Hi mums,
I'm new here so if there are similar threads that have discussed what I'm asking, pls direct me to them.
I am doing some "detective work" to uncover DS2's triggers for eczema and I am positive I'm missing something that's staring at me straight in the face and I would be so grateful if anyone btdt could give me some suggestions.
Basically ds2, turning 3 soon, has really bad eczema on his feet, which will progress upwards towards his knees, bum and inside of his elbows during a flare-up. Each flare-up can last for months. We've been sort of keeping an eye on it for the past two years and it has been getting worse and worse and moving up his body. I kept hoping he would outgrow whatever it was, but nope. He's also developing a constant stuffy nose.
Over the past one year, we have taken him off seafood, fish, eggs and dairy products, and artificial colorings. They seem to be of limited help, but I was not really strict with him (ie he still ate things like milk bread and occasional pastries) until the past few months when his feet was covered with bleeding oozing blisters.
We have brought him to different doctors but stopped shy of going to the homeopath. The last doctor (a month ago) was a paediatric allergist and he declared that ds2 was allergic to dust mite even before the testing. He refused to test for any other food except egg, and prawns after my insistence that ds2 does seem to react to food. According to him, the dust-mite test was positive, the egg and prawns were borderline and he said we would have to rely on our observation. But he believed that dust-mite were the main cause, while food are only secondary causes. His "prescription" was dust-mite prevention, swimming 3x a week, and antiseptic wash 3x a day. However all the dusting and vacuuming don't seem to make much difference.
BUT, our great mystery is that ds2's eczema can clear within a week if he's had a few days of diarrhea/not eating. It has happened twice. The first time, because of a traditional medicine to "clear his system" - it worked amazingly over a few days - the blisters dried up and I can't tell you how excited I was to see scabs on his feet. But one month later, he sneaked a piece of squid and within a week we were back to square one. More recently, he was down with a virus and had diarrhea and stopped eating for a few days, and his bum and knees cleared up within a week, his feet were 90% healed except for a small patch that has been there for over a year. It was amazing. I could shower him without him screaming. He could even go swimming. He could actually sleep for more than four hours at a stretch. Once he went back to his usual diet, again, we were back to the constant scratching at night after two weeks, with troubled sleep (lots of bad dreams), and the whinging.
Ten days ago, I finally started him on a gluten-free diet, but it doesn't seem to make a difference, except that he started wetting his pants during the day a lot more and babbling a lot more. (any connections? His speech had never been a problem.) If anything the itching seem to have intensify. Should I continue with this?
I've just started with the Failsafe diet to also exclude salicylates, amines and suphites. It's a challenge doing this on top of all the other food, esp since ds2 loves to eat, but I am desperate!
If you made it this far
thank you for reading. Please let me know if you have any clues as to what allergen I may be missing. DH and I are convinced it must be food-related, given how quickly it clears up whenever he stops eating and starts purging.
I'm new here so if there are similar threads that have discussed what I'm asking, pls direct me to them.
I am doing some "detective work" to uncover DS2's triggers for eczema and I am positive I'm missing something that's staring at me straight in the face and I would be so grateful if anyone btdt could give me some suggestions.Basically ds2, turning 3 soon, has really bad eczema on his feet, which will progress upwards towards his knees, bum and inside of his elbows during a flare-up. Each flare-up can last for months. We've been sort of keeping an eye on it for the past two years and it has been getting worse and worse and moving up his body. I kept hoping he would outgrow whatever it was, but nope. He's also developing a constant stuffy nose.
Over the past one year, we have taken him off seafood, fish, eggs and dairy products, and artificial colorings. They seem to be of limited help, but I was not really strict with him (ie he still ate things like milk bread and occasional pastries) until the past few months when his feet was covered with bleeding oozing blisters.
We have brought him to different doctors but stopped shy of going to the homeopath. The last doctor (a month ago) was a paediatric allergist and he declared that ds2 was allergic to dust mite even before the testing. He refused to test for any other food except egg, and prawns after my insistence that ds2 does seem to react to food. According to him, the dust-mite test was positive, the egg and prawns were borderline and he said we would have to rely on our observation. But he believed that dust-mite were the main cause, while food are only secondary causes. His "prescription" was dust-mite prevention, swimming 3x a week, and antiseptic wash 3x a day. However all the dusting and vacuuming don't seem to make much difference.
BUT, our great mystery is that ds2's eczema can clear within a week if he's had a few days of diarrhea/not eating. It has happened twice. The first time, because of a traditional medicine to "clear his system" - it worked amazingly over a few days - the blisters dried up and I can't tell you how excited I was to see scabs on his feet. But one month later, he sneaked a piece of squid and within a week we were back to square one. More recently, he was down with a virus and had diarrhea and stopped eating for a few days, and his bum and knees cleared up within a week, his feet were 90% healed except for a small patch that has been there for over a year. It was amazing. I could shower him without him screaming. He could even go swimming. He could actually sleep for more than four hours at a stretch. Once he went back to his usual diet, again, we were back to the constant scratching at night after two weeks, with troubled sleep (lots of bad dreams), and the whinging.
Ten days ago, I finally started him on a gluten-free diet, but it doesn't seem to make a difference, except that he started wetting his pants during the day a lot more and babbling a lot more. (any connections? His speech had never been a problem.) If anything the itching seem to have intensify. Should I continue with this?
I've just started with the Failsafe diet to also exclude salicylates, amines and suphites. It's a challenge doing this on top of all the other food, esp since ds2 loves to eat, but I am desperate!
If you made it this far
thank you for reading. Please let me know if you have any clues as to what allergen I may be missing. DH and I are convinced it must be food-related, given how quickly it clears up whenever he stops eating and starts purging.
He just bought ds2 some "natural" gummies with wheat and corn syrup in it. *bang head* I realised I've made a few mistakes along the way - mainly the golden syrup allowed in failsafe diet but still, was hoping to see SOME improvement... I'm pretty close to giving up the failsafe diet and just cutting out the suspects (gluten/corn/dairy/sesame/soy/artificial additives) - in other words, bring back the broccoli, grapes and basil. Too hasty? He's been off eggs since weaning. It gave him diarrhea through the day, and it took us one month to realise it was a food rx and which food. It stopped the very next day after we cut it out. I guess I was expecting to see the same swift response with the current situation.
