I'm new to the allergies topic...

[MargosBeenPuttingSpellsOnMN]

dd1 has had a rash which started to get dry and red for about 3 weeks now. I was sure that it was eczema. GP thought otherwise - viral infection - and did nothing.

her skin was getting worse and I put olive oil on it and oilatum. we had another appt with GP on Tuesday. He gave me soya bath oil, some emollient and Hydrocortizone cream. Yesterday she woke up with a rash which looked as though she had been rolling in nettles. GP has given me antihistamine.

she has suggested that it could be something she has eaten in the last 48 hrs rather than washing powder.

what else can I do for dd to help rid her of this allergic reaction?

And any logical steps I can take to find out what is causing the reaction?

TIA

The only thing that you can do to find out what has triggered it is to eliminate one thing at a time, change washing powder, see if it's better, cut out dairy, is it better , cut out wheat and so on and so forth. Poor dd.

I'd suspect washing powder first if you've use biological powder. Check anything you are given to make sure there is no nut in it, especially no Arachnis oil, as usually products with nut in may increase the risk of nut allergy.

If it responds to antihistamine its an allergic rash, not responding is not 100% reliable but would suggest a different cause.

How old is she and if a baby is she still being breastfed? Switching to goats milk is safe at any age over 1 but a young baby shouldn't really be taken off milk without medical advice / something like Nutramgien Pepti Junior as an alternative.

My first choice for improvement would always be to add probiotics to her diet because they have a good record in helping eczema. Udse the hydrocortizone and emolient and ask for aveeno if you need any more emolient - its the most recommended emolient on mumsnet .

Thanks Tatt and 3D. I will try aveeno, it's the second time Mnetters have recommended it. Her skin improved yesterday.

She is 3 years old btw.

Sorry I can't type, hope you still got the sense of it .

Problem is the improvement could be due either to antihistamine/emollients or to something working its way out of her system.

At 3 you can safely switch to goats milk or even give up milk for a week to see if her skin improves.

Its always useful to keep a food diary to see if you link any changes to food.

Hope she contimues to improve.

If you have no idea what might be causing a rash, isn't it best to have skin prick tests? Can they be done for a 3 year old?

The rash you describe sounds like eczema, as opposed to intolerance or allergies.

Allergies on skin tend to be raised and bumpy. Kind of like many mosquito bites close together.

Intolerance to wheat, dairy etc have some essential symtoms that show the food is not being digested properly - diarrhea, bloated stomach, etc. If all your DD has is a rash, I wouldn't bet on her suffering from an intolerance.

Eczema makes dry and red rashes, like the ones you describe.

cows milk can cause excema. But Im not sure if it is an allergy or an intolerance.

DD used to get eczema - and it took me a while to work out that it was the preservative Potassium Sorbate causing it. So I would add to the suggestions to keep a food diary and eliminate one thing at a time. When she does have a reaction (unless it's something obvious like milk) write down all the ingredients of whatever it was she ate/drank across the top of a page - then if she reacts to more than one thing you can identify the ingredient which is causing the problem easily. This avoids cutting out things which appear to cause the problem when there is actually only one rogue ingredient. Hope you can identify the culprit soon.

DS1 has eczema which is caused by food allergies but for him eliminating things one at a time didn't work because he's allergic to both wheat and milk. He had blood tests which showed allergies to wheat, milk, eggs and peanuts and we then had to eliminate all of them from his diet and reintroduce them one by one. Without the blood tests we wouldn't have known where to start.
I hope you figure out whats causing it soon, if her eczema shows no improvement you could ask for a referral to an eczema clinic a lot of GPs just don't know enough about eczema or allergies.