Eczema not going away!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried doing no pool for a while? Maybe the chemicals in the pool are actually irritating her skin instead of helping her. I saw she frequents the pool quite often, maybe it's worth a trial.

Yes! We tried this too. We kept her out of the pool for a week and her skin looked horrible during that week!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only thing I can throw in is that the spray bottle isn't nearly as good as a 5 min or longer soak. Then barely pat dry and seal the moisture in.

I think there may be a typo, I hope that you have eliminated eggs from your diet while breastfeeding after she reacted? Eggs tend to be a food allergy that correlates highly with eczema. Something like 40% of eczema has a food allergy trigger, in her case that is clearly part of the story. I'd try going top 8 free for a month and see what happens. Soy and wheat too.

I was a vegetarian and had to go back to eating animal protien for a while, DC was allergic to eggs, dairy, soy, shellfish and we were told to avoid nuts and seeds. She has since outgrown the allergies (we were so lucky) but it took years. When they were eliminated from my diet and hers the eczema disappeared.

Thanks. We'll try the 5 minute soak. I did eliminate eggs once I realized she had an allergy. I was vegan for about 7 weeks and her skin looked horrible during that time. Our allergist told me to eat everything, but I stayed vegan just in case it made the eczema go away. It didn't. I had eggs for the first time a couple of days ago and it may have caused a flare up (hard to tell), so I'm off of eggs again.

I'm vegetarian for religious reasons and have been vegetarian since I was 5 years old so I can't go back to eating animal protein. I'm also raising our DD vegetarian so I don't want her getting animal proteins through my milk. It makes it hard to figure out. Did your DD test positive for food allergens? Our DD tested negative for dairy, soy, dust mites, pets, etc. She only tested positive for eggs.

[Anonymous]

I have exzema and it's not really like something that does go away. It comes and goes according to things like stress or just stages of life. At various times my body has been more or less susceptible to it, and at other times I"ve outgrown it. So, I'm not sure if you are really going to be able to get it to "go away" if you know what I mean? Just control it the best you can but don't let it stress you out too much; it doesn't mean you are failing or missing something or being a negligent mom, you know? I just offer that in hopes of being helpful. Lots of times I do feel like people stress out re these types of things, but I just do the best I can: keep moisturized (with nonscented moisturizers!), keep bathing to a minimum, etc. to avoid excessive dryness, avoid any irritants (this varies from person to person) and that is about all you can do (shrug). I hope this is coming across as helpful b/c I really do mean it that way. Lest you think, well ,maybe you don't have it that bady. . .I do, I really do: as a kid I'd literally be walking around with bloody feet (painful!!!!!!) from all of the exzema cracks on the bottoms of my feet during summers at the pool. . .it HURT, I tell ya. But, shrug, what can ya really do? (?) Well, I hope this helps. . .???? GOOD LUCK! It sounds like you really are trying your best!

[Anonymous]

Have you tried formula? I have a friend who had to do this. It seemed like whatever changes she made in her diet didn't work. She finally switched to one of those 'sensitive' formulas and that did the trick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll weigh in on the wheat suggestion. My DD tested negative for everything, yet had small eczema break outs monthly. It took four years to connect them to gluten, which also gave her constipation. No break outs or constipation since going GF, it's been almost two years. To me eczema is like an alarm, something is going wrong inside the body and you just have to figure it out. Also, consider soaking all of your grains to reduce phytic acid. Fermented cod liver oil with high vitamin butter oil (FCLO/HVBO) might be a good replacement for the fish oil - you can read some reviews on amazon. Good luck - I hope you find some relief for DC soon.

OP here. I agree with your assessment that eczema is like "an alarm" but we haven't been able to figure out what is causing it. Does your family have a history of gluten allergies? How long did you have to stay off of gluten before you saw a difference in your DD's skin?

As I said, I'm vegetarian and I am trying to stay away from dairy, egg, and soy so staying away from gluten will be really hard. I can try doing it, but I'm curious to know how long you did it. Thanks!

It was about a month, I think. Although her chronic constipation cleared within a couple of weeks. I also have a gluten sensitivity, and went GF at the same time as DD. Being GF is really not as bad as most people think since there are so many GF options these days, albeit not cheap. I second the nutritionist idea (or registered dietician), they can be extremely helpful with dietary adjustments.

