Homeopathy At Home with Melissa

A Practical Homeopathy Playbook For Impetigo Relief

• Melissa Crenshaw, RsHom, LCHE, IBCLC • Season 6 • Episode 11

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A tiny “bug bite” turns crusty overnight, new spots appear by morning, and suddenly you’re cleaning, covering, and googling. We’ve been there. Today we walk through a clear, calm plan for navigating impetigo at home—what it looks like, how it spreads, and the step-by-step care that actually helps.

We start with foundations: how broken skin from eczema or scrapes lets common bacteria like staph and strep take hold, why impetigo progresses in stages, and what a realistic timeline looks like for families. Then we share the remedy framework we rely on: a baseline of Hepar Sulf 200 and Antimonium Crudum 30, pain and itch relief with Hypericum 200 and Arsenicum 200, and stage-specific support using Rhus tox 30 for early blisters and Graphites 30 when lesions ooze and crust. Along the way, we talk about signs of progress—less spread, better energy, thinner crusts—and how to taper dosing as comfort returns.

Topicals can make or break recovery. We explain why drying oozy lesions speeds healing, how a light dusting of goldenseal powder can help crust and seal, and gentler alternatives like calendula powder, kaolin clay, or arrowroot for sensitive skin. You’ll hear practical tips for covering at night, preventing scratch-and-spread, managing hot spots like armpits and diaper areas, and using warm baths with calendula to loosen heavy crusts without pain. We also touch on when to loop in your doctor, how homeopathy can work alongside conventional care, and simple supportive choices like probiotics and vitamin C.

If impetigo has your household on edge, this guide brings structure, choices, and calm. Listen, gather a short supply list, and move step by step through the stages with confidence. If you’d like our summary sheet or personalized support for a longer-running skin case, reach out—we’re here to help. If this was useful, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more families can find practical skin-care answers.

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SPEAKER_01:

Welcome back to Homeopathy at Home with Melissa. Hey Melissa.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey Brie. I um am really looking forward to this conversation because we've had a lot of inquiries both in Facebook groups and in our acute care forms about empathygo. There's just a lot of empatygo cases lately. So I thought let's talk about this because you have personal and clinical experience with this and you're my skin expert. All skin cases go to you. So I'm excited to learn about this even for myself, but also so we can share this with people that are struggling with empathygo so they'll know what to do.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I am actually very thankful now that I have this experience myself because I tell people I know remedies can work. I have used some of these remedies for um clients dealing with it. I do have a lot of little kids and babies with eczema. So this infection is very common, but very scary because in kids with eczema, there's open wounds sometimes all over. So it can get very bad for them very quickly. So if you are in that camp, I would highly suggest getting chronic care. This might not work. Um, and by work, I mean you might not see the improvement in a child like that with severe eczema who gets inpotygo early on in care. Might it might go downhill much quicker than a, I would say, you know, quote unquote normal, healthy state of a child who then gets inpotigo. Or if you've been working with chronic care for a while and then get in potaigo, the body's just at a better place. Your immune system's at a better place. So I just want disclaimer I am not a doctor. This is all information I've researched and found myself and used myself. So I also will tell people too, if it is helpful, go get a diagnosis, get whatever treatment that a an allopathic doctor will suggest and have it on hand. And then if you do feel like you need it or want to use it this first time alongside remedies, you can do that. You can do one, the other, both together, but then you have it. So information can always be helpful. Yeah. So I want to get that little disclaimer.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. That is, and that's important to note that we are not doctors, we're not diagnosing, we're not prescribing. And if you need help, you need to go to your doctor, you know, and get and homeopathy can work alongside those things, but we've seen homeopathy um really help a b a person's body fight it too and and heal from it.

