dairy and eczema - not sure where to put this

[elisheva]

Sorry this is so long - I've bolded my pertinent questions at the bottom of the post if you don't want to read the whole thing...

I'm not sure if this belongs in "allergies" since I doubt my ds would test positive for a dairy allergy...but I do believe it's contributing to his eczema...

I just need help puzzling this out and would love to hear any experience other mamas have had.

Ds1 (4.5 y.o. now) has had eczema mostly in the crevices of his elbows (the inside) and backs of his knees for almost 2 years. He has dry skin like my husband and moisturizing helps a little but the eczema seems to come from inside his skin - it's red and warm during a flare up. He scratches and it gets worse and spreads to his torso, legs, and buttocks. 

We learned about bleach baths this winter and have been doing them once a week to control the staph on his skin. This has helped some, but the red warm patches were still there. 

Enter the Passover holiday. We keep strictly kosher and this year elected to not use any dairy at Passover (for complicated but mostly logistical reasons) so ds1 was basically away from dairy for 10 days. Coupled with intermittent bleach baths, we've seen a *marked* improvement in his eczema. 

So we decided to eliminate dairy all together. Easier said than done. We don't eat much processed food but he has been getting small amounts of dairy in cookies when we're out, etc. Working on adjusting to that. I made bagels the other day and let everyone have butter on theirs thinking butter *might* be ok, but no...flare within 24 hrs :(

My current plan is to let his skin heal and then try reintroducing fermented dairy - yogurt, kefir or possibly goat milk. We have a cowshare so I can make sure he only gets raw dairy products but for him it doesn't seem to make a difference. The start of his worst outbreaks correspond with our joining the cowshare and drastically increasing the amount of dairy in our diets :(

How long should I allow for the elimination diet? Weeks? Months? 

What is your experience with dairy and eczema? Anyone have luck with limited dairy?

As you can imagine, ds1 is NOT very happy about this development.

I should also note that we saw our family doc and he was most unhelpful - just offered steroids and cream. We also saw a homeopath and that was expensive and unsuccessful. Ds1 is taking omega-3s.  

Thanks for anything you can share!!!

[Katc8910]

My 19 mo DD also has eczema and we suspect that dairy is an issue.  We also only consume raw dairy so for the longest time I was in denial that dairy could be the cause (thinking that only pasteurized dairy would cause problems).  We eliminated dairy just yesterday and are waiting to see if there will be any changes in her skin.  I'll post here about our results & I'd love to hear from others dealing with eczema and possible dairy intolerances. 

As for how long to eliminate...  I've heard at least 2 weeks but some say 4-6. 

[Alyantavid]

My youngest son had eczema all his life until we eliminated dairy.  Now he very rarely gets it.

It took a month probably for my kid's issues to clear up.  He couldn't consume anything with any amount of dairy in it without reacting for a good year.  After that I started experimenting and found he was fine with whey but casein immediately brought on a reaction.  Now 3 years later, he does fine with small amounts (like once a week) of cheese, but straight milk, even cooked in things, will bring a reaction.  Though it's much more delayed than it used to be. 

[elisheva]

Thanks, mamas. Ds1's skin was looking fantastic (less dry, no redness at the typical sites) until I gave him a small bag of white cheddar Pirate Booty yesterday.  Didn't give it a second thought till I was telling my DH about the goat's milk being on sale at the grocery and how I wanted ds1 to try it out. Sure enough, his legs were broken out behind the knees this AM. :( I did let him have some goat's milk with his cereal this afternoon since the poor kid waits all week for the one day when he's allowed to have cereal. Last week he had it with almond milk but I didn't get any more of that made this week yet. 

Have to change my thinking about treats outside the house :( to remember to check for dairy. 

[elisheva]

Oh the look horrible today :( Guess goat milk isn't going to work for us :(

[kjbrown92]

raw milk usually only helps if it's a lactose issue I believe. Though my DS has been dairy intolerant most of his life and we just introduced goat milk (after strict no milk for 3 years) and he's fine with it. So it might not be the case forever. My DD2 got eczema from corn. The doctors weren't helpful for her either. Read the ingredients on EVERYTHING. And do it strictly. It sounds like it leaves his system pretty fast, but I think you should be off it for a good 6 months, with gut healing, before you try it again. It sounds like an intolerance however, eczema can be from food allergy, food intolerance, or environmental allergy, so it would still probably be a good idea to check him for allergies to rule it out. Sounds like you're on the right track Mama, good work!!