Causes of Eczema in a Breast Fed Baby

[moongazer]

My daughter is 4 months and has eczema. I have breastfed since she was born. She is unhappy and itchy. I am aware it could be washing powder so I have cut out the fabric softener and am using half the amount of non bio (Percil) I am also on lactose free milk. I am using double base gel to wash and moisturize her, but she scratches till she is raw. Special mitts have stopped the problem but she sucks the mitts and wipes drool over her face anyway that flairs up in a rash. Could it be the antibiotics I was put on for mastitis, twice? I know it flared up her cradle cap and that started the itching. Can anyone suggest a reason?

Both my kids had something similar as they were both lactose intolerant. It was the lactose I was eating that was the problem. Is there maybe lactose in any other dairy you are eating?
If not, I'd suggest getting her checked out by your GP.

Don't blame yourself, some kids just get excema, I breastfeeding both DD's and they had excema they both grew out of it though. Take her to the DD's nd get some emollients. I made a paste of aqueous cream and sudacrem and that really gave them relief

Thank you :) Some good advice

Lactose free milk is pointless for you, as lactose is in breastmilk (it is produced in your body - not affected by your diet). Are you maybe thinking she is intolerant to dairy? Being intolerant to cow's milk is much more common in babies than lactose intolerance, as lactose intolerance would mean your baby couldn't digest breastmilk either and would be very ill and failing to thrive.

I agree with lily cows milk protein and soy allergies are fair more common. A friends DD had an egg allergy and terrible eczema, so it could be diet related.

Oh dear, it is so miserable seeing your baby suffering with eczema.

Could be diet related, so maybe worth keeping a food diary, but eczema has lots of different causes. It is just as likely to be dust or something else.

Agree that lactose free milk is totally pointless. Lactose is a kind of sugar. Breast milk has loads of lactose in it, and if your baby was lactose intolerant she would be a very poorly little girl by now. It's possible that she might be reacting to the proteins in cows milk, but a food diary should hopefully answer this question for you.

Hope you get to the bottom of it soon.

It's more likely to be a cows milk protein allegy rather than a lactose allergy. In which case you need to cut out dairy an soya from your diet rather than lactose. My DS has eczema too and a cmpa.

Do you treat the eczema with any kind of steroids or see a dermatologist? We use oilatum in the bath and have steroids and emollients. DS is also dairy free.

Massive sympathy my two suffered with eczema as littlies...it is hard to cope with.....I discovered that the cold, foods I ate etc all contributed and unfortunately nothing cures it! But my two are now both school age and have no eczema! It will get better!

Hi everyone I'm very new to this so apologies in advance for rambling and jumping on this thread. I was hoping for some advise. Our little girl has had feeding issues from day 1. She was originally breastfed but after 8 weeks of horrendous feeding we decided to bottle feed. Her symptoms were constant spit up, coughing, gagging, sneezing, constant hi cups, explosive nappies, refusal to feed, a 20 minute naps, grunting and groaning in her sleeps, red rash with white spots on he face and the odd projectile episode. She is gaining weight so no concern there. She was started on nutramigen. It worked for about a wk then back to square 1. She was also on meds at different stages including loesac, gavison and zantac. She was then put on Enfamil ar with lactase drops. Again was great for about 9 days. She is now on Neocate as PEAD suspects CMPI. my question would you think this is CMPI she actually sleeps very well and doesn't cry all day but screams after 3 ounces and seems v unsettled after, has endless wind and when we tried her on normal milk she had v runny nappies after nearly every bottle and huge spit ups. Also for anyone that tried Neocate how long before your baby stopped fighting feeds.again sorry for the ramble. I'm going crazy from the stress of it all

My breast fed baby had horrendous eczema.

It wasn't diet - it was perfumed washing powder. Even Ecover.

I switched to plant based stuff from the local health food shop and it went. She can currently tolerate "method" clothes washing liquid which is far less harsh.

There is definitely something in washing powder - even ecover and fairy - that flares many kids' eczema.

We switched to using DP liquid soap flakes to wash all clothes about six months ago and my daughter's eczema has virtually cleared up (after 10 years of using steroid creams nearly every day!). She was breast fed and developed eczema at 5 months. Apparently, it is the surfactants in detergents that make eczema prone skin sensitive to other triggers, which is why powders such as Ecover and Surcare still irritate skin, even though they are promoted for sensitive skin. It takes a couple of weeks of washing with the liquid soap flakes to get rid of the detergent residue in the clothes, but it has helped my daughter so much that we now don’t use any steroid (though we still cover with Cetraben twice a day). The switch has also cleared up the eczema on my husband’s hands, which he has had for years. Would also recommend only using emollients to wash your baby in the bath (Doublebase is good for babies, but would avoid Oilatum and Dermol as they can also irritate skin). Hope this helps you. Good luck.

Some bubs just seem to be sensitive to everything. My dd had eczema and is allergic to cows milk and eggs. She was bf and it improved a lot when I cut these things out of my diet. She is also very sensitive to environmental things . We use a Simply Pure washing tablets and they don't aggravate her ( don't do a very good job getting the clothes clean either I'm afraid...sigh). We also found that aveeno lotion worked best, with hydrocortisone for flare ups. This time if year is bad for eczema as the heating is on. You could try a humidifier in the room at night for moisture. Everyone is different unfortunately so you just have to find the best combination for you ( and a sympathetic/understanding gp).

could it be caused by central heating inside and cold weather outside? Woolly/fleecy/heavy clothes? My ds gets eczema every winter and it begins to get better in spring and is completely gone by summer.

My ds now 12 suffers with eczema and over the years we've tried most of the lotions and potions.
We have noticed that pollen and cut grass affect him in the summer so he starts on cetrazine tablets about May time and finishes them in October. This is when his skin gets very red and inflamed and we'd usually be using steroids throughout the summer. We no longer need the steroids since taking the tablets.

In the winter his skin becomes very dry but we keep under control with cetreban cream.

I agree with a pp avoid oilatum as it is perfumed even though they say it's not. As my son got older he could tell my it would sting.

For the bath fill an old pair of tights with porridge oats and run under the tap. Try not to bath every day as this dries the skin even more.

My ds was breastfed and had an egg allergy. Once I cut out egg from my diet it really cleared up.
Unless you do an strict exclusion diet it is impossible to guess the allergen.
We had it diagnosed by an allergy consultant by blood tests. Worth asking for a referral.

We had all the tests done on the NHS and the change was incredible when we knew what was causing it.m