A young mum has revealed how she finally beat her severe eczema after resorting to bleach baths – finding an unexpected solution made from donkey milk.
Rhiannon Cadd, 26, a full-time mum, suffered from eczema since she was a teenager, admitting that she was always ‘nervous’ to go to school after it began affecting her face.
Giving up her only solution, topical steroid cream, during her pregnancy with her son Carter, she was once again left in pain.
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Becoming ‘worse than ever’ she went into topical steroid withdrawal (TSW), causing her original symptoms to worsen.
“It was very, very painful,” the 26-year-old, from Essex, told What’sTheJam.com.
“I wanted to enjoy my pregnancy, but I had to spend most of it inside because of my eczema.
“There were some days where I would have a weeping neck.
“I’d wake up the next day and it’d be cracked and dry, and I wasn’t even able to turn my head.
“Some days I had to send my partner out to go and get everything I needed because it was just unbearable.”
While this was the worst the mum’s eczema had ever been, it was far from the first time that it had put her into a distressing situation.
Struggling throughout her teenage years, flare-ups affected her greatly during high school.
She said: “I’m guessing the stress of secondary school – although looking back now, it probably wasn’t that stressful – made it start to flare up loads.
“I remember having a really bad rash all over my face.
“I was really nervous every single time I went to school because I had rashes on my face and obviously in secondary school because you’re just trying to make friends and stuff.
“I didn’t want people to look at me and think, ‘Oh, that’s not really pretty is it?’”
Then her mum decided that a bleach bath would be a potential solution.
As reported by the NHS, the anti-septic effects of a bleach bath can benefit the skin, but this wasn’t the case for Rhiannon.
She said: “My mum saw [bleach baths] online and thought that we’d try it – a diluted bleach bath.”
“I was so young at the time, but I remember that it stang loads.
“It didn’t help.”
Finding topical steroid creams, she enjoyed temporary relief until she fell pregnant in 2021.
However, even they weren’t an ideal solution because they came with detrimental side effects like a stinging sensation on application.
However, her mum came to the rescue, finally a solution last year when she discovered the Hydrosil skincare range – namely, the turmeric and milk salve.
Costing only £11.95, she was over the moon.
It contains a natural plant extract, called Cardiospermum halicacabum, which the company claims works much like a steroid, only without the negative side effects.
The salve also contains donkey milk, which is hypoallergenic, and contains various amino acids and antimicrobial proteins that can help to soothe the skin.
Rhiannon added: “I was honestly trying anything and everything at this point.
“I was so grateful when I realised it was working and I didn’t have to use steroid creams anymore.
“One of the side effects of topical steroid creams is that they can sting on application, but the Hydrosil didn’t sting at all.
“I always wanted to find something that was safe to use, so it was a huge relief.
“My skin is very, very good now.
“I only get the occasional spot, which I’d take any day compared to how I suffered before.”
*** FACT BOX: WHAT THE DOCTOR SAYS ***
Dr Hamdan Abdullah Hamed MBChB told What’sTheJam.com: “Mild side effects for topical steroid creams are usually feeling a burn or sting when the medicine is applied.
“Meanwhile, side effects from it may also happen if the patient overuses it.
“It takes weeks to months before the adverse effects appear such as skin thinning, bruising, dilated blood vessels, excessive hair growth in the skin affected, and stretch marks.
“Some studies indicate that there could be an increased risk of low birth weight in [pregnant] women who apply potent or very potent topical steroid creams.
“It is also not ideal to apply potent creams for a very long time.
“Over time the body gets used to steroids, and soon you have to use more and more in order to get the same initial effect.
“Finally, the creams stop working.”
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