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lovebeingamom
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| Posted: March 09 2011 at 12:28pm | IP Logged
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I might be posting this in the wrong area, so please feel free to move it if necessary!
Okay ladies ..... my daughter (4 yo) has this ongoing skin irritation that comes and goes. We have never YET found her trigger. She has been to a Ped. Derm. since she was 9 weeks old - YES YOU READ CORRECTLY 9 WEEKS OLD!!!! And actually, her skin gets worse with the medicine prescribed (topical steroids, non-steroidal creams, predisone, etc.). Therefore, I have decided to take matters into my own hands.
We no longer use any prescribed medicine - we use cetaphil soap, lotions, creams, etc. and we have been an ALL Free and Clear laundry detergent home since before she was born - and all that seems to help tremendously!!! However, I am thinking maybe diet related????
Which now brings me to my questions:
1.) What should I try to eliminate first? (I was leaning towards dairy, as that can be a major trigger to most!)
2.) How do I eliminate and what do I replace it with?
3.) How long do I eliminate before I know whether that was the culprit or not?
Any other information, suggestions, or advice are all welcomed - websites, links, etc.
Thanks so much for your help!!!!
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Tami
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| Posted: March 09 2011 at 1:13pm | IP Logged
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If you're going to eliminate a food, I'd start with the one that is most prominent in her diet - would that be dairy? Or does she eat more wheat?
My family doctor said that the suspected food had to be stopped for 2 weeks, then wait another 2 weeks to see if the reaction ceased. She said it would take this long for the allergen to clear my dd's system. (This was many years ago, btw, so recommendations may have changed).
You could substitute rice or almond milk for that part. And watch for dairy in ingredients listings on processed foods - breads, for example.
I'm wondering though if this might be a contact issue since she reacts to things on her skin? With my dd, we finally came to the conclusion that it was my make-up she was reacting to as an infant, because the eczema was only on the prominent parts of her face. She did outgrow that.
I was also told that the least reactive diet was pears, rice and, gosh, can't remember the main component. Lamb, perhaps?
Oh, and if you decide to remove eggs, watch for how much chicken you serve. It can aggravate the same allergy.
Hope this helps, and the mystery is solved soon!
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God bless,
Tami
When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become. (Nouwen)
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Angi
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| Posted: March 09 2011 at 9:20pm | IP Logged
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Has she undergone any allergy testing?
Eggs are the most common eczema trigger. It is fairly easy to eliminate because it must be labeled on all foods. You can google egg replacement and look at vegan recipes, often the sub is something in your kitchen (banana, applesauce, baking powder/oil/water/etc)
Skin reactions often need a total of 4 weeks of elimination for the reaction to stop. It could be longer if she is very broken out, the skin must heal before anything else can occur.
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Erin
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| Posted: March 10 2011 at 2:24pm | IP Logged
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My 2yr old nephew has just been tested (has had bleeding eczema since a baby) and has come back with egg and dairy, but his biggest trigger is dust!!
Got some ideas for you, hoping to pop back later today.
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Erin
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Seven Little Australians
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Anneof 5
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| Posted: March 10 2011 at 5:11pm | IP Logged
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My 9yo dd had eczema as a baby. She used to actually unzip her sleeper and scratch herself until she was bleeding. She had allergy tests a few years ago and was allergic to several
foods, dogs and cats. The thing that cleared her skin the most and stopped the itching was eliminating wheat (which was one of the foods she's allergic to). But be careful to read labels as it is in a lot of foods, not just the obvious ones like breads, cereals, and crackers. It can also be found in lotions, shampoos, conditioners, especially ones labeled "natural". There are many replacements out there for regular foods. We tend to stick with those that are gluten free as some of the rest of the family including myself are gluten sensitive.
Good luck to you!
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mom2mpr
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| Posted: March 10 2011 at 10:10pm | IP Logged
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Your dd sounds like mine! Eczema since a babe!