SPEAKER_01:

And I do believe even in severe cases, it can work. Yeah. Um, and I've seen it work. So I say I've I have seen it do that. Most often it is just how long it is, a long process of healing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But and it's very uncomfortable for a kid who's already uncomfortable with eczema. So it's more often that they want the child comfortable quicker. Right. And rightly so. I don't fault anybody for that. So that said, I do see this work very well, and I got some really good tips and tricks having been able to use it on my own kids. I don't like to suggest outside things outside of homeopathy when I'm having used them. So now I have you know some tools in my tool belt. And I will also say this was like uh took some fortitude to stick with. I thought, you know, I was talking to you. Yeah, it was hard. Oh my word. And I knew what it was right away. So this started, and now looking back over the summer, I remember after VBS, we did vacation Bible school, and we all got some kind of viral cold, is how it started. I have had a history of strep throat in my past. I have not had it for years, and but there are times where I will just lose my voice or get a sore throat with a cold, um, kind of reminiscent of that. And so I the whole summer was off and on, had this sore throat. And I'm saying this because it may or may not play into how things developed. But my sons kind of went through various stages and they're different ages, so they don't all tell me about their throat hurts or not, you know. But the first one developed, we went to visit family. He got mosquito bites all over him. He got a couple blisters on his ankles from rollerblading. So this kid's covered in open source. Not they're not gross yet, they're just normal bug bites, right? They're just normal. Well, one day he had a spot on his face that I thought was a bug bite. And then he woke up the next morning and it looked a little crusty. So typically I just put vitamin E oil on it. And I mean like just pure thick vitamin E, not anything cut with any other oils. And that I put that on sores and it heals quick. I didn't do any remedies. Well, the next morning it was bigger and um a little bit, it wasn't oozy or anything yet, but like a little bit of clear fluid. And I have seen empatygo often, diagnosed empatygo. So I've seen them really familiar with what it looks like. And I immediately was like, okay, that's probably what we're dealing with. And here's the great thing too about homeopathy is even if it wasn't that, I knew there is some kind of weird skin thing going on. And I'm gonna immediately start with hepar self. And I typically do a 200. 30, if you have it, I would use it until you can get a 200. But skin infection, I almost always start with heper self 200. That goes for a lot of things. Impetygo is typically caused, it's a skin infection, but caused by staph or strep that gets into an open wound. By within a day or two later, this kid, all of his open sores were now starting to be crusty. And it because that bacteria then spreads to any open source. So in my research, it's not systemic, it's not necessarily, it can be, but it doesn't always happen that way. It's just ASOR gets infected, and then in little kids, they touch surfaces, they touch each other, they touch their other open wounds, and it just spreads very quick. So that's where we started. And this, I started looking things up because I'm like, I've never had like my kids are fairly healthy, they have no other chronic issues. So I'm looking up um what's the typical progression? Because knowing remedies don't stop it from coming up, we're gonna move through this illness now. So what are we looking at? And it was sometimes 10 to 14 days until like completion. Keep in mind I have three kids, so this doesn't sometimes start for like five days after the last one. So this was quite a long time.

SPEAKER_00:

So since this is since the the thing can last 10 to 14 days, I think that's what you're saying, yeah, from beginning to end, um, it it is actually an acute condition, yeah, right? But it could be caused or or um it could be because of a chronic condition, like eczema, I think is what you're saying. But then you know, if you choose to do an acute consult with us, that this would not be the time to do that, because the acute consult that we do is for five days. You're not gonna be clear in five days.

SPEAKER_01:

So almost I can almost guarantee you it's not gonna be five days. Right.

SPEAKER_00:

So then well, then if you have impet if you think you have impetal and you want our help, you know, when you go to do the acute care form, it says on there, don't submit this for skin conditions because most skin conditions don't go away in five days. Yeah, reach out, you know, to me or Brie and let we'll work something out.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I have done that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, we will absolutely do that. Um, and I can typically we get to a good point within about a week where you know what to do moving forward, and then it's a check-in every few days. It's not because it's not usually like things are coming up and changing dramatically. It's like do this for a little bit, when things shift, we're gonna move to a little bit of a different approach. And then it depends on is the kid itchy or in pain. So if you've dealt with hand, foot, and mouth, think of that. It's a similar movement of an illness where you have some sores, then they kind of open, it's uncomfortable for a little bit, and it's contagious until every single lesion is closed and healed. That can take a long time, and it is very contagious. Because I mean, it's just bacteria. So it is a bacteria. The reason I think eggs and my kids get it so easily is because they're open, their skin just so open and their immune system is not, it's operating already at a high level. Right. And so you add an additional thing, it can't bring balance as best as well as Yeah, and their kids.

