Allergy and Elimination Diet

hello, my name is E. and i would like to give u a lil insight. my son too had problems with eczema..but it was food allergies that was causing the this to flare up. so what i suggest that u do is request a allergy test be done throught the blood, ur local pediatrician can do this and it will help u more then u would know. i have twins and my daughter came back fine, but my son is almost allergic to everything..LOL but also u could go and see an allergist. but the blood work will really help u and then u could know which foods to avoid. hope this helps....

Eliminate wheat, dairy, eggs and beef for 2 weeks. Then introduce 1 back at a time and see when she has a reaction. If she is exclusively breasfed she doesn't have to have rice cereal for nutrition if you wanted to eliminate that also.

Try reducing your intake of cow's milk. That is something well known for causing exzema. Instead, try other methods to get your calcium.

Also be leary of detergents and soaps. I have tried every commercially available all and clear type, and they still give my kids issues. I had to turn to an organic soap Dr Bronner's magic soaps.

Stop ALL dairy for 2 weeks... it's hard at first, but if she's allergic to the milk protein, it will be worth it. When I say all dairy, I mean check every ingredient for milk, casein and whey. My son is dairy allergic, which I discovered when nursing. 2 weeks after total elimination, he was a whole new baby! No rash, and he stopped crying after meals! However, even a bite of something with dairy in it would set him off all over again, so whatever she's allergic to, be extra careful. You'll never get this nursing time back with her, so I highly recommend finding the cause and not giving up and switching her to formula! I considered it at the height of my frustration, but the price of the hydrosolate (sp?) formula helped me make my decision firm that I would become dairy free! Good luck!

Have you tried eliminating skin-contact dermatitis as a cause-- cutting out scented detergents, fabric softeners, clothes with synthetic-fabric blends, bubble bath, soap, shampoo...
(I had a case of it once-- turned out to be from some cheap polyester-blend bras!)

First I would try eliminating Milk/dairy products... Then try wheat/gluten products... Then Peanut products. Make sure you give at least 3 days to a week for each one. Or like someone mentioned you can just go to the peds and get your baby tested to see what he might be allergic to.

So, my best advice is to eliminate dairy, wheat and soy from your diet for a couple of weeks and if the rash goes away, add in each food one at a time and see if it comes back. Also, my son had this and we tried everything and then I found out it was his soap and his diaper. My pediatrician had me switch to a bath regime where I left him soaking for 10' (playing, soaking, same thing) then at the very end of the bath, wash him head to toe with dove unscented BAR soap, then immediately room him from the bath, pat dry him and then apply eucerician/cedaphil lotion within 3'. Good luck and feel free to email me if you have more questions, I spent months on this before it was gone and would be more than willing to help anyone avoid that struggle.

My son gets eczema breakouts on occasion. It runs on my husband's side of the family. What we use are PH balanced laundray products and a wonderful Lotion and it clears up any breakouts that do occur. His skin is nice and smooth right now when just a couple days ago he had dry patches (not pink) on his chest and back. I love the lotion and recommend it to everyone even if you don't have eczema. You only have to apply it once/day and it is non greasy.

My son had the exact same issues. The first thing I did was go on a dairy free diet. Then I started eliminating specific food groups every two weeks such as wheat, soy, etc. (it takes that long to get completely out of your system). I also changed his skin care products. I tried Johnson & Johnson, Baby Magic, Aveeno, Burt's Bee's, and finally Arbonne ABC's. The only one that was completely effective was Arbonne. If you want to try this, I can send you some samples I have. He actually ended up drinking soymilk once he quit nursing and this seemed to help as well. I used All Baby detergent and made sure that if I didn't have any Arbonne lotion that I was using didn't have any mineral oil in it. This acts as a barrier and will trap things against the skin (they use it on burn victims to prevent infection). He is three now with no signs or symptoms of eczema. Let me know if you have any other questions. ____@____.com

Both my children have food allergies - one has a milk allergy the other has a peanut allergy. If you suspect the rash could be caused from food then I'd suggest taking her to an allergist. Your peditrican should be able to recommend one that will take children. They can give her an allergy test, so you can figure out if you need to adjust her diet. My children both have eczema also, so we use fragrence free laundry detergent (dreft), lotion (euccerin), and body wash (aveno). This may help reduce some of the rash if she has sensitive skin.

-C.

