Anyone Ever Heard a Child with Eczema Developing Food Allergies?

C.,

I have a 3 year old daughter and she has had eczema sence she was born. She has been tested for food allergies and this is what they had me do. If she showed that she was allergic to soy then We had to take her completely off of all soy products for 2 weeks and then we had to see if it had any effect on her. It is prosses of elimination. It is a pain, and it can take a long time to weed things out. I know it is not much, but I hope it helps.

Hello. I, myself, have eczema. I also have food allergies that helps make it worse. I was tested at the Dr. office to determine what I was allergic to. Dairy and Citrus. Also, different soaps, lotions, shampoo's can cause a reaction.

I hope you find what the baby is allergic to, it isn't fun having eczema.

Hi,

My daughter (2yrs) developed eczema at three weeks of age and presently have allergic reactions to peanuts and dairy products. When she consumes too much dairy her eczema and asthma flares. We took her to an allergist 3 weeks ago to find out that she is not allergic to anything. Almost $700 was wasted on that test. Like another mom mentioned, sometimes you just have to watch the foods they eat and eliminate them if necessary because the test may not be accurate, especially if they take an antihistamine . Since I have reduced the amount of dairy my daughter consumes, she hardly flares up. Ask your pediatrician about ADVANTAN. It is a cream used to control the outbreaks. Also, be careful with detergents, lotions and soaps. I use Ivory (liquid form) and Dove soap (make sure it's for sensitive skin)in a teal like color and white box. Try the cetaphil lotion to moisturize the skin (no baby lotion).

Hi C.,
Kids with eczema are much more likely to develop food allergies and are at increased risk to develop asthma. I would go see your doctor and get an appointment with an allergist to have him tested. You can develop food allergies ANYTIME in life. Even today as an adult you can develop an allergy to something you have eaten your whole life. (this is what the allergist told us when we took our daughter for testing) Our youngest was born with severe eczema and has so far developed a fish allergy (after eating it several times). We now have the epi-pen to carry everywhere we go which could quite possibly save her life. Food allergies are VERY dangerous and you really should follow the "better safe than sorry" rule with those. We saw Dr. Katz at Nemours and he was wonderful. Good luck!! It's so scary!

Hi there! From what I do know about eczema, it is related to allergies and can flair up if one eats an offending food. As some will suggest, try limiting his diet and then introducing one item at a time to find the offending source. This is much easier on the child then to do the actual allergy testing on him. Also, young children are not good candidates to allergy testing as you have to be around 2 years of age for them to react to the tests. Good luck!

In my experience, Eczema is almost ALWAYS a result of food allergies. The top ones are milk, wheat ( gluten) and then other allergies. If your child has had even the mildest reaction to a food, even if a future exposure resulted in no reaction at all, do NOT give him those foods again. It can be a deadly reaction next time. I knew a kid who only got a mild rash if he touches peanut butter and one day he just smelled peanut butter from the other side of the classroom and within minutes was not breathing and had to go to the ER via ambulance and was in full arrest by the time he got there. He has permament brain damage and could have died. Usually each reaction is stronger than the first. I would have a blood test done immediately to rule out allergies at Neumors. Go to Whole foods and get him on a milk free, gluten free diet. There are MANY options, take it one meal at a time. Just the littlest crumb of wheat can affect him for weeks. Label all of his foods with him name. Buy Rice flour based cheese so he can participate in pizza and other things he likes. Humans do NOT need milk, we only want it. I would get him drinking water ( add a tiny tiny bit of crystal light for flavor if he won't drink it) and add spinach ( fresh baby spinach is best) diced up into everything. You can take rice flour and dice up spinach with some onion and garlic powder to make a coating for chicken bits to make your own chicken nuggets. Add spinach into spaghetti sauce. Do NOT use canned spinach, it's yucky and he may decide to never eat it again. Get some of the strawberry salad spray and spray fresh leaves. Let him spray them, he will eat tons of them. This will get him all the calcium he needs. Try this for 90 days and let me know if his skin is not extremely improved and his behavior will also be better. Kids with food allergies and in a mental fog and are very irritable, plus itchy skin? I'm sure he will feel much better.

