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Ever wonder how it could be possible for little kids to have low levels of nutrients?
Have you thought that they haven't really had “time” to lose nutrients, so they should be OK? We're learning more about this, and it's important to test before deciding on a plan of action. Improving micro AND macronutrients are important when rebuilding skin health!
My guest today is Jennifer Brand, MPH, MS, CNS. She is a clinical nutritionist and the CEO of Jennifer Caryn Brand Nutrition LLC. Jennifer helps children with dry, flaky, weepy, red, itchy, painful rashes navigate the journey to healthy skin and enjoy a childhood free from disruptive skin symptoms.
Instead of managing symptoms with more diet restrictions, environment changes, and prescription creams, Jennifer uses functional testing and a detailed health history to uncover unique imbalances at the heart of the problem and provides a roadmap to restore balance so that your child can eat more foods, feel good in their skin, regain normalcy, and be a child. Jennifer’s own struggle with gut problems and disordered eating made worse with elimination diets, and her father’s, brother’s, and mother’s struggles with psoriasis, eczema, and vitiligo left Jennifer frustrated. Conventional recommendations fell flat and didn’t help her, or her loved ones get relief from these health problems. These experiences inspired her to search for a different approach, one that addresses the root causes of health problems like these.
Jennifer has been a faculty member of LearnSkin, and her work has been featured in peer-reviewed scientific journals, Voyagela, as well as on podcasts, online summits, and in-person presentations at venues such as Casa Colina Hospital in California.
Join us as we discuss how low levels of certain nutrients may contribute to your kid's skin rashes.
Have you identified certain LOW or maybe even HIGH nutrient levels and it made a difference in your little one's skin health? Let me know in the comments!
Or, listen on your favorite app: iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Spotify | Stitcher | TuneIn | Subscribe on Android
In this episode:
- What nutrient imbalances are common with kids that have eczema
- Why kids end up being so low in critical nutrients
- How to test for nutrient deficiencies in kids (with specific diet solutions)
- The role of gut health in resolving skin rashes in kids
- What you can do RIGHT NOW to support your little one's skin
Quotes
“When it comes to the micronutrients, the ones that I'm seeing low levels of are vitamins A, C, E, alpha lipoic acid, CoQ10, glutathione, and plant-based antioxidants. Also B vitamins are commonly low in they're mineral imbalances and also high lipid peroxides. But really, the common thread that I see here with all of these micronutrient findings, is that they can be linked to antioxidant status and oxidative stress.” [4:48]
“Supplements are not benign. And all nutrients work together in the body, so if you supplement with individual ones and it's not necessary, it can throw off other ones and cause other problems. And so it's also why it's important to test and not guess and supplement where it's actually needed.” [16:09]
Links
Interested in trying MegaSporeBiotic? Click HERE to grab a bottle!
Get Jennifer Brand's FREE Guide To Probiotics For Skin Rashes
Get Jennifer Brand's free guide: Tips to Ditch the Itch
Healthy Skin Show #178: Using Probiotics For Eczema in Little Ones w/ Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS
Healthy Skin Show #222: Food Allergies + Skin Rashes in Kids w/ Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS
Follow Jennifer on Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
254: Common Nutrient Deficiencies in Kids with Skin Rashes w/ Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS FULL TRANSCRIPT
Jennifer Fugo: Jennifer. I am so excited to have you back on this show. Thank you so much for joining us again.
Jennifer Brand: Thank you for having me. I'm always so excited to be here and to keep coming back.
Jennifer Fugo: I know. Well, you always have interesting stuff to share, and it's nice because we're always doing research and sharing different information with each other, and so it's nice to be able to share that with everybody who listens to the Healthy Skin Show.
Jennifer Fugo: So today we wanted to talk about kids. So this is really for moms and dads and grandparents and caretakers who are curious to understand how nutrients are implicated in skin issues and why it's really important to pay attention to nutrients in your little ones. So, Jen, why don't you kick this off with why you feel that nutrients are probably something that is ignored a lot in kids and why it's important that you pay attention to nutrients in little ones?
Jennifer Brand: Yeah, absolutely. And this is something I'm really excited to talk about this. I haven't talked about this yet on a podcast. This is something that I talk to my clients about every day. But in my clinical practice, I am across the board seeing low levels of critical nutrients in kids that are struggling with rashes like eczema. And at first this was really shocking to me, and I was seeing it over and over, and I would think to myself, “How could these little kids… They're little kids, right? How can they be so low in so many important nutrients?” And even lower in pretty much every case compared to some of the adults I've worked with in the past.