SPEAKER_00:

Can I ask you, um, unless you had somewhere you needed to go next, what questions do you ask in an in an empatygo case? What do we what do people need to be looking at?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so that that will that does matter because we're gonna look at where are you in the stages? Most often it does show up the easiest to identify on the face. I don't actually know why that is, but it will show up around the mouth and it look, it'll spread quickly. And it you I almost can guarantee you it's gonna be something where you're like, I'm gonna post this in the Facebook group and be like, does anybody know what this is? That is most often when we see it, because this doesn't look normal. It's not super scary right away, but it definitely doesn't look normal. And it starts, you're like watching it for a few days, and it's like this doesn't look, this looks weird. It's just taking over their face. Then I typically see it spread after that, and it may or may not do all of these phases, but usually you'll see a sore that's already maybe there, or um, those will not blister, but they will start to ooze and get crusty. And this is usually like um either clear or it might be a little bit yellow, and it starts with a thinner crust and then it gets pretty oozy and pretty gross. New places may then also start to develop for up to a week, usually like three to five or six days of new spots is the more average number that I see, but it can still go on for up to a week. Now that's a couple by that last day or two, but then they start showing up like little blisters, it's like a tiny little bubble. Those are not painful, they usually don't get painful until they pop, so don't pop them on purpose. That fluid in there is the the infected bacteria, right? That is what is going to then spread if it gets on other things. And so the blisters will pop up. You want to keep those covered if you can, not wet. So this is different than other sores. And that's when I saw the vitamin E, keeping it moist made it open, like um ulcerate a little more. That is a typical empatygo thing, or even step staph and strep. So, MRSA, any kind of staph or strep infection on the skin does not, if it's oozy and or wet, it does not need to be more wet. So you're gonna go through those phases too. So at first, we're trying to dry it out while still allowing the skin to breathe and trying not to let it spread. So it's kind of a game. I um I'll tell you what I did for remedies and then what I did for other care. So you're gonna look for those little bruises, I mean, sorry, blisters. Those will open, it'll look like an ulcer, not deep. They actually are not very deep for how awful they can look. They're pretty surface level. Um, it'll be like a round, usually until they link together and then it might form a different shape. But um that easier places for it to spread are like armpits. Places that you can't really keep dry or like open. Um, my little guy had his whole armpits were just covered. They were opening together. They kind of were morphing into one big open raw spot. And then they would ooze and crust. And that's when I was trying to dry them out, but I would cover them at night and I'll talk you through all that. So they'll open, they'll crust. That is when they typically are painful if they're rubbing on clothes, if they're like, you know, in joints or in areas, like if it's a diaper, if it's in contact with things that can be painful. Once they ulcerate and start healing over, that crust will eventually just dry up and come off. And there, my boy's skin was perfect underneath. It was very topical. It wasn't like a scab. When a scab comes off, you know it's kind of pink fresh skin. It was pink skin, but it was smooth and good. Not a deep, there was no like um what do you call that? Like a it wasn't a scar that was like a pock mark or anything. It was smooth and pink. They still do have some skin like pigmentation difference. It's light. Some spots in the sun healed very quickly. Minded, I got a couple of them. They're totally normal now. Each kid might still, even a few months later, have some more pale spots and parts that I don't see the sun as much. So that's kind of what you can look for. You're probably going to see varying degree, varying stages at the same time. Some spots are open and crusting over while new blisters might be coming. And so those spots I treated differently. And how I did this, it was just my preference, and I'm going to tell you, and you can do what you want. But first thing I did remedies. I'll go over remedies. Before I do that, do you have any questions or should I go in any type of order that you want?