R.,
My son (now 9yr) wasn't diagnosed until he was older but he had sites primarily around his ankles and behind his knees as a toddler. Hydrocortisone creams scar my mom so I opted to try something different. I would use a gentle facial exfoliator on his legs followed by a moisturizing facial cream. I felt the facial cream actually penetrated his skin. We now use Eucerin cream (a lot and often) which allows for some control and occassionally an gentle exfoliator. However, he still has the occasional outbreak. I would ask a nutritionist about the cereal just to be safe. Good luck.
K.

We had a similar issue with my son when he was nursing. The first thing you need to try and cut out is dairy products. Dairy is the most common cause for allergies in nursing babies. After that we were told to try leafy greens and that seemed to do it. We never had to move any further. Just try reducing your dairy intake first. As you cut back if that is causing the problem then you will notice it geting better in her. Good luck with everything.

Hi R., I would leave off ALL dairy products as that can give reactions in babies. I limited my dairy intake in the early months and it seemed to help my son (he is now 15 months old). I also had to leave off peanut butter for a bit, although I can now eat it.

I also would try Arbonne baby hair and body wash. I started using it when my son was 4 months old and it made a huge difference in his skin. Most other products have fragrance and other chemicals in them and Arbonne is all natural. I liked it so much I became a consultant for Arbonne so I could get the products at a discount. www.arbonne.com
E.

Before getting drastic with your diet I'd make sure you're covering the basics...Eczema typically gets worse in winter as the humidity in the air decreased and skin gets dry so you have to make sure you're combatting that dryness by using a soap (Dove/Aveeno) that doesn't make it worse but leaves skin a little bit more moist and using a very good emolient to maintain that moisture. Whatever you use should be thick enough to stay on under the bundling or frequently applied when you notice skin getting drier. My kids have eczema (started well before any shots were ever given so I highly doubt that connection for my own) and Aveeno's 24 hour moisturizer and Eucerin cream work for them very well. For a while we tried a more natural route (Coconut oil) but it melts too fast in our house in the summer so the mess outweighed the benefit for me. Steroids should be used only when the rash is really itchy, red and rough. Hope this helps.

R.
You are right to think about your food intake. I work with people through diet and nutrition and would be happy to do a free health consultation over the phone with you.
Feel free to email me directly, or respond to this posting privately.

Common things are yeast, dairy and sugar.
S

similar experience, we eliminated acidic foods (e.g., tomato products mostly - that was a definite flare up)

I think I wrote before...I am so sorry that things are still not sorting themselves out. There is a great allergy resource call Parents with kids with Food Allergies. They have a conversation forum that helped me sort out how to do the elimination diet.

Our own journey was really hard. I had to stop feeding from the breast completely when we got the blood work back and found out my wonderful son is allergic to milk, egg, and soy...I hope you can work from the diet but you should also get him tested so that you can find the solids that will be most helpful. Blood and RAST tests were the ways we found all of his allergies. I will say this, once we did take the foods away that he was allergic to and started using Renew lotion and bath oil...the eczema completely came under control within 4 days. And he had it from head to toe for months. Unfortunately we also had to give our perfect dog to another family but it did make a difference. We had to find our pediatric allergist because not all specialize in infants. Good luck...once you do get to the root of the allergy, it will get better. To start, take out dairy and it will take about 3 weeks for that to get out of your system. Good luck, T.

Same thing happened with my cousin. She began by eliminating all dairy products from her diet and it took care of the problem. You might want to start with that. Good luck!

My daughter had the same thing. PRetty bad too. We use Aquaphor on her every night after her bath... or when she was only 3 months old or so and too young to have a bath every night we just put it on her every night without a bath. It's just like vasiline. I'm not certain it's anything more than vasiline but it's a little less greasy. It makes the skin so nice and got rid of the eczema. I use it on my feet every night too and my feet look as smooth as a babies bottom. :)

R.--if you are in the Washington DC area I would suggest visiting Dr.Razi in DC Ioana Razi is a pediatrician who also uses homeopathy. We have been going to her since 1980. She is a remarkable person. Often she can figure out the puzzle behind asthma and eczema. She cured my daughter's asthma in about four years using homeopathic remedies with no side effects. Her number is ###-###-####. Read up on Homeopathy with this book: Everybody's guide to homeopathic medicine by cummings. and the very best to you ---C.