Jennifer Brand: And then I thought about it. So kids are little athletes. They're active, they're growing and developing, and then, in my practice, they're struggling with rashes. So not only do kids need more nourishment pound for pound of body weight compared to adults, because their bodies are already doing more, but when they're on a healing journey, they need even more. And so it takes a lot of fuel in the form of nourishment to build healthy skin in the first place, even more when it needs to heal. And I would say that the great majority of my clients when they find me, aren't aware that nutrient imbalances can happen in children, that they can impact their child's rashes, and whether or not the skin can actually heal. And then of course when we're talking about rashes like eczema, a lot of these kids have been on elimination diets. A lot of these kids just, and kids in general, are picky eaters. So it's really sometimes, when you think about it, not as surprising that these kids could be low in so many of these critical nutrients.
Jennifer Fugo: Well and why do you think it is, aside from the elimination diet thing, which we've talked about is even a problem in adults where the reduction in diet diversity causes a reduction in microbiome diversity, but it also restricts the amount of nutrients you have available. But why would that be… You were saying there's specific nutrients as well. So if you combine a picky eater with, say there's a mom and dad here who are just not sure what to do, maybe they've worked with a doctor that recommended eliminating certain foods, do you see a correlation between the types of foods that tend to be taken out versus the nutrients that might end up being low?
Jennifer Brand: I do. I do. And so most of the ones that I want to talk about today are the micronutrients, which are vitamins and some minerals. But I think macronutrients also need to be discussed and deserve some honorable mention here. So I'll just go through them kind of quickly, because I think we all know what these things are, but protein, fats, and carbs. Proteins are the building blocks for every structure in the body down to the cellular level. When we eat proteins, they're broken down into amino acids. Those amino acids are the structure of everything in the body. Fats, so healthy fats, really important for healthy skin, for cell membranes, including our skin cells. Most of our cell membranes are heavily composed of lipids. Carbohydrates, so they get a really bad rap. Everybody's afraid of carbs. They're really important for providing energy so that the body can do what it needs to do and heal. And, in particular, complex carbohydrates are really important for feeding our good gut bugs. They are prebiotic and there's a very strong connection between the gut and skin health.
Jennifer Brand: So sometimes people take out a group of macronutrients from the diet. And then when it comes to the micronutrients, the ones that I'm seeing low levels of are vitamins A, C, E, alpha lipoic acid, CoQ10, glutathione, and plant-based antioxidants. Also B vitamins are commonly low in they're mineral imbalances and also high lipid peroxides. But really, the common thread that I see here with all of these micronutrient findings, is that they can be linked to antioxidant status and oxidative stress. And so I'll talk about oxidative stress for a minute here because I think that's important to understanding why these nutrients are so important.
Jennifer Fugo: And I think, too, also defining what that is, because I don't think most people are going to know what oxidative stress even means. We know what stress means, but oxidative stress, what does that mean?
Jennifer Brand: Yeah. So it's a good question. So all of the cells in your body make free radicals and this just happens normally during normal metabolic processes, and when antioxidant status is adequate, then those antioxidants can neutralize the free radicals. So, in general, the body can maintain a balance between antioxidants and free radicals, but when this process starts to break down, so when there's an imbalance and when there's more free radicals and antioxidants, you get oxidative stress which causes inflammation. And then inflammation is an underlying component of rashes, and skin conditions, and certainly of eczema. So what's happening here is that we're not seeing enough of these antioxidant nutrients and we get a buildup of the oxidative stress that can trigger the inflammation that can trigger rashes like eczema.
Jennifer Fugo: So essentially it's like your nutrient supply that is necessary to help your body deal with some biochemical issues and all sorts of things that can happen from whether it's gut bug imbalances, and all sorts of things, you don't have the necessary tools to help your body actually deal with what's happening internally in a sense.
Jennifer Brand: Yeah, exactly. So, the fuel and that support is missing. And then we can go back, to why is that support missing? Kids, you're burning through it. They're using more nutrients pound for pound of body weight. Often, these nutrients, they commonly come in fruits and vegetables. Kids can be picky eaters in our society anyway, here in Western society, Western world, people don't eat as many vegetables as they should. So these nutrients are lacking, oxidative stress increases, that inflammation increases. And then it's a vicious cycle because when we are in that inflamed state, then that is also producing more oxidative stress. So it becomes a vicious cycle between the oxidative stress and it's just making more and it's just perpetuating that whole cycle. And there aren't enough of these important nutrients to help combat all of that inflammation that's happening.
