Eczema and avoiding cows milk

[smelmafingers]

My 17 month old DS has suffered eczema since he was around 6 months old.

I am currently excluding any cows milk from his diet to see if it has any impact. If cows milk was indeed a trigger, how long should I expect to wait to see any results.

I have been giving him almond milk and occasionally soya for over two weeks. Is it time to try something else?

They reckon it takes 2 weeks for the cows milk to exit the body. So I would give it 3-4 weeks for the new diet to show anything.

Has there been no difference yet?

No difference at all unfortunately.

The eczema spread to his face recently. He has little spots around his eyelids and around his nose. That's why I decided to try excluding milk.

Maybe I should keep going for another week, then have a rethink.

Thanks for your reply

Oh that's disappointing but at least you can you tick it off the list.

So the eczema coincided with weaning?
My sister has eczema and finds something related to tomatoes triggers her off.

I hope you find the cause soonish.

Cows milk intolerance is often linked with soy intolerance, so you may need to exclude that too.

I was aware of the soy link. But stupidly gave him some soy a couple of times!

Will keep on with the almond milk for a week or so. Bah! Its quite difficult to keep up when nothing seems to be happening. Have been sneaking yoghurts to my older DS!

It's incredibly hard to cut out both dairy and soy - I know someone who still bfs her DS who has these intolerances, so she has to avoid them too. Every time we eat in a cafe she has to get the kitchen staff to pull wrappers out of the bin and check ingredients! And it is surprising where whey protein gets.....

We're awaiting tests for possible coeliac for DD, and am dreading having to do the same thing..... So you have my sympathy and admiration!

Are you excluding milk under the care and advice of a professional? We have eczema in the family and am interested in how this works. I wouldn't be happy excluding a huge food group without advice!

Have you tried omega supplements? I keep meaning to try dd but never get around to remembering while near the health shop.

my son is and daughter was CMPI.

My daughter had a heck of a time with sickiness and tummy problems everytime I had cows milk and fed her and chucked likel noting on earth when I fed her milky stuff on weaning. She also had mild eczema throughout. We cautiously reintorduced regularly as per the guidance and she is no longer intolerant at age 3, but still isn't a massive fan of dairy and will elect not to eat it if given the choice.

My son had mild sickiness pre weaning despite me having an unrestriced diet whilst BFing but had explosive poos and vomited everywhere the first time I gave him a yoghurt. 2 days later he got awful eczema al over his face. We withdrew dairy and smothered him in aveeno on the advice of the GP and waited a month before trying again. It happened again so have been advised to keep trying on a monthly/bimonthly basis.

There is good advice on the topic in a recent British Medical Journal article which is unfortunately not free access but is in most big libraries www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f5424

My understanding is that eggs are the more usual culprit if eczema is food intolerance related.

AnythingNotEverything - do you think dairy exclusion has to be done under the care of a health care professional?

My kids have never eaten any dairy. No milk, no butter, no yogurt or cheese. They had breastmilk when they were younger, but they hate dairy in any form and I haven't used any substitutes either.
I have lived in SE Asia where dairy isn't eaten- even children once a certain age don't eat or drink milk.

Many cultures don't see dairy as an important part of the diet past infancy.

I wouldn't cut dairy out of my diet entirely without speaking to a professional and ensuring I was still having a balanced diet.

I know some cultures eat very little dairy, but they get protein and calcium from other sources. I'd want to understand these other sources!

I wasn't being judgy (sorry if this isn't what you meant msmiggins - tone can be hard to measure).

I didn't think you were being judgy, don't worry, it just made me think that not eating dairy was something that comes quite naturally to me.

We are not a meat and two veg family and because I have lived in SE asia and have such a love of the foods from that area then we do tend to eat in an Asian way a lot of the time. Things like tofu, lots of nuts, we do eat meat and fish lots of leafy veg etc- it hadn't occured to me that we may be missing out.

The whole idea that milk is essential for good bones has been promolgated in part by the glut of milk we suffered as a result of the adoption of factory farming methods following WWII.
Farmers and Milk marketers were keen to try to increase demand to use up the huge surplus were generating so huge campaigns were built to promote the idea that milk is an essential part of our diet.
Milk came to be seen as the gold standard food for children past weaning age.

There is a suggestion that milk is not the superfood we once thought- countries with the highest milk consumption also have the highest rates of osteoporosis- may not be a direct cause and efeect of course but it is interesting.
Many people are lactose intolerant to some degree, milk is quite an unnatural food past infacy and many cultures en masse simply cannot ingest it without becoming ill.

some interesting reading here- saveourbones.com/osteoporosis-milk-myth/

Perhaps not the most authoritative source but does put into the spotlight our obsession with dairy.

AnythingNotEverything I do appreciate your point though- we are dependant on dairy as a culture for calcium and other cultures do have different means- tofu for instance, and the use of vinegar laden sauces in cookiing cheap boney cuts of meat which allows calcium to become avaliable in sauces for consumption.

I'm not a faddist, please don't get me wrong- and I hope you don't see any criticism either, I just find the whole subject of dairy consumption interesting.
I am not averse to milk, and do have it on occasion if I am served it somewhere, I have even tried to get my kids to eat to when they were younger with no success.
My oldest is now 6'3" with size 12 feet but never had a glass of milk or eaten a yogurt!

Mrsmiggins - I know a couple of professionals in medicine who agree similar with you.
We eat a too high percentage of dairy products in this country and it can cause issues which could be why there's a sudden hike up in numbers of children who cannot tolerate dairy and their grandparents and parents have consumed more than any other generations.

Msmiggins - phew! I thought we were going to have a bit of a spat then, but I completely agree with you.

The fact that we rely on milk for so much is a concern when people just cut it out. There are valid alternatives that other cultures and families like yours have in their diets which mean dairy isn't missed. I wouldn't be happy to cut dairy out of my diet without further professional advice.

I did tell the GP that I was planning on excluding milk. He didn't seem interested. It hasn't been too difficult I tend to cook from scratch.

If DSs skin does improve I plan on returning to the GP to let him know the situation.

DS had eczema, bad bowels and remains very snotty. Until we had identified and excluded wheat, dairy and sugar we did not see an improvement when excluding individual items and things got worse before they got better. It was two months before things got better and then reactions to other things which were probably there all along seemed worse / more obvious. I guess what I am saying is that just because you don't see an improvement, doesn't mean you don't have a problem.

Thank for your replies.

My mum has commented on DS skin, saying she sees an improvement. Will keep on with the milk exclusion till children's Christmas party on Thursday.

Most patches are considerably smaller. Just a couple of tiny spots on his face (I'm not actually convinced its eczema on his face, but that was GPs opinion)

Removing dairy has improved my dds eczema so much. You do have to combine it with some good skin care thigh. Have you looked into what shampoos etc you use?

My kids are allergic to dairy, soya and eggs between them - one of symptoms is eczema, including small spots on their faces which sound like the ones you have described. Every few months we try them with small amounts of their allergens to see if they react. So far they do and it takes a week or two for eczema to clear up again, and that is just from v tiny amounts of milk etc. so I would say try for a month or so to be sure.

One of my daughters also gets eczema when she comes into contact with wool - could this have been a trigger? In my experience, having eczema goes hand in hand with sensitive skin. We use oilatum in the bath (never bubble bath etc), diprobase all over before the bath, perfume free wipes, and surcare laundry liquid. Eczema pretty much under control. Hope that might be helpful for you!