Causes of Eczema???

[hellosmiletoday]

Several months ago (before solids), we noticed a very SMALL patch of dry skin on DD's arm. Gradually over the past two months, her eczema has gotton worse, and spread to her belly. Last week she had a severe breakout -- ezcema (i.e. red dry patches) on her belly, elbows, neck area and legs.

At first we suspected either Carrots or switching rice cereal brands (Beechnut soy-free to Earth's best). We gave her a solid food "holiday", which then lead me to believe that something unusual in my Thanksgiving holiday diet was aggravating her ezcema (holiday spice Pepsi, nuts, chocolate, ice cream(?). We are bathing her in Cetaphil (since birth) and using Cetaphil lotion or Eucerin to treat the dryness, but I'd really like to pinpoint the cause of it, if any. Neither DH or I have a history of food allergies, but maybe DD has one.

Searches on this board lead me to some helpful info about treatment of ezcema, but I havent found anything on the influence of you own diet on BM composition.

Thanks!

Mommy to baby girl 5.8.04

[casey118]

I'm not sure this will be helpful, but a couple of thoughts...

My DS has also had a small patch of eczema. I have been told that it can be a symptom of a food allergy. DS has been tested (blood test and skin test) and has allergy indicators in the blood test, but they haven't found what it is. The most common allergens at that age are milk, grain, eggs, soy, and I think 2 more. For some reason I have linked in my mind a milk allergy with eczema, but am not sure that is accurate.

For what it is worth, I also have eczema (which has been severe at different times in my life) and do not have food allergies and never have. I think eczema can also be hereditary. In my case my grandfather had eczema, but neither of my parents did.

You are definitely treating the eczema "correctly!" Good luck.

[Elizasmom]

My daughter had very severe eczema as an infant. When she started eating solids, we realized that she had a severe milk allergy (requiring us to carry an epinephrine injector) and other food allergies as well. Milk is very often the culprit. I nursed my daughter until she was three because mine was the only milk she could have (she outgrew the allergy by 3 and a half). Once I knew about the allergy, I completely cut out all traces of milk protein from my diet. This doesn’t just mean ice cream and yogurt. You will find the protein in all kinds of things if you know the words to look for when reading a label (bread, pasta sauce, cereal, etc). Anyway, her eczema did improve significantly, but never completely went away. You may want to try a milk elimination diet for a couple of weeks just to see.

My daughter still has it on her thighs and has flares now and then, which only respond to Cortaid. There are so many contributing factors that I see it as something we can manage rather than cure. We have found that hers gets really bad in the spring due to her seasonal allergies. It will also flare if she gets too hot or goes to the pool too often. The good news is that most kids gradually outgrow it or their symptoms at least lessen, as hers have.

[hellosmiletoday]

DD is almost 7 mo old and has not had any cow's milk, but my diet has plenty of milk. The odd thing is that she developed eczema only recently (in the last 2-3 months), whereas my own diet has always included milk.

We are taking her to the ped but her ezcema has much improved with the eucerin/cetaphil, so I hope he takes us seriously! I really think it was the holiday spice Pepsi...I wonder what's in it!

Mommy to baby girl 5.8.04

[eb1]

My DS has a similar situation. I've always consumed dairy and he was fine as a newborn. When he was about 6.5 months old, he started to develop some weird skin patches; the ped. said it was eczema. I'd done my own diagnosis of it before taking DS in, so I knew to ask about food allergies...but the ped. totally dismissed it (which I'm not sure was a good thing). We've given DS baths using only unscented Dove since he was born and I never used lotion until the skin problem appeared. Since then I use Aveeno baby lotion (unscented) on DS after his baths and this has helped to clear up the problem about 85%. When we go back in for the 9 month check-up, I'll ask again about the skin, but expect to get the same dismissal about food allergies. DS doesn't seem bothered at all by the patches.


Would love to hear your pediatrician's take on it, if you get a chance to update this after your visit!

[ginalc]

Based on what you said about adding Holiday Spice Pepsi to your recent diet, that very well may be the problem. There are also additives in many types of chocolate, ice cream, and holiday desserts that may also have caused the problem. You've probably eaten too many new foods to accuately pinpoint the problem.

About 1 month ago I started an "elimination diet" to remove all artificial colors, artificial flavors, and certain preservatives from the diet of my children and myself. I started the diet to hopefully find the source of some behavior issues, but I was amazed to see that the children's eczema disappeared as well! DS turned 2 yo a few days ago and since we made the dietary changes, he also had serious changes in his digestive tract. Before, he was having 5-8 loosely formed stools daily. Since we started the new diet he has been having 1 small stool every other day.

2 days ago DS ate one food that may be slowly introduced if you're seeing progress and within 2 hours DS was out of control, angry, attacking the dog, his sisters and me, he was crying, bashing his head against the floor, and had 6 loose stools that day. By the end of the day, he had a serious eczema flare-up on his right foot and leg. We had been medication-free and ointment-free since we started the diet several weeks ago. I had to go back to using the ointment and since I've figured out the "problem food" is a naturally occurring Benzoate, I am eliminating all Benzoates from our diet for the time being.

The diet we're following is the Feingold diet. The booklet that came with membership contains more information than I can possibly share, but after reading through the materials I think it is far more valuable to me and my family than the $70 membership fee asked to help cover materials.

I stood in the grocery store line on Saturday and almost started crying because I was able to find Chicken Broth that doesn't make DS projectile vomit after he eats it. His behavior has improved dramatically since we started the diet, as has his 4 yo sister. She screamed for the first 2 years of her life and has also had a terrible problem with eczema. In retrospect, I suspect that she is senstive to certain foods and additives as well.

Honestly, I feel like this is the single most effective tool I've had in helping my children. I took DS to a pediatric allergist for testing and the most help he offered was a few prescriptions and "Your child is allergic to something he's eating, try looking at ingredients to see if there's a common allergin." (DS tested negative for all the common allergins.) My own pediatrician suggested we try organic foods, but there are many "natural foods" that cause problems as well, including: broccoli, cranberries, green grapes, cauliflower, cinnamon, green peas, spinach, blueberries, etc. Come to find out, THERE'LL ALL BENZOATES!

The website is www.feingold.org if you want more information. The books mentioned may also be available at your local library, though I never looked locally, I just ordered the information.

Good luck with the eczema and I hope things improve for you.

gina, mom to 3
new baby due 5/05

[hellosmiletoday]

Thank you for all the info! I think it might be the cinnamon that is likely HS Pepsi.