Jennifer Fugo: Is there something parents can do practically speaking? I do want to talk about testing and whatnot, but does this basically… Is this a word to the wise to parents to try to maybe get away from the “kid foods” and the kid menus and try to have them eat a more varied diet? Even if they… Because that's the other problem, when you have a child who has rashes, the common thread is, “Oh, well let's try and take out the thing that's causing the inflammation and making the rashes worse.” And so a lot of times there's this weird hodgepodge of, at least I see this in adults, so you can comment if this is what you're seeing that parents do as well for their children, but they'll just start cutting things out.
Jennifer Fugo: They're like, “Well, I had breakfast with blueberries and I've always eaten this one cereal or oatmeal or whatever, and so it must be the blueberries,” and they cut out blueberries. And then something happens after lunch one day and they assume it was the lettuce. And before you know it, you have very limited amount of these really beautiful, colorful foods in the diet because…. And then on top of it, if they're a salicylate, or a nightshade, or this has lectins or whatever, there becomes this severe reduction of diet diversity, especially these plant foods that have these nutrients. Is that essentially what you also see in children as well?
Jennifer Brand: That's exactly what I see in children. And I would say on top of that, so yes, the foods become more and more restricted. But kids are also picky eaters, so they might not like those foods in the first place. So we are growing generations of people who don't like healthy foods, and who avoid them, and who are afraid of them. And again, these are super, super critical nutrients, but yes, absolutely. I see food after food after food taken out of the diet, and what happens is symptoms might improve for a short period of time, and the symptoms come back, and somebody takes another food out of the diet. So just like you mentioned, it becomes this really vicious cycle of taking pretty healthy foods out of the diet because, and I don't know if you see this with adults, but I see this with children, by the time most people have come to me, they've tried everything and they've certainly tried many different types of elimination diets. They're already on healthy whole real food diets.
Jennifer Brand: And so that's where I have to ask people. It's like, well it just doesn't make sense that if it was grown on this planet, why is your body reacting to it? It just doesn't make sense and it shouldn't be happening that way. So when people are already on a healthy whole real foods diet, and then they start removing those, that's where we get problems, and that's where we start missing these really critical nutrients.
Jennifer Fugo: Yeah. And how in children and babies, are you able to know that they have these different nutrient deficiencies? And I ask because, I don't have children, but I can't imagine a mom wants to take her kid to get five or 10 vials of blood drawn. I know clients of mine will go and they have a lot of different blood labs run, but on children it's really difficult. So how do you even assess, or begin to assess, a baby or a little kid for these different nutrient depletions?
Jennifer Brand: Yeah. So the testing that I've been using in my practice, and it is only two years old and up, unfortunately, it's just a urine test, which is fantastic because blood sticks can be traumatic for anybody, certainly for little children. So two years and up this can be done, and it's functional testing that gives us an idea if somebody has optimal level of nutrients in their body. So their body… Not just to function, not just to skate by, but to really work optimally. And so what this does is give us a picture of, because it's urine, so it's a shorter timeframe of nutrient status, so it's about 48 hours, so it gives us a really good picture of somebody's diet over the course of about 48 hours. And most people's diets don't change significantly day-to-day, they stay pretty similar. So therefore we can get a really good sense of what somebody's eating and if those nutrients are getting in.
Jennifer Brand: Of course there are other factors happening here. So, okay, yes, maybe all of the right foods. And these are things we have to take into account, and why in functional practice we do detailed intakes and really get to know what's happening with somebody. So if all the right foods are getting in and nutrient status is still low, then we can look at things like, okay, well, they are in a state of inflammation, so they need even more than what they're getting from the diet, which often can happen, and that's where supplements can come in and play an important role and be really helpful. But we need to make sure they're getting in from the diet first, because you can't out supplement a diet that is missing in void of these things in the first place.
Jennifer Brand: So we need to look at what's going in. We also, and if everything is getting in, then we start to think, “Okay, well are they digesting and absorbing it?” So then we start looking at what's happening in the gut. And, of course, there's a huge connection between what's happening on the gut and what's happening on the skin. And that is where I start with all of my clients, regardless of age, is looking to see what's happening in the gut. But this urine-based nutrient testing is really, really helpful to show us what nutrient status actually looks like for these people.
