The Eczema Doc’s Top 10 Tips For Kids' Eczema

By Diane Angela Fong. ND & Tori Taggart, MS, CNS, LDN

Why Natural Eczema Healing Feels Overwhelming (and How to Begin)

If your child is struggling with eczema, you know how heartbreaking it can be -the constant itching, dry, inflamed skin, endless doctor visits, and new creams that don’t seem to help. Watching your child suffer can feel helpless.

But there is a way forward. Healing eczema from the root involves more than just treating the skin — it means addressing the whole body: gut health, nutrition, detoxification, sleep, and stress.

Here are the Eczema Doc’s Top Tips to get your child started on a natural, holistic path to healing.

1. Keep a Food & Symptom Journal

Tracking is the first step toward understanding what’s driving your child’s flares. Keep a simple eczema food journal that records:

• Meals and snacks (including timing and ingredients)

• Bowel movements (frequency and consistency)

• Skin condition and itch level (morning and night)

• Lifestyle factors (sleep, stress, outdoor time, exposures)

  
  

Why It Works

Your child’s gut and skin are deeply connected. Research on the gut–skin axis shows that imbalances in gut bacteria and intestinal permeability can trigger eczema flares and inflammation (Mahmud et al., 2022).

Practical Tip

Use a paper journal or a digital tracker like our Cleanbody app (get free access when you book an Eczema Evaluation!) to upload food photos and notes. Look for patterns- like dairy, sugar or processed snacks causing next-day flare-ups or an increase in itchiness or rashes around the mouth. Insight from a detailed journal can be extremely helpful in putting together correlations between symptoms and exposures.

2. Swap Processed Snacks for Whole, Fiber-Rich Colorful Foods

In our modern world, quick convenience snacks are normalized as a part of childhood.  These quick foods are loaded with sugar and refined flours devoid of nutrients. These types of foods can feed hidden pathogens like parasites, bacterial overgrowths and fungal infections.  Rather than choosing packaged and processed foods, opt for colorful whole-food options (fresh fruits and veggies) to support gut health and reduce inflammation.

Why Processed Foods Worsen Eczema

• Contain refined sugars, seed oils, MSG, food dyes and other additives that fuel inflammation

• Disrupt gut barrier integrity and microbial diversity

• Increase histamine release and immune

Practical swaps

Keep nutritious, ready-to-grab snacks in your fridge and let your kids help pick and prepare them! Ownership encourages healthy habits. Remember that you as the parent are in charge of what founds are found in the home. Make sure you rid your home of processed sugary snacks and fill your fridge and cabinets with organic, low sugar options. You can wash and cut produce ahead of time so it is ready to eat, bake bars or muffins that are low in sugar and free of allergens, or find a few organic convenient brands that are safe to use on occasion 

• Parents are in charge of what foods are found in the home. Make sure there are delicious fresh snacks available to grab, that produce is washed and cut and ready to eat, and muffins/bars/protein balls are homemade and stored in the fridge or freezer to have on hand.  

• Replace chips/crackers with steamed carrot sticks + guacamole/avocado.

• If a sweet treat is needed, choose frozen berries or homemade fruit “nice-cream” (blended banana + berries, frozen).

• Encourage kids to help pick and prepare the snack -ownership often helps adherence.

• There are some brands out there that are organic, less processed and available for store purchase. Make sure you check ingredients and can pronounce all of them and that there are no added sugars. 

3. Add Gut-Healing Foods

A healthy gut means healthier skin. Supporting the gut microbiome can reduce inflammation,

strengthen the immune system, and restore the skin barrier.

Gut-Friendly Eczema Diet Tips

• Eat the rainbow: Aim for 2–3 colorful fruits or vegetables at each meal.

• Boost fiber: Add chia or flaxseed to oatmeal or smoothies.

• Try fermented foods: Dairy-free yogurt, sauerkraut, or kimchi (if tolerated).

• Limit triggers: Reduce sugar, gluten, processed dairy, and artificial additives.

