Eczema rash process questions

[BirthKathy]

Hi Moms,

My 6 month old has an itchy red face and legs. We're trying various dietary and environmental changes. I can see it getting better some days and worse some others. I read that the redness and itch come first and then the rash. I'm wondering which stage the ooze is. When it's oozing badly, is it getting better or worse? It's never been better enough to watch the whole process start and end. If I can see it starting up or calming down, I might be able to tell if the changes we're making matter.

Please tell me what order you see these in your experiences:

bumpy, red, dry, raised, scaly, oozy, cracked, smooth, soft, streaked or splotched in color, peely, flaky

Also, do you put lotion on all of it, even the oozing cracked parts?

Thanks for your help!

[MyLilPwny]

I don't think oozing is always part of the stage. I think the oozing only happens when its severely inflamed. When my daughter used to have eczema, she had it worst on her cheeks, and those were the only parts that ever oozed, and I really don't remember it oozing very much. Her eczema remained just bumpy and red and mostly never oozed otherwise, and she had it on her chest, arms, and legs too. I tried all kinds of natural oils, creams and lotions, and I found that Boiron Calendula cream was the most soothing and moisturizing for her. Anything like Weleda Calendula cream made her even more red, I think because the alcohol in it irritated her even more. And yes, I put Boiron Calendula cream on her oozing cheeks when she had that. It helped so much. I never used steroid stuff on her. Her eczema went away 99% by the time she was 9 months old, and then the rest vanished a few months after that.

[kjbrown92]

My DD2's didn't ooze either. Her's was bumpy, red, dry, shiny-ish, if I remember right. She's 4.5yo now, and it went away when I took corn out of her diet, which was when she was about 14 months old. I never put anything on hers because I needed to see what it was doing to gauge the food reaction. Eczema can be from environmental allergies, food allergies or food intolerances.

Has he started solids yet? Has it been around since birth?

The top 8 food allergies are pretty well known.
The top 4 food intolerances are dairy, gluten, soy, and corn. Egg is another common culprit for eczema.

Are you keeping a food journal? If it never clears, it's likely to be one of those top 4 that are in 80% of our SAD or more than one trigger.

[ASusan]

DS oozed. His cheeks oozed. Ooze was when it was bad.

We *did* attempt to control it with steroid cream. But, the thing that helped the most was taking out egg, wheat, peanut (we had already removed dairy months before) - out of my diet and his. Night-and-day difference.

The creams, lotions, oils...none of them helped like removing the foods to which he was allergic. (We did a RAST test to help us figure out what to remove first.)

[BirthKathy]

He had a few tiny spots that started around 3 mos old, and then it got really bad at about 4 1/2 months. I am keeping a journal of everything that I eat and everything DS touches or wears, etc. But I have no idea how long foods take to go through to my milk and then through to his face! That's why I'm trying to find out the stages of the rash so I can pinpoint when something might be affecting him and try to go backwards into my journal.

I am on a sugar control diet for blood sugar issues (no or severely limited starches and sugars), so I know it isn't wheat or gluten. I went off dairy for about 5 days last week, and then my blood sugar got dangerously low the other day so I added it back in. I just didn't have enough to eat. I also have lost a lot of weight because of the sugar control diet, and I would like to stop losing now. I was 171 when I got pregnant, 171 the day I gave birth (before birth), and today I was 128.

We are under the care of a holistic MD and a chiropractor/homeopathic doctor. After doing extensive muscle testing, the doctor did not find any food allergies. So we're going at it by adding supplements. I'm starting Acidophilus and Essential Fatty Acids today. I have also begun rotating foods. Because my diet is limited, I was eating almost the same things every day. I don't actually mind, but I think it's not the best nutritionally and if there is something in there that the baby can't tolerate, it's there in large quantities. I read "Is This Your Child" by Doris Rapp, and I'm using some of the rotary diet in there. I'm working to add variety.

I am buying organic as much as possible, eat very few processed foods, and I am in the process of changing our household over to soap products instead of detergent. Our house is relatively new and clean, but we just ordered a house air purification system anyway. We're also looking into a water purifier. Even though DS's skin always looks best after his bath. He wears only cotton clothes. We use only unscented products in our home, and always have. No smoking or pets and we canceled the lawn fertilizer when DS was born. He has a hypo-allergenic mattress.

I wanted to figure this thing out before starting him on foods, but he is so ready. He has been wanting to eat since about 5 1/2 months. He absolutely loves drinking water out of a cup and will even pull off the breast to grab my water glass if he is in a distractable mood. And when I'm eating, he watches every bite. So, at 6 months we let him try oats. (steel cut, cooked 6 hrs in crock pot and strained) He loved it, and we didn't see any change in his rash or bowel patterns. So we have done that a few times. I tried carrots, which he also loved, but they came out undigested so we will not do those again for a while. I think I will try zucchini this weekend.

The baby has never had colic, or difficulty pooping. He also never had consistent yellow poops. Since he was born, his poops varied in color constantly. They were anywhere from yellow to orange to green to brown. He poops about 3-4 times per day. Just about 3 weeks ago, they became more consistently orangy-brown. And then after his doctor appt yesterday (got an adjustment for the colon), he had 5 poops last night that gradually went from brown to yellow-brown. today, he has pooped 4 times, all yellow. So that is a very good sign, I think.

I just noticed that his cheeks ooze when he's crying, and I think it's because the skin has dried out and when he stretches his cheeks to cry it cracks and oozes. I think that I will moisturize over the ooze. Thanks for all of your responses so far - MDC has been very helpful to me!