Jennifer Fugo: Now, Jen, you mentioned something a moment ago and I wanted to highlight it. You said that, we talked about picky eaters and kids that may have been placed on an elimination diet, but you also made the comment that some people are eating a very healthful, varied diet, and yet they may still have low nutrient status. Is that correct?
Jennifer Brand: That's correct.
Jennifer Fugo: And so I think that's an important point that moms, and dads, and other caregivers need to hear. Because, while I do see that in adults, I've worked with some people who are on the most amazing organic, gluten-free, pasture-raised, etc. diet. They're some of the most nutrient-depleted individuals and it does happen more frequently than I think we think it happens. So, that being said, do you think it's helpful for parents to maybe… Because I think they're going to go well, should I be giving my child a multivitamin regardless? What's your thoughts on that?
Jennifer Brand: Before I mention that, I think it's a really important point that you just brought up about how even if the right foods are getting in, organic, everything's perfect, you can still be nutrient-depleted. And a reason for that, too, is that our environment is also depleted. Plant foods get their nutrients, a lot of them, from the soil and our soil has become depleted and contaminated and all of that, so that has changed the quality of our food. So even our organic healthy food isn't as nutrient-dense as it has been in the past. So that's something else to keep in mind.
Jennifer Brand: And so when it comes to supplements, yes. And I don't want people to think by having this conversation here, that we're recommending that you start taking supplements, because that's not… You should never do that without appropriate guidance. You really should work with a professional to help you. Supplements are not benign. And all nutrients work together in the body, so if you supplement with individual ones and it's not necessary, it can throw off other ones and cause other problems. And so it's also why it's important to test and not guess and supplement where it's actually needed.
Jennifer Brand: An example of that I see a lot. I don't know if you see this too in adults, Jen, zinc. So zinc is great for skin health, and a lot of people with skin rashes are low in zinc and need some extra zinc. But if you don't supplement with appropriately, it interacts with copper. So you can end up with copper imbalances, which then affects your iron. You can actually end up with iron deficiency, anemia, down this path, if you over supplement with zinc.
Jennifer Brand: So that's just an example, and so I do like people to understand how important it is to test and not guess, and work with a practitioner to help you supplement appropriately. Certainly, if you have decent skin, doing it with individual nutrients. That said, you mentioned multivitamins, too. Most of the kids in my practice, I recommend a multivitamin for.
Jennifer Fugo: Yeah. And I just want to clarify as well. I think the other thing is that some nutrients, some minerals like calcium, will block and compete with other minerals. So that's the other factor here. Like you could get what looks like a really great multi on the shelf and say, you're like, “Oh, well I think it has iron, it has calcium, it has zinc.” Well, those things compete with one another. So that's another factor to consider. And if a child, as you had said, like if God forbid a child is low in iron, which is a really big deal and is crucial for appropriate development, and oxygenation, and all sorts of very basic functions, even for your thyroid function, for example, because we need it to help convert T4 to T3. If you're taking a supplement or supplements that are competing with one another, you might say, “Well, Johnny is taking, I'm giving him an iron supplement,” but because you're taking it with something else that is actually competing, you're not actually getting access to it appropriately.
Jennifer Fugo: So I think that's an important factor of where this gets a bit more complicated. I don't know. I think it's worthwhile just to throw that out there, because there's been a lot of times where at least with adults we're like, “Hey look, this is actually not a great formula. So can you put it aside? Or if you want to give it away to somebody else, this is not good for you, and we'll pick something else.” So I wanted to ask you specifically, like with glutathione, I know that you had mentioned glutathione, which is not necessarily… It's not really a micronutrient, but it's a very important antioxidant.
Jennifer Brand: Yeah.
Jennifer Fugo: I know. It's not a mineral, it's not a vitamin, our bodies make it, but you can certainly become depleted in it, and it's considered the master antioxidant. So for little kids, you're really seeing like a depletion of glutathione in their systems?
Jennifer Brand: I am. I'm seeing low glutathione. Yeah. Very, very often. And yes, like you mentioned, the master antioxidant, it's also really important for detoxification. And the interesting thing about it, too, your body burns through it again, like the other types of antioxidants when there's a lot of inflammation and oxidative stress, but it's also made from three non-essential amino acids. So here's where we can start getting into, is your child getting enough protein, quality proteins?
