Exzema is it caused by a Food Allergy?
I was asked by a friend the other day a question about their baby that has started to get exzema.
She’s got it (exzema) all over her body and at the moment she’s just being breastfed. Is there anything you could suggest? The nurse suggested using dermizine (not sure on spelling?) and having Mum avoid eating dairy. We’re trying to make an appointment to see the pedeatrian and some allergy testing place. We’ve also putting Alpha Carey on her too to try and keep her skin moist.
We agree with the nurse to avoid eating LARGE amounts of dairy. Moderation.
Also
We just visited the GP and she gave Baby a couple of steroid creams (one strong and one mild) to wipe out the symptoms. She didn’t think removing diary from Mum’s diet was going to be much help. We’ve decided to go with that and not go to the allergy testing place or the pedeatrician for the time being and see how the steroids go.
We were always thought that steroid creams were the last resort but if they help with the pain then so be it.
Be wary of GPs talking about allergies, it’s surprising just how little most of them know. We had one GP tell us to just keep giving the allergen to our son (who has anaphylaxis to dairy) and he would grow out of it. For those that don’t know, that would be considered murder.
After talking this over with Melanie she’s come up with a few tips. Hopefully they can help others as well. These were my notes from the conversation. If I don’t write things down they get forgotten really quickly.
- Exzema can be a sign of food allergy to something in the breast milk, however DO NOT stop breastfeeding
- Check laundry detergent : try to see if there is any difference with a different brand
- Check bath oil / soaps / moisturisers (also adults creams / soaps)
- Check clothing materials / sheets (cotten is best)
- Steroid creams can thin out the skin if overused, mother at pre-school recommends Eladel (non-steroid) some can contain peanut / almond other nut oils which can sensitise baby creating nut allergies
- Check with manufacturers as exzema can idicate allergic tendancy, therefore avoid all major allergens, avoid food introduction until 6 months instead of 4 months
- Lots of tips and info on the internet
http://heinzforbaby.com.au
Heinz Baby Club - forums, messageboards
Covers both allergies and exzema
Aaron