Both our children have eczema, and have since they hit about the 15 month mark. They have it during the summer months and the winter months. They get it from sweat when they're wearing formaldehyde-drenched Chinese-made clothing and when they're wearing Oeko-Tex certified organic clothing from Peru. They might be allergic to foods (the possible allergen list is a mile long, and it's not like the doctors could possibly test for everything; elimination diets have been futile). They're certainly allergic to that big hickory tree over their play equipment. Cats, dogs, mold, dust, you name it.
So, when all else fails, and you can't weed out the source, you want something to make the symptoms go away. In the case of eczema, you can either suppress the immune reaction (topical steroids) or combat the resulting itch and moisturize and heal the inflamed, damaged skin. California Baby Calendula Cream performs the tricky combination of controlling the itch long enough to heal the skin. It works reasonably well the majority of the time.
Calendula (or pot marigold) extract has been proven to have anti-inflammatory properties, among others, in plant pharmacological studies and is used topically to reduce inflammation and soothe irritated tissue for centuries. Of course if your child is allergic to plants in the marigold family, calendula would (obviously) have the opposite effect.
I wouldn't be surprised if this has chamomile in it as well, though the label doesn't disclose the contents of the 'proprietary oil blend'. It does have a pleasant tea-like smell to it, and chamomile has been noted to have similar soothing effects.
The rest of the ingredients are dedicated to moisturizing the skin. Because of the density of this cream, it stays on the skin, and because the first ingredient is purified water, it is quickly absorbed. It leaves skin feeling incredibly smooth, but not at all greasy.
The big drawback here is that if your child has severe eczema, you might have to apply this 3 or 4 times a day to the most affected areas. Our children do have severe eczema, and this can keep it at bay if I remember to apply it frequently. Of course I don't always remember. Then there's the cost of applying this cream multiple times per day to two children. We go through one jar per week easily.
So, why not use another moisturizer? Well, in our case, almost all moisturizers we've tried (Aveeno, Nature's Gate, Cetaphil, Eucerin, and others I can't recall now) actually irritate the kids' skin even more, whereas this and the Sensitive Skin California Baby lotion do not. Vaseline works as a barrier cream, but it ruins clothing (mine and theirs) and isn't easily absorbed by the skin.
So, we keep trying other things occasionally, and keep coming back to California Baby. While it is not a miracle cream, it is a heck of a lot better than the other stuff that's out there. (It should be at that price.) It works pretty well most times, sometimes clearing their eczema entirely for brief periods. Another reason to like it is that it rates fairly low on hazardous ingredients according to the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Database. All the other mainstream lotions we've tried were considered to be moderately hazardous, and when you read a bit more into this stuff, they just don't seem like good things to be applying to a baby or young child's skin. Most common lotions have ingredients that are actually considered to be irritants, which may explain the children's reaction to other moisturizers.
If your child has eczema, and you're at your wit's end trying to find something, anything that will improve their quality of life, it can't possibly hurt to give this stuff a shot. Pricey as it is, there are so many days I'd give anything just to not have to watch my children irritably tearing at their own skin. This calendula cream has definitely been a source of relief for them - and thus, for our whole family.
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California Baby Calendula Cream.