I know that food can trigger eczema and so can seasonal allergens. My three children all have issues with eczema, but thankfully it has been mild for the most part. My son has asthma and as the doctor explained to me asthma is an internal allergic reaction as eczema is an external allergic reaction. My son's eczema flairs up when the seaons change and mostly in the cold weather. We did take him of cow's milk for almost three years and now we he does drink it again, but only 1 cup a day at most. Certain fruits can trigger eczema, so look out for those too.
I was told by a friend that has children with this same issue to limit baths adn that has worked wonders in managing it. We do some baths, but mostly showers, not hot, adn then we lotion up immediately after while they are still a bit damp. I recently started using the Cetaphil lotion and it is great.
My best advice is to just watch the foods and remember that in the most simple terms eczema is just an external reaction to the allergen.

Hi C., my 17 month old daughter got eczema when she was a few months old. We did testing for other things and discovered that she has allergies to soy, peanuts and eggs. We did additional testing and discovered that she's lactose intolerant. At that time she was over a year old and had her on regular milk but we switched her to rice milk and that has helped dramatically. There's also goats milk and I found another milk that has the recommended fat in it called Hemp milk. It's a little bit more expensive than the rice so most times I mix the 2 together and she does just fine with that. I did take her to an allergist to get some of her immunization shots and he told me that they have the allergies because of the eczema and not vice versa and typically kids will outgrow it by the time they go to school; so there is hope for us moms that struggle with this. The allergist also said that if he did comprehensive testing on my daughter that he would find that she has many allergies but they are not true allergies. If you can I would suggest to do some testing just so you know what you need to avoid giving your child; since discovering what was affecting her her skin is doing better but we still have to keep up with it and keep her skin moist. Water is his enemy so give him quick baths or showers and pat his skin dry after bathing him. Once you've done that immediately moisturize his skin. We use aquaphor and we try to put it on her arms and legs every hour. If they get too itchy use Benadryl or we took our daughter to the dermatologist and got some prescription syrup that will help alleviate the itch. They can also give you a prescription ointment which will help to clear up his skin however it has steroids in it so we used it initially but stopped and just use it now when her skin flares up.

Good luck to you, I understand how challenging this is!

Hi C.. A friend of mine has a son about the same age as yours, similar situation -- struggled with eczema as an infant, and was recently diagnosed with food allergies. They were pretty sure he was allergic to dairy, and when they did the full battery of allergy tests (pricks on his back) they found out he was allergic to soy as well. Poor guy! (And poor mommy, now feeding him has become a challenge.)
So definitely see your pediatrician. I hope your son's results aren't as bad as my little friend's!!!

Good afternoon,
My son has moderate eczema and we found out the hard way he is allergic to peanuts. Although there were no breathing problems, he did swell up and itch and the doctor said just because it did not affect his breathing this time, that did not mean it could not happen next time. Bottom line was for him to stay away from peanuts. We ended up taking him to an allergist and they pricked his back with different things to make sure that is what he was allergic to and sure enough. So I would recommend taking your child to an allergist. I have done some research and the current train of thought is that there is a correlation between eczema, food allergies, and asthma. And there is no one is either mine or my husband's family with any food allergies whatsoever so this is a learning process for us. Good luck!

Yes, it is related to eczema. My daughter had very mild eczema as a baby. Only a brief bout but she is allergic to peanuts, strawberries and shellfish. She was also a little lactose intolerant has a young toddler. My friend's daughter, the same age as my daughter, had severe eczema as a baby and is allergic to dairy and peanuts. Both of our girls had sensitive skin and we only used Dreft on their clothes. Now I use Tide Free for us all. Her baby could not be held by anyone without a barrier such as a cloth diaper because she would break out from their detergent on the clothing. We always carry Benadryl with us. So do that. Your doctor will most likely refer you to a pediatric allergist.

