If your child has eczema & it flares related to their allergy(ies)...

[AngelDog]

...how long do the flares last?

DS has at least one nut allergy and is waiting for tests for some others. The paediatrician has told us to give him all the types of nuts he's had before which he hasn't had an obvious reaction to. (His reactions have been hives rather than anaphylactic ones, although we do have a JEXT for him as well as AHs).

He has eczema and I think he's had eczema flares after I've eaten some nuts (he bf's) but I'm not entirely confident of that. They've lasted a 'normal' length for eczema flares, ie several days to a week.

However, the dermatologist told me yesterday that allergy-related flares should only last about 24 hours. I don't know if that's always the case (having had some duff dermatologist advice in the past) or whether the previous flares at the same time as me eating nuts were just coincidental.

I want to try him with nuts that we think he can eat (it would be really useful if I could eat them as I'm on a high-protein eating plan), but I need to keep an eye on his eczema to see if they affect it.

Any thoughts?

my first thought is , the nuts your are planning to give to your child, are they direct from the shell? how do you know that the nuts are free from cross contamination of the nut he is allergic to?

and in what form are you giving your child these nuts? (other possible allergies)

apart from this nut problem, what other foods have caused a problem?

and , does your pead have any allergy training , are they a immunologist? are you lucky enough to be at a pead allergy clinic with a dietian attached who can guide you as your child starts eating a wider diet?

as for ezcema flares, yes, caused by food, and can last up to two weeks after a major reaction when our son was younger.
but he has lots of enviomental allergies, does your baby? this too, will give unexpected ezcema flares, for instance if allergic to tree pollen , right now is not a good time!!

Your DS sounds v similar to mine! His eczema flares last about a week usually but he's flaring at the moment and we have no idea why. REALLY hoping it's not pollen.

Interesting that you were told to give the nuts that he doesn't react to. I've been really scared of doing this!

DD3 has flares when eating wheat (read stealing bread/cake crumbs), they last 2-3 days but it's difficult to tell when they die down completely as she is never eczema free so TBH the flares just blend into the background at times.

The screaming and thrashing with no sleep until knocked out with Aller-eeze (priton syrup but own brand) and calpol lasts about 2 nights (always worse at night for some reason) though.

She scored 0.75 on her RAST test which I gather is barely anything to worry about so I wonder if there is anything else she reacts to as they only tested for wheat as that's the only thing I knew upset her - open sores on bum and diarrhoea after eating wholemeal or 50/50 tyoe bread - I guess because it's cheaper than testing for lots of things that may or may not be a problem .

May be wait for a clear few days (i.e. skin clear(ish) ) and try the nuts he isn't allergic to and see what happens? Or even try eating the nuts yourself and seeing if that corresponds to a flare?

Thanks everyone - that's useful to know.

We have no idea whether he has any other allergies. The case history is confusing - he reacted to hazelnuts (hives); the GP did blood tests, confident it would be a skin irritation issue not an allergy; he told us they were all positive; we saw the paediatrician who said he didn't actually think DS had allergies to most of those nuts as the RAST levels were low and he'd eaten/handled most of them in the past without obvious symptoms.

AFAIK the paed isn't an immunologist - we were referred to the top immunologist round here but the waiting list was too long so the GP booked us in to see someone else whose specialism was described as 'paediatric medicine'. A friend who used to work as a nurse for the allergy clinic said she thought he was okay (although not as knowledgeable as the top man) so I really don't know how clued up he is.

He had higher scores on the RAST tests for hazelnuts and peanuts although I'm pretty confident he's eaten the latter. However, the general 'allergy marker' was much higher than was suggested by hazelnuts/peanuts, so it's entirely possible there is something else going on - we just don't know what. DS is having skin prick tests for loads of nuts, kiwi (which he's reacted to) and wheat (I've done two GF trials and his eczema flared up after each one, but there were other things like colds which might have caused that). Excluding dairy, eggs and soya don't seem to have made any difference. Acidic things eg tomatoes, citrus bother him, but only when his skin is bad (contact irritation, I think).

I'd not really thought about the cross-contamination issue. I'd planned to give the nuts in the form he'd had them before eg ground almonds, peanut butter.

It's difficult to tell at the moment what's a flare and what's not as the state of his eczema patches changes continually. The dermatologist has taken him off all steroids (eek) which has been fairly unpleasant, and although the dermatologist is really pleased with his skin, I would still class it as 'reasonably bad' at the moment.

The eczema is almost exclusively on his face & hands which is good, but does mean that the irritated skin comes into contact with everything.

When we used strong steroids it would be perfect in between treatments (but we got into a cycle of steroid dependency so we never stopped using the stuff for more than a week or two). Now we're just using Protopic so it could be that it's settling down with the new regime.