SPEAKER_00:

No, I don't, I think that's perfect. Yeah, remedies and then um, and then how, and I which I'm sure you're gonna talk about how you differentiate between how you choose the remedy, you know, based on the presentation or whatever.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so um baseline, I'm doing Heper Sulf 200, antimonium crude 30 two times per day, every single day this entire time. That is your baseline. Um, think it's fighting, it's helping the body to fight the bacteria. So that is what hepersulf, we call it the homeopathic antibiotic. Doesn't operate at all like an antibiotic, but that is when you think infection, think hepersulf, especially in skin conditions. So hepersulf 200 and antibonium crude 30 C, twice a day, taken at the same time. So I put those together and they took those morning and night. Um, they probably did that for two or three weeks total. I even did that as everything was healing. We kept doing it. So that's your baseline. That's where I started. Um, also pretty baseline when there were active open wounds, which was a majority of the time. Hypericum 200 and Arsenicum 200C. Hyper arse is how you might see that. Um, that is really good for pain, itching, other it also is a great infection combination. So I would do that every three hours when it was very like when I could, they were complaining, they were in pain, and then backed off to twice per day as well as things maybe that last week. As things were really healing over, I was then doing supportive infection care more than it was pain management. But that actually, I didn't add that until a few days in, like after my first kid, poor kid, he had the most spots and he was like a guinea pig. I hadn't figured out my um my routine yet. But the addition of hyper arts for the other two was very helpful for their pain and the itching because you can't itch. They're so they're open or oozy and trying to crust over. And if you're itching them, you're gonna pull them back open. And it it doesn't, it can make the infection spread, but it can also, I mean, just hurts. So hepersolf and antimonium crude and then hypericum and arsenicum every few hours if the pain is severe, and then back off as you improve. So then you might go from three or four times a day to three times a day for a couple days, and then twice a day as you finish off the last few days. The two that I would alternate or use depending on what stage we were in, were Roost tox 30 and Graphite 30. Roost 30, I was using for the initial blistering stage. And like I said, they might overlap a little bit. So do what is more prevalent. If you have three blisters and all of the rest of the spots are oozy and crusty, then do graphites 30. If you're primarily in the blister stage, but you have a couple that are oozing, stick with roostalks for another day or maybe two, then shift to adding the graphites. Those ones I did do every three to four hours as long as those stages were active. So you have your twice-a-day remedies and then the graphites and roostalks I would use just alone every few hours during the most prevalent stage. Um that is as far that is all I did for remedies. And so typically it was hepersulfinant to I mean like maybe four remedies, um, maybe five. And I don't always do that in acute situations. This was unique, but that worked when I started that right away. As the other two got it, they moved through it much more quickly than the first one.

SPEAKER_00:

What about Merck Sol? Do you know if that would ever be good?

SPEAKER_01:

I think it could for sure. Um, I didn't know thinking about that, so it does have the ulcers like hand, foot, and mouth. It's a really good one. It's really good for blusters too. So I I think because you know, I don't know. Actually, yeah, I think it could be a good option. I just didn't need it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, exactly. So trying the, you know, if you're if you're trying these and they're not helpful and you know, you need another idea, Merck Sol is definitely one to consider.

SPEAKER_01:

For sure. And Belladonna, the hard part is it is hard to. I mean, how do you gauge what is, you know, the the age old quote unquote what is working when you're in a skin condition that has to run its course? It was, I was really, when I picked the remedies, I stuck with it because I knew it is gonna be hard to know unless you've dealt with it, which I had never had it personal in my home. Um, but I actually don't know that I've ever used Merck Sol for. I don't, yeah, because I so maybe this is how my mind was thinking then. I didn't take notes on that part. Roostalx is blisters, itchy blisters. Um, also graphites is oozy. I think Merck Sal is more ulcerative and it has all those elements, not as oozy as graphites. And emotigo is very oozy. It is nasty looking.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Um yeah. Let me tell you what. So looking at my notes, just to know how because I think you were just saying, you know, how do you know if it's working? Well, remember that often we in homeopathy we look for the mental emotionals, the energy to get better first. So you might see their energy come up or their mentals, you know, they feel better mentally and emotionally and and just energy-wise. And then um, we're looking for um we are looking for a decrease, right, in redness and heat and sensitivity and burning and itching, but it m is likely gonna get better before it starts to to do that. The oh e when the lesions stop spreading, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Wouldn't that be an indication that now you're going to I would say a slow I felt like and yeah, maybe it would stop. My experience was not that they kept coming for longer than I honestly felt comfortable, yeah. But I knew I mean I knew it was in the range of normal, but it took a long time. They were still developing new blisters. I mean, and truthfully, guys, I was like, if I did not have the history I have with remedies with skin, right? I would, and I still was toward the end, I'm like, okay. I mean, I'm a weekend here and he's still got new blisters today.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and you couldn't go anywhere and do anything. I remember that.