YES food allergies cause eczema, not vice versa. my daughter had eczema and it turned out to be something in the yogurt she was eating and switching to natural products and or lightly scented if at all. Ever since then we've had no eczema breakouts. We also started eliminating dairy, not all yet, but the difference has been great. i took my daughter to an allergist when she was approx 7mos because she was wheezing and they did a blood test for the top allergens...NADA. according to the test result she wasn't allergic to anything. however it wasn't until i joined the foodlab group on yahoo, that i realized that those tests aren't always accurate, the levels of the test results can tell if there is a sensitivity, which of course the dr didn't let me know, and that your best bet is to do an elimination diet. if the child is sensitive to foods he can have all types of reactions from digestive issues, behavioral issues...all types of stuff you'd never think of. It wasn't until i began to reduce her dairy that i noticed.

Hope I helped a little and if not you can always check out the yahoo group- foodlab. Good Luck.

Hi C.,

Yes, they are both related. Eczema and food allergies are both systemic. A weak immune system will show in many forms. (Unlike what most people think, the immune system is more than just the ability to fight off colds and flus. It will also fight off major diseases.) Both the eczema and the food allergies can go away if the immune system is built.

There are several ways to attack the problem. A good absorbable multivitamin will help tremendously. A good chiropractor (an Upper Cervical, Principled one is my choice) that understands the immune system. Also, detoxing the house will remove the synthetic chemical stimuli that breaks the immune system down. Let me know if you have any questions. I'd love to help.

REgards,

M.

PS All of these options can be inexpensive and even save you money. I'll be glad to explain if you like.

Hi C.,
My son also had eczema, starting at about 12 months. We treated it at first before doing diet modification, and what worked best were products with no SLS or SLES, or preservatives. I switched exclusively to California Baby super sensitive hair and body wash (available at Target and Publix, but you can get it cheaper and in bulk online). It may seem a little pricey, but a little goes a long way, and it lasts a long time. even products like Johnson's and Aveeno have SLS or SLES in them which is known to aggravate eczema. And for lotion, I found Baby's Bliss DermaCream. It is available online, and it is the only thing that seemed to work to calm his skin.

Both these products seemed to help immensely, but ultimately, the only thing that "cured" his eczema was eliminating the things he was allergic to from his diet. With him it was milk and eggs. It was just trial and error on our part,as we never had any formal allergy testing done. I waited until he was two, as I did not want to take him off milk before that. Once he was off milk and eggs for three weeks, his eczema was completely gone. Also, I know that SOY can actually be a highly allergenic food, so that may be why you did not see a difference when you switched. Also, if he was still eating other foods he is allergic to, that could do it.

I would do a test run, and try eliminating all the things you have noticed him have a reaction to, for one month and see if you notice a difference with the eczema.

My son has been off milk and eggs for about three months now, and I let him eat scrambled eggs for breakfast last Sunday, thinking, "oh, one egg won't hurt." Well, by Monday evening he had eczema patches on his legs and elbows. Now I know, yes, just one egg will do it.

yes--eczema is one of the top reactions to food allergies....both delayed allergies and immediate ones. If you get tested for allergies, leading to the skin conditions, be sure to ask to be tested for both IgG and IgE foods...these are two different types of allergies (there are 5 different ones) Gluten, Casein and soy are on the top of reactions...

Switching from cows milk to soy may not show any difference because both of these have some of the same properties....try switching to rice milk...Pacific brand is the best. Rice Dream still contains gluten, so this would not tell you anything.

My son was a severe case for excema--then we got rid of gluten and casein and not only did his behavior improve, but his skin cleared up! We took out soy and his main aggression disappeared, also.

There is a lot I could tell you about how to do this, where to get foods, and anything else you want to know...just email me...:)

Hi C.,

When my son was just a few weeks old he had severe eczema as well so your not alone, now what I used to keep away eczema "is purified water with fresh raw oat meal (put the oat meal into a new pair of white cotton baby sock, tie, to prevent spilling of out meal)" add dessitine cream (I spell dessitine incorrect) cream and or pure corn starch baby powder. Wash your baby with purified water a oat meal only! this is all natural, it dries up the eczema and keeps the skin soft. stay away from all the lotions and soaps for now. My son is seven now this method truly works wonders.
Even with allergies it helps sooth the babies skin.