[Anonymous]

this is what worked for us, and it was a maintenance plan..until my twins turned 2 years..in which most of it has stayed away.

We put aquaphor on their faces before eating sometimes for prevention, food on the face= rash

we bathed them less frequently and when we did we used cetaphyl only or just water.

we put aquaphor on after baths and pretty much every day.

we used desonide cream, prescribed by the ped-this is what did the trick. it did temporarily cause some pigmentation change.

[Anonymous]

If she seems to react to eggs and tested positive I think you are right to eliminate them.

We found adding apple cider vinegar to the bath (1 c in the tub, probably 1/2 c in a baby bath?) very helpful. DD would soak for a while. I was nervous about bleach and a baby. Vinegar is safe. We all have bacteria on our skin all the time, the breaks that eczema causes get infected so easily.

If I was you I would do a strict elimination diet since you know she is reacting to at least 1 food. It can take weeks for all dairy protein to leave your body. I eliminated all top 8 plus sesame for 4 weeks then added them back in one by one for a week. It was pretty clear to literally see what foods she was allergic to. Keep a log of what you eat and her symptoms and don't make other changes at the same time. It's easiest if you try to stick to whole foods. Yes, it sucks, esp if you are vegetarian. The baby weight will fly off. I ate a lot of beans and corn chips and corn tortillas. Popcorn for snacks, lots of fruit and vegetables. Avacados are great for fat as is coconut milk. Sweet potatoes drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with cinammon. I made smoothies with protein powder made from peas that I either got at WF or ordered online. Really keep track of your protein grams, you will have to work to get enough. A diet tracking ap can really help. I also ate a fair bit of nutritional yeast (kind of cheesy) with brown rice. There are some good paleo recipes online. I tried to eat kinda the same things for several days in a row, to see if she reacted. Sometimes kids react things like tomato or citrus, and a log might indicate those non-top 8 allergies. It was worth it to me to get clear data, after that I could enjoy what I ate without worrying.

You might also want to try another allergist, I'm surprised that he/she told you to continue eating eggs when she tested positive. In my DD's case it turned out that her IgE, which is what the RAST measures, is low. So her close to or slight positives were confirmed with food challenges to be allergies, but the numbers didn't look super high to the first allergist we saw.

The online group POFAK was amazing, lots of support, and recipes.

If the egg allergy continues the book "Bakin' Without Eggs" was really helpful.

Good luck OP!

[Anonymous]

If I were you, I'd think about what you ate often when you were vegan when there was no change. I'd try to eliminate those things for several weeks. I'm guessing that would be soy and wheat. It can take a while for skin to heal so frequent if not daily soy could still have been an issue. Another options is to keep pumping but to try a hypoallergenic formula for a few weeks and see if she clears. If it turns out that say, eggs, dairy, soy and wheat are issues, that might not be sustainable for you as a vegetarian.

The sooner you identify and eliminate offending foods the more likely that she may outgrow eventually and you can all eat the vegetarian diet you are accustomed to.

I'd also try a second allergiest. If she reacted to egg on skin and had positive skin and RAST tests, the advice to keep eating seems outside the norm.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, not clear above, if she clears from hypo formula you know it's food and can do a strict elimination. If she doesn't than it's not likely to be food. You'd be pumping just to maintain supply, you'd have to ditch the freezer stash if hypo formula helped.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you all for such wonderful suggestions!

For those of you whose kids had allergies (or food related eczema), did your kids also have tummy and GI issues? My friend who is a derm says that she only things eczema is food related if your kid also has GI issues. Our DD has no GI issues so I didn't think it was food related.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If she seems to react to eggs and tested positive I think you are right to eliminate them.

We found adding apple cider vinegar to the bath (1 c in the tub, probably 1/2 c in a baby bath?) very helpful. DD would soak for a while. I was nervous about bleach and a baby. Vinegar is safe. We all have bacteria on our skin all the time, the breaks that eczema causes get infected so easily.

