Why I came to welcome eczema.

I hate eczema!
After treating my first patient with severe eczema [and it was SEVERE], I was like 

"NEVER AGAIN!"

... practically ready to *refuse* to try and to turn poor children away.  I was SCARED to go there again.  It was harrowing. It was a baptism of fire and probably will be the worst eczema case I'll ever encounter [I hope so for the sake of the person!]  
My first time was with an 11 day old baby boy who erupted in terrible eczema after a course of IV antibiotics for an unexplained fever.  

It is SO hard for the child and parent to live with eczema & it is so hard for a homeopath to manage eczema treatment precisely BECAUSE it is so hard for the parent and child.
Parents panic.  The temptation to suppress with steroids is strong for parents.
The temptation to offer a homeopathic quick fix with the risk of suppressing always has to be guarded against by the homeopath.  You cannot act until the symptoms are clear enough for the remedy to be really clear.

We have to gate-keep the time & space in which the healing takes place, encourage patience, help with palliation, instil courage & confidence and educate the parent about process and outcomes.  The outcomes are wonderful. [1 & 2]

Stellaria [Chickweed] used to palliate eczema without risk of suppressing it.
Picture credit: wiki 

After my 'never again' it turned out that almost every chronically ill child whose care I undertook had suppressed eczema in their history and I knew I had to keep coming back to eczema and successfully treating it.  Short of taking their history, seeing 'eczema' and turning them away ... it had to be done.
The universe sends you what you need/avoid ultimately. :-)

I just wish now to get to a child with eczema before it is suppressed into asthma and then the asthma is suppressed into mental health problems.
I'm so pleased to be treating eczema.

However hard it is and however many emergency calls I get, it is far better than watching children go downward with suppression.  Better than spending months and months bringing children back from mental illness to asthma ... nursing them gradually and carefully through the asthma [alongside steroid use] until they can live without the steroids and THEN staying brave and clear headed when eczema's ugly head rears itself again as their body becomes strong enough to undo the suppression some more.  
We know this is the last stage of healing and we know it is going to come ... but it rarely makes it easier.  

Please send me a child with eczema! [And yet I still feel trepidation at saying it so boldly].