eczema and diet

[ErnieAndBernie]

I've had eczema since I was little (I'm now in my forties). The last flare up I had was about 7 years ago when I had atopic dermatitis on my hands for about 18 months and it was horrible. Just before Christmas I had a new flare up, this time around my left eye. I'm pretty sure its eczema related as I had a very stressful year last year and as soon as the weather got cold it appeared.
I've been to see my doctor (so far not much help but due to go back in a week) but in the meantime I was wondering about foods that trigger the eczema to get worse or to help it clear up a bit. Does anyone have any experience? I had 3 really sugary cookies and a doughnut yesterday and this morning I looked like I've been punched in the eye. Just wondering if refined sugar could be a trigger?
If anyone has any knowledge of this kind of thing or could link to anything I can read, that would be wonderful.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

No knowledge as such.

But dd1s eczema reduced in severity when we removed dairy.

The trigger of course could be anything. Worth a try though home er don't remove too much from your diet without medical advice.

But dairy isn't too hard.

[Rueben]

Hi OP! I also have eczema, really sucks doesn't it I haven't found any foods to directly trigger my flare ups, but I have changed my diet and started taking supplements in hope of healing eczema. Unfortunately, I still have eczema but it's not as bad as before. I think mine definitely gets worse when I'm stressed. Mine has always been quite severe though (skin gets infected and weeps a lot)

Anyway, I try to follow an "anti inflammatory" diet. Perhaps, you could give it a go. I eat little to no refined sugar, refined carbs, alcohol, or processed foods. I try to eat more healthy fats (also take omega3 fish oil supplement which is supposed to help), and fermented food such as sauerkraut and kefir

[Rueben]

Although I think what gileswithachainsaw said is true - I wouldn't remove too many things from your diet too quickly

I found out some tips for dealing with eczema here (although not all of them helped)

draxe.com/natural-eczema-remedies-treatment/

[ErnieAndBernie]

Thanks. I won't be making hugely drastic diet cuts. After reading the link, I certainly think just cutting down on the refined sugars etc will help and avoiding really processed stuff. I was mostly curious to see if certain tweaks would help. I do think yesterdays sugar intake and todays red swollen eye are related.

[MrsStinkey]

My DD1 and DH'a eczema flare up really badly when they've eaten dairy. DD1 has been mainly dairy free since birth due to CMPI and DH was dairy free as a child but "grew out of it". His skin is terrible when he's eating a lot of dairy. Mostly resulting in terrible breakouts that turn into skin infections. He finds restricting dairy is enough to stop the terrible breakouts.

[ErnieAndBernie]

I'd never considered dairy might have anything to do with it.

[MrsStinkey]

Dairy intolerance and eczema go hand in hand I've been told. Suppose it's worth a try. Just make sure to supplement your calcium if you decide to cut dairy out!