Eczema and food allergies

[mcb2102]

Hello,

My dd is 8 months old, and has been getting rashes on her hands, cheeks, neck, and now her torso for the past month. I am wondering if it is eczema, since I have had eczema, hayfever, and severe seasonal allergies my whole life.

The onset coincided with two things: a trip to the snowy mountains, and starting solids (we started BLW at 7 months). She got rough, red patches on the backs of her thumbs and knuckles during our trip. The only thing she had to eat aside from nursing was roasted winter squash.

After coming home from our ski trip, we gave DD some of our New Year's Day breakfast of black-eyed peas (which she loved). A day or three later, she totally broke out - neck/upper chest and cheeks especially. She does have a known sensitivity to soy in my diet, but no issues with anything else in my diet. I looked it up and apparently black-eyed peas are related to soy and sensitivities to both can happen?

Fast forward to now. No more legumes of any kind for DD. I've been stricter about eliminating soy from my diet (simply skipping tofu and soy milk and the like worked like a charm when we were EBF). The eczema won't go away! We do twice-weekly water-only baths (started adding baking soda as she seems itchier), moisturize several times a day with coconut oil... but no dice. What gives?

Is it common for eczema to be triggered by a food sensitivity, and then to stick around when the food is removed from the picture?

Or- maybe she was getting eczema anyway and the food allergy thing just kicked it up a notch?

Thanks for your insights!

[foxintheforest]

food allergies are a complicated thing! I did gluten free for a while when my LO was EBF and it seemed to help his rashes too, but then after a couple months I tried wheat again and he had no reaction! but now that he is eating wheat sometimes, he does have a rash sometimes too (but not necissarily coinciding.) I've heard it can take over 2 weeks for food based rashes to go away, but i'm sure it depends on the baby too! We also changed to a natural detergent and used only a tiny bit in the wash for his clothes, and that also helped.

We are also having a lot of dry skin from the cold weather. humidifiers help, and coconut oil!

All in all though I think that babies have a lot of reactions to a lot of things and it is hard to pinpoint what is causing it! good luck in helping it go away!

[JRoberge]

Hugs! I know it's so hard - we were there with my son, but at four years old, we've now figured out most his triggers. As the other commenter stated, food allergies are complicated and so is eczema. FA can start at any time. If I were you, I'd talk to your doctor about a food elimination diet for yourself, considering your still nursing - in attempt to try to figure out what's going on. If the idea is overwhelming, you're not alone. I really balked at the idea at first, and I wasn't nursing my son when we did it - he was a toddler. Elimination diets are a challenge, but you can do it. Here is a blog post I wrote about it - maybe it will give you some inspiration and encouragement.

You may also want to consider moving to soap nuts or the Smart Kleen laundry ball. Even natural detergents are still detergents and very harsh on the skin.

Hang in there! You WILL figure it out, just use your mama's intuition!