this therapy and is thrilled after just one bath in it.
Vinegar, salt, good on chips but doesn’t kill Staph.a.
Those of you with young children who are suffering with eczema have no clue what is in front of you. There’s not a natural “cure”, “solution” out there. Stop their suffering now. Please. Your child will thank you, your pocketbook will thank you.
Oh, and if you are using any sorts of corticosteroids on your kids, get them in ointment form. Again, your child will thank you. Creams burn the open areas. Ointments soothe. We found this out by accident when the pharmacy didn’t have the cream and asked if we wanted ointment. For the first time in eight years (when she was eight), she didn’t scream after a bath when we had to put the medicine on her spots. It was only then that she could take responsibility for putting her ointments on herself.
Why didn’t some damn doctor think of this??????????
I’m with Stephanie and Glen on this one…if you’ve never seen a child suffer you have NO FRICKING IDEA.
P.S. We had never heard of Vanicream til a visit to a new allergy specialist the other day…FABULOUS STUFF. No lanolin, no formaldehyde, no NUTTIN in it but great moisture. Comes in a 1 lb jar with a pump that will help avoid contamination….
Oh yes, another reason for getting these open sores/itchy spots/flares under control..something called Eczema Herpeticum. (Or, maybe the diagnosis is Herpetic Stomatitis. Google them both. Google the images.) Imagine what it feels like to have body parts covered with fever blister types of sores.
Yes, the herpes virus can be transferred through a touch, a kiss, etc. (And I’m talking about a mom with a cold sore kissing a baby, or touching a baby, HSV1, not HSV2). Or, maybe the baby, child, young adult develops a cold sore on their own.
If the HSV virus invades the skin through an open eczema flare the results are a horror you don’t even want to know about or imagine. Hospitilization. IVfluids and unable to eat, swallow. Acyclovir through a drip. Swollen lymph nodes. Pain like you wouldn’t believe. Think shingles, on steroids, all over your face.
Then it autoinfects when the child touches a spot and then has another open wound on their body, say a hangnail. The eczema herpeticum invades that and it leads to a cycle from hell. From HELL. Imagine hands that crack, weep, blister, itch, are scarred. Daily dose of Valtrex…and imagine when young adults hear you take Valtrex. What do they think?
YOU. DO. NOT. WANT. THIS. TO. HAPPEN. TO. YOUR. CHILD.
Give me a quarter to half cup of bleach twice a week, diluted in a bathtub full of water ANY DAY over the above described situation. I weep at the thought the pain and heartache from which my daughter might have been saved if we had known of this simple treatment for her eczema when she was young.
Whew…I feel better now.
No, I have to say this…
Toxic is eczema herpeticum that goes undiagnosed correctly. Like fatally toxic.
Think about that one.
Thank you to everyone who has defended those of us who have used the bleach baths. I have watched my 3 year old suffer for 2 years with eczema. She has recently flared up so bad that she scrathches to the point of bleeding. We have tried antibiotics, steroid creams and every eczema lotion created. We have been to the pediatrician, the dermatologist and allergist. Nothing has worked. I’ve had other children and parents ask what is wrong with her after looking at what she’s done to herself. I have never felt so helpless. We even went as far to bandage her arms and wrists to keep her from scratching. My husband and I noticed that after being in a pool the eczema seemed to get better so we have recently started the bleach baths and have noticed an improvement. I still am not crazy about the idea but will do whatever it takes to have my child not suffer. Some here have judged and would like to make those of us who have tried this method feel like bad mothers. I hope you never get to a point that you feel you have no other alternative for your child. If other methods have worked for you, then count your blessings. I think that my continued use of steroids after 2 years is more harmful to my child. I thank all the parents here who have offered support because nothing is more difficult than watching your child suffer. It has given me comfort to know I’m not alone. I hope I can give the same to you.