Why It Matters

Children with eczema often have gut dysbiosis (imbalance of good and bad bacteria). Balancing gut flora can calm inflammation and strengthen immune tolerance (Lee & Kim, 2022). Fiber and plant diversity feed beneficial bacteria that produce anti-inflammatory short-chain fatty acids (Volkova et al., 2021).

4. Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate

Hydration is one of the simplest, most overlooked parts of eczema care.

Why Hydration Helps Eczema

• Keeps the skin barrier supple and less prone to cracking

• Aids detoxification through the kidneys and lymphatic system

• Prevents dehydration-induced inflammation

• Reduces sugary drink intake (a major eczema trigger)

How Much Water?

Children should aim to drink half their body weight in ounces daily (e.g., a 60-lb child = ~30 oz/day).You may need to increase water intake during exercise or hot weather.

Offer filtered water throughout the day and make it the default drink. Replace juice and soda with herbal teas(chamomile, rooibos) or infused water with cucumber or berries.  Also remember that babies that aren’t yet eating solid food do not need water.  Toddlers should be offered water throughout the day.  School aged children should be encouraged to drink water in between meals and to carry a water bottle (non-plastic) with them during the school day to increase intake. 

5. Clean Up Bath, Body & Home Products

The skin barrier in eczema is fragile and easily irritated by harsh soaps, fragrances, and chemicals. Switching to clean, microbiome-safe products can make a dramatic difference.

What to Avoid

• Fragrance, parabens, sulfates, phthalates, dyes, antibacterial soaps, and bleach-based cleaners.

What to Choose

• Cleansers: Gentle, low-suds, fragrance-free, pH-balanced.

• Moisturizers: Ceramide-rich, non-toxic, fragrance-free.

• Household cleaners: Natural and toxin-free (check products on the EWG Skin Deep Database).

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a great resource for checking product safety and finding eczema-friendly alternatives.  You also check out Cleanbody’s product recommendations here. 

6. Support Detox Through Daily Movement

Movement helps your child’s body detoxify and reduce inflammation naturally.

Benefits of Movement for Eczema

• The skin is an organ of elimination (through sweat) and plays a role in detox. Regular movement that induces light sweating can support that process.

• Exercise improves circulation, which helps nutrients reach the skin and toxins be carried away.

• Outdoor play often reduces stress (more on that below) which is linked to fewer flares ups by regulating the nervous system.

  
  

Simple Ways to Move More

• Take a family walk or dance party break daily.

• Encourage outdoor play for fresh air and sunshine.

• If sweating increases itching, begin with gentle stretching or short bursts of movement.

• If weather or conditions prevent outdoor time, indoor active games (hide-and-seek, obstacle course, family dance party) work as well but prioritize outdoor time as much as possible. 

• Encourage the whole family to move together- modeling movement helps the child stick with it

7. Focus on Calm & Sleep

Sleep and stress are huge factors in eczema healing. When children are stressed or overtired, inflammation increases, cortisol rises, and itching worsens.

How to Improve Sleep Naturally

Keep a Consistent Routine: Kids thrive on predictability. Stick to a set bedtime and follow the same steps each night, for example: a healing bath, moisturizer, a bedtime story, and lights out.

Create a Cool, Calm Sleep Space: Keep the room around 66–70°F, use breathable 100% cotton (ideally organic) or bamboo sheets, and avoid heavy blankets. Trim nails, consider cotton mittens if scratching is an issue.

Unplug Early: Turn off screens at least 30–60 minutes before bed as blue light suppresses melatonin and can make it harder to fall asleep. Choose quiet play, coloring, or reading together instead as part of a wind-down routine.

Teach Calm-Down Tools: Simple relaxation tricks can help lower stress and ease itch. Try “belly balloon” breathing, butterfly hugs, gentle stretches, or sharing one thing your child was grateful for that day. These moments help signal to the body that it’s safe to rest.

Moisturize with Meaning: After the bath, apply a fragrance-free, ceramide-rich moisturizer using slow, gentle strokes. Turn it into a nightly bonding ritual -a few minutes of calm touch helps kids associate bedtime with comfort, not discomfort.

Deep, restful sleep is when the body releases growth hormones and repairs damaged skin tissue- a crucial part of eczema recovery.