If I was you I would do a strict elimination diet since you know she is reacting to at least 1 food. It can take weeks for all dairy protein to leave your body. I eliminated all top 8 plus sesame for 4 weeks then added them back in one by one for a week. It was pretty clear to literally see what foods she was allergic to. Keep a log of what you eat and her symptoms and don't make other changes at the same time. It's easiest if you try to stick to whole foods. Yes, it sucks, esp if you are vegetarian. The baby weight will fly off. I ate a lot of beans and corn chips and corn tortillas. Popcorn for snacks, lots of fruit and vegetables. Avacados are great for fat as is coconut milk. Sweet potatoes drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with cinammon. I made smoothies with protein powder made from peas that I either got at WF or ordered online. Really keep track of your protein grams, you will have to work to get enough. A diet tracking ap can really help. I also ate a fair bit of nutritional yeast (kind of cheesy) with brown rice. There are some good paleo recipes online. I tried to eat kinda the same things for several days in a row, to see if she reacted. Sometimes kids react things like tomato or citrus, and a log might indicate those non-top 8 allergies. It was worth it to me to get clear data, after that I could enjoy what I ate without worrying.

You might also want to try another allergist, I'm surprised that he/she told you to continue eating eggs when she tested positive. In my DD's case it turned out that her IgE, which is what the RAST measures, is low. So her close to or slight positives were confirmed with food challenges to be allergies, but the numbers didn't look super high to the first allergist we saw.

The online group POFAK was amazing, lots of support, and recipes.

If the egg allergy continues the book "Bakin' Without Eggs" was really helpful.

Good luck OP!

I have heard that corn is also a common allergen so if I do the elimination diet, shouldn't I give up corn as well?

Do you have a diet tracking app you used?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, not clear above, if she clears from hypo formula you know it's food and can do a strict elimination. If she doesn't than it's not likely to be food. You'd be pumping just to maintain supply, you'd have to ditch the freezer stash if hypo formula helped.

I think my DD would revolt if I didn't BF her because she is so used to BFing for comfort. I realize it might help the eczema, but I don't know how to actually achieve this since we've EBFed. I also have heard that if she does have allergies, then BM is the best thing for her GI tract.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
OP here. Thank you all for such wonderful suggestions!

For those of you whose kids had allergies (or food related eczema), did your kids also have tummy and GI issues? My friend who is a derm says that she only things eczema is food related if your kid also has GI issues. Our DD has no GI issues so I didn't think it was food related.

No, you can just have eczema as a food allergy symptom. Allergies can have many symptoms. Your DD has positive blood and skin tests to eggs and a food challenge through bmilk confirmed it. I'm guessing that there may be other food issues in play that have yet to be identified. You can also have eczema with no food allergies but you have seen through testing and food challenge that your DD does not fall into that category. My kids both had multiple food allergies and we never had GI issues.

[Anonymous]

I am earlier poster whose DD tested positive for many food allergies. She has never had any GI issues.

When we started thinking about food causes, DD was doing a combination of BFing and formula. I cut out dairy and gluten from my diet and we switched the formula to Nutramigen. No changes. We then switched to soy and I stopped BFing and there was a noticeable improvement in a few days. Gradually the eczema got worse again and after allergy testing indicated soy allergy, we switched to a true hypoallergenic formula (Neocate) and she got much better after that. In retrospect, I should have done a complete elimination diet and switched to the Neocate from the start. Cutting out a few things at a time will not tell you much if multiple allergies are involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
OP here. Thank you all for such wonderful suggestions!

For those of you whose kids had allergies (or food related eczema), did your kids also have tummy and GI issues? My friend who is a derm says that she only things eczema is food related if your kid also has GI issues. Our DD has no GI issues so I didn't think it was food related.

No, you can just have eczema as a food allergy symptom. Allergies can have many symptoms. Your DD has positive blood and skin tests to eggs and a food challenge through bmilk confirmed it. I'm guessing that there may be other food issues in play that have yet to be identified. You can also have eczema with no food allergies but you have seen through testing and food challenge that your DD does not fall into that category. My kids both had multiple food allergies and we never had GI issues.

Corn allergy can cause eczema.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/526156-corn-allergy-and-eczema/

Since you are vegetarian, you have to be able to eat something. Here is what I might do. She didn't clear when you were off milk for weeks and she has tested negative for milk. If you can eat dairy, that is your protein, along with beans and nutritional yeast. I'd try cutting things that you didn't cut before - soy, wheat and corn. Add lots of healthy fats to your diet in the meantime, good for both of you - coconut, avacado, and Barleans has a "fish oil" product (refrigerator case at WF near probiotics) that is vegan, berry flavored and tasty.