[chrysgee]

My dd has excema on her legs. I just introduced cow milk this past month and arround the same time the excema got worse. So now its been 2 weeks without her having any dairy. And the rash looks the same. It did get better for a while but now it back again.

She is 17 months and has had this problem for almost a year. We have tried everything but hydrocortisone or perscription meds. Our doctor doesn't think its a big enough problem to treat, but hasn't seen it since it got worse...

I did try eliminating all dairy from MY diet back when she was a newborn with colic. I went without dairy for 2 weeks but it didn't help and turned out my problem was an overactive letdown...

Then the excema showed up about 8 months. Then at about 10 months we intorduced her to yogurt - sho loves it.

So I wonder if I should bother going longer with this dairy thing. Or since we're still nursing if I need to go non-dairy too. Or if it could be something else... (I am really not seeing a connection to food in her case...)

Am I damaging her if she ends up being allergic to milk and I keep eating dairy and nursing her?

Should I jst go ahead and try the cortisone?

thoughts? ideas? experience?

 

[Trishy]

Hmmm, ds has eczema and is dairy sensitive. It can take up to a month to see the full effects of the dairy elimination. If she is dairy sensitive there are probably other things that are bothering her as well. Once I pinpointed ds' problem to lactose and we had cleared a month lactose free I noticed that the dark allergy circles under his eyes were gone and that his dispostion was so much better. How awful I felt when I realized that what I was giving him to eat and drink was causing him such problems. After things had cleared up I slowly started reintroducing one thing at a time. He can tolerate American cheese, which is great because he loves grilled cheese sandwiches.

I think giving dairy elimination a full fighting chance is more than worth it. If it is a dairy or lactose sensitivity or allergy than it is probably affecting her in more ways than just the eczema.

 

[sweetc]

My 15 month old has had eczema since he started on solid foods. Our pediatrician wasn't too worried and gave us a prescription for Elidel. It is a non-steriodal eczema treatment. It worked great, but when we'd stop using it, within a week or so, the eczema would be back. So, I don't bother to use it any more.

My son was very sensitive to dairy and some other foods in my diet (gassy, crying, not sleeping well, diaper rash, etc)- so I cut out all dairy and have only recently added a little back in. He only gets goat milk cheese and yogurt... it seems to be okay for him.

But, since the eczema is still there, we are going to be getting food sensitivity testing done on him to determine what might be causing it. I know I can "make it go away" with the Elidel, but I know that is only covering up the symptoms, not eliminating the cause.

Anyway, best of luck. And, if you do opt for a medication, ask if they could try a non-steriodal med like the Elidel before trying a steroid.

Christine

 

[Trishy]

Unfortunately Elidel is not recommended for children under 2 years old.

 

[lizziejean]

My 15mo ds is dairy-allergic - he had a rash on his face which would not clear - even with hydrocortisone, although that helped a bit - until we both went hardcore dairy-free. First, I tried just not giving him actual dairy foods, but it didn't clear up until I started really reading ingredients. This was when he was 9 months and although he had been getting dairy from my milk all along, it was when he started getting milk-based formula at daycare that it got really bad. He had had reflux and skin problems all along, and also started wheezing.

If you want to completely eliminate dairy protein from her diet, it will take some more work than you have been doing. You have to read ingredients very carefully - there's milk in everything from bread to soy cheese to goldfish crackers. Also you have to go completely non-dairy yourself since you're still nursing, and it can take 2 weeks or so for the milk protein to completely clear from your milk. So you should try this for 3-4 weeks to give it a good shot. Here's a web page with foods that are allowed/not allowed: http://www.lpch.org/DiseaseHealthInf...ergy/milk.html

If she is allergic to dairy, the more dairy she gets, the more antibodies her immune system produces, which in the long run makes her more allergic... but I wouldn't say you're 'damaging' her at all.

There is a blood test and also a skin test for milk allergies, but they are not 100% accurate (my allergist told me 85% for the blood and 95% for the skin). You might want to think about those though.

You can go ahead and try the cortisone, but in my experience it's only symptom relief... if it's caused by an allergy it won't go away until you remove exposure to the allergen.

good luck!

Elizabeth
dd 12-24-00
ds 7-2-02

 

[somemama]

We use Weleda baby skin cream on my son's eczema, and it helps.