8. Use Healing Topicals, Not Just Steroids

While topical steroids can help in emergencies to calm the skin quickly, they don’t fix the underlying barrier damage or microbial imbalance and can often cause additional problems with the skin including something called Topical Steroid Withdrawal (TSW).  It is best to choose natural, clean and gentle topicals that help the skin heal. 

Choose Barrier-Repairing Topicals

• Apply a fragrance-free moisturizer twice daily (even when skin looks calm).

  • Moisturize immediately after bathing to lock in hydration.

  • Moisturizers are individualized depending on many factors including if there is a yeast issue called malassezia present on the skin. Read more about dealing with yeast including malassezia here.  

  • Our product recommendation page has some suggestions for moisturizers to try out.

• If staph overgrowth is suspected, use our antimicrobial natural spray called CleanSKIN Calm.

Working with a practitioner to find the right formula is important as some oils work really well, while others can worsen flares if microbial imbalance is present.

9. Use Clean Water (Filter Your Drinking, Bath & Shower Water)

Water quality matters more than most parents realize when it comes to eczema. Kids with eczema have a weakened skin barrier and an immune system that is more reactive to environmental triggers and water can be one of the biggest triggers.

Why Water Quality Affects Eczema

Unfiltered water often contains:

• Chlorine and chloramines, which strip the skin’s natural oils and disrupt the microbiome

• Heavy metals (lead, copper) that can irritate sensitive skin

• Fluoride, which may aggravate inflammation for some individuals

• PFAS (“forever chemicals”), increasingly found in municipal water systems

• Microbial contaminants that affect gut and immune health when consumed

For kids with eczema, these irritants can worsen dryness, itching, and redness through topical exposure and by contributing to whole body inflammation when consumed.

Filter Drinking Water

Filtered water reduces toxic burden on the gut and immune system.

This is essential because:

• The gut and skin are connected through the gut–skin axis.

• Reducing chemical and heavy metal exposure supports better detoxification, healthier microbiome balance, and reduces inflammatory reactions.

  
  

Tips for Cleaner Drinking Water

• Use a high-quality water filter for all drinking and cooking water (reverse osmosis, Berkey-style gravity filtration, or systems that remove chlorine, heavy metals, PFAS, and fluoride). Check out our recommendations here.

• Avoid plastic water bottles instead opt for stainless steel or glass.

• Send filtered water in your child’s school bottle.

Filter Bath and Shower Water

Bathing exposes children to more chlorine than drinking it, due to heat and steam increasing absorption through the skin and lungs. In addition, water touching the skin affects the skin barrier directly.

Practical tips:

• Install a shower/bath filter that removes chlorine/chloramines and heavy metals. Our shower and bath filter recommendations are found here.

• After bathing, always moisturize immediately (“soak and seal”).

  
  

Clean water reduces daily irritation and helps the skin barrier rebuild more effectively.

10. Breathe Clean Air

Air quality is one of the most overlooked eczema triggers. Children breathe up to twice as much air per pound of body weight as adults, making them more sensitive to airborne chemicals, mold, and allergens.

Why Air Quality Matters for Eczema

The lungs, skin, and immune system are deeply connected. Polluted air increases inflammatory load, which can worsen eczema by:

• Triggering immune reactions and histamine release

• Increasing oxidative stress

• Worsening dryness and flare ups in sensitive kids

• Aggravating mold-related eczema (a common hidden trigger). Read more about mold here.

• Carrying VOCs (volatile organic compounds) from cleaners, candles, paints, and furniture that irritate the skin barrier

  
  

Children with eczema often have a “heightened inflammatory response,” which means breathing in airborne irritants can quickly show up as skin flares.

The Importance of Filtering Air

A high-quality air purifier helps remove:

• Dust mites

• Pet dander

• Mold spores

• VOCs and chemical off-gassing

• Indoor smoke, fragrances, and pollutants

  
  

Cleaner air reduces the immune system’s daily workload, allowing the skin to calm down and repair more effectively.

Practical Ways to Improve Indoor Air Quality

• Use a HEPA + activated carbon air purifier in your child’s bedroom and main living area. Find our air filter recommendations here.

