Kristin Davis wears many hats.
She’s a philanthropist, a producer, and an actress most known for her role as Charlotte York-Goldenblatt on Sex and the City .
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But there’s another role she’s grown fond of playing: being a mom to her two young children.
While parenting comes with its fair share of struggles, there was one that the actress didn’t see coming: her child being diagnosed with severe atopic dermatitis (AD), also known as eczema.
This is a skin condition that affects 10-15 percent of children. Common symptoms include dry skin, itchiness, and a rash. It can also cause oozing, crusting of the skin, and even bleeding (let’s hope you weren’t eating when reading that).
Recently, Kristin, along with Dr. Lawrence Eichenfield , the Chief of Pediatric and Adolescent Dermatology at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, chatted with Diply about her child’s struggles with eczema.
They also shared information on the medication that she calls a “game-changer.”
Like many parents, Kristin didn’t know what eczema was at first.
“I just thought dry skin then I thought rashes,” she says.
It wasn’t until one hot summer in New York that strangers began pointing out the condition on her child and attaching a name to it.
After this happened, she soon began finding signs of the condition in spots you wouldn’t expect, like behind the ear and on the bottom of the feet.
Much like her character Charlotte, known for her determination and gusto — Kristin became a Mom on a Mission, determined to find answers to help her child’s skin woes.
Unfortunately, this meant being sent down the rabbit hole of misinformation and trial-and-error — a path that many parents are all-too-familiar with.
The actress went from pillar to post, trying every treatment under the sun to get her child’s eczema under control.
This ranged from green solutions recommended by her pediatrician, topical treatments such as steroid creams, a food allergy elimination diet to different moisturizers.
At one point, someone even told her to “scrub it really hard.”
At the same time, Davis did a lot of her research on her own, something which she calls a “mixed bag.”
“What works for one child isn’t going to work for another child. In terms of home remedies, there were a lot of things suggested,” she says with a laugh.
But nothing worked, as this was not the type of condition that moisturizer could easily fix.
As if that wasn’t stressful enough, the family was also dealing with sleep disturbances.
This is something that Dr. Eichenfield says is common when dealing with eczema. Depression, anxiety, and trouble learning may also be linked to the incurable condition.
Now there is an FDA-approved targeted form of injectable therapy that works from the inside out called Dupixent .
It’s meant for moderate-to-severe cases of eczema and is “very select,” explains Dr. Eichenfield.
“These targeted therapies just turn off this little switch. It turns off eczema without suppressing the immune system.”
It’s something that both Kristin and Dr. Eichenfield call a “breakthrough therapy.”
While their case is managed now, it could flair-up at any time. That’s just the nature of the condition — it’s unpredictable.
But this is precisely why the Couple’s Retreat star is so grateful to have Dupixent in her back pocket in case she needs it.
“As a mom, you can plan all you want, but life is life. So sometimes, there’s a flare and it’s good to know now that there is something that will actually go inside and stop this whole syndrome from happening.”
Surprisingly, dealing with eczema hasn’t been all challenging. It’s even caused some unexpected parenting benefits for Kristin!
“I think it helped our communication and helped my child take some ownership of how they felt and be able to communicate it to me in a good way that has lasted and become more advanced as they grow older,” she says.
It also helped the family eat better since the goal has been to get her child’s immune system boosted up. Yep, this means that you won’t find any traces of soda in their household.
As for what advice Kristin would give to other parents dealing with a child who has eczema? She wants them to feel empowered.
“Don’t feel bad because at the beginning of the journey I couldn’t get it to go away for anything, I tried it all. So sometimes that’s the time you would need to call your doctor and share these things with them,” she says.
She also advises parents to trust their instincts and not be afraid to express themselves to the doctor.
“It could absolutely be a real thing that you need to take care of. And don’t feel embarrassed that you need to bring it up.”
If you want more information on eczema, go to the National Eczema Association and here to learn more about Dupixent.
