Severe baby acne = dairy allergy? - Page 2

[Mere]

Ds developed bad acne when he started drinking some cows milk around 14-15 months. His acne was mainly all over his cheeks, arms and legs, but it looked like your son's. Like your son, the acne/rash didn't bother ds at all, it just looked bad. Anyhow, dairy was indeed the culprit; we eliminated it and the bumps went away. He's back on dairy now and the rash is back a little bit, but not nearly as bad so he must be outgrowing it. He loves yogurt and kefir so much and eats so little that I'm willing to overlook a few bumps!

Another thing that helps tremendously is a daily dose of cod liver oil. If I forget to give it to him for a few days I can really tell. You might try taking it yourself to see if it helps your ds!

[thepeach80]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...0/Stuff004.jpg

There's Evan. I was already dairy free by this time (started at his birth), this was soy induced. Turned out later he was soy allergic and intolerant to just about everything under the sun, but he's better now.

[ATD_Mom]

Well, the green-tinged but still yellowish poops have started. Also - he is a very cranky boy at night, and I have been attributing it to gas all along. The dairy thing just seems to be the answer to me.

Yesterday I snuck a cookie - I just wasn't convinced dairy avoidance was necessary. But today I'm convinced, and have officially gone off the dairy. I should've waited one more day ... to have chocolate cake on my b-day tomorrow! Ah well.

Here's hoping my boy is much, much healthier about four weeks from today.

Thank you so much for all of your posts, photos, advice - I heart this place!

[PudnHead]

Originally Posted by ATD_Mom

I should've waited one more day ... to have chocolate cake on my b-day tomorrow! Ah well.

Happy belated birthday. Well this is late, but I just wanted to let you know that Cherrybrook Kitchens makes cake mixes and other treats that are dairy free. I have found them at my Krogers (I don't know if you have one where you live). I made the chocolate cake and it is as good, if not better than most box mixes. Here is a link to the Cherrybrook Kitchen website: http://www.cherrybrookkitchen.com/.

Also, one of the icings in the can are milk free. I think it is Pillsbury, but I don't remember.

[PPK]

This is a bit late, but if your baby is allergic to dairy or another food via breastmilk, is the rash/acne only limited to the face and upper shoulders/chest? I thought, (I could be forgetting) that Dr Sears says it would be a full body rash.

Ds got acne from week 2-5, but not as bad as yours...he got some on his upper chest and back too. He was also extremely colicky and gassy around that time, but I hear that's very normal for that age while their dig. system adapts, he' s 8 weeks now and not very gassy at all anymore. I didn't cut anything from my diet. He got green poo around 2 weeks too, block feeding helped within a day or two. good luck to you both!

[thepeach80]

It does not have to be a full body rash for it to be an allergy, it's actually rare to have a full body rash short of actual hives.

We use Duncan Hines chocolate cake as it's dairy free (check the box, I think some stores still have old batches that aren't) and Pillsbury chocolate frosting. Oreos are o.k. too.

[ATD_Mom]

Thanks so much for the cake advise! I actually found a recipe at epicurious for "Wacky Cake" - no milk or butter. It was yummy! It tasted exactly like an EZ-Bake cake. I didn't even know I remembered eating those until I bit into it. Isn't it amazing what smells/tastes will do to trigger a memory? It must have been about 1982 or so when I last had an EZ-Bake cake!

I showed my dad (a pharmacist) the photos of DS's acne, and now he's all worried about him. Geesh - should've kept those to myself! I am learning to get over the loss of the food stash in my freezer and eat my toast w/o butter. I'm very much hoping this is simply a bad case of acne, not caused by anything in my diet, but had to do this elimination thing, just in case.

And thank you so much for the block-feeding tip. A friend of mine from LLL told me the same thing yesterday. She said green poops can be caused by too much foremilk, not enough hindmilk. Which is logical to me, because in the past week he's been doing little 10-minute nursing sessions instead of the 30-to-40-minute ones of the first 3 weeks. Yesterday I started keeping him at the same breast for three 10-minute sessions in a row.

No changes in the green poops yet. Actually, they're also accompanied by a lot of clear liquid, though, which makes me still worry it's diarrhea ...

Crikey. I hope I'm not a worry-wart hypochondriac mama for the entirety of his kiddom.

[Cersha]

My LO has ance JUST like that, only not as severe....my ped suggested that I go dairy free, since she believed it was probably as dairy sensitivy since it came SO early...mine wasn't even two weeks yet. After I cut out dairy, it went away.

Oh, and, for ME, block feeding made the green poops WORSE. I tried block feeding for a while, because I THOUGHT that I had overactive letdown, but the green poops just persisted. I switched back to switching breasts for each feeding, and he has super yellow poops now. Go figure. Somehow my babe got MORE foremilk when I was blockfeeding.

ETA: Sorry, I didn't totally read your post. If my LO was only nursing a little bit on each side, I might keep him on the same as well....but, some babies are VERY efficent at draining the breast quickly. My LO just keeps get faster at it.
Good luck with the elimation and the poopies.
BTW, when he gets to be about six months, you can try to reintroduce dairy into your diet...his intestines will be more mature then.

[Kindermama]

I highly suggest taking him to a homeopath. It will help. It's been my understanding it's from your hormones that crossed over in the placenta. Some babies bodies can handle it, others can't and it takes some time.

[babygirlmelly]

not sure if someone suggested to put calendula cream on the acne. my dd had a mild case and improved dramatically. i use it for everything, any boo boos, diaper rash, teething rash. it's a miracle cream
hth

[ATD_Mom]

Just wanted to update this thread in case anyone finds it in a search.

I have been completely off dairy for two weeks now, and am happy to say DS looks a thousand times better. Now he just has regular hormone-induced baby acne.

http://www.kgspottery.com/October_2007/21/15.jpg

And he is no longer fussy at night from being obviously in pain with gas. Phew!

I'm going to attempt to re-introduce little bits of dairy - well, at least cooked butter - in a couple weeks. But for now we're happily sticking with the olive oil.

[Tilia]

That is a good update! Just wanted to add that my DDs baby acne went away at 4 weeks after I switched laundry detergents to Dreft. She can't even handle Charlie's. When she was a couple weeks old, she started getting acne on her cheeks. It cleared up once I rewashed everything.

[mtn.mama]

Originally Posted by ATD_Mom

I'm going to attempt to re-introduce little bits of dairy - well, at least cooked butter - in a couple weeks. But for now we're happily sticking with the olive oil.

Hooray!!!! Nice job mama.... we've been off cow dairy for a couple of months now (although we also had to eliminate wheat and sugar for real success). We're able to have goat dairy and recently have been able to add in organic cow yogurt and organic cow sour cream both with live cultures. But no cheese or ice cream or butter or milk yet. I'm very very careful not to restart the problem by getting in a hurry with this. I want her body to forget that it is sensitive to cow dairy (and wheat and sugar) so that she doesn't end up with lifelong sensitivities.

[msfidget]

my ds also had terrible acne at that age. and i was also *convinced* it was something more than just acne. i cut out dairy for other reasons...he was very fussy and the doc suggested he might be dairy sensitive. and his acne eventually cleared up. i don't know if it was the dairy, or if it would have gone away on it's own. but one thing i'm certain...ds never has diaper rash if i'm not eating dairy, but as soon as i start eating it again, his diaper rash comes back.