eczema caused by food allergies

amother

Mon, Dec 22 2008, 3:18 pm

my baby has eczema caused by food allergy. she's allergic to egg, milk, wheat, garlic etc.
does anybody have any suggestions on how to relieve the itchiness?
what can cause eczema flare ups?
any suggestions on foods that I can possibly give to eat?
can I prevent it in future pregnancies by taking any vitemins, avoiding these foods or anything else?

I would appreciate your response.........I practically dont know what to do anymore....I tried soooooo many things

thanks in advance

amother

Mon, Dec 22 2008, 3:56 pm

I am dealing with this with my 2 year old. I wish I had answers for you, but we have tried everything with him and nothing seems to help long term. I am sick seeing my poor beautiful child covered in rashes, itchy and miserable all day and night.

If you know the foods are causing it, then cut them out of the diet obviously. We are experimenting with that now, but so far no dramatic change.

We have been to the 3 top dermatologists in our area. None have helped. We have consulted with homeopaths and nutritionists. They haven't helped. If I give antihistimine, it helps only a little bit, but he is too drowzy to function.

I am just davening very hard that he will outgrow this because I cannot imagine having to live like this forever. He is scratching his arms, legs and face to the point that they are bleeding.

The allergist is our next stop. Hopefully we will find something helpful there.

I hope you can figure out something for your baby because I know just how terrible this is. You are NOT alone in this.

anon

Mon, Dec 22 2008, 4:07 pm

Oy, I'm so sorry for what you're going through. Amother above, you describe what my aunt is going through now, and I feel terrible that a baby is dealing with this as well.

Just a note regarding the allergist: My son started to get eczema all over this body and I suspected that it might be caused by an allergy. I assumed that it was a dairy allergy, so I took him off of it. Slowly, he his eczema disappeared. I've kept him off dairy and his eczema hasn't returned, thank G-d. My point though, is that when I suspected allergiest, I had him tested by an allergist. The tests indicated that he did NOT have any allergies to anything, including dairy. HOWEVER, the tests did show that he has a high predisposition towards allergies. So it's possible to not have an actual real allergy, but for the body to still react in some way to certain foods.

Sooo...in case nothing shows up in allergy testing, ask the doctor if testing showed a predisposition towards allergies. This is based on certain levels in the blood, but I forgot what those levels are called. I keep thinking HCG levels, but I know that's pregnancy Smile

yOungM0mmy

Mon, Dec 22 2008, 4:21 pm

My son is also allergic to wheat, soy, milk and eggs. His skin used to be terrible, and he scratched all the time, even in his sleep, and kept waking himself up.
We have been seeing a pediatric gastrointerologist, who has been helping us diagnose the allergies, and he had some tips for controlling the itching too.
1) bathe daily, and then slather in thick cream. most times they say dry skin should not bathe often, because it dries the skin, but if you bathe and then immediately slather in thick cream (as if they were swimming across the ocean, as he said), it traps in all the moisture. I then put him on long sleeve all in one pyjamas, so that it doesn't go all over the place.
2) smear cream on the cheeks and chin before feeding. This was specifically when breastfeeding, as the toxins were coming through my milk, but even for regular food that can aggravate, it makes a barrier between the skin and any possible allergens.
3) cortisone cream. I do not really like using this, and the specialist said to try wean him off it pretty quickly, to every other day, and then every third day, then not at all. But he said that in the beginning, it's best to blitz the eczema away, put teh cream on a few times a day, and get it all under control, it really works. Better to use more cortisone cream for a few days, then to use a little bit for months and months.

try to avoid your kid scratching - I know its not easy, all DS's pictures for the first 8 months have scratches all over his face and head. put on long sleeves and pants all the time - DS loves being free and running in his undershirt, but then he scratches behind his knees, and makes it really bad. try to distract him as soon as you see him scratching - give him a toy, something else to hold. depending on how old, let him wear gloves to sleep.

and cut his nails often!! I used to cut DS's nails literally every 5 days! Any more than that, and his scratches were making marks on his face and making him bleed.

my specialist also said to keep introducing new foods, and just know that new things will make the eczema flare up, but not to let that stop you from trying new foods. BH DS has been pretty clear for months, although he flared up on Shabbos, and was bleeding a bit today Sad

I now bathe him every other day, but still slather the cream, and will put cream on his face (that and behind his knees is the worst) every day.

I feel so bad when I see DS scratching away, but bh its getting much better.

apple24

Sat, Jan 10 2009, 11:01 pm

I have a 4 year old who has had severe eczema since basically her birth. We have been through many different kinds of treatmens; kenistesialogy, bicom machine, cortisone creams and finally allergist. Most things help for a while, but the eczema always came back. There was a point that she was on antibiotic for a few months because of secondary infections. She woke up literally 10 times a night, hystericallly screaming, and developed anxiety issues because she never felt comfortable in her own body...

We went to a top allergist in our area who put her on a treatment plan, that literally has gotten rid of her eczema. she has become a diiferent child. Like YM said, daily soaks are essential! Water is actually the best moisturiser for your skin. We soaked our daughter for half an hour a day, in juts plain water (or somtimes with a little bleach, this is supposed to help clear skin of bacterias) immediately following her bath, we, for the first few days, put highest potency cortisone cream, plus antibiotic cream, plus moisturiser. After about 3 days, you follow the routine but switch to a lower potency cream, after another 3 days, you switch to a low potentcy cortisone cream, and then you wean your child off the cortisone cream all together. We also gave zertec every night, which helped a lot. Once you finish a treatment like this, avoiding your child's allergies should help more. The first step is to initially get rid of the eczema, or atleast the infections caused by the eczema. Once you do that, and follow a diet, the "flare ups" will be fewer and far between.

Anyone who would like to talk more about eczema or allergies, feel free to pm me. I, unfortunately have had a LOT of experience with it...

shnitzel

Sun, Jan 11 2009, 1:41 am

There isn't necessarily a cure and it isn't necessarily caused by a food allergy.
DH is all grown up and still has bad eczema. He had severe dairy allergies as a child and had eczema then for him milk does not make his worse. His brother is still anaphylactic to dairy among other things and has horrific eczema, all over very painful and gets horrible cracks.
Sometimes there is no cure but you need to treat the symptoms. Constant creaming the thicker the cream the better and the more often the better if DH has a chance to cream about 5 times a day it clears up considerably. We try to avoid cortisone where possible. If ch"v your baby doesn't grow out of it they have to learn to live with the symptoms or move somewhere very humid like florida.
My b-I-l had suggested by a dermatologist that he try uv lights but he hasn't had a chance.

EvenI

Thu, Jan 22 2009, 5:55 am

I just posted on another thread that I took my son for bioresonance testing and treatment. There are a few systems developed by biophysicists that test and treat the body based on the principles of chinese medicine. The system is able to detect sensitivities to foods - not just full blown allergies. My son has a lot of mucus in his system as well as eczema - nose running all the time and coughs and frequent ear infections. IT turns out that he has difficulty digesting a number of specific foods, which the naturopath that saw him says is causing both issues. She did not only recommend cutting out the foods, but also gave us a homeopathic cream and some drops and told me to give him acidopholus for a few months to help rebuild his digestive system. She said that the foods can probably be reintroduced in the future.

I took him to a different naturopath when he was much younger (10 months ago) and he used a similar system but did not find any sensitivities at the time.

Have you tried this?