SPEAKER_01:

No, and I'm like, I know this stuff works, like it's gonna work, right? Like it's they're getting better. I'm not being neglectful. Nobody's like it's not gonna get terrible, but they were fine, they were playing, they were eating, right? They were happy, no fevers, they never had a fever.

SPEAKER_00:

Did you notice? Sorry, did you notice that the um the crusting as they went towards the end? Did the crusts become thinner and lighter in color? Was that a thing?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, they do that because by the time they flake off, it was very easy. It was it was not painful like a scab. So it's the only two references I had was like a scab where you know it's deep and has to slowly like the edges kind of peel off. When they were ready, it would just like come off, like almost sometimes in like the whole piece, which is kind of gross. But yeah, they did get thinner when they're because it was stopped oozing, so they had just dried out.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I did find that when I um so here's well, do you want to talk more about remedies before I get into other supportive measures?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't think I don't have any other email remedies to ask about, so no, yes.

SPEAKER_01:

I will say too, their pain, their pain levels, like I could tell they wouldn't complain about them hurting when I was doing well-fitting remedies. Um, and they did get really itchy toward the end, like as they healed, even I I had like three or four spots on me, and it was only for a day or two, and I would just want so badly to scratch them. It is almost a crazy itch. I was not as good at remedies with myself. I know, we never are, but the arsenicum, I did, I started staying on top of it when it was itchy, so arsenicum was a good one for itching. But supportively, what I found is the biggest shift in the healing, um, really turning a corner, was when I could dry out those oozy spots. And what I ended up buying was golden seal powder. I bought them in capsules, and I remembered when I had had some it at home, that was something they have for infection on their umbilical cord, if anything were to come up, because it dries it out, it's antimicrobial, it's really healing, and it cleans. And so I'm like, I remembered this. This was days into my first son, like I said, but porkin. I had already been using um manuka honey, and I got calendula tincture, but not alcoholic. It was like an oil because obviously alcohol would hurt an open wound. So I got caluncula. Um it's more like uh infused oil, I guess, more than it's a tincture.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And then manuka honey, they all said the manuka honey burned.

SPEAKER_00:

So oh, yeah, it does. Well, yeah, it does. I was using manuka honey when I had the um the eczema on my fingers when I worked at the hospital. I was putting the manuka honey patches on my fingers when I went while I was at work to keep it covered. It burned. Oh, it burned so bad. But I knew, but it was helping.

SPEAKER_01:

