How long does baby eczema last? Has anyone found that eczema is caused by an allergen in one's diet?

[birthofawoman]

At around 6-weeks (last week), my DS developed what I thought was heat rash which appeared as raised bumps on his cheeks, arms and back. The bumps very quickly turned into dry skin and it was apparent that it was eczema. I also noticed that he'd developed cradle cap at the same time. Now, very suddenly, his just-the-other-day perfect skin is covered in about 4 different kinds of eczema/dry skin on the above parts of his body. On his cheeks, the skin is tight, dry and scaly (which has actually lead to pigmentation). On his forehead, it's very rough and 'corse' - probably the driest of all the eczema regions. On his arms, it's flaky, scaly and still a bit raised and bumpy. On his back, it still presents as bumps/heat rash but I'm pretty sure it'll soon morph to have the same kind of appearance as that on his arms. On his scalp and eyebrows, he suffers cradle cap.

My question is the following: is this likely to persist for long? I know that some babies go on to have eczema into toddlerhood, or even childhood, but I'm really hoping that this is just a brief, one-time thing. Does that happen - that a baby may get eczema once in his/her early weeks of life and not go on to have a long-term problem with it? Really hoping that's the case, and that it'll resolve on its own.

Just to add, he's exclusively breastfed and my diet does not include dairy as I'm vegan (I know some people suggest cutting out dairy). I'm currently in the process of cutting out gluten, hoping/suspecting that his eczema may be the result of an allergen from my diet (I've read that the root cause of eczema is an allergen). I'm trying to locate a potential allergen by eliminating certain foods from my diet.

Thank you!

In the bit where I describe the eczema on his forehead, I should've written 'grainy, rough and corse'.

My Dd has eczema within weeks of being born and was managed fairly easy until I started weaning her and then it all erupted and got much much worse. Had allergy tests etc she's not allergic to anything but from keeping a food diary I saw their were definately triggers that upset her skin quite badly, once so bad she was nearly hospitalised. She's nearly outgrown it now at nearly 5 but still has her days with it.

It is what it is, if your little one has eczema then there's nothing you can do but do your best to manage it.

My experience is that it was ALL allergy related. Doing 'tests' doesn't identify all allergies ... the only clear way to sort it is a food diary. I cut out dairy, egg, soy, peanuts, tree nuts while breastfeeding and his skin cleared a lot. Cut out various others after he's weaned too. The doctors used to tell me his skin looked too good to be an allergy baby (he was ana. to various of the above, and still is to some).

Having said all that, I did it before advice changed and now I'd say to keep the foods in their diet...... and definitely please please look at the EAT study as you may save a lifetime of allergies ( I followed what they did with EAT with my subsequent child who sounded like yours but now has no allergies). We had a bumpy couple of months but it was so worth it!!!

My daughter developed severe eczema around 5 months but it completely cleared up by about month 9. At it's worst we were covering her head to foot in cream about 4 times a day. She's now aged 2 and we've not had any outbreaks since.

Yes for my son it was caused by tomato. Took a bit of trial and error to find out but no eczema at all now

There's no way to predict unfortunately.

Can you experiment with whether washing detergent is having any contribution here? The genetics in DH's family - which DC inherited - all have skin that reacts badly to almost all detergents even a lot of "non biological" ones. They only ones that are tolerated are boots own-brand and Filetti. Some family members can also tolerate co-op own-brand nonbio but not all.

My ds suffered on his face with terrible eczema- I cut bananas out on the advice of an Internet forum and that was his trigger. Cleared up
In two weeks

I don't know if you can with certainty say if eczema in a baby will persist through their life, or be a limited experience, however eczema is the bodies way of showing it is reacting to something. That may be environmental or ingested, and may be trial and error to find out what.

The advice from our my DCs consultants (allergy and dermatology) was to get the eczema under control with emollients/steroid creams as there is a theory that broken skin can allow allergens to enter the body and may result in allergies. They don't know for certain but it's worth considering.

Finding a cause can take time, and if you're breastfeeding and trying elimination from your own diet then you can find some support in the CMPA for breastfeeding group on Facebook. Personally I'd say keep a diary and be methodical, so eliminate a food for two weeks entirely, then reintroduce and monitor for a week.

The allergy advice now is to keep all allergens in your, or your babies, diet to try and prevent an allergy developing. So I wouldn't eliminate any one food other than as part of a strict elimination/reintroduction test.

PM me if you want to talk further, and fingers crossed this goes away asap!

Oh and never use E45, it burns eczema!

My daughter’s eczema started at 6 months. She does have allergies, I was breastfeeding and a vegetarian who had little dairy. I assumed dairy wasn’t helping (her older brother has a dairy allergy but no eczema) so cut it from my diet. She still wasn’t right so we had allergy testing (skin prick) she as ige mediated allergies to wheat, dairy, soy and egg. I cut them out of my diet for a few months but struggled so switched to Neocate. She’s 13 months now and eczema is under control (through diet and steroid creams) but it’s still there. Even excluding her known allergens, it persists.

She is intolerant of the E numbers in calpol - think fake sugars, colourings and flavourings. They all flare the eczema.

I think it can take some time for some children. See your doctor and see if you can get a referral to a dermatologist. It has helped us put a plan in place to manage.

I use Surcare to wash clothes and no bath products. It’s Dermol and Epaderm only which you can buy or get on prescription.

I should add, I only excluded from my diet once the allergens were confirmed. Not before. It’s worth seeking a referral if you believe allergies are there

following natty's point; we also only used ecoballs for washing for some years!

This sounds the exact same as my DS, we discovered he had a cows milk protein allergy and my breast milk was essentially "poisoning" him so if your breastfeeding maybe try to cut out dairy from your diet and if your formula feeding then go to the doctors and they will prescribe special formula... good luck xx

Not all eczema is related to a food allergy. Atopic eczema is a classic genetic condition (sufferers often develop other atopic conditions like hayfever too).

Have a look at the National Eczema society website for some practical steps to prevent the eczema getting worse (in the meantime you can try to see if there are food or other allergies).

Keep contact with water to a minimum (short lukewarm baths and no swimming for now).

Keep skin moisturised - we've found Diprobase or Cetraban best for us. Don't use anything else (eg soaps).

Try to keep baby cool in this heat and out of the sun (easier said than done).

If the eczema is sore ask your GP about using a mild steroid cream. I can't remember from what age you can use but its better to use a steroid cream for a short time to clear up bad eczema than to let the eczema worsen (it can become infected).

Keep seeing your GP and don't be fobbed off, a good GP can make a big difference. They need to have a plan of action if the eczema isn't clearing up.