We found out that Sophia had asthma when she was two. I had been home with her all day-she had been battling a cold, but this day she seemed worse. When my husband got home, he listened to her chest, and said we needed to immediately go to the emergency room. I was shocked….what? He recognized her labored breathing, and shortness of breath. He knew, because he was rushed to an emergency room for the same thing as a toddler. Asthma was part of his family history.

How this has presented itself through the years for Sophia is a combination of excema, coughing, anxiety, and a very tight chest. For both she and Bob, the asthma is allergy induced. For example, years ago, Sophia held a cat across her arms. Her arms were out straight and the cat was laying across the inside of her elbows. For months after, she had two excema patches on the inside of her elbow. If she wore fabric that irritated her skin, she would get patches behind her knees, or her inner thighs.

Over the years we’ve used inhalers, and when necessary, during acute attacks, a nebulizer treatment and sometimes prednisone. I never really felt comfortable with the way that the inhalers made Sophia act and feel.  She would get all shaky and agitated, and for days at a time, just not be herself, especially on prednisone.  There is evidence that long-term use of prednisone has been linked to health issues, and so of course I was uneasy about that. BUT, what was I going to do?  If your child cannot breathe, you do whatever they tell you.  Period.  Inhalers have been a life saver and major game changer for people with asthma. Over the years, though, my philosophy really started to shift, and it was my hope that we would find some natural approaches to treating her asthma.

When we began homeschooling, a woman in my homeschool community offered to share with us her protocol for asthma. She said that she was seeing a naturopath, and that they had recommended a protocol that had made a major positive effect on her and her daughter’s health.

So these were the particulars for Sophia’s size and age:

Increase your water – for every 10 lbs, you drink 8 ounces of water per day.

Fish oils – 4-6000 mg daily, more if having an episode (we use whatever is on sale)

Liquid colloidial minerals-dose as described on the bottle (we use Source Naturals)

After about two weeks of using this protocol, Sophia’s asthma turned around.  Talk about grateful-we were also able to decrease the number of rescue inhaler puffs and almost ended our use of nebulizer treatments.  We went from 2 acute situations per month, to about 1 every 3 months, and the severity was less.

In addition to these three important steps, we have also found a few essential oils to be VERY effective. We use doTERRA essential oils.  In particular, she uses melaleuca to relieve an asthma related cough, by simply rubbing on her chest. She also diffuses Breathe, a proprietary blend of oils that overall supports the respiratory system.

Obviously, everyone is different. We’ve tried the mainstream approach, and we’ve tried a more natural approach.

This post was supposed to be the ways that we’ve found to effectively treat excema-because so many people seem to suffer with it.  But it seems that I feel I cannot resist the back story.  Be watching for Itchy-Scratchy Part 2.