I have been told the same things about food elimination and timing as Tami mentioned.
I have heard eggs and dairy are the main culprits for eczema.
We had dd allergy tested to try to clear up her skin last year and document the peanut allergy I saw when she was a nursing babe. The allergist suggested trying Vanicream with some hydrocortisone(available by prescription) and it worked best of all the bazillion creams we got from the dermatologist. She really cleared up a lot.
She had a few spots that were very stubborn so we took eggs and dairy out of her diet and with some work with the plain Vanicream (available without a prescription) we are finally, after 1 year, eczema free!
The allergy testing was very helpful for us.
We have replaced cows milk with soy, rice, oat, almond milks. Oat milk is a great replacement for milk in soups-the rest of the family is fine with it  . She drinks mostly soy. When we make hot chocolate I use the chocolate almond milk and heat it in the microwave. I try to cook/bake with the others to decrease the use of soy. We use Earth Balance for butter. There are quite a few soy yogurts out there. Enjoy Life brand has great chocolate chips. Also, The Divvies Bakery Cookbook has been a wonderful find for us-especially since we have also eliminated eggs and baked goods are packed with milk and eggs. We bake our own bread in the bread maker. The best, cheapest egg replacer we have found for pancakes and some muffins is ground flax. Mix it up 1 tbsp flax and 3 tbsp water and that is one egg! There is also a commercial one by Ener-G we used for a few years-I also noted an egg allergy when she was nursing. My new Vitamix has been the frozen confection helper for us--sorbets and smoothies make her day! No worries about ice cream. Cheese is hard. She LOVED cheese! We tried all the milk free ones at the health food store and none have worked  And they don't melt! When we have pizza she gets it w/o cheese and a few toppings. And when I make it at home I roll out her dough and cut it into sticks to bake and she dips in the sauce and has pizza sticks.
It is an adjustment to change the cooking routine. I hope some of the notes above can help you find replacements that will work so it is easier if you decide to try eliminating foods. It is also hard for a kid that is used to eating and enjoying things, like cheese  , to not be able to have them. Dd had a really hard time with a lot of foods we could eat, and she could not. So we steered clear of them for about 6 months and all ate the same things. Now ds can have some mac and cheese and she is OK with it.
I hope you meet success. Mine is a different child since she feels better!
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Anne, married to dh 16 years!, ds,(97), Little One (02), and dd (02).
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lovebeingamom
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| Posted: March 16 2011 at 10:18am | IP Logged
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Erin wrote:
My 2yr old nephew has just been tested (has had bleeding eczema since a baby) and has come back with egg and dairy, but his biggest trigger is dust!!
Got some ideas for you, hoping to pop back later today. |
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Anxious to hear what your ideas are  !!!!!!!!
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hylabrook1
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| Posted: March 16 2011 at 11:39am | IP Logged
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Another labeling caution for wheat: Sometimes the list of ingredients includes things like " protein isolate" or other vague words that don't name the specific food allergan. Those ingredients might contain wheat, soy, or whatever. And sometimes that product might contain one thing one time and a different thing another time (this week the *protein* comes from wheat, next batch they make in the factory uses soy as the protein source).
Dh has a serious soy allergy, so we don't buy things with vague, potentially problem ingredients. If you're working on eliminating specific things, you would want to be sure those things are not possibly *sneaked* in to what you are using.
Peace,
Nancy
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JennGM
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| Posted: March 16 2011 at 11:48am | IP Logged
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I'd start with dairy. I'd then gradually try the Big 8: dairy, eggs, wheat, shellfish, fish, peanuts, tree nuts, soy.
To follow up what Nancy says, this is an excellent .pdf of ingredient labels to find those hidden allergens.
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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hylabrook1
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| Posted: March 16 2011 at 2:04pm | IP Logged
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Great resource, Jenn! Thanks for sharing it - printing it up to keep handy.
Peace,
Nancy
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Topic: How to eliminate something from diet?
