Rash/red dots around DS's mouth

[samuel's mama]

Hoping to get some advice regarding my DS. Every winter he gets a rash around his mouth...little red dots and it gets dry and his skin sometimes flakes. He has it in the summer too but not nearly as often or as bad. His pediatrician thinks it has to do with him getting saliva around his mouth and it the digestive enzymes that are in saliva are irritating to the skin. He thinks this because the rash is just around the mouth.

I have tried all kinds of natural things on it in attempts to heal it... cocounut oil, a non-petroleum based jelly, a saav made by a friend, and the thing that seems to help the most is Aquaphor. I really hate using petroleum based products though and would love some other ideas. Even more than that I would love to hear if any other moms have had this with their kids and if they have found out what the cause of it is. Any advice would be so appreciated.

One of my mom friends said she thinks it is due to acidy foods. Has anyone else experienced this? Or with other foods?

TIA for the responses. I am so grateful to have other like-minded moms to connect with on issues like these.

[Nature]

My dd is 4 and she gets this. It is some kind of food but I haven't pinpointed it exactly yet. I do know that tomatoes cause it for her, but something else without tomatoes also does....

[deditus]

It could be a food intolerance, but if there are no other symptoms - poop, pee, sleep, mood, growth, eye circles, ear infections, eczema, cradle cap, diaper rash, etc - it could just be from certain foods that cause the release of histamine like tomatoes, cinnamon, & strawberries or even foods with lots of enzyme content themselves like kiwi, fresh pineapple, or papaya.

[samuel's mama]

Yes! Tomatoes does do it to him! I will have to keep an eye on his foods to see what else does too.

deditus- Actually he does seem to have bags under his eyes. Does that give you any additional thoughts? His pediatrician asked me if this was normal for him and I said yes. Maybe that kind of comes and goes though too. I will have to watch.

[samuel's mama]

Forgot to post that he had a muffin last night with cinnamon in it and it's really bad today, so maybe it is a histamine response! He also had pineapple this weekend too!

[Nature]

Allergic shiners. The dark circles under thier eyes. My dd has that too, along with eczema and some rash she gets on her backside. We suspected milk but their skin prick testing said no to that and all other usual offenders.

When your sons mouth get red does he complain that it burns or itches? My dd cries that her mouth is hot and burning a lot.

[tanyalynn]

That was a food reaction for DS but I had to journal to figure it out. That food didn't do anything other than the face rash, but we had other foods that caused allergic shiners, sleep problems, various subtle stuff.

[samuel's mama]

When he complains about his face, he says it stings. I just asked him if it ever feels hot and he said yes, but he has never said that before and I don't think it has felt hot to the touch.

I think I will start keeping a food journal. I know that he is allergic to milk already because he gets the classic allergy around his butt, so we give him a combo of coconut milk (for the fat he needs) and rice milk (has the calcium)instead. We still do give him cheese because that doesn't seem to give him a rash, but now I am thinking maybe I should monitor that a bit closer.

TanyaLopez/Nature..Have either of you been able to pinpoint what foods cause the allergic shiners? About the skin prick test... I have heard that those tests can say no to an allergy but that there still can be an intollerance which I think can be tested through some other non-traditional allergy testing. I was referred to an allergy specialist (more non-traditional...they prescribe allergy drops to try and reverse the allergy) but it is so expensive that we just can't afford to do it right now.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I am definitely going to start a food journal. The only question I have then...is how long does it take the offending food to produce the symptoms? And if I eliminate to see if there is a change...how long does it take to fully get out of his system? I have heard that milk products take a full 2 weeks. Is that right?

[tanyalynn]

We eliminated gluten and dairy for me, and my daughter's allergic shiners got a lot lighter. They got lighter still, sometimes completely gone, when I've been really good about having a really good probiotic source, for us that's kimchee twice a day (which is really tasty, so it's not a hardship).

I saw improvement in DD's allergy symptoms starting within a few days, within a week it was quite noticeable to me, and it took about a month to achieve all the benefits I was going to (her tonsils were last, they were quite big before we cut out gluten and dairy).

I'm pretty sure all our food sensitivities are intolerances. I _think_ there are tests that can help identify those, but if you suspect a short list, it may be easier, definitely cheaper, to try eliminating some of the most common stuff--gluten, dairy, soy, eggs, maybe corn, though that's really hard.

After we cut out gluten and dairy, the other 3 were easier to identify, either through a journal or just going when I thought about what DS had eaten.

[kjbrown92]

If you already know there's a problem with dairy, I'd definitely take out the cheese too. It can take from 4 days to a couple of weeks to get out of their system.

Food elimination and challenge is the benchmark test. All others have varying degrees of accuracy.