So I was like, I know, and I've actually found that with a lot of my eczema clients can't stand, they can't use manuka honey creams. It burns. Yes, so that did not work well when you have little kids and it burnt, they're not about to, they're already in pain. He literally, my littlest, he's a little dramatic, but he screamed like, and then I'm like, oh my gosh, how do I get this off of you? You know, oh I know. How do you get it off? Because you I had to you, I mean, I used like a rinse, like I rinsed it.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Because um, yeah, okay, so I would do some vitamin E oil or um calendula, that oil cleaned it. And then I would put vitamin E. This was before it was oozy. Like if there were blisters, I was just covering those suckers, trying to keep. I had these kids were covered in band-aids. And I went through, I'm not lying. I would sit there at night and I'd open like 30, we'd count the spots, and I would open that many band-aids, and we would stick them over. And I got at they were as they got bigger, I would put like a gauze and tape them up to keep them at night, especially when they're getting hot or you know, like sweaty or whatever. Um, so I then, when they were really oozy, moved to this golden seal powder. And I I opened them in like a little dish and used a Q-tip to apply it. I have since learned some tips and tricks for you all. So you don't have to do it. It was kind of hard to do that. I'm like, you don't want to cake it on because you want the skin to breathe. So it's a very light layer. You don't like I used one capsule for days on all of their spots. So you all, I mean, you have to buy a whole thing of it, which is unfortunate. But um, I use a few of this capsules this whole time, and it will turn black. It will make the skin dry up like it will create a scab and it turns black. So it actually looks terrible. Looks like you have a rotten spot, but it's not, it's actually dry, and that's the golden seal, is what is turning black. It's not your skin that's turning black.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Now that would freak me out. Yeah, some it he literally had these look just black. It looked like cigarette burn marks like all over all his bug bites, just got caught all these spots on him. So he but that allowed for it to dry up. It stopped spreading as quickly. Those spots were not morphing together like they had been. Um, and then I covered them at night. I did not get those wet at all. As they created more of that dry, they dried out, then I was using the calendula tincture again um with vitamin E oil, like that thick vitamin E oil. And then I cover them and then things moved pretty quick. Depending on, like at that point, one of them I had to keep soft because if he would move, it was like opening them again. So you kind of have to play the game, or I would soak him in a warm bath with um, I put some of the calendula tincture in the bath and just let the warm water. I didn't do up some salt or anything in case that would burn. I think I did an oatmeal maybe one day, but he just sat in it in the warm water. I kind of helped some of the thicker spots just rub very gently when they weren't super raw anymore to get some of that off so it wouldn't crust the same. So you can for the powder, I had the golden seal did sometimes burn. Not as bad as the honey, but a little bit of burning. And so you can use things like arrowroot powder. Um, I looked up some other powder options that are maybe gentler if you have like a little baby um instead of the golden seal. So you can use kaolin clay, arrowroot powder, calendula powder. Those are the three other recommended ones. And you obviously don't want to be inhaling the powder. So if you have a little kid, um, you can use one of those makeup poofs, like a little thing. I don't even know what you call that, like a cotton thing. A q-tip worked okay for me, but it was kind of hard. Um, so that might be a better option. You can put it in a little satchel sachet. I don't know what you call those things, like a in that it can puff out of, kind of.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, I know those are things. I don't have that. Yeah. Who has that? I might, I don't know. If you have it, I mean we're makeup. But drying it out was a game changer, though, I will say. So if you have in with anything, if I have eczema babies who are oozy, if you can get it to be dry without compromising, like without surprise. Without compromising anything else. Um, zinc is hit or miss here. I don't recommend zinc all the time because it does dry it out, but it can be really harsh on the skin too. So the powder shifted things a lot. I think that is all. I know that was a lot, but if summary, you have the remedies that I named. And if you just get in your routine, and here's the thing: even if you don't know it's in potaigo, I would start as soon as you see any kind of oozy crusty thing. If it's oozy crusty on the skin, get started. And then you can get in touch with us for help. Um, you can see if that shifts, if it moves to something different. It might not be in potaigo and it might go away really quickly, and then you don't need remedies very long. And then as far as other measures, I really use the calendula tincture, vitamin E oil, and golden seal powder and a lot of band-aids. So that's pretty much it. I don't, that's not very glamorous, it's not very um fancy, and it was a lot of work, but it did go away. They've all healed great. Um, and I did, I got a few spots, like I said, but now I mean it's been gone for a long time, and they're all good. So I'm glad I had the experience, but it tested me. That was yeah quite an experience.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. What I'll do is um, you know, take this transcript of what we've talked about and just make like a summary page or something. And um, so if you I don't know if I'll be able to post it, you know, with the podcast episode, but I'll post it wherever I can. And then if you want to reach out, you know, if you need if you need the summary page, or you can pause the you know, the episode and take notes for yourself. But I will I will make a a little summary page so that you'll have all the things. And um, I think this was very helpful because if you I think especially if you have little kids, you know what to have on hand, be ready. This is this would these are common remedies, you know, that are kids.

