Can food allergies show up in urine? (rash on EBF babe)

[eksmom]

DS has had a rash for over a month now. We've been through lots of treatments and theories (for more info, you can see my thread in Diapering). It's not yeast and it occurs in both cloth and disposables. Here's a pic. The rash is in the area between his waistline and his genitals, and also on his thighs. It's worse on his right, and he tends to urinate to the right.

So, I think it is something about his urine. Either

1) his urine is normal but his skin is just extremely sensitive to the urine being on it for any length of time (even a minute or two)

or

2) he is allergic to something I'm eating and it is causing this rash through urine.

Is #2 even possible? I am new to the world of food allergies. I was a lacto-ovo vegetarian... I eliminated dairy 4 weeks ago because I suspected it was causing DS to spit up. I eliminated soy about a week ago because I suspected it was causing the red ring on the bum - that has healed up and hasn't come back. I feel completely clueless about where to start to try to figure out if this other rash is food-related. I have done some reading about the TED and while eating turkey is just about the last thing I want to do, I am willing if the TED is otherwise the right way to go. Or am I making a big deal out of nothing? Right now I want nothing more than for DS to be able to go back into his cloth dipes and be rash free.

So, to sum it up, I guess my questions are whether food allergies in an EBF babe can present themselves in urine and if so, what is the best way to identify the offending food?

Thanks!

[nalo]

I'm not sure about the allergens in urine theory but that definately looks like it could be a yeast rash to me. I briefly scanned through your other post (so, I apologize if I missed this) but it looks like you have only tried to treat the rash with external products instead of addressing and working on the overgrowth that is inside his body (if, in fact, yeast is the problem). Many mamas on the allergy boards have dealt with yeast overgrowth in their LO's and it looks like that might be a wise next move for you. Different people have dealt with it in different ways but for my DD it took about a week on a digestive enzymes for the yeast to clear her system. For others, it's a much longer process and requires various methods. It just depends how bad the problem is and that is a pretty big rash so you may have a bit of a long road but nothing insurmountable of course. I would stick with the cloth dipes and start some internal healing. Good luck with it all.

ETA: I agree with Jane that starting a probiotic is something you should do right away as well.

[JaneS]

Yeast can also cause urine changes... does it smell usually strong? That is a clear indication. Yeast (and bad bacteria) release endo- and exotoxins which irritate the skin and bladder. Food allergies are very connected to gut flora and yeast/bacteria imbalance.

Since you noticed improvements with soy elimination I would say you were on the right track connecting it to food and gut issues. Have you considered trying a bifidobacteria probiotic supplement with him? Right now is the best time with him to help these issues, as his immune system is still figuring out what is what.

[kjbrown92]

My DD gets a rash if she eats a food she's intolerant to (only on some of her foods, since different foods give her different reactions). But for instance if she eats a pear, she'll have a rash on her whole "pull-up" area in the morning if she's peed during the night. Also, the rash looks exactly like the rash that DD had between her legs when she eats corn (I thought it was chafing until she potty trained and would no longer be chafing there). And both my kids have tested negative for yeast. So yes, it is possible that it's a food issue. Food journal....

[*mama moose*]

my DD has a rash that looks similar to that, though smaller in area, but its only occured 3 times, and came with other signs I had eaten an allergen (return of colic, mucous poop, red ring rash). Shes not in cloth at all, and we have switched brands of sposies thinking it was that but that didn't change it at all. It does go away on its own after a few days though. Twice its come after she pooped, so I'd guess thats the mucous/allergens burning her skin, but once it did randomly pop up after she peed only, and I was confused by that as well (which is what made me think diapers but nothing changed when we switched her to 7th gen and then back to target brand after it cleared (what she was in when that rash happened). I had her Dr check her mouth for thrush before these rashes started, because she was so colicky, and she had no signs of it, nor do I. I've never looked into it with her rash though, as each time its gone away in 2-3 days after removing a food from my diet and putting a little "nipple cream" (by Motherlove) on it....
Long story short, I don't really have any suggestion as to what it is, but I wanted to offer up my story in case any of it can help you figure it out for you LO, it looks so painful, I hate seeing my DD have a rash like that

[eksmom]

Thank you all for your responses. Regarding the yeast question, DS has been seen by the ped twice and the first time he thought there might be yeast there, and we did the antifungal cream. The rash got better, but not all the way gone, and then got worse again while still using the cream. This past week when we took him back, he said he didn't think it was yeast. One thing is that the rash is not in the folds of DS's thighs and has never been. There are no white patches in his mouth, I'm not having any shooting breast pain, etc. I wish there were some way to know definitively if it is yeast or not. Is there?

I had no antibiotics during his birth, and neither of us has had any since he was born. I did have to take two z-packs (azythromicin) for a sinus infection that wouldn't go away no matter what natural methods I tried. That was during the first half of February; he was born at the end of April.

We haven't noticed strong smelling urine or an ammonia smell.

I have looked into the B. infantis probiotic - the Solaray one, since it is dairy free - but haven't ordered it yet. The thing holding me up is not knowing whether it needs to be shipped refrigerated. I can't buy it locally. On some websites I have seen that it is shipped overnight/cold and others don't seem to say - and I can't tell if it's required. Anybody know? Where is a good place to order it from?

I will look into the digestive enzymes - I don't know anything about that. Thank you for the suggestion.

Sorry for asking so many questions, but I have lots to learn!

[nalo]

Regarding yeast and HCP's - even DD's first ND just told me to put Nystatin on her rash - she had no clue apparently about internal yeast issues. We have never had thrush or any other clue that yeast would exist except for DD's diaper rash. You don't have to have any other clue - and the fact that it responded to yeast cream and then came back really leads me to believe it is a yeast problem. The yeast cream does as much as it can but it can't stop the rash from coming back. If you treat the yeast internally the rash will go away on its own with no need for cream. Again, this is a very common issue for those with food intollerances and does not necessarily have anything to do with thrush or other more commonly known yeast symptoms. And the no rash in the folds concept is pointless really - there need not be rash in creases for it to be a yeast rash.

Ideally you should fine a place that can ship the probiotics with an ice pack but many of them have stable shelf lives of a few months and do just fine out of the fridge during shipping.

[tmspitz]

Yes!!! My son had a similar rash to that for moths - we switched to cloth diapers (helped, but did not elimintate it)---went to the ped, thought it was yeast, etc....long story short it was a milk allergy, based on what I was eating. Definitley possible.

[elanorh]

SJ and Ina would both get rashy around the front area if they ate something they shouldn't (or I had a failed challenge). Sometimes there was also a rash on their bottom, but the urine irritation definitely happened (and happens with SJ now).

But, you've only had soy eliminated for a week. Before you eliminate anything more, give it another week or so to see whether removing the soy as well as the dairy, is enough to resolve it. It takes awhile to work its way out of everyone's system.

I agree to get on probiotics of some sort. I use kyo-dophilous, Wakanuba makes them and they are free of the Big 8 and don't require refrigeration.

HTH!