Coconut Oil: Not just for butts anymore!

I’ve been using coconut oil as a cloth-diaper-safe butt cream for over a year now. Luckily, we haven’t had to deal with diaper rash, but teething sometimes makes Little Man’s bum a little angry, and a swipe of coconut oil calms it right down every time without causing my diapers to repel.

But this week, I fell in love with coconut oil all over again for a completely different reason. 

Those of you who tweet may have seen me mentioning the horrible case of hives I had last week. At least I thought they were hives. It turns out I had an allergic reaction to something (who knows what) that I had come in contact with, and I was a mess.

I had a red, itchy, swollen rash all over my face, neck, torso and hands. I think my right pointer finger was the worst, and it blistered so much I was actually afraid it might scar. When I went to the doctor, he seemed concerned about infection because it was getting pretty ugly.

He immediately prescribed a round of Prednisone. When I mentioned that I am nursing and we are trying to conceive, he decided against that prescription. (I was relieved because I just hate medication in all forms, and I have to be pretty much dying to agree to it…)

The rash seemed to be calming on its own a little, but he still wanted to prescribe Triamcinolone Acetonide cream. But only for my hands. Not my face, because it’s more vascular and too much could enter my bloodstream.

Sorry, but does that sound safe to you? Uh, no thanks. 😕

OTC hydrocortisone? I think I’ll skip that too.

So I left and went home, happy in the knowledge that I didn’t have some kind of incurable skin crud, but not sure what to do about the severe itching and raw skin on my hands and face.

And then I remembered: A jar of Tropical Traditions virgin coconut oil in my cupboard.

Could that work? Why not!? With all I’d read about the different uses of coconut oil, it made perfect sense. 💡

I immediately put a thin layer on my face and a slightly thicker layer on my hands. On the really bad parts, I applied it a few times.

That was yesterday and, long story short, you can barely see where the blisters were. No lie – the parts of my hands that were affected actually feel better than the rest. This stuff is amazing: just one simple ingredient that’s 100% pure and safe for me as a mama, my baby, and the baby that we’re already looking out for, just in case. 😉

Prednisone disaster averted. 

Just one more reason I plan to keep a jar of coconut oil in my house at all times. Thanks so much to Tropical Traditions for a great product, and I look forward to finding out what other tricks it can do! 🙂

I was not compensated in any way for this post. I just really, really want you all to know how great this stuff is!

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Have you ever used coconut oil? What is your favorite use for it?