A mum desperate to cure her baby's painful long-term eczema created an unusual organic soap from her own BREAST MILK - and it worked.
Joy Evans, 35, credits the homemade soap with clearing up the itchy red patches of dry skin that had plagued baby Finlay's arms, knees, thighs and shoulders.
The little boy had suffered with eczema since he was six months old and had to be kept covered to stop himself from scratching the red patches.
Poor Joy had been at her wit's end when GP-prescribed steroid treatments, emollient creams and over-the-counter remedies failed to cure it for nearly a year.
But when the mum-of-four heard about the unusual remedy while browsing online in July, she decided to give it a go as she had 'nothing to lose' - and used stale expressed breast milk from her freezer.
Joy, who is a breastfeeding peer support worker, was amazed when her now 20-month-old son's eczema cleared after just one month of washing him with the breast milk soap daily.
Joy, who is originally from Edinburgh but now lives in Haltwhistle, Northumberland, said: "I was a bit sceptical when I found it, but I hoped it would work.
"I hoped it would at least take the edge off or make him less itchy and uncomfortable.
"That was my hope, just to make him more comfortable, but it exceeded all my expectations.
"We'd had steroid treatments from the GP, and emollient creams and other over the counter stuff to try and help his eczema.
"But nothing was working, or it would work for a short time but then the eczema would just come back.
"The steroid creams would take the redness out of it but wouldn't clear it. Other treatments would lessen it a little bit, but nothing would clear it up. Nothing totally got rid of it."
She continued: "We just got to the point of wanting to try anything.
"We had to keep his body covered all the time because he would scratch at it.
"I was scouring the Internet for ideas and tips. So when we came across this one I just thought, why not?
"I had some old expressed breast milk that was too old for him to drink still in the freezer, and just decided to give it a go.
"Within a month, Finlay's eczema had totally cleared up.
"One day at baby group he had been stripped down to his nappy because they were doing messy play. I just looked at him and thought, 'it's all gone'. I was amazed.
"We'd stopped using the medicated creams and stopped using the over the counter stuff. The only thing we were using was the soap I had made.
"For him, this is the most successful thing we've found in treating his eczema. Nothing else we've tried has worked as well."
Joy knew about the benefits of breastfeeding already but never thought it would work so well at treating her little boy's skin condition.
The soap, which she claims has the same 'squidgy' consistency of a 'posh' oil-based soap, was made by mixing an organic soap base with the old breast milk.
She was so impressed with the results that she now plans on keeping a supply handy to treat any other skin conditions that Finlay may develop as he gets older, such as chicken pox.
Joy said: "I honestly never expected it to work so well. I thought it might take the itch out or maybe take the redness down, but we didn't think it would work that well.
"It comes out like a normal bar of soap but a little bit softer. It's like when you buy a really posh soap and they're oil-based so they're a bit squidgy.
"They come out like that, which I presume is because of the fat in the breast milk although I don't know the science behind it.
"We just use that in the bath, no bubbles or anything else, just the soap to wash him from top to bottom.
"What's great about it is that it's a free resource too. When you're breastfeeding, if you do express it's easy for it to get lost at the back of the freezer.
"You can only store it for so long so it was too old for him to drink so it would have just gone in the bin otherwise. There was nothing to lose by giving it a go.
"I know it's not for everyone though. A lot of people with eczema will say 'this cream worked for me but that one didn't', whereas the same cream will not work for other people and the other one will.
"I think skin is very personalised and it's about finding the right thing for you. But for us it has worked. It's cheap. The key ingredient is free, so all the better.
"He's still being breastfed at night at the minute, so before I give up breastfeeding him I think I probably will try and get some extra milk just to keep in for things like that.
"If it can help his eczema, as a mum I sit and I think 'if he gets chicken pox, will it help with that?'
"It might help loads of skin conditions he may get later in life. For the sake of a couple of little bags of frozen milk sitting in the back corner of the freezer it's worth a shot.
"I just wonder if it will take the itch out of chicken pox or if it will help it heal better. I don't know if it would, but I will definitely give it a go."
The chronic skin condition causes itchy, red, dry and cracked skin, and is usually a long-term condition, according to the NHS website.
In children, it can improve significantly, or clear up completely, as they get older.