Toddler may have eczema

[drobinson]

For the past few weeks my 2.5 year old daughter has had a rash around her mouth. I didn't give much thought to it as she had been drooling a ton due to her molars trying to come in and the weather has been really dry, so I figured it was just chapped skin. Last night I noticed a couple of little bumps on her face near her nose and mouth and one on her eyelid. Now I'm thinking it's eczema. I have problems with eczema on my hands and it seems she may have it now. I have a lot of food allergies, so I eliminate a ton of foods from my diet like dairy and gluten so I figured my eczema was due to certain soaps irritating my hands and drying them out. Now that my daughter has it around her mouth, I'm wondering if she has a food allergy. She doesn't eat dairy, but she does eat rice cheese with casein in it, so that could be causing it. We don't have any gluten in our house, so that's not the issue. Can anyone give advice on what else I should try to eliminate besides the casein? I'd like to try to eliminate common culprits to see if anything helps before having to get her tested for allergies.

[JRoberge]

My children have started having this too. I'm not sure where you live, but I believe ours is caused by the cold, dry temperatures that their little faces are exposed to. I've found extra moisturizing in those areas helps a lot. I cream them up before we head outdoors and in the morning and before bed as well. You can try unrefined shea butter or virgin coconut oil. We use Manuka Honey Skin Cream and find it's very quick to heal the skin. I acutally use this all over my son's eczema, which he struggles with on other parts of his body as well. Much of his eczema is triggered by food allergies, but in the winter we find other patches pop up, like the ones on his face.

If the extra moisturizing doesn't help clear it up, it may be food related, which is quite common as you know. But, I'd imagine the eczema would quickly appear in the more common areas - behind the knees, elbows, ankles, wrists, etc. If you do think it's food allergies, you can try an elimination diet to determine the cause.

I write a blog about eczema, allergies, and asthma if you're interested. "It's an Itchy Little World"

Good luck!
 

[drobinson]

Thanks for the information, JRoberge! I had tried moisturizing her face with tea tree balm then read that tea tree oil can irritate eczema, so I started putting aloe vera on it, straight from the plant. That seemed to help some. I've also used a couple different balms from the Badger company, but I haven't been consistent with any of these. I'll have to try the coconut oil...we use it for a lot of things, so not sure why I didn't think of that. I need to be consistent with applying it as well, obviously.

I'll start with the moisturizing and see what happens. I look forward to checking out your blog.

Thanks again!

[JRoberge]

Yes, consistency is crucial. You can also melt the coconut oil down in the bath water - it's lovely like that as well. Good luck!

Jennifer

[NotYourBuddyGuy]

We recently eliminated gluten and corn from my DS's diet because of eczema.

The corn we noticed completely by accident.  Our Pediatrician recommended using cornstarch to soothe the rash on his face, but it made it worse.

My DH has eczema as well, and the best moisturizer he ever used was Aquaphor.  It's not a traditional crunchy choice, but it has a pretty positive rating on the EWG's cosmetics database.

If I were you, I'd eliminate one of the top 8 food allergens every week.  We usually noticed an improvement by the end of the week.

[drobinson]

Thanks for the suggestions, NotYourBuddyGuy!

Thankfully, the eczema (or whatever it was) has cleared up and hasn't returned yet. Not really sure what might have been the cause, but I'm ultra-aware now, so if it flares up again, I may be able to figure out the cause.