Diaper rash - does it sound like a food allergy?

[ljackson]

DD has been red between the buttocks recently. It does not seem to bother her at all but does not seem to go away with diaper cream (although I'm not sure about that - I'm still going with it). The rash never extends beyond the parts of her buttocks that are with contact with each other (ie it does not appear on the part of her butt that touches the diaper).

She is 8 months old and I have recently started feeding her a lot more solid food as she started waking 2-3 times a night because she was hungry. Does it sound as though she has an allergy or sensitivity to a particular food? I was probably not careful enough in introducing her to new foods slowly and have no idea which food is causing it. She eats rice, oatmeal, Cheerios, breadsticks, milk, yoghurt, banana, apple, pear, peach, peas, sweetcorn, broccoli, squash and zucchini. Are any of those obvious candidates?

If it does sound as though the rash is caused by food, is my only option to eliminate everything and reintroduce foods one at a time? I was hoping I could choose maybe four foods and feed her nothing but those for a few days to see if it was one of those, then go from there.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[mudder17]

Hmm...food allergy and diaper rash can be a tough thing to track down. Mika's rash was like that when I was eating eggs (she's BF'd) and (I thought) dairy. When I eliminated EVERYTHING, her rash did get better. However, Mika's rash did bother her and a combo of air time, vitamin E, aquaphor, and a zinc oxide based rash cream is what helped it. That and eliminated the problem food. Like I said, in her problem, it was eggs (and sesame, although I don't know that sesame would have caused that particular rash problem--I think eggs and dairy are more likely to cause this kind of issue). She also has a tendency to get eczema on her head/face/neck, and that was an environmental issue (basically wash everything all the time.

I think it takes up to 2 weeks (some say 4 weeks) to eliminate an allergen completely from the body (assuming that's what your daughter has). The most likely culprit, reading from your list, is probably the milk and yogurt. Before you eliminate everything, maybe you could try eliminating just the dairy (and keep an eye out for hidden dairy, although I assume she's not eating a whole lot of processed foods) for at least 2 weeks and see if you see a change. If it gets better, leave off the dairy for at least a couple more weeks, then reintroduce it and see if you get the rash again.

Good luck!

Eileen

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[DrSally]

If I had to guess, I would eliminate the dairy and see if that helps. DS has dairy/egg allergy and gets a really bad rash if I eat any eggs (he's nursing).