Jennifer Brand: So those amino acids are cystine, glycine, and glutamine. And because they're non-essential, so that means your body can make them, only if you have enough of the essentials though. So there's some conditions there. But yeah, but I am seeing kids low in glutathione. You can get some in the diet, too. Your body makes most of it, and then of course there are supplements for it, but you can eat foods that have the precursors, things that help make glutathione. There's some other things other than just those amino acids. But cruciferous vegetables, asparagus, peppers, carrots, avocados. So here we go again with some of those plant foods, those also have different of the other antioxidant vitamins in it. A lot of those have vitamin A, vitamin C, some vitamin E in them. So it really is important that these types of foods get in through the diet.
Jennifer Fugo: Yeah. And I'll also add to that. With glutathione, you also need healthy mitochondrial function to recycle glutathione, because your body's really smart and it recycles it. So when it latches onto a free radical, we don't want to just throw the glutathione away. We want to reuse it. And so your body needs an appropriate amount of ATP, or energy that is made in the mitochondria, your little power plants. And if you don't have CoQ10, like you mentioned, and some of these other important B vitamins, you're not going to have enough energy to recycle your glutathione.
Jennifer Fugo: So again, this is why, like you're saying it goes, it connects to other systems and they all impact one another. I wanted to ask you, too, you and I both see that there's a lot of popularity amongst certain types of diets out there that parents will try because they think this is the least inflammatory diet, or whatever it may be. So on the spectrum of parents who've moved their kids say more plant-based, all the way to vegan, versus parents that have moved their kids all the way to more carnivore, do you also still see nutrient depletions in people that are veering toward the more polar ends of the dietary spectrum?
Jennifer Brand: Yes, absolutely. In the end of the spectrum that leans towards complete vegan, even though the diets are heavily plant-based, I have seen very low levels of these critical nutrients and very high levels. This testing also looks at markers for oxidative stress. So it'll actually tell you how much oxidative stress there is, as well. Very high levels of that. So I'm seeing that on both ends of the spectrum. However, I see also, at the more plant-based vegan end of the spectrum, low levels of amino acids. Those critical amino acids that are the building blocks for every structure in the body. It's not completely impossible to get all of the protein you need on a plant-based diet. It can be done. It's very challenging. And when on a healing journey, and again, kids are like little athletes and growing and developing, so they need even more protein, more than you would think. So it doesn't surprise me that I'm seeing those types of findings at that end of the spectrum.
Jennifer Brand: I don't have as many clients on the carnivore end of the spectrum. In those I have seen, I almost want to say more severe gut dysbiosis. High fat diets, and when we're eating nothing but meat, of course the diet is going to be higher in some saturated fats that aren't all bad. We need all kinds of fats for our body to function the way it's supposed to. But so that type of high fat diet can actually contribute to endotoxemia, which is the leakage of toxins from inside the gut into the bloodstream. So I've seen that more, I would say, on the carnivore spectrum.
Jennifer Brand: And then of course we can talk about somewhere in the middle is exactly what you want to see. Although I see kids low in these nutrients all across the board at every end. But there are some of those trends that I'm seeing, like you mentioned, at the heavily plant-based versus carnivore ends.
Jennifer Fugo: Yeah. And the one thing I will also just share with parents, I don't know that I've ever said this on the Healthy Skin Show, so I'm just going to throw it out here since we just like mentioned about carnivore, is that if you do not eat liver, so if your child does not eat liver, and you're doing carnivore, it is highly likely that you will end up with a folate deficiency. That is usually the only time that I will see folate deficiency in an adult is when they were doing more carnivore style eating, but refused because, look, I'm right there with you, I don't like liver, to eat liver. Because it is a good source for folate, but they ended up completely deficient in it as a result. So it is important that if you're going to do a carnivore style diet, that you have to be willing to eat organ meats in addition to regular meat. Because the regular protein, or the meat essentially, does not contain all of the micronutrients that are crucial. The organ meats do serve an incredibly important purpose. They're all trying to round out.
Jennifer Brand: Yeah, well they're very rich in vitamin A also, which is a critical nutrient that is low in kids. And it's the active form of vitamin A, which is really important for healthy skin and a healthy immune system. So, yeah.
Jennifer Fugo: Yeah. So Jen, if parents are listening to this, and obviously we don't want to make anybody feel bad, we're not trying to shame anybody. And I'm sure, too, I don't have children, so I can't personally attest to having to struggle with a child. I've seen my sister deal with her two kids at mealtime, so I'm not going to claim to be some sage advice for parents of how to get their kids to eat a more varied diet. And so I don't want anyone to walk away from this feeling like they've failed as a parent or as a caregiver. But do you have any words of advice to parents if they're starting right here hearing this about the important, and how crucial these types of nutrients are, what could they start doing now in the meantime, if they're not necessarily ready to get some more one-on-one type support?