 

[michelle1k]

I wanted to add that it may be teething-related.

My son and daughter are both allergic to dairy and my son suffered terribly as a baby as a result of the dairy (and eggs) in my milk until I did a *strict* elimination diet for 14 whole days. (We're vegan now (vegetarian before) as a result.)

Even so (and testing for other food allergies / sensitivities and eliminating those systematically), eczema still showed/shows up during really bad teething periods. It's almost as if the body's defences are down and the eczema which was always latent (perhaps due to a vague environmental - and sometimes impossible to detect - allergy) "wins" the round. When the teeth break through, the eczema dissappears. Just some food for thought.

Warmly,
Michelle - mama to ds (5) and dd (16 months today!)

 

[bananasmom]

ITA with lizziejean. My dd has a dairy allergy, and it took a good 4 weeks (maybe more) for us to see the full improvement in her reaction. 2 weeks probably isn't enough. Like LJ, we have to read labels very carefully.

Dr. Sears also has some good allergy and sensitivity information:

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/4/T041800.asp

 

[shelley4]

i totally agree with all the above posters.. my son had *severe* ezcema, starting at about 3 months, covered his whole body, scalp and all.. the goopy yucky kind

Kaeden would be so itchy, he would scratch himself until he bled

, he also had a hard time sleeping.

the docs wanted him on cortizone and anti-histamine drugs.. indefinately!!

we didn't want that

it was totally a dairy thing... we had to completely eliminate all dairy in MY diet (he wasn't even on solids yet).. be very careful with reading ingredients.. "casein" and "whey" are also milk! Kaeden was also sensitive to eggs, so they were out. it took about a month to see a good improvement.. within 2 months, it was completely gone, and hasn't returned. he's now a happy ezcema free vegan toddler man!

 

[L.J.]

Yes, you would have to give up dairy too if you're breastfeeding. It will take longer for it to be out of your system too. It may take 3-4 weeks to be out of your breastmilk and 3-4 weeks to get out of your childs system.

 

[chrysgee]

yeah, i guess i've got to go vegan for awhile.... i'm going to miss my whey protein shakes and yogurt. dd is eating the soy yogurt and i think it tastes nasty...

 

[minnowmomma]

What is a food sensitivity test and what does it entail?I have 2 dd's with eczema and have begun to suspect that it is a food allergy,with oldest dd it was strawberries,but with the baby I just don't know where to begin.Neither dd gets much milk because they just don't like it,so I don't think that milk is the problem.My oldest dd does use protopic which is a similiar topical med as elidil.When the baby developed eczema I tryed the ointment on her but it didn't have any visible effects.I am a low tech person and really don't like the idea of my dd's having to use a steroid cream for the rest of their lives just to keep for suffering.How do I begin to pin down just what is causing this problem?

Please somebody HELP!

 

[mattjule]

Can excema be seasonal?

Seems my ds (21 mo) gets horrible dry patches of skin on his cheeks, under his chin, last winter it was all over his legs-I assumed because there was something on the apt carpet he was allergic to. I thought his face was chapped from slobber (he was a VERY slobbery boy).

But since it has gotten colder this year, the backs of his arms are like that as well as under his chin and I don't see how anything could be doing it outside of his body. He doesn't slobber anymore and what could the backs of his arms come in contact with that the rest of him doesn't?

Also, the patches are impervious to regular lotion. I have tried oils, too, like almond oil, but that doesn't seem to work either. The only thing I can figure is that it is excema and I have heard about the dairy-excema connection, but why would dairy only give him skin problems in the winter?

He doesn't get dairy very often as is. No cow's milk and yogurt maybe once a week, cheese every other day or so. I don't tolerate milk at all and I can't eat too much dairy products so I don't feel like we are overloading. However, I am pregnant and cheese is sucha good, quick protein source when I don't feel up to making anything, I'd hate to do the dairy elimination if dairy isn't the problem.

 

[Moss's Mommy]

Funny!!!!! WE went to the doc about the same thing today and it is the same thing, milk allergy. He said give him a warm bath every night to get moisture to his skin and put vaseline on him from head to toe to lock in the moisture and prevent the exzema from spreading, then put vaseline on him from head to toe in the morning... and elidel. It worries me when he scratches all the time, so I'm willing to try...good luck