The benefits of Coconut Oil for Babies and Children with dry skin, nappy rash, cradle cap or eczema.
At one stage or another all my three children had mild eczema. With my first child I would use the creams I was recommended from the pharmacy for eczema and a mild steroid cream to control it when they had a bad flare up. The eczema would come and go and always seemed to be worse in winter when the air was drying. Winter would also be when we wouldn't be swimming in the ocean which is one of my families favourite pass time in summer (salt water is also excellent for eczema).
Hughie my third child also had eczema and I didn't want to use steroid creams on him when he got a flare up and that was when I discovered the wonder's of coconut oil for eczema. I started adding coconut oil to Hughie's bath daily and after a few daily baths the eczema disappeared. Daily coconut oil baths became my routine for Hughie and the eczema didn't return.
I also noticed that Hughie never had a nappy rash while I gave him these coconut oil baths. I later researched and discovered that coconut oil has antimicrobial, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal properties which keep a baby bottom soft and free of nappy rash. The Fijian women have known about coconut oil for nappy rash for a long time and they use it on their babies bottoms.
Hughie also had cradle cap and I also discovered that the coconut oil was excellent for this. I would put the coconut oil on his cradle cap and leave it for 5 minutes to soften and then comb it out.
All my children are now at school and have outgrown their eczema but when I think back to the day when I discovered coconut oil to help them with their dry skin condition and am thankful.
Reasons why Coconut Oil works well on dry skin conditions, eczema, cradle cap and nappy rash -
* Coconut Oil is one of the very few natural sources of Lauric Acid. Another is mother's breast milk. Lauric Acid is converted into monolauric acid, which has antimicrobial, anti-viral, anti-bacterial and antifungal properties. Coconut oil application is particularly effective against Staphylococcus aureus infection that very frequently complicates eczema.
*Coconut Oil is an excellent moisturiser it gets absorbed into the skin and softens the skin. Keeping the skin moist and soft is a key to stopping eczema breakouts.
*Coconut Oil also helps to relieve the itching that is associated with dry skin, nappy rash and eczema, .
*Coconut Oil is also anti-inflammatory which helps for people who suffer from eczema as in eczema sufferers an inflammatory response could be set off from from contact with rough surfaces, plastics, soaps etc.
