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When I found myself suddenly having to care for and look after my new born child alone, I panicked. I panicked because I had never done this before and the ten minute tutorial on washing and feeding my infant that the nurse gave me at the hospital was lacking in many ways. I had questions, so many questions, but she didn’t have time. I was a woman, as far as she was concerned and therefore I should be able to instinctively know how to care for and love my child. But I didn’t. I went home with my child petrified that I would do something wrong. I’ve never believed that our ability as women to have children then automatically makes us able and active mothers.
In a month or so, my child started showing signs of eczema. A rash developed on my child’s face and slowly started spreading all over his little body. I had suffered with eczema for all my childhood and young adulthood and it was terrible. It was hard and I certainly didn’t want that for my child. I took my child to a dermatologist who I knew would prescribe corticosteroids which are bad for the general health of any child or adult. So I decided to try alternative, natural remedies for my child’s eczema and Google came to my rescue. I researched passionately what natural remedies had been tried, I joined chat rooms with mothers who had babies with eczema, I signed up for newsletters online, I watched YouTube videos. And I found out, by a process of elimination, that wheat and gluten were what triggered my child’s eczema attacks. I built a thick binder, and ordered books that I had found online at my local bookstore. I even tried a remedy that Kate Winslet swore worked for her child who had eczema earlier in life. I became a self-accredited eczema expert, after spending considerable amounts of time on Google researching the allergy and drinking up all the information I could find on the issue. Google became an intimate part of my life at that time, and I consulted Google as I would a neighbour or an older woman with more information. When meeting up with other mothers in the real world I shared this information, and even toyed with the idea of starting a support group for mothers with babies who have eczema.
Read the full article in GenderIT.org .
