At the age of four months, my son Edward developed seborrhoeic dermatitis. It started as a dry eczema patch on his forehead, then spread over his entire head. The skin was weeping and forming thick crusts, which cracked and bled. My doctor made an appointment for us with a skin specialist.

While waiting for this appointment, I did some investigating. I took my son to see a herbalist, a homoeopathic doctor and a naturopathic doctor. I also bought the book Better Health Through Natural Healing by Ross Trattler.

I felt the naturopathic treatment was safest as it only involved my giving up cow’s milk. My son was fully breastfed at the time, and the naturopath believed that he was most likely sensitive to the cow’s milk protein molecules that he was ingesting through my milk.

She advised me to give up cow’s milk for six weeks. After a week of this diet, Edward’s skin seemed worse, but the following week, there was a noticeable improvement. When our appointment with the specialist finally arrived, he examined Edward and said he would need steroid creams and possibly medication to clear it up. I told him about our regime and how Edward’s skin had improved, but was brushed aside.

Thankfully, I stuck to our programme. An improvement was noticeable daily and, by the end of six weeks, Edward’s skin was as smooth as any baby’s. After a few more weeks, I carefully re-introduced cow’s milk into my diet and watched for a reaction - nothing. He was weaned onto goat’s milk at one year, and now follows the same diet as the rest of the family, including cow’s milk. Thirteen years on, Edward is radiantly healthy, his skin is perfect and he can eat anything.

I hope this story will help others who are in a similar situation. - Gloria Prema, Auchenblae, Aberdeenshire