14mth old DD has developed sensitivities

[colsxjack]

My DD is 14 month old. She seems to be sensitive to many things. We do not even know to what at this point.
First, she is super sensitive to anything acidic. We just felt this was normal for some babies. But it seems that is anything with the least bit of lemon, tomato, strawberries, etc even touches her skin she reacts. It is like she gets a bright red burn mark and then her diaper rash is pretty severe.

Then she started reacting to foods that she seemed to eat ok for awhile, like blueberries.

She has recently developed a diaper rash that gets better and worst but doesn't completely go away. She is cloth diapered and gets plenty of air time every day. She is changed frequently.

We have cut her back to foods that are mild and that she has always been able to tolerate. But now it seems that every time she poos, anywhere the poo touches her rashes up. Even if it is only on her skin for a minute or two.

We are planning now on cutting out dairy from her diet. We have cut her down over the past few days and her poo is thicker, but the rash remains. She is breast fed and my wife doesn't eat much dairy at all. But both of them are going to go dairy free.

My Dd eats:
avocado, banana, toast with pb or cream cheese (mostly the topping and very little of the bread), red grapes, yogurt, cheese, salmon or tuna, whole wheat pasta, likes goldfish cracker things, apples, pears, cantaloupe, broccoli, sweet peppers, zucchini, sweet potatoes, lentils, black beans, chickpeas, baked beans, hummus without lemon juice.

We keep her away from all tomatoes, berries, citrus, processed foods or dips, plums, peaches, nectarines, etc.

I am a bit worried about cutting out dairy and getting her calcium, protein and B12's. She does not really like nut butters, eggs or meat other than fish and I do not want to feed her to much fish because of mercury and other toxins.

How do we cut out dairy and get the nutrients?

Is there something else that can be causing her reactions?
We are starting to get very frustrated and also worried that she isn't eating a varied enough diet.

Sometimes I feel like cutting everything out and starting all over again with introducing a food at a time. But although she nurses a lot, she can't nurse all day every day and needs more food. My wife works 3 days a week and is gone for 13.5 hours on those days and DD will NOT drink anything but water out of a cup, sippy, bottle or whatever.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[elanorh]

We were panicked about our dairy/soy/egg/legume-allergic daughter as that second year after birth approached - worried that she would wean too early and WHAT would we do for calcium/fat sources in that case, etc.?

My first advice would be, if you haven't read them already, to get copies of LLL's books How Weaning Happens and Mothering Your Nursing Toddler. Both do a good job of describing how nursing past a year of age 'works.' I hadn't realized until I read them, how much of what we assume is normal about parenting infants/toddlers is actually embedded ways to induce weaning in kiddos. These books should help you stay on top of maintaining breastfeeding while your wee one is needing so much healthy calcium/fats.

Will your dd take breastmilk in the sippy cup, or only water? If she will take breastmilk, I would give her only breastmilk to drink (from the tap or the sippy). If you do this, you should be well on your way to getting enough calcium!

Are you certain that this is related to food intake, and not a reaction to a body wash/shampoo/detergent?

If you feel it's not manageable to cut all solids and gradually reintroduce while keeping a food diary, then what you need to do is cut the Most Common Culprits (in order). First dairy, then soy, then egg or wheat (people disagree about which order for that one, in my experience). Make sure you're watching the hidden terms for the foods you're avoiding, too.

[colsxjack]

She will not take breast milk in a sippy, or any way other than straight from the tap. we have tried at different times throughout her short life to encourage breast milk from sippy, numerous types of bottles, cup, spoon, etc. Wont take a drop.
Soley breast milk for nutrition wont work for us because my DW works 3 days a week and works 12 hour shifts so is gone for 13.5 hrs those days. She does get a good amount of breast milk and hasn't shown any signs of wanting to wean, so we are good that way.

We are fairly certain it is food, as we only use all natural soaps when we use soap and dye and fragrance free laundry soap with a vinegar rinse and then another rinse. She only gets rashes where her poo touches her or on her face/hands when certain foods touch her skin.
She eats very little processed foods, and can go down to a lot less so that it will be easier to keep hidden foods out of her diet.

I think we will cut out the eggs and dairy for now. She doesn't get any soy as it is something my DW cut out of our diets when she was trying to get pregnant.

Thanks for the reply. Any other advice is greatly appreciated.

[mamafish9]

I'd take a look at food chemicals. The foods you listed she reacts to on her skin all have high histamines and/or salicylates. Here's a list of high sals foods:

http://salicylatesensitivity.com/about/food-guide/

Food chemical sensitivities can often develop over time, so a child who was not reacting will suddenly start (my son was 22 months when he became highly salicylates sensitive).

The good news is, food chemical sensitivities are often the result of nutrient deficiencies (vitamins or minerals). This doesn't mean you don't eat a well balanced diet, it means that for some reason, your daughter has a higher need for some nutrients than what she is getting.

I personally would try this before going off dairy and eggs (both really good sources of nutrients). Keep her (and your wife) off the high and very high sals foods (including apples, although people disagree on sals content, keep them out at first). From your daughter's list, I'd take out avocado, red grapes, apples, zucchini, and sweet potato, and start supplementing:

1) For sals, supplement magnesium (and form besides oxide), and molybdenum (I use the drops from Nutricology, very easy and tasteless). Also, P5P (the active form of vitamin B6) - your wife can take this, it passes well in breastmilk.

If you don't see solid improvements in a week, your wife may want to try eating even lower sals (eliminating all but low sals foods). Food chemicals are a bucket reaction - its the total quantity of sals consumed that matters, not the individual food. Unfortunately, when my son was most sals sensitive, I could eat almost no salicylates (meaning spices, the high sals oils, even a couple of berries).

2) For histamines, supplement 2,000mg of vitamin C a day for a few weeks, and get sublingual methyl B12.

I'd also suggest starting her on a general trace minerals supp (I use Thorne trace minerals, 1/3 capsule a day when my son was still nursing), and some vitamin A, D, and K2. Kids who start to have sensitivity issues, it's sometimes the first sign of building nutrient deficiencies, and this is a good set of basic supps to start with.

Note - all these supps need to be low sals - so none with fruit flavors or mint flavors (both are extremely high sals).

fwiw, my son was extremely sals sensitive, and now can eat pretty much anything - it definitely can be turned around.