• Open windows daily (when outdoor air quality is good) because indoor air is very dirty.

• Reduce synthetic fragrances (candles, plugins, sprays).

• Address moisture with dehumidifiers when needed to prevent mold growth (humidity 40–50%).

• Vacuum weekly with a HEPA vacuum to reduce dust and allergens.

Breathing clean air lowers inflammation and helps reduce eczema flares especially for children with environmental allergies, mold exposure, or asthma-like symptoms.

A Whole-Body Approach to Eczema Healing

Healing eczema naturally is not a quick fix…it’s a journey of rebuilding balance in the body. When you focus on nutrition, hydration, movement, gentle skin care, and stress support, you’re giving your child the foundation for long-term skin health.

Key Takeaways

• Every child’s eczema is unique so it is important to personalize your approach.

• Keep a food & symptom journal to uncover patterns. Once you uncover patterns you can begin to make changes based on the data collected.

• Focus on the gut–skin connection- heal from the inside out.

• Support detoxification and calm the nervous system both which are critical pieces of healing.

• Make sure both air and water have been filtered to reduce exposures.

  
  

If you need help in your journey, consider booking a Cleanbody Eczema Evaluation to receive personalized, root-cause guidance.

If you’re ready to uncover what’s really driving your child’s eczema and start healing from the inside out, take your next step today:

👉 Download The Eczema Doc’s Kids’ Eczema Guide

Inside, you’ll discover:

✨ A breakdown of top 3 root causes of kids' eczema and what you can do about it

✨ Dr. Fong's Top Tips to Addressing the Root Causes of Kids' Eczema

✨ Dr. Fong's Resources and Tips to Start Healing Eczema from the Inside, Out

And when you’re ready for real answers, not just symptom relief, book your child’s Eczema Evaluation with Cleanbody.

In just 25 minutes, the Cleanbody team will review your story, symptoms, nutrition and skin photos, and discuss potential root cause for your child’s eczema.  If you're interested in exploring personalized strategies to reclaim healthy skin, we're here to help. Learn more about working with us! Use the code BLOG10 to get 10% off your Eczema Evaluation.

Because your child’s skin isn’t just reacting -it’s communicating. Once you understand what it’s saying, you can finally help it to heal.

Ready to start your child’s eczema healing journey?

📘 [Download the Free Guide]

🩺 [Book Your Eczema Evaluation]

We're Going Live!

We are going live to discuss this topic on Thursday, November 20 at 12:15 pm PST! Watch the live or check out the replay here:

About the Authors:

Tori Taggart, MS, CNS, LDN is a Cleanbody Practitioner specializing in meeting people in their health journeys by digging into the root causes of various chronic diseases and conditions. Through the use of healthy food along with aspects of the natural world around us (sunshine, nature, clean water, stress management, relationships, etc), she helps to empower her clients to take charge of their own health and trust their bodies to thrive and heal.

Dr. Diane Angela Fong, ND, is the CEO and founder of Cleanbody, a wellness company dedicated to treating and preventing chronic disease. She is the creator of the Cleanbody Method, which follows a three-step process: Evaluate (digging into the root causes of chronic disease using lab testing and other evaluation tools), Optimize (enhancing health foundations by addressing nutrition, lifestyle, and toxic exposures), and Support (optimizing organ functions through healing protocols).

References

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   • Byrd, A. L., Belkaid, Y., & Segre, J. A. (2017). The human skin microbiome. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 16(3), 143–155.

   • Lee, S. Y., & Kim, J. (2022). Gut–skin axis in atopic dermatitis: Pathophysiologic insights and therapeutic potential. Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Research, 14(1), 14–27.

   • Mahmud, M. R., et al. (2022). Alterations in gut microbiota and metabolites in atopic dermatitis: A systematic review. Frontiers in Immunology, 13, 831–847.

   • National Eczema Association. (2023). The gut-skin connection in eczema. Retrieved from https://nationaleczema.org

   • Volkova, A., et al. (2021). Dietary fiber and skin health: The role of the gut–skin axis. Nutrients, 13(3), 1035.

Medical Disclaimer: The information provided in this blog post is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.