could bad skin be dairy intolerance?

[GirlWithTheMouseyHair]

DS (4) and DD (1) both have patches of spotty skin, on DS it's only on his upper arms and they're all small and white, had them since he was tiny.

DD's cheeks are covered in them - they appeared at the same time we introduced formula and now spreading to her arms and legs. Paeditrician says she just has dry skin and to moisturise, GP in UK (we're currently in US) proscribed steroid cream for DS to no avail. I'm just struck that both started at the same as introducing dairy products, but I had plenty of dairy while BF both of them.

DD's skin can sometimes look very angry and last few days we've introduced cow's milk it's got worse....could this potentially be a mild dairy intolerance, is it worth cutting out dairy for a few weeks to check?

Could be. I am allergic to dairy and my brother intolerant. It can make me angry and gives me excema. My db gets terrible acne all over his back. To be honest if it is dairy you prob would notice a differerce quicker than a few weeks. My mum said 24 hours without dairy when I was 2 resulted in a different child! What's the harm in trying?

Cool , well yes everything is worth a try!! Just weird because no allergies in either of our families

DS had bad excema until we changed him to soya milk.

My nephew had really bad skin due to dairy intolerance - small child so dry and spotty. His mum moved him onto soya milk and used Moo Goo cream (dunno if you can get it in the UK) and he now has the skin of a peach.

Def try excluding dairy for a few days. What have you got to lose?

My sentiments exactly - it's not that hard as we live in California, the dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan joyless obsessive capital of the world!

Could be or wheat, my Mum had bad eczma, she changed her diet and it worked.

I'm interested. I've just done dairy-free diet for my nearly 3 y.o. His eczema was so much better that the dermatologist had discharged him. However, he got a small patch on his back, then we re-introduced dairy and he has lots of patches over his torso, despite not having had eczema there in the past.

I suspect cows milk protein intolerance rather than an allergy in our case as his existing patch of eczema is looking worse, but in a different way from the way that his true allergies make it worse IYSWIM.

It takes 2 weeks for all dairy to leave the body so it's worth excluding for a while.

The bumpy skin you describe sounds a bit like keratosis pilaris - DS has it on his upper arms, though it's more red than white.