Jennifer Brand: Yeah, absolutely. Do whatever you can to expand your child's diet. If they seem to be reacting to otherwise healthy foods, then take a look at their gut health. There's going to be a problem there. If your kid is picky and doesn't like healthy foods, help them learn to like those foods. It can take 10, 20, 100 tries of a food before somebody takes to it. That can happen with adults, too. But remember that you are in charge, keep presenting the food to your child. We could have a whole nother talk about how to get your child, you're picky eater, to eat more foods. But number one, remember that you're in charge.
Jennifer Brand: Some other quick tips, introduce those new foods when your child's actually hungry. Offer them those new foods. You need to eat those foods, too. If your child sees you eating McDonald's and saying, “Broccoli's disgusting,” that's what they're going to say. So be a good role model and work on getting those healthy foods in. And if you're a parent who hasn't introduced solid foods yet, good solid first food introductions, you can do pureed meats, you can do puree veggies and fruits. Start with the veggies, start with some of those more bitter tasting foods. Once a child gets a taste of something sweet, that's what they're going to want mostly. We all would prefer to eat sweet things all the time. So get those-
Jennifer Fugo: Or pasta. I'd love to eat pasta all the time.
Jennifer Brand: Yeah. I would love-
Jennifer Fugo: But I don't. I know better.
Jennifer Brand: I know, we wouldn't feel good. And a kid won't know that. So it really is important to be a good role model and present your kid with the foods that you want them to eat and the foods that they need to eat for overall health and for healthy skin.
Jennifer Fugo: And it also sounds, too, like what you're saying is this could be a family affair. And I know that little children look up to their siblings. And so it may mean that, as a whole, the family has to shift and make positive changes. And like you were saying, I want to reinforce this and underline this point that you made, how we all talk about food, how we act around food, our excitement levels. If say your spouse, you're making a salad and you're cutting up vegetables, and your spouse come home and it's just like, “Ugh, another salad?” There's no way that you're going to get your kids to want to eat those vegetables when they're hearing “ugh.” Unfortunately, we have to be mindful as adults, like you were saying, as role models, we need to model that appropriate behavior, even if you don't love it. Be positive, be encouraging.
Jennifer Brand: And you can always include your kid, too, in making the meals. Have them help you. You don't want your toddler running around with a knife cutting things, but you know what I mean? Give them a spoon, let them stir something, involve them in the process and make trying new foods fun. Make the colors fun. Cut them up into fun shapes if you need to. Just anything that you can do to make it fun, and interesting, and like a game can go a long way, as well.
Jennifer Fugo: Yeah. And I know, too, part of the parent's concern is they don't want their kid to be itching like crazy. And you actually have a free guide, Gen, I think that could be helpful in… Because that's always the fear, I don't want my child to itch, so I cut these foods out of the diet to try to help with itching. And you have a great guide called “Tips to Ditch the Itch,” correct? That parents could download?
Jennifer Brand: Yep. We'll provide that link. Yeah. The other thing to keep in mind, too-
Jennifer Fugo: Yeah. Absolutely.
Jennifer Brand: Yeah. I always tell parents, too, of course, if there's a food that you can pinpoint is causing a reaction, okay, it makes sense to take it out of the diet. But if you're not sure, which tends to be the case most often, it's not the food. Even if a food seems to be triggering, still, the food is not the root cause of the problem, there's another root cause happening that needs to be addressed because it's going to continue to happen. But yeah. Just, if you can't tell or you aren't sure, don't take it out of the diet. Yeah. So that's the other thing with the itch, but yes, “The Tips to Ditch the Itch.” So all kinds of suggestions in there, topical moisture, things to try at night, soothing baths, swimming with rashes. So hopefully it'll be helpful for some folks.
Jennifer Fugo: Yeah. I think that's a good partner for this conversation, because that's always the biggest fear, I think. I think that's one of the driving reasons, it's that we don't want to cause a flare, and you don't want your child up all night itching, or itching so much that they're breaking their own skin open, which is not good and leaves them more vulnerable to staff infections and whatnot. But I just want to thank you so much for coming back to the show, Jen, I'm going to make sure that your other episodes are in the show notes and we'll also put a link to your free “Tips to Ditch the Itch” guide as well as your website. So if any moms and caregivers out there are interested in some help and support on this journey, they can reach you directly. And thank you so much again for being here.
Jennifer Brand: Thank you for having me.