Just remembered to add -

When DS's skin was clear, we would notice a small contact rash anytime he would be held by other women like Great grandma, neighbors, etc. who wear either scented products or possibly use different detergent than we do. So we know that he has sensitive skin. His face rash started near his mouth right after he started sucking on stuffed toys and blankets. I made sure to wash the toys and all clothing (his and ours) in Dreft. When his rash kept getting worse, I switched to All Free and Clear and then to BioKleen Free and Clear. That hasn't helped, so just today I received Cal-Ben laundry soap in the mail and I'm doing my first load with that now. I don't know if any of the detergents are the sole reason for the rash, but I do feel they are a very possible contributor. When I pick him up from sleeping, he rubs his face all over my shoulder to scratch it. He always rubs his face and scratches, so we bought him ScratchSleeves for night time and other times that his hands aren't busy enough to keep from scratching. They have silk hand covers on them.

[anj_rn]

Oozing is the bad part. I am a big fan of olive oil, that is what helps Ds and I the most (although DH thinks we smell funny). Also, avaid water, especially bathtime, the water will dry out the skin. I would suggest visiting an allergist to get some testing for what allergens might be the trigger. DS has no food allergies, only pollen & molds.

[kjbrown92]

If it was detergent though, wouldn't he be getting more of a contact rash all over his body. It would seem odd for that to trigger the cheeks and NOT the rest of the body.

There are people here doing grain free and dairy free, so I know it can be done. What ARE you eating? And maybe we can brainstorm for you.

I'll just tell you my experience, and everyone is different, but for my DS, he would react exactly 24 hours after I ingested the trigger food, and then react for 72 hours after that. But I've heard of kids who react much quicker than that. AND it seems with my DD2 that eczema was the last reaction to come up, and took the longest to clear.

Dairy is the number one intolerance (and I believe it's the number one allergy as well).

[BirthKathy]

His legs have it bad on the back, and dry skin on the front. His arms and torso have dry patchy spots and sometimes small bumps.

The diet that I'm on is the TBM Sugar Control Diet. I am not a diabetic, but if I eat a starchy meal, my post meal blood sugar rises too high. It's easy for me to control the blood sugar rise with this diet. I am allowed to eat eggs, dairy, meat, fish, non-starchy fresh vegetables (no potatoes, corn, cauliflower), whole fruits and raw nuts. With OK sugar readings, Ezekiel bread and beans are also allowed on this diet, and I have recently added both of those with no noticeable change. I sometimes eat restaurant food (that fits the above list as far as I can tell) or store-bought salad dressings (that are not strictly allowed - mainly because of sweeteners). I used to eat no meat except for fish, and that was difficult with this diet. So I just added chicken.

DS's face looked pretty good this morning, about 50% better than yesterday. He also has not been scratching his legs as much as usual for the last 24 hours. He is having consistently yellow poops today again, so maybe the adjustments he received on Thursday are working.

We got new carpet when he was a month old, and we're wondering now if that could be part of it. We're going to air out the house today to see if it helps him.

[BirthKathy]

Eczema Rash process questions - update & new thoughts

I've been doing a food diary for about 20 days. I took a look at everything, and for a couple of reasons, I think my son might be sensitive to salicylates.

His rash was very light when he was about 2-4 mos old, and then I found out that I still had a blood sugar issue that I thought was gestational. I changed my diet at that time to correct the blood sugar issues. That is when his eczema started getting worse and worse. The additions that I made were I started eating frozen packaged salmon every day, salads with salad dressing every day, and a vegetable dinner every night that usually consisted of a mix of zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms, or asparagus. I also switched from one red delicious apple a day to eating strawberries, grapes, oranges, raspberries and other fruits. I started cooking in olive oil instead of butter. I also stopped eating most grains and sugars. I continued to eat the same amount of dairy products. I added in some canned beans and canned tomatoes. I also bought mostly organic. I made all sorts of other random changes that in retrospect raised his salicylate load. I used to eat mostly just pecans, and I added in other nuts like almonds.

Then, 11 days ago I started using all natural soap products all over the house instead of detergents. He got worse and worse. When I started looking into the salicylate possibility, I realized that the new soaps are all coconut oil based. I then remembered that I had used olive oil on his cradle cap a few months ago and it got worse overnight. I have been using olive or coconut based soaps on my hands and body for several months.

So anyway, I changed soaps again yesterday and took away a bunch of things I was eating. I am taking the baby to the TBM doctor today to see what we can do further. I saw a small improvement overnight, so I'm really hopeful!

I have found a lot of helpful information about this stuff in these forums, so thanks to all of you and I'll keep you updated to tell you if this helps out!

[mamafish9]

Sorry I missed this thread before... yeah, sals could be a culprit, they're easily absorbed through the skin. Olive oil, coconut oil, any mint flavors, aloe, lavendar (or pretty much any plant based scents/ingredients)... And all the berries/fruits you're eating could easily be filling his sals bucket.

Another possibility is that he is sensitive to antimony. It's the chemical used in flame retardants on kids PJs, baby sleepers, carpet, foam in couches, beds... And it doesn't come out with standard washing (you need to use soap or washing soda on HOT, several times to get it out).

If this is the case, antimony affects the body's ability to use magnesium, which in turn can cause salicylates sensitivity.

If antimony is a problem, increasing your intake of vitamin b6 and magnesium, and putting him in Epsom salts baths if he can tolerate them, would likely help (b6 improves the body's ability to use magnesium, and he will get it passed through your breastmilk).