Homeopathic doctor prescribed this remedy for impetigo for myself and my brothers over 35 years ago. It is just a small amount of bleach. Disinfects, dries up and avoids contagiousness.
What is so ‘toxic’ about a VERY dilute bath of 0.005% bleach? Have some common sense, people! Before you deem something ‘crazy’, look at the evidence. This treatment works. It may not work for everyone, but it evidently works for a lot of people. Far be it for me to suggest that Ms Lance is scaremongering with her huge list of the dangers of bleach, I just want to point out that this list the effects of FULL STRENGTH bleach, NOT the highly diluted solution used in the study. I suggest she reads the original research article before making such rash comments and putting parents off trying something that may bring about relief and well-being to their eczematous kids.
I would like to say that I hugely disagree with this post! My son has cronic excema, enviromental allergies, food allergies, and asthma! He has had all of these conditions from birth. We have taken him from doctor to doctor, specialist to specialist, and hospital to hospital. His asthma and allergies are now controlled by our diligence and a large mixture of medications that keep him breathing and functioning in society. However, his excema has never been controlled! We have tried steriods, and creams, and oils of all sorts, oral medication, different soaks, and different “home remedies” NOTHING worked! He is almost 5 and almost everyday of his life he has to deal with bleeding and complusive itching! he has had sores and outbreaks cover entire limbs, he wakes up to bloody sheets nearly everyday. FINALLY, our dermatologist recommended this course of treatment, with guidelines and careful instructions and my son, for the first time in his life has a bit of relief! When used the proper way you should not have a “bleach” odor, you are instructed to use a very small amount! It is successful and it does work without the crazy consequences that are mentioned in this post! Without this option my son would still be suffering the bullying of other children, the embarrassment and the pain and itching! Use it properly and carefully! That should be obvious! Your child just might have the amazing results that my little boy has had!
Our daughter has eczema. We’ve not yet tried the bleach bath, though, as we just heard about it this past weekend. Our daughter’s case is not very severe (so we’re told), and is mainly on her face, though she does scratch in other areas, leaving scratch marks, and sometimes making herself bleed. The doctor and allergist prescribed a steroid cream, which actually works, but we don’t want to use it as the pharmacist told us that it would thin the outer layer of skin. The allergist did tell us that eczema never results in adult scarring, even in really bad cases, so we don’t feel the need to use the steroid cream (Fluticazone).
This past weekend, at a child’s birthday party, we met a girl who asked if our child had eczema. She told us that her son, who was also at the party, had it really bad–much, much worse than our daughter– up until three days before the party. She said she’d taken him to the dermatologist and was prescribed the bleach bath. We were amazed, because her son’s skin was completely clear. For his face, she said she just gently wiped it with a cloth that had been moistened with the bath water. What more can I say? This solution worked. It relieved the child’s eczema (completely–no visible signs, and his mother said he had it all over his face, forehead, legs and arms.), without giving any discomfort to the child.
About the antibiotics–they aren’t prescribed for eczema, they’re prescribed for infection. Our daughter was prescribed them, when her face had been scratched so often that it started oozing. After the infection is gone, they do nothing for the eczema. Steroids creams do help, but they will thin the layer of the skin, which doesn’t sound like a good idea to me, especially since the pharmacist warned us about this effect.
Most likely, we’ll try the bleach bath, so our daughter can finally get to sleep without being driven crazy by itchiness. First, though, we’ll probably consult with the pediatrician to get his take on the whole thing.
I suppose they are recommending bleach for eczema because dangerous staphylococcus bacteria could be present along with it (or might be causing it). I have no idea. I just read about this on a website specializing in MRSA decolonization. They said something about eczema and a link with MRSA.
The treatment work,and it works quickly.It was amazing to see how quickly our daughters skin cleared up and stays clear without TOXIC prescribed medications.People need to think things out,there is chlorine in pools and even chlorine in low dosage in a lot of city water systems.Our daughter no longer cries in the night due to itching and infection