Allergic to milk? - how to eliminate?

[chicaguapa]

DD is 5 and still has eczema on the inside of her arms and wrists. We have changed her shampoo to Halo & Horns and other than washing her hands with soap at school, doesn't use it. But the rash still comes and goes.

Her Reception teacher asked her what she was doing to get rid of it so DD told her we'd changed her shampoo and soap and toothpaste!(?) So the teacher said to her that she should try cutting out milk for a week. This was at school today so I've not had the chance to speak to her about it yet.

I'm willing to give that a go and so is DD, even though she absolutely loves her milk. But already I've given her a buttered muffin forgetting butter has milk in it!

I wondered if just cutting out milk for a week would show enough results to prove/disprove the theory or if I need to include ALL diary products. This is just for the testing stage.

And also if she would suffer on a diet level if she just had water instead or I need to substitute the milk, bearing in mind it's just for a week. She has already tried Soya milk and doesn't like it.

You've said about changing shampoo etc and this might be a really stupid suggestion but it might also be worth experimenting with different washing powders. I still get eczema now if I use anything other than Asda non-bio but drink lots of milk and eat dairy.

Would the washing powder affect specific areas only? I have thought about this but DD only gets it on the inside of her arms. I have always thought she'd have it wherever her clothes touched her skin if that was the problem.

maybe another silly question but if its the inside of her arm is she drying them properly?

I'm not sure whether a week will make much difference to be honest, my son has a dairy allergy and when he was small he looked like he was burnt! I can't remember how long it took before his skin looked normal but I'm sure it was more than a week once we had cut it out....

Son still gets excema sometimes and get rid of it with a mild steroid cream and then keep his skin moisturised with balnium cream...

It may be worth cutting out bubble bath as well if she has it

HTH
Rummum

you need to cut out all traces of milk, casein and whey if you want a good test. That also means no chocolate, no ice cream , a dairy free spread on bread and if you buy bread checking it for skimmed milk powder. If you eat any prepared food read labels carefully.

Any food takes 4 days to leave the system and as you may make mistakes initially it's best to allow at least 2 weeks. Calcium supplements are not essential for short periods but probably desirable.

You then reintroduce milk and if the eczema comes back cut it out again. You need to test more than once to be sure.

If you can't face all that sometimes kids do better on goats milk.

Chica - I have certain areas - arms, backs of legs that get bad if I use other washing powder - perhaps the bits where my skin is most sensitive to whatever it doesn't like? If I carry on, then it starts to spread elsewhere. Might be different in children but I don't know.

I'll give the milk a go as DD seems quite keen to cooperate at the moment and that's a rare thing!

Can't seem to find any milk substitutes in the high street though that isn't Soya. My friend recommended Rice Dream which her DD has but can only find it online. Any ideas where else I could get it? Or similar.

I would say that DD's diet is maily diary-based. So we've cut out DD's drinking milk as she has well over a pint a day, substituted it for chocolate soya with added calcium for the time being. And switched her to Pure margarine. And not given her any cheese.

This was just yesterday. But I've looked at her arms today and they're already drying up. They normally look angry and red and they've started to scab over. Is it too soon to attribute diary-free diet to it seeing as we're only one day in? I'm wondering if there's something else she's not had for a few days that might be causing the reaction instead.

LOL at being one day into a diary-free diet!! Sorry, just tickled me! I would say that it might be a bit early to see that much difference but if the itching has stopped then it will heal quickly. It might be that the combination of changing shampoo, reducing soap etc as well as less dairy has helped. Good luck.

I did think it was unlikely. The good news is that it probably isn't the milk then, but we'll keep it up for a couple of weeks and see what happens. The good old waiting game...

One daughter has milk allergy and near perfect skin, other daughter has problem skin, dry and prone to rashes - but no milk allergy. D2 uses no lotions or potions with perfume, non bio washing powder etc but still no solution other than a good dose of sunshine - which as we all know is very, very bad for you

Maybe a basic question, have you tried Aveeno lotion?

Yes, it always goes away after a holiday. But then DD doesn't drink milk on holiday either as she says it tastes different! So that's why we've always had the thought at the back of our minds there might be a connection.

We have been given a bit of Aveeno from a friend, which I have to say is the best cream I've had. But I've now run out and hope to get some from the GP next week. But DD puts up the most amazing fuss when it comes to putting creams on and so it's not that regular.

I was hoping to find the cause of the rash so we don't have to fight with cream every night. Maybe there isn't one and I have no option than to just have to treat it!

Also want to add we were about to try running a bath with some porridge oats in a pair of tights, but the teacher mentioned about the milk, so we didn't want to try two new things at once.

i've just taken my ds to be tested as he has eczema and he is allergic to dairy products, eggs, food colourings and some preservatives. also got some homeopathic treatments from the same guy. it is good to no what is causing the eczema, just hard to elimate all from his diet. nb dairy products also includes beef!

I'm afraid that there's no way around it, if you have eczema you have to use cream. Sorry.

DS had have not any dairy products in 18m, but if I stop the cream the eczema is back, maybe not as bad as it was before diet but there's no way around it you have to use cream. I wouldn't bother with restriction diets etc, unless cream wasn't working. Raising a kid healthy with a restricted diet is far more difficult than applying cream every night.