My daughter developed eczema at 6 weeks and is just over a year now. We have it under conrol usually, but we work hard at it. Dye-free, fragrance fee detergent, all cotton clothes, twice a week baths (increased very recently from 1 a week). She was diagnosed at 5 months with allergies to egg whites and peanuts. Since then, I have seen reactions (not with eczema, but her face breaks out) with peas and cheese. She has been on Nutrimagen since I stopped breastfeeding. She does not appear to be allergic to milk although she had the same reactions to regular formula. I would seriously stop giving him things that he has any reaction to. Sometimes you can't see the reactions. I have heard that allergies can cause internal damage to their stomach and intestines. You should consider seeing an allergist and I would definitely recommend avoiding legumes. Good luck!

seems to me you should have him tested for allergies.......
but a good place to start is get him off dairy and wheat.
try rice milk .............
these allergic reactions could possibly be dangerous so having it checked out soon is very important.
my 3 sons all had allergies and i found it was nothing
to fool around with especially when they itch and swell.

Hey C.,

Yes eczema is often related to food allergies. My son also had mild eczema and is 22 months and so far no food allergies so I may not be much help there. However, if his skin needs some help, I can share with you what we used on both our children and their eczema is completely gone. It is a product called Renew lotion. You can only buy it online so if your interested in finding out more about it please feel free to contact me.

All the best to you!!
T.

I'd never heard of it and never even made the connection until I read your post. My 14 month old had eczema on almost all of his arms and at least 50% of his legs for the first 8 or 9 months and still continues to have little patches on his legs and arms that come and go. He definately has an allergy to milk and sensitivities to other foods. I'm so glad you posted so I could realize my child isn't just "funky" :) We use Aveeno cream or Original A&D Ointment on the little patches. He also has been switched from lactose free milk to soy and then to Rice Dream (enriched with vitamins) which seems to work best for his tummy. We don't give him peanuts or anything with peanuts, no milk/cheese or dairy products, no sesame seeds, honey and we limit his exposure to eggs - no scrambled eggs, just eggs that are used in things like baking or regular cooking. We are also planning on having him tested at an allergist office when he gets older.
You aren't the only one and I hope you get plenty of advice on how to better manage.
Best of luck to you!
Jen - Mom of 3 boys: 5 yrs, 2 1/2 yrs, and 14 months

Hi C.. My 16 year old son was born with what others thought was cradle cap. We tried everything. Turns out it was eczema. By the time he was one, he was RAST(the blood test) tested and skin tested for food allergies. That was it! For him, corn was the biggest. To this day, whenever his allergies flare(he has environmental-to pollens and cats) he ends up with eczema, but only on the top of his head. The allergist we went to told that usually the earlier food allergies develop, the more chance there is that the child will outgrow them. My son did, but now his allergies are in a different form. I urge you to request both kinds of allergy tests as that will give you the most accurate picture of his true allergies.

there is a show called "The Doctors" that did a show on children's eczema(a couple of days ago). Maybe you can look online or view it on youtube to save yourself a trip to the doctor. Certain soaps, laundry detergent and lotions help to make the eczema mild as well. Dove soap for senesitive skin, All clear and free detergent and Eurcerin lotion (maybe spelled wrong) are all products that my doctor said will help with my daughter's eczema.
Good luck

Hi C.-
My 3 year old has had eczema since he was about 6 mths old. His isn't severe, but he eats peanut butter at least 3 times a week. At one point I was giving him goats milk. I bought it from Wal-Mart and Publix. Durning the time of using this his skin did improve. It has been my intention to talk to his dr about allergy tests, but just have been putting it off with hopes of it clearing up. I believe that the eczema and food allergies go hand in hand. I just haven't been able to narrow it down to one allergy. I do have a friends and her daughter has several food allergies. I would do the tests and take it from there. You may find the source of the eczema and get it cleared up.
God Bless,
R.