For two years, bath time was the worst part of our day. My daughter Maya was three when the eczema started. By bedtime she would scratch until she bled, and I would hold her little hands so she could not.

We did everything right. Pediatrician, dermatologist, steroid creams, fragrance-free everything, the expensive moisturizer everyone swears by. Some weeks were better. Then it all came roaring back, and I felt like I was failing her.

I kept thinking I was missing something. I just could not figure out what.

Then a pharmacist, a mother herself, asked the one question no one had: "What is your water like at home? Is it hard?" She explained that the chlorine and hard minerals in our tap water can dry out and irritate sensitive skin. For a child whose skin barrier is already struggling, the water itself can keep working against you, no matter how good your cream is.

I tested our water. Off the charts hard. And suddenly two years of "why is nothing holding?" made a horrible kind of sense.

We were not treating the problem twice a day. We were re-starting it.