SPEAKER_01:

These are and a lot of them you could find locally. That is something you might not find two hundreds, but you might even if you can get 30s. I've I did feel like they're for this specifically. 30s worked great for some of them that I used. I also do want to say it is very scary. It can be. And in Western medicine, you hear the term like staff or strep and panic. It's like you cannot you have to treat it, right? You have to have an antibiotic with an antibiotic. And so that is what kept me going, is I knew even the times where I'm like, oh my goodness, is he still getting spots a weekend, a couple spots today? And I I always think, okay, well, if I'm gonna go in to take to a doctor, what are they gonna do? They're gonna give me an antibiotic. That's literally the only option. So I'm like, well, I'm not gonna do that. So I mean, and it's not that severe. Then I think the links that the air space that my child personally would have to be in for me to be okay with that would mean the risk outweighs the benefit outweighs the risk. So he would have to be extremely sick, and there are times where that would feel fitting to me if the time were to come. I'm looking at my kid, I'm like, he's playing, he's fine. He's fine. Yeah, his skin just looks disgusting right now, but like he's fine. And and and I I in this way it's a benefit, have the benefit of seeing how often they don't actually work, and very often make they do become systemic infections because your body now has no good bacteria to fight it, it is a bacteria, right? So we're killing that bacteria, but also our own. So I okay, I forgot. This reminds me, I did buy a probiotic. I'm not a big supplement person, but I did um buy a probiotic and was giving them high dose vitamin C. I should have added that. Yeah, um, you can do things like fish oil, skin, good skin vitamin A sometimes, but I didn't do a lot of that. My kids are little, but high vitamin C to support their immune system at that time, they actually tolerated it a lot. So that was an interesting thing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And a good probiotic I did for about a month until it ran out. I just did it until it ran out. I don't know that that did a whole lot, but you do want bad bacteria thrives in a bad environment. If you can create a healthy bacterial environment, it will eat the bad stuff or kill it, you know? Yep. So all that to say, I just think when parents more often it looks really bad, and it feels like a scary term, but these are bacteria that are just everywhere. And if we can strengthen our bodies to a place where they are not a threat all the time, then you don't have to you don't need an antibiotic right away. Um, so that's what kept me going. I kept I always think, what's my alternative? Does that feel like it's something I would even consider right now? No, right? We're just gonna keep doing this.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So we have to use discernment with our children and yeah, and not let fear play a role in any decision that you make ever, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Either way, right? Like don't not don't be afraid of medicine. Use like what you know, use your knowledge, ask questions. Yep, don't be afraid of stuff that doesn't help either if you're afraid of medicine.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

If you choose it, know what you're choosing. Yeah, and then get ready for what you need to do after, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

That's right. That's right. Yep. Or just address whatever comes up after that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So I think that's good. I hope this is helpful. Truly reach out to me. I love if something that I had to go through is helpful to someone. It's not like we really suffered that much.

SPEAKER_00:

But but yeah, you saw it. Awesome. Thank you, Brie. This was so helpful. Yeah, I'm excited to um, I'll get a I'll get the little summary sheet together and we can share that, you know, along with the podcast episode when people um are having empathygo problems. Or if you need personal help, you know, one-on-one acute help, then reach out. And that means, you know, email me, Melissa, at melissacrinshell.com, and just say, hey, I, you know, my children have or my child has empathygo. And um, you know, what can we do for acute? When I say work something out, I mean I'm not gonna, if you do the acute consult, that's only a five day, no, not I don't want to say only like it's that's not a good amount of time. That is a good amount of time, but not for really for skin. So I'm not gonna charge you double because we're gonna go 10 days or or triple because we might go 15 days. That's just what I'm saying. I'll work something out um, you know, for payment because this is gonna take a little bit longer. And then if you have um anybody in your family with a skin condition, so that's you know, um, eczema, acne, psoriasis, whatever skin condition, Brie is the skin expert, and we she can help you chronically. She also has um a skin support group for her clients, so her clients only. And um, so fill out the the uh free 15 minute phone call appointment or you know, form on my website, MelissaCrenshaw.com, and then I'll get in touch with you. We'll talk about it, and then I'll get you set up with Brie so you can get help for all your skin things.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you. Sounds great.

SPEAKER_00:

Awesome. Thanks, Brie. Have a great night.

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